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The Book of Genesis Illustrated

by Robert Crumb

4.03 · rating details · 984 ratings · 259 reviews

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 ...moreNominated 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.(less)

Hardcover, 224 pages

Published October 19th 2009 by W. W. Norton & Company

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Oct 11, 2010

Eddie Watkins rated it

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 ...more

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Sep 16, 2010

Malbadeen rated it

Shelves: comics-graphic-novels

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 pro...more

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Feb 08, 2010

Austin Ratner rated it

Shelves: literature, jewish-experience

Harold Bloom says that Freud learned all his psychology from Shakespeare. Would it be radical to suggest that Shakespeare learned all his psychology from the Hebrew Bible?

Robert Alter says of the Bible’s authors, "[T:]he Hebrew writers manifestly took delight in the artful limning of ... lifelike characters and actions, and so they created an unexhausted source of delight for a hundred generations of readers." The Bible’s psychological realism is certainly differen...moreHarold Bloom says that Freud learned all his psychology from Shakespeare. Would it be radical to suggest that Shakespeare learned all his psychology from the Hebrew Bible?

Robert Alter says of the Bible’s authors, "[T:]he Hebrew writers manifestly took delight in the artful limning of ... lifelike characters and actions, and so they created an unexhausted source of delight for a hundred generations of readers." The Bible’s psychological realism is certainly different from other ancient works. You'll find jealousy, hubris, guilt, and family conflict in Greek myth (and perhaps in every story there is) but the Bible is more realist in style and more concerned with the minute details and subtle intricacies of mental life than say, Homeric epic, or the plays of Aeschylus, where emotions certainly occupy a central position but are seen at a longer psychic distance and are represented in more abstract ways.

When Cain is snubbed by God, who heeds Abel’s offering but not the older brother's, I can put myself in Cain’s shoes (sandals) more readily than I can in those of say, Menelaus, after Paris absconds with his wife. I understand Menelaus on a more intellectual level. When Cain is snubbed, the Bible says “his face fell” and that God asked him, “Why is your face fallen?” The narration and the figures in the stories themselves are more than in other ancient works attendant to the inner life, to discrepancies between the outward manifestations of thought and feeling and the inner facts, to discrepancies between intention and action, even between inner ideas and deeper levels of consciousness (i.e., the Bible depicts lies told to oneself; i.e., denial ain’t just the river where Moses turned up in an ark of bulrushes). Noah’s ostracism of his son and grandson and Sarah’s jealousy of Hagar are entirely modern-feeling accounts of guilt and jealousy and the way such emotions are handled in the psyche.

R. Crumb’s recently published illustrations of the Book of Genesis amplify this psychological pathos in a wonderful way without diminishing the Bible's subtlety. Crumb shows Cain sweating under the weight of his offering to God juxtaposed with the tiny lightweight lamb that Abel brings. You see how unfair and hurtful it was for Cain and understand what came next.

Some of the Crumb illustrations are funny and implicitly ask subversive questions about God, particularly in the earlier chapters, where God enters the story as a kind of lunatic artisan who likes to make things for reasons unknown to anyone, including, apparently, himself and who gets furiously dissatisfied with his creations and takes out all his frustrations on his children like the put-upon alcoholic Farrington in James Joyce’s story “Counterparts.” The things God yells about seem not to make any sense as in a real human temper tantrum. The opening passages of Genesis may lose some of their gravitas in this version, but the familial dysfunction at the heart of so many of the Bible stories is thrown into bold relief. Furthermore, the satire in these early parts lends a certain existential irony to the stories, which I appreciate, and which it might be argued is not even foreign to the biblical writers. Alter sees the Bible’s main agenda as the depiction of human character in all its variety and consistency, and that character's interrelation with forces beyond human control—fate, destiny, chance (or God, if you prefer)—to create what we call history. Sometimes the biblical heroes themselves don’t understand God’s designs, and sometimes laughter is the result, as when Sarah laughs at God’s annunciation of her pregnancy in old age and this laughter is commemorated in Isaac’s name, which means “he who laughs.” Sometimes the heroes object to God's designs, as when Abraham bargains for Lot’s life. Sometimes God seems like a personification of the sort of natural disaster that just befell Haiti as when God wantonly destroys Babel. It might be argued that the biblical writers purposely made God at times cruel and outrageous because fate is cruel and outrageous. And inasmuch as the Bible writers rationalized natural disasters as punishments for bad behavior (as Pat Robertson does even today) or otherwise rationalized them as in any way useful or necessary or morally ordained—well, then this benighted and primitive element of their worldview deserves satire.

