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The Book of Genesis
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 he 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.
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 detail and storytelling.
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 detail and storytelling.
224 pages, Hardcover
First published January 1, 2009
About the author
Robert Crumb
494 books481 followersRobert Dennis Crumb (born August 30, 1943)— is an American artist, illustrator, and musician recognized for the distinctive style of his drawings and his critical, satirical, subversive view of the American mainstream.
Crumb was a founder of the underground comix movement and is regarded as its most prominent figure. Though one of the most celebrated of comic book artists, Crumb's entire career has unfolded outside the mainstream comic book publishing industry. One of his most recognized works is the "Keep on Truckin'" comic, which became a widely distributed fixture of pop culture in the 1970s. Others are the characters "Devil Girl", "Fritz the Cat", and "Mr. Natural".
He was inducted into the comic book industry's Will Eisner Comic Book Hall of Fame in 1991.
Crumb was a founder of the underground comix movement and is regarded as its most prominent figure. Though one of the most celebrated of comic book artists, Crumb's entire career has unfolded outside the mainstream comic book publishing industry. One of his most recognized works is the "Keep on Truckin'" comic, which became a widely distributed fixture of pop culture in the 1970s. Others are the characters "Devil Girl", "Fritz the Cat", and "Mr. Natural".
He was inducted into the comic book industry's Will Eisner Comic Book Hall of Fame in 1991.
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 554 reviews
March 22, 2017
I first encountered Crumb and his The Book of Genesis at the Venice Biennale of 2013. I remember writing it down in my pocket notebook his name and the reference. I was unfamiliar with the work of Robert Crumb and with his Mr Natural and with his Fritz the Cat. Well, not true. I knew them but Crumb was not in my mind as their creator.
With his Genesis he certainly now comes across of the creator of The Creator.
Crumb has done an excellent job with his cartoons even if it took him longer than seven days. The genesis of his project was a joke, but then he became fascinated with it and ended up devoting five years to his Genesis.
I have to admit that it took me a while to get adjusted to his style. It seemed a bit on the rough, but I got use to the ‘look’ of his figures. What fascinated me was his adherence to the text – and he used both King James Version and Robert Alter’s The Five Books of Moses. He uses the various names for his main character – El-Shaddai, El Elyon and Elohim. So, apart from the drama of the vignettes it was a pleasure to read.
I was also transfixed by his ability to select the stills that would unfold the narrative and portray the character of the people or of the significance of the event. Marvelous to look at were his more panoramic views of Egyptian settings, with Joseph speaking in hyerogliphs..
… or the gates of Sodom
and its destruction
At the end Crumb provides an almost chapter-by-chapter comment on his interpretation and that was an illuminating read. Most inviting of all the research he did to be able to come up with his own version was his discussion of Savina Teubal’s Sarah the Priestess: The First Matriarch Of Genesis and her interpretation of the matriarchal nature of the Ancient societies. And even if he has remained faithful to the text he has taken some liberties that he explains in his notes. My favorite is his serpent that has arms and legs until God punishes it and condemns it to crawl on its belly and eat dirt forever after.
Apart from Teubal’s book, my reading and contemplation of Crumb’s work also led me to consider going back to Thomas Mann. At least thirteen chapters of the total of fifty deal with Joseph and his Brothers. May be I could now tackle Mann’s account of 1500 pages.
August 6, 2019
Perhaps the strangest thing about this “comic book” version of the Book of Genesis, illustrated by R. Crumb, the legendary counter-cultural artist of the ‘60’s, is that is straightforward and non-ironic, each part treated with equal respect and attention. The second strangest thing is the it contains every word of the original text.
This in itself makes the book look somewhat strange to those accustomed to seeing it in other formats, whether it be leather-bound, gilt edged volumes or in the cheap Gideon versions placed in motels. For example, all the sex in the original is here, and illustrated (of course, as is everything), and it is disconcerting seeing Crumb’s hairy men and big butted woman copulating just like they did in Zap Comix, but even more unsettling to see how much sex there really is in this first book of the bible (Lot and his daughters, the rape of Dinah, Onan and Tamar, Tamar and Judah don’t usually make it to Sunday’s bible readings.) This treatment of sexuality (not prurient, but unabashed and unblinking) makes the book seem even stranger and richer.
In addition, R. Crumb doesn’t rush through all the “begats,” that is, the boring genealogical sections most readers like me usually skip over. Instead, he honors almost every generation with at least one picture of its patriarch (and sometimes the depiction of his family too), and each illustration is detailed and individualized. The result is a deepening of the biblical texture, an emphasis on the countless individual lives from which this ancient book arose. The pictures also helped me to see certain themes I had never noted before, for example, that Jacob raises memorial stones wherever he goes and that Joseph is continually weeping.
There are also a score of individual panels which moved me: the first panel (the Lord God holds the spinning Void in his hand), the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil, the first look of astonishment on poor Noah’s face when he hears the command of the Lord, the Lord God shutting the door to the Ark, the builders of Babylon and their thought balloons containing many languages, and many, many more. For some reason, though, my favorite of all is the open, guileless face of Esau welcoming younger brother Jacob home from exile. (It made me think of R. Crumb and his older brother Charles, another complicated relationship.)
Enough of my impressions. This is the kind of a book that will leave you with powerful impressions all your own, probably much different from mine. Give it a chance, letting Crumbs faithful yet subversive art work its way with you, and it is likely that your opinion of Genesis—and of the power of cartoon art itself—we be transformed in a variety of ways.
May 12, 2020
Illustrating the stories of the book of Genesis (or any other book in the Bible for that matter) is not anything new. It is a foundation of the Christian culture, which has always had a more liberal approach to visual representation than Judaism or Islam. And so, since the Roman Antiquity and the Western Middle-Ages, scholars and artists have been producing illuminations, stained glass, sculptures, engravings and paintings illustrating episodes of the lives of the patriarchs of the people of Israel.
Robert Crumb falls in with this ancient and noble tradition with this massive graphic novel. A bit surprising, considering that Crumb has made himself known with satirical and underground cartoons and comic books, like Fritz the cat, and even some porn stuff (see Snatch Comics). Yet, his Book of Genesis Illustrated by R. Crumb is hugely respectful of the biblical material. Nothing, not even the most shocking or crazy parts, are sugarcoated, ridiculed or left out from the 50 chapters of Genesis. Every word is hand-lettered and each drawing is a meticulous, earnest and lively work, crosshatched with Indian ink.
Although Crumb is faithful to the traditional imagery, he does it with a personal touch. He is exceptionally skillful at depicting detailed and typical faces — the patriarchs look like not too palatable Middle-Eastern camel drivers and hillbillies —, as well as well-endowed, large-rumped women. The god of Israel appears — mostly in dreams, promising the dreamer a plentiful seed — as a bearded, ill-tempered older man, something of a Gandalf or Dumbledore. The serpent seems to be directly borrowed from an episode of V.
To me, one of the major feats of this work is that it makes reading the book of Genesis a lot clearer and more entertaining than merely reading it from a hotel room Gideons. Because this hotchpotch of primitive myths was compiled some four thousand years ago, in an early civilisation hugely different from our own. And chances are these tales were merely designed, at first, by some priests to provide cultural and political consistency to the nomadic-pastoral tribes living in the Levant. Since that time, generations upon generations have gotten quite riled up about these stories and layers upon layers of tradition and interpretation have fossilised the text under a thick layer of hermeneutical amber. This unpretentious graphic novel helps reveal the book of Genesis almost as it is. It’s a way of “disembalming” the original text, which brings to light some of the things that might well sound ridiculous to a 21st-century reader.
Just to name a few of these weird things — often sexually loaded — in Genesis: the multiple versions of the creation of the world (ch. 1-3); the endless “begots” and herdsmen’s family trees and the absurd longevity on the first men (ch. 5, 25, 35, 36, 46); the repeated cataclysms (the flood in ch. 7, the destruction of the tower of Babel in ch. 11, and the devastation of Sodom and Gomorrah in ch. 19); the repeated deception of a foreign king regarding a patriarch’s wife with the “lay with her, she is my sister” business (Abraham and Sarah in ch. 12, Abraham and Sarah again in ch. 20, Isaac and Rebekah in ch. 26); the barren wives and the use of handmaids to bear children in their stead (Sarah and Hagar in ch. 16, Rachel, Zilpah and Bilhah in ch. 29 and 30); the prescription of circumcision, to single out or “brand” the males belonging to the tribe (ch. 17 and 34); the incestuous sexual intercourse (between Lot and his daughters in ch. 19, and between Tamar and Judah in ch. 38); naturally too, the forged sacrifice of Isaac (ch. 22); Joseph's pre-Freudian ability to interpret dreams (ch. 40-41); the rivalry between brothers (Jacob and Esau, ch. 25-27, and later Joseph and his brothers, ch. 37 sqq.); the competition between wives (Rachel and Leah, ch. 29 sqq.); Jacob continuously pushing big stones and raising tumuli (ch. 31 sqq.); Joseph continually weeping (ch. 43 sqq.).
