Inspiration
Crumb has acknowledged that one inspiration for Mr. Natural was a character called The Little Hitchhiker, from a comic strip called "The Squirrel Cage" by Gene Ahern, which ran from 1936-1953. An homage is sometimes read into this (see external link, below). Mr. Natural also somewhat resembles an E. C. Segar character, Dr. O.G. Wotasnozzle. Mr. Natural's one-piece yellow outfit also bears a resemblance to Richard F. Outcault's early comic strip The Yellow Kid. There is a real person who claims he was also part of the inspiration for Crumb's comic character. Legally named, Mr. Natural has lived in the Haight district of San Francisco since the early 1960s and has been teaching his own simplified music learning system.
Read more about this topic: Mr. Natural (comics)
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