On the whole, however, what’s so remarkable about the ancient writers of the Bible is not what's primitive about them, but what is modern. They have honored the complexity and majesty of the real world with the most meticulous artistry and have not only bequeathed their wise and beautiful stories to later readers but their techniques to later writers and artists.

I reread Genesis in Crumb’s illustrated edition (which uses Robert Alter’s translation, a major upgrade from any I’ve read, sensitive as it is the artistic aims of the original Hebrew) and afterward I read Robert Alter’s The Art of Biblical Narrative, a masterpiece of literary criticism and a highly accessible one at that. If you want a pair of excellent guides to one of the great artistic creations in the history of humankind, I commend to you the Roberts Alter and Crumb.

Addendum: On Bloom’s notion that Freud got everything from Shakespeare; this is surely “the anxiety of influence” in action—a wonderful concept Bloom invented with a little help from Freud. (Did the Beatles say that? I get by with a little help from my Freud....)
(less)

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Oct 10, 2010

Esteban del Mal rated it

· review of another edition

Shelves: comics, religion-or-something-like-it

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).

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Jan 19, 2010

Bird Brian rated it

Shelves: art, religion

If you've written off R. Crumb as a has-been creator of 60's counterculture comic books, this work is your invitation to reconsider. This latest project of his illustrates the complete stories of Genesis in comic book form. When I first heard about this, I wasn't sure what to expect. On one hand, Crumb has done serious, and thoughtful work in the past (e.g. R Crumb's Heros of Jazz). On the other hand, a lot of his earlier comics seem to celebrate deviency, and at times can be openly disdainful o...more

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Aug 02, 2011

Bill rated it

How to rate such a book?

Five stars for the artistry, the detailed work, the cleverness, the attention to detail, heck, just the effort that must have gone into it?

Or zero stars for the mind-numbing stories contained in the book of Genesis? One of the best things I've heard about the Bible is that if you came across it in a bookstore, opened and skimmed a few pages, you'd immediately put it down and continue browsing. There is no doubt that this is true (and if anyone knows who said this, please ...more

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Aug 03, 2010

Jason Coleman rated it

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, Cr...more

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Jan 25, 2012

Emilia P rated it

Shelves: comic-books

Wow! This was shockingly literal!
The Book of Genesis is one weird and wonderful bunch of tales -- Abraham passes Sarah off as his sister twice and then his son does the same with Rebekah?, Joseph interprets all kinds of obvious dreams and gets to be like the boss of Egypt for them? That whole killing all the men in a city while they're recovering from circumcision? Yeah ... hm. Though these stories are difficult and sometimes confusing, it's nice to have them in totality rather than the co...more

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Sep 11, 2011

Rachel rated it

The book of Genesis, in comic form: "everything graphically depicted, nothing left out!"

Reading this comic version of Genesis made me think about how... bizarre some things in Genesis are. Lot's daughters, the "she's my sister" act, the concubines, etc. Crumb, the author/illustrator, makes a few notes in the back about how remnants of a matriarchal culture are still intact, which makes me really curious about matriarchies for one, and also opened my eyes to how lit...more

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Aug 02, 2011

Bradley rated it

Well, now I can officially say that I read the Book of Genesis! However, it wouldn't have been as nearly entertaining had it not been illustrated by R. Crumb. Couple thoughts...the story of Noah, Adam and Eve and Cain and Abel as well as Sodom and Gommorah are extremely short - less than a page or two. It seems like this Rebekah character controlled all of the early men's decisions in the Bible. It's funny to see that people lived to be 400 or 500 years old in the olden days but - today - have a...more