R. Crumb’s commentary (inspired by Savina Teubal’s essay Sarah the Priestess) at the end of the volume, about the conflict between a fading matriarchal society and the rise of a patriarchal and military civilisation at the time when these stories were composed, sheds some light on this both seminal, venerable and strange book.
Robert Crumb falls in with this ancient and noble tradition with this massive graphic novel. A bit surprising, considering that Crumb has made himself known with satirical and underground cartoons and comic books, like Fritz the cat, and even some porn stuff (see Snatch Comics). Yet, his Book of Genesis Illustrated by R. Crumb is hugely respectful of the biblical material. Nothing, not even the most shocking or crazy parts, are sugarcoated, ridiculed or left out from the 50 chapters of Genesis. Every word is hand-lettered and each drawing is a meticulous, earnest and lively work, crosshatched with Indian ink.
Although Crumb is faithful to the traditional imagery, he does it with a personal touch. He is exceptionally skillful at depicting detailed and typical faces — the patriarchs look like not too palatable Middle-Eastern camel drivers and hillbillies —, as well as well-endowed, large-rumped women. The god of Israel appears — mostly in dreams, promising the dreamer a plentiful seed — as a bearded, ill-tempered older man, something of a Gandalf or Dumbledore. The serpent seems to be directly borrowed from an episode of V.
To me, one of the major feats of this work is that it makes reading the book of Genesis a lot clearer and more entertaining than merely reading it from a hotel room Gideons. Because this hotchpotch of primitive myths was compiled some four thousand years ago, in an early civilisation hugely different from our own. And chances are these tales were merely designed, at first, by some priests to provide cultural and political consistency to the nomadic-pastoral tribes living in the Levant. Since that time, generations upon generations have gotten quite riled up about these stories and layers upon layers of tradition and interpretation have fossilised the text under a thick layer of hermeneutical amber. This unpretentious graphic novel helps reveal the book of Genesis almost as it is. It’s a way of “disembalming” the original text, which brings to light some of the things that might well sound ridiculous to a 21st-century reader.
Just to name a few of these weird things — often sexually loaded — in Genesis: the multiple versions of the creation of the world (ch. 1-3); the endless “begots” and herdsmen’s family trees and the absurd longevity on the first men (ch. 5, 25, 35, 36, 46); the repeated cataclysms (the flood in ch. 7, the destruction of the tower of Babel in ch. 11, and the devastation of Sodom and Gomorrah in ch. 19); the repeated deception of a foreign king regarding a patriarch’s wife with the “lay with her, she is my sister” business (Abraham and Sarah in ch. 12, Abraham and Sarah again in ch. 20, Isaac and Rebekah in ch. 26); the barren wives and the use of handmaids to bear children in their stead (Sarah and Hagar in ch. 16, Rachel, Zilpah and Bilhah in ch. 29 and 30); the prescription of circumcision, to single out or “brand” the males belonging to the tribe (ch. 17 and 34); the incestuous sexual intercourse (between Lot and his daughters in ch. 19, and between Tamar and Judah in ch. 38); naturally too, the forged sacrifice of Isaac (ch. 22); Joseph's pre-Freudian ability to interpret dreams (ch. 40-41); the rivalry between brothers (Jacob and Esau, ch. 25-27, and later Joseph and his brothers, ch. 37 sqq.); the competition between wives (Rachel and Leah, ch. 29 sqq.); Jacob continuously pushing big stones and raising tumuli (ch. 31 sqq.); Joseph continually weeping (ch. 43 sqq.).
R. Crumb’s commentary (inspired by Savina Teubal’s essay Sarah the Priestess) at the end of the volume, about the conflict between a fading matriarchal society and the rise of a patriarchal and military civilisation at the time when these stories were composed, sheds some light on this both seminal, venerable and strange book.
February 27, 2023
“And the Lord regretted having made man on earth, and it grieved him in his heart. And the Lord said, “I will wipe out from the face of the earth the men whom I have created …from man to cattle to crawling things to the fowl of the heavens, for I regret that I have made them!”” ~Genesis 6:6
Robert Crumb may be slight in stature, but to me he is a Herculean God. His underground comics and graphic novels are the stuff of legend. If you have experienced his biography of Franz Kafka then you already know the perverse nirvana of Crumbdom that fuels my nerdgasms. I ask you, who better to illustrate the book of Genesis, with its disjointed mythologies, incestuous couplings, and holy hypocrisies, than an iconoclastic maverick?
“And a male with a foreskin, who has not circumcised the flesh of his foreskin, that person shall be cut off from his people! He has broken my covenant!” ~Genesis 17:14
*why is it that the creator of the universe, the omnipresent, omnipotent overseer of a bazillion trillion stars and planets and nebulas and quasars and mysterious black holes, is so enamored with male genitalia? (asking for a friend…)
Robert Crumb may be slight in stature, but to me he is a Herculean God. His underground comics and graphic novels are the stuff of legend. If you have experienced his biography of Franz Kafka then you already know the perverse nirvana of Crumbdom that fuels my nerdgasms. I ask you, who better to illustrate the book of Genesis, with its disjointed mythologies, incestuous couplings, and holy hypocrisies, than an iconoclastic maverick?
“And a male with a foreskin, who has not circumcised the flesh of his foreskin, that person shall be cut off from his people! He has broken my covenant!” ~Genesis 17:14
*why is it that the creator of the universe, the omnipresent, omnipotent overseer of a bazillion trillion stars and planets and nebulas and quasars and mysterious black holes, is so enamored with male genitalia? (asking for a friend…)
September 29, 2014
This is the R. Crumb I like – maximal attention to sensuous line in each frame and each page a striking composition, robustly earthy and nerdy, sober (even dry), and “scholarly” (in his adherence to the text and his insistence on illustrating every chapter), clear-headed and clear-eyed and even wise in his way. This is not Crumb trying to shock or Judeo-Christian bash. This is Crumb directly confronting one of the most powerful texts on the planet and bringing it down to earth; no mysticism, no symbols, just a hunched-over focus on narrative. He has very few bones to pick and the only ideology he’s informed by is a focus on the matriarchal aspects of the book (it’s dedicated to his wife and in it he wastes no opportunity to emphasize the biblical women’s power over the proceedings), and an emphasis on blood and sweat and butts and hair. In all its dark crowded flesh and sympathy it's like something Rembrandt would've done. In my estimation an instant masterpiece.
March 21, 2023
The earliest book I remember is a child’s illustrated Bible. It didn’t actually recreate the Biblical text, but told Sunday School saccharine stories accompanied by innocuous illustrations. R. Crumb’s The Book of Genesis Illustrated is nothing like that book.
You might find it incongruous that Robert Crumb — the bizarre illustrator of Fritz the Cat (the first X rated cartoon), Mr. Natural, and tons of intimidating, huge-assed females illustrations — illustrated the first book of the Bible. If so, it’s probably because you aren’t familiar enough with Genesis. Unlike my child’s illustrated Bible, Crumb actually included the whole of Genesis, verbatim, and didn’t just stick to the standard Sunday School fare. Genesis includes murder, mass slaughter, child sacrifice, incest, rape, and double crossing deception. It’s not exactly a child friendly book. Crumb covers it all, word for word, and brings his notorious illustrating style to this always fascinating and frequently sordid material.
The combination of Crumb’s harsh style with this ancient, archetypal material is powerful. The fact that it is a straight up rendering of the text rather than Crumb’s interpretation is significant — he even manages to illustrate the genealogical begats. At the end of the book, the author added commentary about creating his illustrations, including inspiration and problems that he had to solve. It is a powerful package of content, an impressive illustrative project. Check it out.
You might find it incongruous that Robert Crumb — the bizarre illustrator of Fritz the Cat (the first X rated cartoon), Mr. Natural, and tons of intimidating, huge-assed females illustrations — illustrated the first book of the Bible. If so, it’s probably because you aren’t familiar enough with Genesis. Unlike my child’s illustrated Bible, Crumb actually included the whole of Genesis, verbatim, and didn’t just stick to the standard Sunday School fare. Genesis includes murder, mass slaughter, child sacrifice, incest, rape, and double crossing deception. It’s not exactly a child friendly book. Crumb covers it all, word for word, and brings his notorious illustrating style to this always fascinating and frequently sordid material.
