Top positive review
5.0 out of 5 starsA Gorgeous Take on a Famous Original
Reviewed in the United States on November 20, 2009
On the cover of the newest edition of the book of Genesis, there is a warning: "Adult supervision recommended for minors." It is an appropriate warning, but it is also as close to a joke as R. Crumb comes in the whole work. _The Book of Genesis Illustrated_ (Norton) is not Zap Comix, it is not Fritz the Cat, it is not "Keep On Truckin'". What it is is a retelling of all the chapters in Genesis, with enormous seriousness. It is not facetious to compare Crumb's illustrations with the work of Bible illustrators like William Blake or Gustave Doré. These drawings are beautiful. Fans of Crumb's work will immediately recognize his style of hatching and stippling, and the meaty, heavy-legged look of his figures. The black-and-white pictures, laid out in comic-book form on 200 large pages, are simply gorgeous, as expressive as paper and ink can ever be.
Crumb has taken around four years to bring out the book. That he might illustrate such faith-laden material struck many as outrageous. In his introduction, he writes, "If my visual, literal interpretation of the Book of Genesis offends or outrages some readers, which seems inevitable considering that the text is revered by many people, all I can say in my defense is that I approached this as a straight illustration job, with no intention to ridicule or make visual jokes." He has been astonishingly successful. There are objections that Crumb as unbeliever should not touch this text, but perhaps what the faithful ought to be objecting to is that Crumb has not exscinded any parts of the book; if a couple "know" each other, that picture is going to get its panel just as surely as will Jacob seeing the ramp of angels going up and down. Those who like their Bibles unillustrated might have a point; it is one thing to verbally describe something distasteful or distressing, but such a thing may be even more so if it is depicted. It is especially upsetting to see men, women, children, and animals trying to save themselves from the Noachian deluge, which, if it happened, was far more severe than any of the extinctions scientists tell us really did happen in past eras. Every illustrated Bible has a picture of the ark, and animals two by two; Crumb's does, too, but his is the only one that also shows a little of the multi-species lethality of the flood. Crumb's drawings can only emphasize the peculiar, vengeful, and primitive tribal behavior of these people, whose environment and social culture might have analogies with our own, but only by the greatest of stretches. Crumb has always been competent at drawing outsiders and cranks, and here does so just because the text demands it; the drawings show the differences from our world more strikingly than mere words do.
Crumb has taken the labor of illustration seriously. He has attempted to show realistic geographic and urban settings of the time, and he has had consultant friends to help him, including one who told him that in his original drawings the clothing looked like bathrobes and the tents looked like something you'd get at your local outdoor camping store. He redrew. The pictures, while obviously in his own style, are realistic and (what is most important in any illustrated text) they emphasize and help us understand the words of the story. It isn't Crumb's fault the story includes sex and violence and brutishly primitive or superstitious behavior. His book is an ambitious and surprising artistic endeavor, and anyone interested in the famous original ought to enjoy this new way to look at it. Including minors.