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Jul 31, 2011

Christopher F. added it · review of another edition

Couldn't ask for anything more. Lovely lovely book. It was a fine decision to include absolutely every word, and apparently a lot of research went into finding the right look of clothing, artifacts, etc. All of the people look like Ashkenazic Jews, and/or vaguely Mediterranean people, of the 20th century, but I have no quarrel with that; after all, that is the female physical type that Crumb seems to be attracted to throughout all his work, so it's fine to have Sarah, Eve, Rebecca, etc. look...moreCouldn't ask for anything more. Lovely lovely book. It was a fine decision to include absolutely every word, and apparently a lot of research went into finding the right look of clothing, artifacts, etc. All of the people look like Ashkenazic Jews, and/or vaguely Mediterranean people, of the 20th century, but I have no quarrel with that; after all, that is the female physical type that Crumb seems to be attracted to throughout all his work, so it's fine to have Sarah, Eve, Rebecca, etc. looking all, essentially, like the familiar aggressive, big-boned, strong-featured, steatopygous R. Crumb women. I also applaud the decision to render Jehovah the Creator as a stereotypical old white man with a long beard: any representation runs the risk of cliché, so might as well throw oneself right into it. However, Crumb veers from this, very subtly, in accordance with his understanding of the original figures that are translated as "God" in the King James Version are actually different ancient pantheistic deities—and when "the Lord" kills Er and Onan in chapter 38 Crumb shows him as an ordinary man, face partially hidden, dressed almost like a caveman, killing Er with a dagger in an alleyway at night and bludgeoning Onan with a rock in a field. There's really no dressing up the Old Testament sense of justice, is there?

Crumb's afterword and commentary are particularly interesting because he is attracted to some of the non-mainstream theories of prehistoric "matriarchy" championed by, e.g. Marija Gambutas. The source he cites is "Sarah the Priestess," a 1984 monograph by Savina Teubal, which as far as I can tell is quite, quite obscure. Crumb's commentary features the usual muddling of matrilineality and matriarchy and the usual leap of assuming that excavated female idols are evidence of "matriarchy." However—and writing here as someone whose professional activity includes close reading of mythological texts for clues to prehistoric kinship systems but who has never studied the Old Testament in this light—I must say that Teubal/Crumb make a compelling case for the story of Abraham and Sarah indicating matrilineality: they were, according to Talmudic tradition (though Crumb sticks only to the text and to Teubal's commentary), patrilateral half-siblings (same father, different mothers) who thus, in a matrilineal exogamous system but not in a patrilineal one, would be permitted to marry; and the repeated story of them representing themselves as siblings (a half-truth, though Crumb represents it as an out and out deception) in order to trick first Pharaoh and then Abimelech, resulting in Sarah being married to them, is so incoherent (i.e.: why would representing a woman as a sister rather than a wife make her seem *less* available??) that it can in my opinion be made sense of only as a polyandrous marriage strategy in a matrilineal system—redacted over the generations to conform to a shift toward patrilineality.

As for Lot and his daughters, that argument is weaker: yes, in a matrilineal system father-daughter sexual relations are not, strictly speaking, consanguineous incest, but nonetheless all matrilineal system at least discourage it and nearly all proscribe it as strongly as any other form of incest. This is a case of incest being resorted to in order to preserve a lineage, which is a globally common mythological trope, and in fact tends to be used to *highlight* a taboo through its violation. An example of this is Cain's mating with Eve, which is explicit in analogous versions of the myth but politely glossed over both in the Genesis that has come down to us and also—slightly surprisingly—in Crumb's illustrations.

I wonder now if Crumb will go on to do Exodus. I hope so. Leviticus would drag a bit, unless he actually *shows* all those laws being violated. Perhaps after Exodus he should skip right to Jonah, Job, and Revelation. Job, in particulary, is a spectacularly Crumb-ready text.(less)

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Jan 06, 2011

Tyler Hill rated it

Shelves: read-in-2010, read-in-2011

What better way to start the new year than with the Book of Genesis?

In the spirit of full disclosure, I think its probably worth mentioning the fact that I haven't read the Book of Genesis before; but from what I can tell Crumb includes the text here in its near entirety. Also, instead of lampooning or spoofing the text, as one might presume he would, Crumb instead depicts things clearly and thoughtfully. Yes, its in his trademark style, and yes all of his visual on display (for exampl...more

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Mar 15, 2010

Shannon rated it

Shelves: nonfiction

I heard about this book via an NPR interview with the illustrator. In the interview, Crumb talked about how he followed the original Hebrew text as closely as possible. I was intrigued to read an illustrated version of Genesis that was a respectful treatment, but well done.