The combination of Crumb’s harsh style with this ancient, archetypal material is powerful. The fact that it is a straight up rendering of the text rather than Crumb’s interpretation is significant — he even manages to illustrate the genealogical begats. At the end of the book, the author added commentary about creating his illustrations, including inspiration and problems that he had to solve. It is a powerful package of content, an impressive illustrative project. Check it out.
January 10, 2017
For those familiar with Crumb's work, it may come as a shock to see that he wrote a massive graphic novel for the biblical book of Genesis. It is beautifully illustrated (if you are a Crumb fan anyway) and faithful to the text. It is probably not a coincidence that he chose Genesis as his biblical reference because that particular book is full of sex and violence - subjects which Crumb always treated with irony and humour. It is well-worth getting the big 8 1/2 x 11 version to appreciate the fine drawings. Due to the violence, it may not be appropriate for young children so don't use it for bedtime stories :)
July 28, 2011
Mos Eisley Space Port. You will never find a more wretched hive of scum and villainy. We must be cautious.Actually, Obi-Wan, I found a more wretched hive of scum and villainy some time ago, and it's called the Book of Genesis.
Before I detail the scum and villainy that abounds in Western Religion's founding document, let me just add that Genesis isn't even a good story. It contradicts itself repeatedly, its characterization is unappealing, and if it weren't for its historical importance it could not be considered a great work of literature. Still, it is hugely important to our world today, and due its great influence, it is a great book. Now that that's out of my system, here's the scum and villainy:
God -- The biggest douche of them all is God. He shows no mercy to Adam and Eve, casting them out of Eden for their disobedience, even though they were tricked by the serpent, which one would assume was also one of God's creations. Then he admits that he botched the creation of man, expressing his "regret" for having made them, so his answer is to slay almost everyone and everything -- except Noah and his family and all those animals (I suppose it wouldn't just have been easier to recreate man and get it right the second time). Next, his pride gets wounded, so he babels our languages. Then he wipes out Sodom and Gomorrah (because those folks are evil, don't you know?). Then he calls for male genital mutilation as a proof that the followers of Abraham love him -- not to mention God's demand for the total submission of Abraham be asking the man to sacrifice his son, Isaac (pretty nice of God to let that one slide, though. Whew! Abe's intent was enough). Then he punishes Pharaoh and Abimelech, King of the Philistines because his own followers lied to them. He eventually rewards Jacob, Abraham's grandson, with the title "Israel" after his sons slay an entire village because his daughter, Dinah (their sister), fell in love with Hamor and was "defiled" in some garden variety love making. Did I mention that God loves slavery?
If this cat is up there in the heavens, and I come before him for judgement, I'm going to have to challenge him to "cast the first stone" if any of my crimes, including disbelief, can even approach the crimes he's committed.
Cain -- Murderous clod! Though God bears some responsibility here too.
Man -- Before the flood there was human sacrifice (how terrible! I wonder if God remembered that before he had his future chat with Abraham), "divine beings" entering human women to make "heroes" and a whole bunch of "perpetual evil." Things got better after the flood, though, I am sure.
Noah -- Gets pissed to the gills and stumbles around his tent in the nude one night, and poor Ham comes and and sees the spectactle. He tells his brothers, who cover old Noah up, and for his slight, Ham and his son Canaan are cast out, but not before Noah declares that Canaan, his grandson, shall be "the lowliest of slaves" to Shem and Japheth.
Abraham, nee Abram -- Hmmm ... what can be said about the man who is at the heart of Judaism, Chistianity and Islam? Not much positive. He practices poligamy with Sarah (nee Sarai) and Hagar, he casts out his second wife and first son, Ishmael, at the behest of his first wife. He is willing to slaughter his other son, Isaac, for God. He whores out Sarah to the Pharaoh, starting with a big lie, and leaves Egypt with all the riches of his pimping, and it worked so well the first time he did it again to Abimelech, scoring more land, livestock and slaves for his crimes. And he is the father of all God's kingdoms. I wish I could be rewarded for shit like that.
Lot -- Abraham's brother is a lovely guy too. Some of Gods' messengers pop into Sodom and Gomorrah just before God rains fire on the cities, and Lot takes them into his house to protect them, but all the big, bad homosexuals show up and want to "know" the messengers, so to protect those men, Lot offers up his virgin daughters to the mob instead. Charming. Later, after Lot's wife is turned into a pillar of salt for looking back, Lot hooks up with his daughters and impregnates them, but he was drunk and seduced, so it's all good.
Isaac -- What's good for the son must be good for the father, right? So Isaac goes to Abimelech and pulls the same shit Abraham pulled, telling the King of the Philistines that Rebekah is his sister and opening her up to all kinds of suitors. But it pays off and he gets a ton of goodies from the King, just like his Papa. Then Isaac is fooled by Jacob and Rebekah into giving Esau's blessing to the younger son and he isn't able to fix things before he dies. Poor Esau (who might very well be the only good person in the entire sordid book).
Jacob -- This guy's one of the worst, so of course he becomes the most beloved of God and attains the name Israel. He cheats Esau. Indentures himself to Laban, then marries both Laban's daughters. Then shags the servants of his wives, Leah and Rachel (at their request, of course). Then he steals away with all of Laban's assets, and God comes down and puts the fear of himself into Laban so that there will be no retaliation. Then he calls on the Hivites to cut off their foreskins to solidify an alliance with him and his family, but his nasty sons go out in the night and kill the Hivites in their beds, so Jacob/Israel flees. Then his son, Reuben, climbs into bed with one of his concubines and becomes hated by his hypocrite father for his actions. And his sons sell their brother Joseph into slavery (except Reuben, who tries to save Joseph), and slaughter the Hivites and are just a nasty crew. Nice child rearing, Jacob/Israel.
Joseph -- He of that groovy, multi-coloured coat turns his enslavement to his advantage, rises to freedom, is given control of Rameses' Egypt, "saves" Egypt and the Egyptians from a seven year famine, but uses his benficence to rob the Egyptians of all their silver, their livestock and their freedom, enslaving them to Pharaoh for all time; meanwhile, he brings his scummy family to Egypt, gives them lush Goshan as a place to stay, lets them care for all the co-opted livestock and doesn't charge them a cent.
Yep, Genesis is the most wretched hive of scum and villainy I've ever seen, and R. Crumb does a magnificent job illustrating the nastiness. The Book of Genesis Illustrated is a great way to tell a poor story of perpetual immorality and despicable entities that just happens to be great. If I was rating the book itself, I would have difficulty giving it any stars, but Crumb deserves significantly more, so the three stars I've given are entirely his.
This deserves to be read, so if you are interested in the Bible or the Torah at all, pick it up. You'll be impressed, I've no doubt, and maybe even surprised.
May 17, 2016
Η ιστορία ξεκινάει με την δημιουργία του κόσμου και τελειώνει με τον θάνατο του Ιακώβ...
Τόσα πολλά ονόματα και γενεαλογικά δέντρα είχα να δω από τότε που διάβαζα το "Σιλμαρίλιον", δλδ πριν 15 χρόνια :D
Εν τέλει ενδιαφέρουσα εικονοιστορία που διαβάζεται σαν παραμυθάκι φυσικά και όχι σαν σύμβολο πίστεως!!!
Τόσα πολλά ονόματα και γενεαλογικά δέντρα είχα να δω από τότε που διάβαζα το "Σιλμαρίλιον", δλδ πριν 15 χρόνια :D
Εν τέλει ενδιαφέρουσα εικονοιστορία που διαβάζεται σαν παραμυθάκι φυσικά και όχι σαν σύμβολο πίστεως!!!
February 18, 2023
This was my first time completing a religious text of any kind. Of course, it is a comic book drawn by none other than the great Robert Crumb. Whoever made the decision that this holy book needed a cartoon illustrator, could not think of a more ideal candidate than Crumb to draw all fifty chapters of The Book of Genesis. Hahaha. Whoever put Crumb to it is a genius. I mean, I would not have completed this book without Crumb's illustrations. Whoever hired Crumb was a practical man, who wanted more people to access and be influenced by the contents of this strange and violent book.
