Mr. Natural the Horny Mystic and Adult Disney

Robert Crumb, The Book of Mr. Natural

Well all I really have to say is that the Mr. Natural comics were definitely not what I thought they'd be, and they kind of took me by surprise with how graphic and vulgar they were. Especially since they have almost an innocent, simple drawing quality to them.

The character himself is a very moody person, is pretty cynical, and he seems to have some weird sexual obsessions. Like in the strip where he ends up dreaming on a bus, gets kicked off the bus with a baby, tricks the baby into giving him a blow job, and then ends up in jail for child molestation. He definitely isn't doing what I would expect a holy person to do; swearing, womanizing, child molestation, appears heartless at times, and his advice to others - when he does give it, using usually crazy sounding.

I still am not really sure what to think of it, and I think part of that may simply have to with me not having a Y chromosome. Mr. Natural seems to be a very self-indulgent personality that pretty much does whatever comes to him. I think this comic series does examine the psychology of men, mostly the baser instinct and ideas surrounding sex. Mr. Natural seems to act, at least to me in some aspects, on his basic instinct if his decisions were not influenced by society pressures or morals.



Air Pirates Funnies

This page from the comic book just made me laugh so hard. It's so simple, yet reminds me of drunk conversations with friends lol

I find it odd how this book would be considered pretty vulgar too, but I don't mind it much as compared to the Mr. Natural comics. Part of that may simply be because I find this really funny cause it goes against everything Disney - puritanism, patriotism, consumerism, and conformity.

I figured that there would be a lawsuit from Disney, so I looked that up and yep! There definitely was. I read that Dan O'Neill, the author, was so eager for Disney to sue him that he even smuggled a copy into a Disney company board meeting. It was a really interesting case, especially since legally O'Neill never won the case, but he never went to jail so he saw it as a 'win.' He kept disregarding the courts' decisions, until Disney finally settled and dropped the case as long as he stopped abusing their copyrights with the Pirates comix. Disney ended up with something like $190,000 in damages and over $2,000,000 in legal fees.

Dan O'Neill also became the youngest syndicated cartoonist in American newspaper history at the age of 21.