One of the things I liked most about this version of Genesis was that Crumb left in many of the ambiguities of the original Hebrew. There are many places where it's unclear exactly who the pronoun "He"...moreI heard about this book via an NPR interview with the illustrator. In the interview, Crumb talked about how he followed the original Hebrew text as closely as possible. I was intrigued to read an illustrated version of Genesis that was a respectful treatment, but well done.

One of the things I liked most about this version of Genesis was that Crumb left in many of the ambiguities of the original Hebrew. There are many places where it's unclear exactly who the pronoun "He" refers to - in most versions of the Bible that I am familiar with, the translators try to clarify the ambiguities. While that's great for some readers, I actually like knowing that the original text was ambiguous instead of reading one person's interpretation of what the author meant.

Crumb's introduction and commentary were fascinating. He makes a great point that the five books of Torah (the first books of the Old Testament) "are the oldest texts in continuous use in Western civilization." Unlike many ancient texts, these writings have never been lost and recovered. While Crumb says in the introduction that he does not believe the Bible to be the word of God, his treatment throughout was respectful and comments like this one reflect his acknowledgment of the power of the text.

In the commentary Crumb addresses some of the most disturbing - and confusing - parts of Genesis, such as when Abraham (not once, but twice) claims that Sarah is his sister, not his wife. Crumb's investigation into and explanation of the practices of Sumer, Babylon and Assyria and how they relate to the narratives in Genesis make sense to me and address the heavy emphasis on patriarchy in the Old Testament. I liked hearing what a non-Christian had to say about these passages. While we all bring our own biases to anything we write or read, Crumb pretty clearly laid out his own position, while some Christian writers claim to have no bias when they are actually trying to lead you to agree with their own interpretation.

So... who should read this book? That's a bit of a tough question for me. I hesitate to recommend this to many evangelical Christians, for fear that they will be offended by Crumb's treatment, even though I wasn't. If, like me, you want to see another view of Genesis, then read this. If you like the idea of having a visual representation to go along with some of the most famous stories in the Bible, this book is a good option. Just like The Red Tent gave me a mental image of what life was like living in tents in the desert, this illustrated version of Genesis gave me clear images of many of the characters who populate Genesis. It also highlighted for me the non-linear narrative format and made more starkly clear the disturbing components of these stories that I've yet to fully reconcile with my own beliefs.(less)

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Feb 03, 2010

Doug Welch rated it

Recommends it for: Matt Rickets, Tristy

This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers. To view it, click here.

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Feb 03, 2010

Alex rated it

Shelves: fiction, graphic-novel, historical-fiction

For some reason, I found it so much easier to read this version of Genesis (or any book of the Old Testament) than when it's just text alone. Crumb's illustrations really bring the text to life in a way that makes the stories clear (even, or especially, the contradictory elements within the stories).

Crumb doesn't monkey with the text, using one of the best modern translations, but stays true to the source material and did a good job of including everything. There's a reverence for th...more

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Jan 23, 2010

Robert rated it

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 hu...more

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Jan 04, 2010

Ramona rated it

After reading the Introduction to this illustrated version of The Book of Genesis, I almost didn't read it, but am glad I did. Crumb states he does not believe the Bible is the Word of God--that it is the words of men. In one sense of the word, he is correct. For those of us who are firm believers that the Bible is the Word of God, I must say I agree with his concept that the Bible is more than likely "inspired by God" since men wrote these words down. I found his illustrations to ...more

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Dec 24, 2009

Spencer rated it

Shelves: comics

Illustrations of basically every verse of Genesis including so and so laid with so and so. Not for kids.
Things i liked:
Eve has a gap tooth
Everyone wears tattered rags and looks "pre-hygenic"
God smelling a burnt sacrifice with a delicious satisfied look on his face
The look on noahs face of being completely overwhelmed
Human corpses floating in the water around the ark
The look on the faces of Abrahams men waiting in line to be circumcised
Ill...more