Anyway, these stories were fascinating. As a modern man, I found some of them to be a bit random. God made appearances at random places and situations. As Crumb points out in the introduction, the book is a powerful political text. It gives the believers, the right over the land as they are from the seed of Abraham. It is sexy. Men and women are desperate to impregnate and be impregnated. Anything to pass on the "seed" of their ancestors. Lot and his two daughters up in the mountains. The two ladies are upset by the absence of men around so they get their father hammered and proceed to sleep with him. Both sisters give birth to sons. Yes, some of the stories are disturbing. But these are stories from a different kind of world in which a belief in a god, however omnipotent and cruel, still filled people with a sense of hope and belief for the future. The strangest story in this book was one involving Jacob, who is on the run with his family and animals, encountering a strange alien being when he is alone in the hills and the two of them wrestle each other throughout the night. Jacob is victorious and the alien entity bestows Jacob with a new name. Crumb in his explanation at the end believes it is all about a spiritual seeker gaining a spiritual ally.
As other reviewers have pointed out, Crumb is faithful to the text and does not indulge in any provocations, unlike his previous body of work. The only area where he lets himself go are the depictions of couplings. Also, nearly all the women are well endowed like in a typical Crumb comic. Large panels are used for the Tree of Life, Noah's Ark, Abram's slumber and the gate of Sodom. Like I said, I would not have completed this book without Crumb's drawings. Maybe a clever and ambitious spreader of the Christian religion would replace the Gideon's Bible which we come across in hotel rooms with Robert Crumb's The Book of Genesis.
Anyway, these stories were fascinating. As a modern man, I found some of them to be a bit random. God made appearances at random places and situations. As Crumb points out in the introduction, the book is a powerful political text. It gives the believers, the right over the land as they are from the seed of Abraham. It is sexy. Men and women are desperate to impregnate and be impregnated. Anything to pass on the "seed" of their ancestors. Lot and his two daughters up in the mountains. The two ladies are upset by the absence of men around so they get their father hammered and proceed to sleep with him. Both sisters give birth to sons. Yes, some of the stories are disturbing. But these are stories from a different kind of world in which a belief in a god, however omnipotent and cruel, still filled people with a sense of hope and belief for the future. The strangest story in this book was one involving Jacob, who is on the run with his family and animals, encountering a strange alien being when he is alone in the hills and the two of them wrestle each other throughout the night. Jacob is victorious and the alien entity bestows Jacob with a new name. Crumb in his explanation at the end believes it is all about a spiritual seeker gaining a spiritual ally.
As other reviewers have pointed out, Crumb is faithful to the text and does not indulge in any provocations, unlike his previous body of work. The only area where he lets himself go are the depictions of couplings. Also, nearly all the women are well endowed like in a typical Crumb comic. Large panels are used for the Tree of Life, Noah's Ark, Abram's slumber and the gate of Sodom. Like I said, I would not have completed this book without Crumb's drawings. Maybe a clever and ambitious spreader of the Christian religion would replace the Gideon's Bible which we come across in hotel rooms with Robert Crumb's The Book of Genesis.
September 16, 2022
Novantasei
There was a great being called God
(Which in English read backwards spells Dog)
We're still not quite sure
If it's a he or a her
Or anything at all—which is odd
A sinistra... / A destra...
.
There was a great being called God
(Which in English read backwards spells Dog)
We're still not quite sure
If it's a he or a her
Or anything at all—which is odd
A sinistra... / A destra...
.
August 2, 2021
The simplicity of providing the actual words and narrative in comic book form while keeping the same order as the Book of Genesis juxtaposes the stark reality of the underlying source material with the cruelty, psychotic behavior, and duplicity of the main characters with the revulsion it deserves. Literally, the story is presented as black & white, and therefore provides a depth of image that the story invokes while affecting the reader.
I had a really hard time finishing this graphic novel, not because of its nature or the words in the bubbles, but because of the unappealing nature and at times absurdness of the story that was being told. That’s why I would recommend this comic book to everyone. I’ve read the Bible's Book of Genesis as much as the next person, but I always glossed over the messiness of the story as one is wont to do while reading. This graphic novel forced me to pay more attention.
If one really wants to learn about something, one of the best ways is to read a graphic novel about it, and having Crumb illustrate and pick the words from the source, only adds a cherry on top of the ice-cream.
This graphic novel could just as easily appeal to a devout Christian (or Jew) as it would to an atheist since it strives to only report the story as it was told and it is for the reader to feel it’s meaning.
I had a really hard time finishing this graphic novel, not because of its nature or the words in the bubbles, but because of the unappealing nature and at times absurdness of the story that was being told. That’s why I would recommend this comic book to everyone. I’ve read the Bible's Book of Genesis as much as the next person, but I always glossed over the messiness of the story as one is wont to do while reading. This graphic novel forced me to pay more attention.
If one really wants to learn about something, one of the best ways is to read a graphic novel about it, and having Crumb illustrate and pick the words from the source, only adds a cherry on top of the ice-cream.
This graphic novel could just as easily appeal to a devout Christian (or Jew) as it would to an atheist since it strives to only report the story as it was told and it is for the reader to feel it’s meaning.
September 16, 2010
What I'm gonna give R. Crumb less than 5 stars? and God, I'm gonna give R. Crumb and God less than 5 stars? I had a shitty enough day I don't want to add lightening or the wrath of comic nerds to the list of what happened.
I especially liked that the begate verses. I think it's technically called something different but it's the one that goes ________begate_________ who begate___________ who begate______etc. The page that depicts these verses is full of these little tiny boxes of profile drawings. That was one of my favorite pages. I could do with out the Noah having sex with his daughters page but whatever, that was more content than drawings. Crumbs just tellin it like he saw it but egads - them's some ugly people doing some ugly stuff.
****on a side note, if you are in the Portland area you have one more week to check out an exhibit at the museum of this book. My highly trained eye noticed such spectacular differences in the book and the exhibit as, "the lines are darker" and "hey! there's some white out".
I especially liked that the begate verses. I think it's technically called something different but it's the one that goes ________begate_________ who begate___________ who begate______etc. The page that depicts these verses is full of these little tiny boxes of profile drawings. That was one of my favorite pages. I could do with out the Noah having sex with his daughters page but whatever, that was more content than drawings. Crumbs just tellin it like he saw it but egads - them's some ugly people doing some ugly stuff.
****on a side note, if you are in the Portland area you have one more week to check out an exhibit at the museum of this book. My highly trained eye noticed such spectacular differences in the book and the exhibit as, "the lines are darker" and "hey! there's some white out".
September 18, 2010
Dude, the Bible is weird.
Seriously, I think adding pictures to the text just makes Genesis even weirder than it already is. Not only are you reading about weird stuff like wrestling with angels, you're seeing it. It really serves to highlight the way the Bible is a weird mishmash of multiple stories.
It took me a while to get used to Crumb's illustrations. I couldn't shake the feeling that everybody was either angry all the time or dumb as a rock, given their facial expressions. I dunno, it was thousands of years ago, maybe they were all angry and dumb. I have to say, though, their hair is awesome.
My favorite part of the book are the notes at the end. I kind of wish they had been at the end of each chapter. It brings a little bit of sanity back to some crazy stuff.
Seriously, I think adding pictures to the text just makes Genesis even weirder than it already is. Not only are you reading about weird stuff like wrestling with angels, you're seeing it. It really serves to highlight the way the Bible is a weird mishmash of multiple stories.
It took me a while to get used to Crumb's illustrations. I couldn't shake the feeling that everybody was either angry all the time or dumb as a rock, given their facial expressions. I dunno, it was thousands of years ago, maybe they were all angry and dumb. I have to say, though, their hair is awesome.
My favorite part of the book are the notes at the end. I kind of wish they had been at the end of each chapter. It brings a little bit of sanity back to some crazy stuff.
December 9, 2015
I was disapointed with this, although I probably shouldn't have been. The introcution makes clear that this is a literal interpretation of the book of Genesis -- Crumb has not tried to extend or interpret the test, merely to illustrate it. And herein lies the problem.
The text of Genesis -- and this applies not just to Genesis -- is a great pile of plodding, nasty dullness. This version makes no attempt to add anything to the stories, it merely encourages you to look at what was already there.
If you have never actually read any of Genesis, this version may be worth a look. But for the rest, I wouldn't bother.
The text of Genesis -- and this applies not just to Genesis -- is a great pile of plodding, nasty dullness. This version makes no attempt to add anything to the stories, it merely encourages you to look at what was already there.
If you have never actually read any of Genesis, this version may be worth a look. But for the rest, I wouldn't bother.
