“‘I’ll Never Be the Same’: Each Day This Week We Are Celebrating the Work of the Controversial American Cartoon Genius Robert Crumb. Today: Drugs and Anti-Racism”, 2005-03-10 (; backlinks; similar):
My first wife Dana and I began experimenting with LSD in 1965. It was not yet illegal, and I took it as a sort of substitute for committing suicide. Beginning in 1967 I became a regular daily smoker of marijuana. I was enlisted in the army of the stoned for a tour of duty that lasted 8 years.
My direction in life was permanently altered by taking LSD. In a way, the rides at Disneyland kind of prepared me for my LSD experiences. But almost every time I took it, at some point I’d find myself on my hands and knees, puking my guts out and asking, “What the hell does it all mean?”
I took some bad acid in November of 1965, and the after-effect left me crazy and helpless for 6 months. My mind would drift into a place that was very electrical and crackly, filled with harsh, abrasive, low-grade, tawdry, carnival visions. There was a nightmarish, mechanical aspect to everyday life. My ego was so shattered that it didn’t get in the way during what was the most unself-conscious period of my life.
I was kind of on an automatic pilot and was still constantly drawing. Most of my popular characters—Mr Natural, Angelfood McSpade, the Snoid, Shuman the Human, Devil Girl—all suddenly appeared in the drawings in my sketchbook in this period, early 1966. LSD put me someplace else. I wasn’t sure where. All I know is, it was a strange place. Psychedelic drugs broke me out of my social programming.
It was a good thing for me, traumatic though, and I may have been permanently damaged by the whole thing. I see LSD as a positive, important life experience for me, but I certainly wouldn’t recommend it to anybody else.
When I meditate I’m still dealing with the effect of the drugs. The last couple of trips I had were so scary and negative. My last trip, I thought I had gone to hell. Kids play around with them without realizing they have serious effects that you have to deal with for the rest of your life. They think it’s casual, recreational. And we have this wonderful gift to be aware, to analyse, to perceive, to remember, and we just f—k with all that …
My current wife Aline calls me a sexist, racist misogynist misanthrope. I guess all that stuff is in me, sure. But it’s not as simple as that. We all grew up in this culture and we all have those tensions. I try to deal with them in a humorous way and poke at the spot people are most uncomfortable with.