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Nov 29, 2009

Geordie Korper rated it

If Borat interviewed Yahweh it would look like this. Crumb illustrates the word god as faithfully as he can, and well god comes off as kind of an ass. On the flip-side I have never been able to make it through Genesis in one go before. Crumb really humanizes the text. When every line is accompanied by an image of the people involved I was more able to see them as imperfect humans struggling to do what they think is right (or doing what they know not to be right). My moral compass would have poin...more

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Nov 03, 2009

Rtriptow rated it

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 ...moreCrumb'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? (less)

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May 09, 2010

Levi rated it

I wish I could post separate ratings for the art and the text of this book. R. Crumb, the illustrator, did a fantastic job filling this volume with gorgeously rendered, evocative black and white drawings that more than lived up to the task of portraying the events of this bizarre and confusing book. At times his drawings even served to help clarify some of these events, but more often than not the poor quality of the source text served to drag down the whole enterprise, despite Crumb's heroic ...moreI wish I could post separate ratings for the art and the text of this book. R. Crumb, the illustrator, did a fantastic job filling this volume with gorgeously rendered, evocative black and white drawings that more than lived up to the task of portraying the events of this bizarre and confusing book. At times his drawings even served to help clarify some of these events, but more often than not the poor quality of the source text served to drag down the whole enterprise, despite Crumb's heroic efforts.

The text, which doesn't seem to be attributed to any author (if I had written it, I certainly wouldn't have wanted my name associated with it) starts off with a hodgepodge of creation myths, and very quickly becomes an exercise in genealogy intermixed with repetitious story lines (at least three different characters, upon entering a new town, pretend their wives are their sisters, only for the wives to be flirted with and the head honchos in town to get all upset when they find out what's really going on - hilarious!) and the occasional adventure story, with constant meddling by a vindictive, conniving, petulant, seemingly all-knowing, all-powerful character variously referred to as "The Lord" and "El Shaddai," among other names. The two characters that start the whole thing off, Adam and Eve, are shown being created in three completely different ways, which is never explained. Impossible events are a commonplace, but more in a "hmmm, what kind of crazy crap could I make up next?" way than a Marquezian magical realism kind of way. Whole pages are taken up listing sons and sons of sons and their sons (no one seemed to have daughters back then, though there are always plenty of wives for those sons), with Crumb painstakingly drawing individual little faces for these dozens of characters, most of whom are never mentioned again. Hardly any of the characters are really developed in meaningful ways; they act out in one way or another for no apparent reason, and often with no consequences.

I could go on, but I think you probably get the picture. I certainly never would have read this work without Crumb's illustrations, but I'm not sure whether it's a good thing that I now have. Honestly, I think Mr. Crumb should vet his source material in the future, or team up with an editor who won't just throw him any old anonymous piece of crap in the slush pile.

5 stars for the drawing; I'll say 2 stars for the text.(less)

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Nov 05, 2009

Julie rated it

Done in graphic novel form, this unblinking depiction of every word of Genesis is a revelation. The begats, while tiresome in print and commonly skipped over for the odd looking names, are riveting when each is depicted as a very distinct individual. Many of the stories of moral ambiguity or outright brutality that are brushed over in print or preach form are laid out in full force by this format. The book clearly warns against unleashing the young on the text without parental supervision for...more

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Jul 25, 2011

Sheri added it · review of another edition

Illustrating the entire book, line-by-line, is a tremendous accomplishment that required admirable dedication and visual imagination. What I loved about it was the way in which Crumb's illustration emphasizes that Genesis is a collection of stories, oral traditions passed down over generations. And that the players in those stories were not "heroes" but just ordinary people living their lives in a pedestrian world.

What Crumb's illustration and commentary do not evoke is wond...more

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May 05, 2010

Brendan rated it

Shelves: 2010, comics, classics, philosophy-religion, fiction

It's interesting when someone famous for scandal does something not scandalous. The Book of Genesis is just such a work. There's some talk here and there about the book being scandalous, but I found this bishop's blog that said it best:

So, who are the people likely to take offense at this book? I guess it will be the people who (a) haven’t read it or (b) take offense at anything that involves bodies, sex, God or cultural intelligence. (link)

But America's filled with...more

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Oct 14, 2010

Mark Desrosiers rated it

Shelves: comics, god-box

It's the Book of Genesis, with all the incest, polygamy, deviousness, drunkenness, murder, and lust you remember from when you were a kid -- but with R. Crumb's magnificent visual narrative accenting therepetitive, almost Mamet-like prose of the original stories. Really, this ranks with the Codex Seraphinianus as one of the strangest and most beautiful and monumental illustrated works in recent decades.