November 22, 2009
How to review The Book of Genesis, the first book of the holiest scriptures of two of the world’s great monotheist religions, and honored by its third?
Well, I’m not. Not directly, at any rate. For believers the text is so weighted with allegory and prefigurations of future events that to look at it as a piece of literature or art is very nearly blasphemy. At the least, it’s of decidedly secondary importance to the book’s theological significance. And to nonbelievers, they just shake their heads at the absurdities or hold it in the same respect they might the Greek or Indian myths.
As an apostate Catholic, I’ve always enjoyed Genesis as a source for those fringe movements (like Theosophy or Zecharia Sitchin) that see Atlantis and ETs manipulating humans for their own ends. That and for the historical/anthropological insights the stories give on the ancient Middle East.
So does R. Crumb’s illustrated version add anything to the long tradition of biblical interpretation? I would say “yes.”
In a period where people are increasingly reliant on visual and aural cues as opposed to the straight texts my generation and earlier ones were raised on, Crumb brings these tired, old scriptures to life. Even the notorious “begats” come off the page vividly. For example, in Chapter 5 (which recounts the descendants of Seth) each generation is illustrated with a picture of family life – Enosh sitting on Seth’s lap as the family enjoys a meal; Enosh walking with Kenan and a wife or daughter; Kenan teaching his sons about plant lore; Mahalalel and his wives and daughters bathing Jared; Jared toiling in the fields with Enoch; Enoch stargazing with Methuselah; and Methusaleh nearly leaping for joy at the birth of Lamech. There are similar, subtle touches throughout the book – In Chapter 38, there’s a panel showing Judah playing the old finger-pulling game with the infant Er, one of his sons. And a bit later, when Judah sees Tamar sitting by the side of the road dressed as a harlot, he and one of his shepherds nudge elbows and leer, “heh, heh, heh.”
Crumb also lets the text speak for itself – there are no moralizing subheads only chapter divisions, and only a minimum of footnoting, most of which explains the meanings of Hebrew names (e.g., “Succoth” = “sheds”). At the back there is an idiosyncratic commentary where Crumb offers his opinions about passages that particularly intrigued him but they’re not required reading and take up only 8 pages.
For me, what comes across is a marvelously illustrated version of the Hebrew origin myth. Stripped of its religious baggage, there’s little here to interest anyone but the historian/archaeologist/anthropologist/mythologist. Certainly there’re no moral guidelines offered, nor any social ones that I’d care to emulate - do I want to worship a god of such volatile humors and ill temper (e.g., the Flood) or live in a world where women are burned for extramarital sex (e.g., Tamar)? But it does make Genesis readable to a whole new generation.
Well, I’m not. Not directly, at any rate. For believers the text is so weighted with allegory and prefigurations of future events that to look at it as a piece of literature or art is very nearly blasphemy. At the least, it’s of decidedly secondary importance to the book’s theological significance. And to nonbelievers, they just shake their heads at the absurdities or hold it in the same respect they might the Greek or Indian myths.
As an apostate Catholic, I’ve always enjoyed Genesis as a source for those fringe movements (like Theosophy or Zecharia Sitchin) that see Atlantis and ETs manipulating humans for their own ends. That and for the historical/anthropological insights the stories give on the ancient Middle East.
So does R. Crumb’s illustrated version add anything to the long tradition of biblical interpretation? I would say “yes.”
In a period where people are increasingly reliant on visual and aural cues as opposed to the straight texts my generation and earlier ones were raised on, Crumb brings these tired, old scriptures to life. Even the notorious “begats” come off the page vividly. For example, in Chapter 5 (which recounts the descendants of Seth) each generation is illustrated with a picture of family life – Enosh sitting on Seth’s lap as the family enjoys a meal; Enosh walking with Kenan and a wife or daughter; Kenan teaching his sons about plant lore; Mahalalel and his wives and daughters bathing Jared; Jared toiling in the fields with Enoch; Enoch stargazing with Methuselah; and Methusaleh nearly leaping for joy at the birth of Lamech. There are similar, subtle touches throughout the book – In Chapter 38, there’s a panel showing Judah playing the old finger-pulling game with the infant Er, one of his sons. And a bit later, when Judah sees Tamar sitting by the side of the road dressed as a harlot, he and one of his shepherds nudge elbows and leer, “heh, heh, heh.”
Crumb also lets the text speak for itself – there are no moralizing subheads only chapter divisions, and only a minimum of footnoting, most of which explains the meanings of Hebrew names (e.g., “Succoth” = “sheds”). At the back there is an idiosyncratic commentary where Crumb offers his opinions about passages that particularly intrigued him but they’re not required reading and take up only 8 pages.
For me, what comes across is a marvelously illustrated version of the Hebrew origin myth. Stripped of its religious baggage, there’s little here to interest anyone but the historian/archaeologist/anthropologist/mythologist. Certainly there’re no moral guidelines offered, nor any social ones that I’d care to emulate - do I want to worship a god of such volatile humors and ill temper (e.g., the Flood) or live in a world where women are burned for extramarital sex (e.g., Tamar)? But it does make Genesis readable to a whole new generation.
June 1, 2018
The best of both worlds! What a striking idea to make these two collide!
February 26, 2017
This is borderline being an illustrated novel, as opposed to a comicbook. The drawings are more illustrations of what is occurring in the text and don't impact the story telling.
This could be an issue for enjoyability, but I still respect Crumb's dedication to doing a straight-up, no words changed adaption. The illustrations occasionally have some image that is humorous. They also depict the text in ways that the reader wouldn't necessarily imagine. So, we almost get two books here: a nice translation of The Genesis (without the archaic language of some translations, or the watered-down New International Version - the standard edition at most Churches I've had the misfortune of being in)as well as avoiding the two column printing style that's difficult to read.
The reason to buy this book is to get a glimpse into the head of Crumb: we see what he's seeing while reading the book. The first, obvious, occurrence of an interesting illustration of the text is the Garden's serpent being depicted as anthropomorphic; thus, when God condemns snakes to move on their bellies, the serpent loses his arms and legs (as opposed to a more traditional illustration that would necessarily suggest that God either condemned the snake before the snake's actions or condemned the snake to never evolve).
I think many parts of Genesis are insanity. Like Noah living till 950 years old. But it is an interesting historical document (of the history contained in the book, which must be taken carefully; but, more importantly, it's a document of how the ancients understood their own history).
It's an odd state of affairs that a comicbook like "The Action Bible" receives the Christian Book Award, but this book, a more honest rendition of the bible, is overlooked. Crumb's Genesis was beaten out by "The Hole in Our Gospel: What Does God Expect of Us? the Answer That Changed My Life and Might Just Change the World" which is about some rich dude who gets paid to go to a poor country and listen to poor people then tries to help them out financially while pushing Christian ideology on everyone with cherry-picked quotes from the new testament.
I recently checked out the Kingstone Bible comic adaptation. It's written by a diehard Christian writer and starts with Genesis. The very first line was altered (to reflect a more Christian approach to the Old Testament, God is described as happy being alone and he is described as being a being of three parts). It's ridiculous that a non-believer respects the Bible more than all the other religious adapters have. I'd love to read more word-for-word adaptions as I find well-researched illustrations help me understand the physical world the Bible depicts.
I'd also recommend for anyone interested in another Bible adaption to check out The Book of Revelations by Matt Dorff and co
https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/1...
They do a word-for-word adaption of that strange book. The illustrations make the reading more entertaining if not necessarily making the book easier to understand.
This could be an issue for enjoyability, but I still respect Crumb's dedication to doing a straight-up, no words changed adaption. The illustrations occasionally have some image that is humorous. They also depict the text in ways that the reader wouldn't necessarily imagine. So, we almost get two books here: a nice translation of The Genesis (without the archaic language of some translations, or the watered-down New International Version - the standard edition at most Churches I've had the misfortune of being in)as well as avoiding the two column printing style that's difficult to read.
The reason to buy this book is to get a glimpse into the head of Crumb: we see what he's seeing while reading the book. The first, obvious, occurrence of an interesting illustration of the text is the Garden's serpent being depicted as anthropomorphic; thus, when God condemns snakes to move on their bellies, the serpent loses his arms and legs (as opposed to a more traditional illustration that would necessarily suggest that God either condemned the snake before the snake's actions or condemned the snake to never evolve).
I think many parts of Genesis are insanity. Like Noah living till 950 years old. But it is an interesting historical document (of the history contained in the book, which must be taken carefully; but, more importantly, it's a document of how the ancients understood their own history).
