We review the new Bible graphic novel by famed underground comic artist R. Crumb.
The front cover of R. Crumb’s The Book of Genesis Illustrated immediately brings to mind the cover of a comic book from the medium’s golden age. The top half is bright yellow with the title written in a gothic script, while below is a color drawing of God, bearded and dressed in a white flowing robe, forcing a distraught Adam and Eve from the Garden of Eden. A red scroll in the bottom left-hand corner promises, “The first book of the Bible graphically depicted! Nothing left out!” And just above, like an oval halo above God’s head, a warning: “Adult supervision recommended for minors.”
It would be easy to regard this disclaimer as tongue-in-cheek or ironic. The Bible’s position as the Christian’s manual for living has given it a reputation for being safe, not to mention holy, inspired and infallible. But what R. Crumb’s four-year labor of love proves is that, when dealing with humanity in its rawest form, nothing is safe. Crumb, one of America’s foremost underground comic book artists, has done indeed what the front cover promises. The Book of Genesis Illustrated contains not only all 50 chapters of the Bible’s first book, but every verse, every line of dialogue uttered by God and the patriarchs, accompanied by Crumb’s drawings. And while the artist has not violated the integrity of the text, he hasn’t taken any pains to censor himself either.
As children, most of us were given illustrated Bibles to read, and in every one of those Adam and Eve’s bodies were conveniently covered by an overgrown shrub, a random branch, or unbelievably long hair. Likewise, none of those books ever included the story of Lot’s daughters sleeping with their father in order to produce offspring. In leaving nothing out, Crumb is forced to illustrate these moments, and given his background, good luck finding any convenient foliage. During Genesis’ sexier moments—and it's easy to forget how many there are—bodies are put on full display. This will no doubt offend some who are used to seeing the book more as a manual than as a story of what it means to be human; however, it is partly these moments—which are by no means excessive or out of character with the text—that remind the reader these people existed. They shivered when they were cold; they sweated when they were hot; and they made love when the mood struck them.
But far more than the book’s moments of sensuality, it is the emotions expressed on each character’s face that reminds us of their humanity. Upon learning of their expulsion from the garden, Eve bursts into tears of deep grief. Noah’s face breaks out into a look of awe and horror as God tells him that He will destroy all flesh living upon the earth. Jacob, fearing that his brother Esau will murder him for his past sin, alternates between knitting his eyebrows in consternation and lifting his face up to God, desperate for help. As moving as these stories are on their own, Crumb’s illustrations imbue the text with an extra layer of depth, emotion and humanity.
This fact, more than any other, is what makes Crumb’s book worth reading. Those who have been raised in the church are well versed in each of these stories, but they can become over familiar. Reading the text with the help of these drawings is like encountering the book for the first time. Details you hadn’t noticed before rise to the surface, while questions you never thought to ask pop into your head. Which is why the illustrations make The Book of Genesis Illustrated as much Crumb’s book even as it is no less God’s.
