Crumb in Times Square. Illustration by Drew Friedman.On March 25, 2011, the Society of Illustrators hosted the opening for a huge Robert Crumb exhibition, curated by Monte Beauchamp, with Mr. Crumb in attendance. The legendary underground cartoonist certainly needs no introduction, but here goes anyway: R. Crumb is the creator of Fritz the Cat, Mr. Natural, “Keep on Truckin,’” the cover art for Janis Joplin’s Cheap Thrills LP, and hundreds of other iconic images he’d probably rather forget. He’s also attempted to put Terry Zwigoff’s documentary Crumb behind him, having moved to France, grown a beard, and forever given up wearing straw hats. When I first began drawing comics, R. Crumb was editing his own comics magazine, Weirdo, and accepting submissions. Crumb had long been my favorite artist, so I was excited for the chance to send some of my work to him—although I assumed he wouldn’t care for it. On the contrary, he wrote me an effusive note, telling me he had been following my work and would love to run it in his magazine. I was in heaven. I submitted work to Weirdo for several years, keeping up a regular correspondence with him, as he often offered me sage advice. We also met on several occasions. I hadn’t seen Robert Crumb for 20 years, so I seized the opportunity to attend the event at the Society. Crumb graciously greeted guests in the main gallery, then quickly retreated with several musician friends to the upstairs lounge, which is where I found him holding court. His opening comment to me was, “Hey Drew . . . lookin’ good, man.” I presented him with my new book of “Sideshow Freaks,” which he eagerly thumbed through, pointing at some of the freaks he had met, like “Half Man” Johnny Eck. We chatted for a few minutes until he switched topics to “AIDS conspiracies,” and I bid him farewell.

It was enough to inspire me to draw the now 67-year-old R. Crumb walking through a modern, glitzy Times Square—a fish out of water.

It’s nice to know some things never change.