It's an odd state of affairs that a comicbook like "The Action Bible" receives the Christian Book Award, but this book, a more honest rendition of the bible, is overlooked. Crumb's Genesis was beaten out by "The Hole in Our Gospel: What Does God Expect of Us? the Answer That Changed My Life and Might Just Change the World" which is about some rich dude who gets paid to go to a poor country and listen to poor people then tries to help them out financially while pushing Christian ideology on everyone with cherry-picked quotes from the new testament.
I recently checked out the Kingstone Bible comic adaptation. It's written by a diehard Christian writer and starts with Genesis. The very first line was altered (to reflect a more Christian approach to the Old Testament, God is described as happy being alone and he is described as being a being of three parts). It's ridiculous that a non-believer respects the Bible more than all the other religious adapters have. I'd love to read more word-for-word adaptions as I find well-researched illustrations help me understand the physical world the Bible depicts.
I'd also recommend for anyone interested in another Bible adaption to check out The Book of Revelations by Matt Dorff and co
https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/1...
They do a word-for-word adaption of that strange book. The illustrations make the reading more entertaining if not necessarily making the book easier to understand.
January 2, 2019
This is what graphic novels are all about; making material accessible to those who would not read it otherwise. The book of Genesis contains almost all the Biblical stories we remember (Creation, Adam & Eve, The Great Flood, Cain & Abel, the Tower of Babel, Abraham almost sacrificing his son Isaac etc.), and Crumb has illustrated it with care.
This could very well be his Magnum Opus --highly recommended!
This could very well be his Magnum Opus --highly recommended!
October 11, 2010
God. There's no talking to that guy.
Now, if only Sergio Aragones could be persuaded to illustrate one of the Gospels.
***
An interview with R. Crumb from the Paris Review (thank you to Eddie).
Now, if only Sergio Aragones could be persuaded to illustrate one of the Gospels.
***
An interview with R. Crumb from the Paris Review (thank you to Eddie).
Read
March 30, 2017While I greatly enjoyed Crumb's amazing artwork, I got too bummed out that SO MANY people believe every single word of this text.
November 14, 2009
As a long-time skeptic of EVERYTHING, I could never really get behind most of what I read in the Bible. I was raised in the Baptist Church, and memorized my Bible versus and went on mission trips like a good boy, but once I was old enough to look past all the little bits of obvious rhetoric littered throughout the Bible (but make up about 99% of all sermons), you quickly discover that huge chunks of it have nothing to do with morality or spirituality and are just plain weird. The Book of Genesis is no exception, and all of the slightly off-centered parts are highlighted in a R. Crumb's surprisingly neutral, straight down the middle graphic representation of the most common King James translation.
You might expect that Crumb doing the Bible would be ripe with subversiveness and mockery, but in his preface, the artist very clearly states that he is not setting out to make fun of the Bible, even though he is a non-believer. His approach was to take everything in Genesis and present it at face value. And he does! And its very odd!
All sorts of strange contradictions and counter-intuitive events occur in Genesis. There were places where things got so odd, I actually consulted my actual Bible, and I'll be darned if Crumb's text matched my Bible's almost identically! Which made me realize something very interesting about the millions of Bible's that float around in the hands of Christians worldwide: if you don't think your Bible is heavily influenced by the pre-concieved notions of man, think again!
Example: the story of Lot is thought by most people to contain just the tragedy of his wife, who turns into a pillar of salt after glancing back at the annihilated city of Sodom. This does happen, but Lot's story goes on: one night when Lot and his two surviving daughters are wandering around in the wilderness, the two girls mourn the fact that with their mother gone, Lot's seed can never be carried on in a male heir. Their solution [SPOILER!!:]: get dad drunk and sleep with him in the hopes of getting pregnant and bearing a son! So they do! On successive nights, they rape their own father and bear him two sons!
This was one of those moments where I just HAD to read that in my actual Bible, so I flipped over to Genesis, chapter 19, and sure enough, there it was, almost word for word. With one minor difference: in my Bible, published by Zondervan Publishing House, had inserted little subtitles to various passages to helpfully explain what's going on, and to maybe function as a handy tool for quickly finding whatever verse you're looking for. The subtitle for that particular passage (verses 30-38) read "The sin of Lot's daughters". I mean duh! Of course getting your father drunk and raping him is a sin! Only if you look just at the text of the Bible, there is absolutely nothing that indicates that what the girls did is wrong. And rest assured, there are ample examples of punishment and scorn and hideous death being reined down upon people who sin! Just not in this case, because nothing in the original text suggests that whoever wrote it considered it a sin!
And as a stark contrast, take the case of poor Ham, Noah's black sheep son. After the flood is all wrapped up, Noah gets mondo drunk one night on his homemade wine (the Bible claims he invented the vinyard!) and begins wandering around naked inside his tent. Ham stumbles upon Noah in his drunken nakedness and reports it to his brothers who proceed to walk backward into Noah's tent (so as not to see their father naked? drunk? both?) and cover him with a blanket. The next day, Noah gets super-pissed at Ham, and curses him and his children to forever be the slaves of his brothers and their descendents.
So if you're keeping score: accidentally seeing your dad naked and drunk = slavery for your progeny for generations to come! Getting your dad drunk and having sex with him = okay, because at least now he has male heirs! It's true! Its in the Bible!
These are just two examples of the uber-weirdness going on throughout Genesis. There's other stuff like back-to-back retellings of the Creation story that actually contradict one another. Or the almost comic-relief story of Jacob and his two wives and their two handmades, in which Jacob gladly seems to have almost constant sex with all four women in an attempt to have as many children as possible. Or the way God comes off as an eccentric and cranky old man who smites and curses and blesses with all the arbitrary logic of last night's loto numbers. Or the way apparently holy men pass their wives off as their sisters and let them sleep with Pharoahs, keeping in mind this wasn't the Pharoah being greedy for women. In both cases, the Pharoah actually gets angry when he finds out the women he took to bed are other men's wives!
In stripping away modern interpretations and illuminating some of the more obscure sections of Genesis, Crumb actually casts the Bible is a far different light than most people view it. Because most people only want to hear the parts that confirm their idea of what the world should be like. When taken as a literal whole, there is a lot more oddness going on, and seeing Genesis in all its strange glory makes this work totally worth your time.
Beyond that, there is also the art itself, which is stunning in its detailed portrayals of the World of Abraham. I don't pretend that all the visuals are historically accurate. Crumb is no Eric Shanower. Robert Crumb actually admits in his forward that a lot of his original designs came from looking at stills from Hollywood's old Biblical epics. But the effect is a successful one, because from front to back, you feel utterly immersed in the world of Adam, Noah, Abraham, Isaac, and Joseph. I was so immersed, I actually grew a little agitated at the thought that Crumb may not do a follow up illustrated version of Exodus, where even weirder stuff is happening! I'm dying to know what happens next! And who needs an actual Bible when there is the hope that the next chapter of the Ultimate Saga might be brought to vivid life by the likes of Robert Crumb?
You might expect that Crumb doing the Bible would be ripe with subversiveness and mockery, but in his preface, the artist very clearly states that he is not setting out to make fun of the Bible, even though he is a non-believer. His approach was to take everything in Genesis and present it at face value. And he does! And its very odd!
All sorts of strange contradictions and counter-intuitive events occur in Genesis. There were places where things got so odd, I actually consulted my actual Bible, and I'll be darned if Crumb's text matched my Bible's almost identically! Which made me realize something very interesting about the millions of Bible's that float around in the hands of Christians worldwide: if you don't think your Bible is heavily influenced by the pre-concieved notions of man, think again!
Example: the story of Lot is thought by most people to contain just the tragedy of his wife, who turns into a pillar of salt after glancing back at the annihilated city of Sodom. This does happen, but Lot's story goes on: one night when Lot and his two surviving daughters are wandering around in the wilderness, the two girls mourn the fact that with their mother gone, Lot's seed can never be carried on in a male heir. Their solution [SPOILER!!:]: get dad drunk and sleep with him in the hopes of getting pregnant and bearing a son! So they do! On successive nights, they rape their own father and bear him two sons!
