'He's left a few messages on my answering machine,' said Stang, who claims he has yet to be paid for his services to Bob. Although he is a key figure in the church, editing four books of SubGenius doctrine, throwing 'devivals' across the country and hosting 'The Hour of Slack,' a weekly radio program broadcast at 15 stations, Stang says he has never even met Bob. Not even Ivan Stang, who helped dig up the church, a club for people who don't believe in anything, from its foundations way back in 1979. Who is this guy anyway? No one is really sure. Park at a meter next to the NationsBank building (also on Zack Street), and Bob's ubiquitous mug is liable to be there too, coveting the change in your pocket.Īs Bob always says, 'You'll pay to know what you really think.' Walk past an alley near The Hub on Zack Street and there's Bob smugly grinning at you.

The guy seems to be everywhere: in the '50s clip art from which he was discovered, hawking aluminum siding and nuclear weapons in the books Revelation X and The Book of the SubGenius, published by Simon & Schuster, and available at a bookstore near you (a bargain at only $14.95!) and on America OnLine, where you can hear Bob's gospel and chat with church members at alt.slack.īeyond the multimedia saturation, Bob's stenciled mug has turned up on sidewalks and walls in downtown Tampa. 'Bob' Dobbs, a smirking, pipe-smoking, blandly handsome lug of a guy who resembles a cross between Ward Cleaver and a smarmy game show host.Įven if you don't know Bob, chances are you've already seen him. But only The Church of the SubGenius, with more than 7,000 card-carrying members worldwide, has J.R. Christianity has Jesus, Buddhism has Buddha, Islam has Allah.

Revelation X by SubGenius Foundation