Comics artist Robert Crumb, who grew in Upper Darby and attended Catholic school there, now finds his home in southern France with comics artist Aline Kominsky-Crumb and daughter Sophie.  

He moved there in 1991 but continues to offer up controversial commentary through art about the American experience, writes M.H. Miller for the New York Times. 

The Crumbs married in 1978 and in the 1980s lived in California’s Central Valley.  

Back then, their friends were dying of AIDS and a rising Christian conservative movement was accusing Crumb of immorality, with one local preacher referring to them as “agents of the devil.” 

“So we had to get out,” Kominsky-Crumb said. “And I guess I had some romantic idea about living in the south of France.” 

The Crumbs have exiled themselves from America, yet Robert Crumb continues to be a dedicated, unflinching observer of home.   

It was his ability to capture the American id that established him as an artist. It has earned him the title of “equal opportunity offender,” angering the left, the right, and everyone in between. 

His work is a litmus test of how much we’ll put up with for the sake of art. 

Read more about Robert Crumb in The New York Times.