This was one of those moments where I just HAD to read that in my actual Bible, so I flipped over to Genesis, chapter 19, and sure enough, there it was, almost word for word. With one minor difference: in my Bible, published by Zondervan Publishing House, had inserted little subtitles to various passages to helpfully explain what's going on, and to maybe function as a handy tool for quickly finding whatever verse you're looking for. The subtitle for that particular passage (verses 30-38) read "The sin of Lot's daughters". I mean duh! Of course getting your father drunk and raping him is a sin! Only if you look just at the text of the Bible, there is absolutely nothing that indicates that what the girls did is wrong. And rest assured, there are ample examples of punishment and scorn and hideous death being reined down upon people who sin! Just not in this case, because nothing in the original text suggests that whoever wrote it considered it a sin!
And as a stark contrast, take the case of poor Ham, Noah's black sheep son. After the flood is all wrapped up, Noah gets mondo drunk one night on his homemade wine (the Bible claims he invented the vinyard!) and begins wandering around naked inside his tent. Ham stumbles upon Noah in his drunken nakedness and reports it to his brothers who proceed to walk backward into Noah's tent (so as not to see their father naked? drunk? both?) and cover him with a blanket. The next day, Noah gets super-pissed at Ham, and curses him and his children to forever be the slaves of his brothers and their descendents.
So if you're keeping score: accidentally seeing your dad naked and drunk = slavery for your progeny for generations to come! Getting your dad drunk and having sex with him = okay, because at least now he has male heirs! It's true! Its in the Bible!
These are just two examples of the uber-weirdness going on throughout Genesis. There's other stuff like back-to-back retellings of the Creation story that actually contradict one another. Or the almost comic-relief story of Jacob and his two wives and their two handmades, in which Jacob gladly seems to have almost constant sex with all four women in an attempt to have as many children as possible. Or the way God comes off as an eccentric and cranky old man who smites and curses and blesses with all the arbitrary logic of last night's loto numbers. Or the way apparently holy men pass their wives off as their sisters and let them sleep with Pharoahs, keeping in mind this wasn't the Pharoah being greedy for women. In both cases, the Pharoah actually gets angry when he finds out the women he took to bed are other men's wives!
In stripping away modern interpretations and illuminating some of the more obscure sections of Genesis, Crumb actually casts the Bible is a far different light than most people view it. Because most people only want to hear the parts that confirm their idea of what the world should be like. When taken as a literal whole, there is a lot more oddness going on, and seeing Genesis in all its strange glory makes this work totally worth your time.
Beyond that, there is also the art itself, which is stunning in its detailed portrayals of the World of Abraham. I don't pretend that all the visuals are historically accurate. Crumb is no Eric Shanower. Robert Crumb actually admits in his forward that a lot of his original designs came from looking at stills from Hollywood's old Biblical epics. But the effect is a successful one, because from front to back, you feel utterly immersed in the world of Adam, Noah, Abraham, Isaac, and Joseph. I was so immersed, I actually grew a little agitated at the thought that Crumb may not do a follow up illustrated version of Exodus, where even weirder stuff is happening! I'm dying to know what happens next! And who needs an actual Bible when there is the hope that the next chapter of the Ultimate Saga might be brought to vivid life by the likes of Robert Crumb?
November 3, 2009
Crumb's illustrated Genesis is quite an amazing illustration accomplishment, but I'm afraid it's NOT quite a success. The artistry certainly is eyeball-boggling, but Crumb is so overly respectful of the source material that he doesn't add anything to it. There's no breath of life to it at all. My honest opinion is that it lacks in personality, just as the Bible itself does (for me). Now why is that...?
I think it's because the book of Genesis is itself an adaptation of oral tradition and suffers from ancient storytelling conventions. A large part of it is the language, which in antiquity would have been in repetition and verse: "And the Lord said..." "And so-and-so answered..." And this... And that... And then... This narrative would work around a campfire for unlettered people, but has no spontaneity on the printed page, no matter how well illustrated. I couldn't help thinking how much better the stories would work if Crumb had dropped most of the "ands" and many of the descriptions and just showed people talking to one another. It becomes oppressive. (I have similar issues with other ancient texts taken from oral tradition, like Beowulf and The Iliad. Always with Dawn's rosy-colored fingers, The Iliad -- where has Dawn been dipping her fingers?)
The "begats" are still a mind-number, for instance. For ancient people, I think those lists of names must have had resonance, they were all the names of leaders who became patriarchs of various tribes that surrounded them; and the "begats" establish heirarchy. Perhaps in the days before mass media and popular entertainment, folks had more interest in tracking genealogies and histories of this sort. It is amazing how much work Crumb puts into livening up the proceedings, with very human portraits of all the begotten individuals, but it's still quite anonymous to the modern reader, and he leaves intact all the tedious campfire cadences and recitations. Of course, the reader has to keep in mind that the "begats" and half the stories of biblical patriarchs swindling for birthrights or paying (in infinite detail) for fields or caves or wells are all ancient arguments to establish the legitimacy of the Israeli claim to the lands they took from the Canaanites. Still, it becomes somewhat of a blur.
This is true, also, in my opinion, of the big-name patriarchs and matriarchs of the stories. Abraham, Isaac, Jacob's personalities are pretty much interchangeable, as are Sarah, Rebeckah, Rachel -- tough authority figures playing the same power games with each other. I didn't really get a feel for any personality outside of maybe God, Adam, Eve, Cain, Abel, and then Joseph at the very end. The rest was all a litany of "he (Abraham or Isaac of Noah or Jacob) sojourned here, found that wife, passed her off as his sister, knocked up her handmaid, committed some pretty big moral lapses and was still the chosen of God." These characters all look quite a lot alike, too -- especially the females. Crumb just doesn't do anything much to bring it life outside of the Bible text because he doesn't stray at all from Bible text.
So what is it, in the end? A guilt-ridden Catholic boy trying to atone for the excesses that made him famous in the first place?
I think it's because the book of Genesis is itself an adaptation of oral tradition and suffers from ancient storytelling conventions. A large part of it is the language, which in antiquity would have been in repetition and verse: "And the Lord said..." "And so-and-so answered..." And this... And that... And then... This narrative would work around a campfire for unlettered people, but has no spontaneity on the printed page, no matter how well illustrated. I couldn't help thinking how much better the stories would work if Crumb had dropped most of the "ands" and many of the descriptions and just showed people talking to one another. It becomes oppressive. (I have similar issues with other ancient texts taken from oral tradition, like Beowulf and The Iliad. Always with Dawn's rosy-colored fingers, The Iliad -- where has Dawn been dipping her fingers?)
The "begats" are still a mind-number, for instance. For ancient people, I think those lists of names must have had resonance, they were all the names of leaders who became patriarchs of various tribes that surrounded them; and the "begats" establish heirarchy. Perhaps in the days before mass media and popular entertainment, folks had more interest in tracking genealogies and histories of this sort. It is amazing how much work Crumb puts into livening up the proceedings, with very human portraits of all the begotten individuals, but it's still quite anonymous to the modern reader, and he leaves intact all the tedious campfire cadences and recitations. Of course, the reader has to keep in mind that the "begats" and half the stories of biblical patriarchs swindling for birthrights or paying (in infinite detail) for fields or caves or wells are all ancient arguments to establish the legitimacy of the Israeli claim to the lands they took from the Canaanites. Still, it becomes somewhat of a blur.
This is true, also, in my opinion, of the big-name patriarchs and matriarchs of the stories. Abraham, Isaac, Jacob's personalities are pretty much interchangeable, as are Sarah, Rebeckah, Rachel -- tough authority figures playing the same power games with each other. I didn't really get a feel for any personality outside of maybe God, Adam, Eve, Cain, Abel, and then Joseph at the very end. The rest was all a litany of "he (Abraham or Isaac of Noah or Jacob) sojourned here, found that wife, passed her off as his sister, knocked up her handmaid, committed some pretty big moral lapses and was still the chosen of God." These characters all look quite a lot alike, too -- especially the females. Crumb just doesn't do anything much to bring it life outside of the Bible text because he doesn't stray at all from Bible text.
So what is it, in the end? A guilt-ridden Catholic boy trying to atone for the excesses that made him famous in the first place?
August 3, 2010
Crumb does illustrate the Bible's racier aspects--from Sodom and Gomorrah to all the endless "begetting"--but (this time at least) he's not out to titillate. He's just trying to bring this bizarrely influential desert tribe to life for us, and that means stripping away all the Cecil B. DeMille jazz and giving us insecure, atavistic people and warm bodies lying in tents--with a god just as unpredictable as anything in the Greek myths playing with their fate.
In his notes, Crumb seems to be just as baffled as I am by these parables' seemingly capricious twists and the resulting obscurity that kills these tales for me; but, unlike me, he dipped into the Bible scholars, gained some understanding, and forged ahead. I can't bring myself to do this. Maybe when I'm in a retirement home. In the meantime I'm glad he jumped on that particular grenade for me.
