Williams was one of the group of artists who produced Zap Comix, along with other underground cartoonists, such as Robert Crumb, Rick Griffin, S. Clay Wilson, and Gilbert Shelton.

His mix of California car culture, cinematic apocalypticism, and film noir helped to create a new genre of psychedelic imagery.

He became a delinquent, immersing himself in hot rods, hi-jinx, and street gangs; this led to him being expelled from public school in the eleventh grade.

There, he enrolled in art courses at Los Angeles City College, where he contributed artwork to the school's paper, The Collegiate, and met Suzanne Chorna, his future wife.

These included Appetite for Destruction (which depicts a robotic rapist about to be punished by a metal avenger) and In the Land of Retinal Delights.

He flourished within the non-conformist, anti-establishment art movement of that time, along with Robert Crumb, S. Clay Wilson, Gilbert Shelton, Spain Rodriguez, Rick Griffin, and Victor Moscoso.

His creation was unleashed in 1970 in Coochy Cooty Men's Comics and in many issues of Zap Comix, and is still alive today in Williams's oil paintings.

During this period, he published Zombie Mystery Paintings, which influenced and inspired a multitude of artists with its vibrant, sexy, and ultra-violent images.

This book also contained Williams's "Rubberneck Manifesto," which stated that "Something dead in the street commands more measured units of visual investigation than 100 Mona Lisas!

His paintings moved from "zombie sex" to quantum mechanics and had sold-out shows on both coasts, generating demand for them from around the world.

This was titled Robert Williams, Mr. Bitchin and premiered on June 16, 2010, at the Los Angeles County Museum of Art, where it received a standing ovation.

Williams has participated with other artists in "The Art Boys," a venture which included such notables as Gary Panter, Matt Groening, The PIZZ, Mike Kelley, Neon Park, and Mark Mothersbaugh.

After attending the 1964 Salvador Dalí exhibition at the Los Angeles Municipal Art Gallery, Williams vowed to have his own work displayed in the same institution.

[13] The exhibition included new paintings and sculptures as well as a retrospective of past works, and was accompanied by a catalog of the same name as well as a 20-year anniversary group show for Juxtapoz magazine.

"Robert Williams: The Father of Exponential Imagination", comprising 484 pages and weighing over 10 pounds, was also accompanied by a full retrospective exhibition of the same name at the Bellevue Arts Museum from October 4, 2019 to March 8, 2020.

In other words: a calculable explosive aberration, sometimes in the guise of art..."[15] Williams currently lives in the San Fernando Valley in California with his wife Suzanne, who is also a professional artist.

[16] Robert Williams was referenced in the 1991 Red Hot Chili Peppers song "Mellowship Slinky in B Major" on the album Blood Sugar Sex Magik.

[2] Known collectors of his art include Nicolas Cage, Leonardo DiCaprio, Artie Shaw, Debbie Harry, Anthony Kiedis, Von Dutch, Stanislav Szukalski, Ed Ruscha, and Timothy Leary.