The Book of Genesis Illustrated by R. Crumb Review
R. Crumb finally got around to doing what he was put on this earth to do: namely, implement his bold and bawdy style of cartooning in the service of telling the ancient "origins" stories recorded in Genesis. Be sure to read the introduction because there you'll learn of Crumb's intentions and interpretive method. Most remarkable is Crumb's commitment to the original text--the reader will find no Cecil B. Demille-style interpolations or Eugene Peterson-style paraphrasings here. No, Crumb's artistic license comes in the illustrations themselves--with impressive results. Crumb's efforts here make for good "lay" reading, as well as a pretty good textbook for an Introduction to Biblical Studies class. On the other hand, the images that illustrate texts like Genesis 19:31-36 (Lot and his daughters) ought to make it clear that Crumb's work is not the kind of art you want to show to the kids in your Sunday School class.
The Book of Genesis Illustrated by R. Crumb Feature
- ISBN13: 9780393061024
- Condition: NEW
- Notes: Brand New from Publisher. No Remainder Mark.
The Book of Genesis Illustrated by R. Crumb Overview
Nominated for three 2010 Will Eisner Comic Industry Awards: From Creation to the death of Joseph, here are all 50 chapters of the Book of Genesis, revealingly illustrated as never before. Envisioning the first book of the bible like no one before him, R. Crumb, the legendary illustrator, reveals here the story of Genesis in a profoundly honest and deeply moving way. Originally thinking that we would do a take off of Adam and Eve, Crumb became so fascinated by the Bible’s language, “a text so great and so strange that it lends itself readily to graphic depictions,” that he decided instead to do a literal interpretation using the text word for word in a version primarily assembled from the translations of Robert Alter and the King James bible.
Now, readers of every persuasion—Crumb fans, comic book lovers, and believers—can gain astonishing new insights from these harrowing, tragic, and even juicy stories. Crumb’s
Book of Genesis reintroduces us to the bountiful tree lined garden of Adam and Eve, the massive ark of Noah with beasts of every kind, the cities of Sodom and Gomorrah destroyed by brimstone and fire that rained from the heavens, and the Egypt of the Pharaoh, where Joseph’s embalmed body is carried in a coffin, in a scene as elegiac as any in Genesis. Using clues from the text and peeling away the theological and scholarly interpretation that have often obscured the Bible’s most dramatic stories, Crumb fleshes out a parade of Biblical originals: from the serpent in Eden, the humanoid reptile appearing like an alien out of a science fiction movie, to Jacob, a “kind’ve depressed guy who doesn’t strike you as physically courageous,” and his bother, Esau, “a rough and kick ass guy,” to Abraham’s wife Sarah, more fetching than most woman at 90, to God himself, “a standard Charlton Heston-like figure with long white hair and a flowing beard.”
As Crumb writes in his introduction, “the stories of these people, the Hebrews, were something more than just stories. They were the foundation, the source, in writing of religious and political power, handed down by God himself.” Crumb’s
Book of Genesis, the culmination of 5 years of painstaking work, is a tapestry of masterly detail and storytelling which celebrates the astonishing diversity of the one of our greatest artistic geniuses.
Nominated for three 2010 Will Eisner Comic Industry Awards: Best Adaptation from Another Work, Best Graphic Album, Best Writer/Artist. .
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