The artwork is of course incredible, and Crumb, while not a believer, does not mock, question, or jest. He goes with it. Nonetheless, Christians will wonder where Charlton Heston is and, I suspect, hate Crumb's book.
In his notes, Crumb seems to be just as baffled as I am by these parables' seemingly capricious twists and the resulting obscurity that kills these tales for me; but, unlike me, he dipped into the Bible scholars, gained some understanding, and forged ahead. I can't bring myself to do this. Maybe when I'm in a retirement home. In the meantime I'm glad he jumped on that particular grenade for me.
The artwork is of course incredible, and Crumb, while not a believer, does not mock, question, or jest. He goes with it. Nonetheless, Christians will wonder where Charlton Heston is and, I suspect, hate Crumb's book.
August 5, 2012
This book really surpassed my (high) expectations. People I know and respect have had varying opinions on it, but I think it's a masterpiece. By restricting himself to the traditional text, Crumb has achieved something really special, something that only an artist with his age, experience, and perspective could have pulled off. I have a special place in my heart for these types of old religious writings, but even so, I was surprised to find myself moved to tears at the conclusion. Now-- how about Exodus?
October 1, 2020
The best excuse to read comics on Holy Week.
February 17, 2020
Genesis( The Book of Genesis), göksel dinlere ve kutsal kitaplara inanmayan Robert Crumb'ın 4 yıl boyunca araştırarak Tevrat'ın Genesis'ini çizime aktardığı kıymetli çizgi romanlardan bir tanesi.
Genesis'in özellike 37. bölümden kitabın sonuna kadar ezilmiş bir karakter olarak sahneye giren ve büyük güce ulaşan Yakup'un oğlu ''düş hastası'' Yusuf'un hikayesinin anlatıldığı bölümler inanılmaz etkileyici.
Not: Yurt Kitap Yayın tarafından Amerika'da basıldıktan 1 yıl sonra Türkiye'de basılmış bu kitap. Popüler bir çizer olan Robert Crumb'ın Genesis kitabını Eganba gibi kitap sitelerini yazarın adını araştırırken bulamıyorsunuz. Bu yüzden böyle bir kitabın varlığını Goodreads'te gezinirken fark ettim. Bunun nedeni yayınevinin yazarın tam adıyla basmaması olabilir. Robert Crumb değil de R. Crumb şeklinde basılmış kitap. İlk basımının tükenmemiş olmasına da inanamadım. Bitmeden edindiğime seviniyorum.
Genesis'in özellike 37. bölümden kitabın sonuna kadar ezilmiş bir karakter olarak sahneye giren ve büyük güce ulaşan Yakup'un oğlu ''düş hastası'' Yusuf'un hikayesinin anlatıldığı bölümler inanılmaz etkileyici.
Not: Yurt Kitap Yayın tarafından Amerika'da basıldıktan 1 yıl sonra Türkiye'de basılmış bu kitap. Popüler bir çizer olan Robert Crumb'ın Genesis kitabını Eganba gibi kitap sitelerini yazarın adını araştırırken bulamıyorsunuz. Bu yüzden böyle bir kitabın varlığını Goodreads'te gezinirken fark ettim. Bunun nedeni yayınevinin yazarın tam adıyla basmaması olabilir. Robert Crumb değil de R. Crumb şeklinde basılmış kitap. İlk basımının tükenmemiş olmasına da inanamadım. Bitmeden edindiğime seviniyorum.
January 24, 2010
Yes, really, the Book of Genesis, illustrated by R. Crumb. No, it isn't a joke. Yes, it has the real text (a blend of a couple of different translations). Yes, he illustrates it seriously.
It's a little hard to sink into this at first, if you have any previous experience with R. Crumb. You keep looking for the jokes, the sex, the oddity. And then it starts to become just the Book of Genesis, illustrated. And then, after all of that, you start to notice how much sex, potential humor, and oddity there is in the Book of Genesis. Not to mention violence, greed, faith, betrayal, and lots and lots of lists of begats.
I read the entire thing. (Well, I may have skipped a begat or two.) And I have to admit, I was really pulled in. I'd learned a number of the stories many years ago in Hebrew School, but (not surprisingly) there are a lot of details they skim over when talking with 11-year-olds. Abraham claiming that Sarah was his sister, when they traveled (and Isaac doing the same thing with Rebecca). Simeon and Levi killing all the men in a city when they were weak from having been circumcised (this is covered, from a different angle, in Anita Diamant's wonderful The Red Tent).
Not to mention that Lot -- pious, pure Lot, who was brought out of Sodom because of his goodness -- had two daughters who got him really drunk, took sexual advantage of him, and bore children. No, they definitely skipped over that part in Hebrew School.
Really interesting and well done.
It's a little hard to sink into this at first, if you have any previous experience with R. Crumb. You keep looking for the jokes, the sex, the oddity. And then it starts to become just the Book of Genesis, illustrated. And then, after all of that, you start to notice how much sex, potential humor, and oddity there is in the Book of Genesis. Not to mention violence, greed, faith, betrayal, and lots and lots of lists of begats.
I read the entire thing. (Well, I may have skipped a begat or two.) And I have to admit, I was really pulled in. I'd learned a number of the stories many years ago in Hebrew School, but (not surprisingly) there are a lot of details they skim over when talking with 11-year-olds. Abraham claiming that Sarah was his sister, when they traveled (and Isaac doing the same thing with Rebecca). Simeon and Levi killing all the men in a city when they were weak from having been circumcised (this is covered, from a different angle, in Anita Diamant's wonderful The Red Tent).
Not to mention that Lot -- pious, pure Lot, who was brought out of Sodom because of his goodness -- had two daughters who got him really drunk, took sexual advantage of him, and bore children. No, they definitely skipped over that part in Hebrew School.
Really interesting and well done.
November 23, 2009
A serious and scholarly work. It's ironic that 'religious' comic books, as Crumb points out in his introduction, elide passages that may be too much for comic book readers, although the publishers are presumably more inclined than some to view scripture as literally true. Lot's daughters ensuring that their line will be carried forward, for example. And while Crumb is as frank as ever and does not hesitate to interpret such incidents as sensually as possible, he can't be accused of leaving anything out or altering the original text. Indeed, he approaches Genesis with respect and even a sense of decorum. He does warn readers: 'adult supervision recommended for minors.' And having pictures, much like a school yearbook, of all those "begats" makes the lists more bearable and sometimes interesting.
'The Book of Genesis Illustrated by R. Crumb' is magnificent and worthy of study by true students of the bible. Highly recommended.
'The Book of Genesis Illustrated by R. Crumb' is magnificent and worthy of study by true students of the bible. Highly recommended.
April 16, 2023
One might think this is sort of a playful take on the book of Genesis, seeing that it's by Robert Crumb and also maybe you saw my jokey updates, but it really is just the book of Genesis as illustrated by Crumb. So while I think the actual storytelling and overall ideas communicated are poor by today's standards (And my own. I won't apologize for having access to good literature!), there are still things to like about it.
For example, I like Crumb's illustrations, especially the darker parts like the destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah, I like when God has hilarious outbursts, I like Joseph's tale of betrayal then rise to power, I like the emotion he shows in contrast to most of the other characters (He is described as weeping more so than any other character, I think), and I like Tubal-cain. NO elaboration. Just Tubal-cain.
Not a huge fan of the patriarchal worldview that this text has imposed on the world due to it being scripture to some of the largest religions in the world. That's all I'll say about that or the whole review will be about women in Genesis.
Anyway, yeah, I guess I recommend it. Mainly if you're interested in a view of the first book of the Bible/Torah that literally illustrates all the parts and unsavory stories that churches are absolutely not going to discuss in depth.
For example, I like Crumb's illustrations, especially the darker parts like the destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah, I like when God has hilarious outbursts, I like Joseph's tale of betrayal then rise to power, I like the emotion he shows in contrast to most of the other characters (He is described as weeping more so than any other character, I think), and I like Tubal-cain. NO elaboration. Just Tubal-cain.
Not a huge fan of the patriarchal worldview that this text has imposed on the world due to it being scripture to some of the largest religions in the world. That's all I'll say about that or the whole review will be about women in Genesis.
Anyway, yeah, I guess I recommend it. Mainly if you're interested in a view of the first book of the Bible/Torah that literally illustrates all the parts and unsavory stories that churches are absolutely not going to discuss in depth.
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