PLUS: the eight-page commentary at the end, where Crumb unveils the matriarchal sex...more

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Jul 28, 2011

Brad rated it

Shelves: graphic-novel, madness, sick-and-twisted, religion, shite

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 importan...more

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Nov 22, 2009

Lars Guthrie rated it

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 an...more

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Jul 02, 2010

Cheryl Klein rated it

So this is what people mean when they talk about the “Old Testament God.” He’s demanding, vengeful and arbitrary in his blessings and cursings. Jacob dresses up as his hairy brother Esau to sneak a blessing via his blind father, Isaac—and Esau is the bad guy for being a little peeved? Guess so, because now Jacob is the chosen one, and you can’t mess with God’s favorites.

Needless to say, I didn’t find the Book of Genesis particularly informative on the morality front, or on the story...more

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Apr 29, 2010

g rated it

Shelves: deserts, ecclesiastics

R. Crumb's The Book of Genesis Illustrated puts the humanity back into these grandly told Biblical stories, pairing the King James version's musical, hypnotic, and repetitive syntax with illustrations that give the stories an emotional depth that seems lacking, or at least submerged, in the text: Crumb's human characters are feeling, sensual, poignant, dirty, hairy, surprised beings. My favorite parts, of course, feature God: Crumb's God is a volatile, crazed Gandalf-looking character, eyes and ...more

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Mar 05, 2010

Sara added it

I won't lie - I didn't read this cover to cover. Even R. Crumb can't make me read the Bible. As has been said by about a million reviewers, this really is intended to be a straight illustration job, but I think Crumb adds more than beautiful pictures to the text. The aspect of the Bible (other than my diehard atheism) that has always turned me off is the impersonality of it. None of the characters feel like characters in it, making it hard to read without taxing your imagination. In his interpre...more

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About Robert Crumb

Robert Dennis Crumb often credited simply as R. Crumb, is an American artist and illustrator recognized for the distinctive style of his drawings (especially sexual content and exageration of the female behind and breasts) and his critical, satirical, subversive view of the American mainstream.

In the mid 1960's, Crumb left home and moved to Cleveland, Ohio, where he designed greeting...moreRobert Dennis Crumb often credited simply as R. Crumb, is an American artist and illustrator recognized for the distinctive style of his drawings (especially sexual content and exageration of the female behind and breasts) and his critical, satirical, subversive view of the American mainstream.

In the mid 1960's, Crumb left home and moved to Cleveland, Ohio, where he designed greeting cards for the American Greetings Corporation, and met a group of young bohemians. One of whom, Liz Johnston introduced him to the woman who would become his first wife, Dana Morgan. He befriended another Cleveland resident, Harvey Pekar, and eventually contributed artwork to early issues of American Splendor.

Encouraged by the reaction to some drawings he had published in underground newspapers, including Philadelphia's Yarrowstalks, Crumb moved in 1967 to San Francisco, California, the centre of the counterculture movement.

Crumb founded the first issue of his Zap Comix in early 1968 and became a prominent figure in the underground movement. 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 also illustrates album covers.

A peer in the underground comics field, Victor Moscoso, commented about his first impression of Crumb's work, in the mid-1960s, before meeting Crumb in person: "I couldn't tell if it was an old man drawing young, or a young man drawing old." Crumb has also cited his extensive LSD use as the factor that led him to develop his unique style.

Crumb remains a prominent figure, as both artist and influence, within the alternative comics milieu, hailed as a genius by such talents as Jaime Hernandez, Greg Colson, Daniel Clowes, and Chris Ware. In the early 1980s, Crumb collaborated with writer Charles Bukowski on a series of comic books, featuring Crumb's art and Bukowski's writing.

In the fall of 2008, the Institute of Contemporary Art in Philadelphia hosted a major exhibition of his work, which was favourably reviewed in the New York Times and in the Philadelphia Inquirer.
He currently lives in Southern France with his second wife Aline Kominsky-Crumb.(less)

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