I admit that part of my interest in this was to see what Mr. Crumb would do with the Bible! I know his oeuvre, and I was anticipating something quite outrageous, but I was wrong. This is truly an illustrated version of Genesis, without any "interpretations" that would put the text in a bad light - seeing as Mr. Crumb is not of an overly religious persuasion, one could have expected some irreverence. I was quite impressed and would recommend this to anyone who enjoys reading the Bible or for someone who never has read it and would like a simple way of getting through the dense text. The book also includes well-written comments on each chapter - some of which actually made clear parts of Genesis that I myself never had understood. Well done, Mr. Crumb, and I hope to see the rest of the books in illustrated form!

More ( )

Graphic novel depiction of the book of Genesis from the Hebrew Bible, done in black and white. Really brings the story to life though the characters and faces used are a bit grim. ( )

Of course, a great deal of interpretation goes into illustrating any text, and Genisis is no exception. This version makes it much harder to skim over passages, so I think reading it was one of the closest readings to the book I've ever done. It would be interesting to see a version of this for other books, too. ( )

This takes 'illuminated manuscript' to a whole other level. Monks of old would spend a lifetime carefully copying just the text, word for word, with frilly, intricate capital letters at the start of each chapter, sometimes depicting a single iconic scene. Crumb took five years and not only hand lettered the text of Genesis, but illustrated each verse in his own distinctive, detailed style. As a non-Christian, he approached the task not from a reverent point of view but as a straightforward illustration job. He studied three different translations and consulted biblical scholarship and archaeology to be sure that he understood the meaning behind the various words and that he got the architecture and clothing as close to historically accurate as possible. The result is an honest and beautiful illustration of the text. Nothing extra is added, and nothing is left out (when the text says that Lot's daughters get him drunk and have sex with him, he draws Lot's daughters getting him drunk and having sex with him). I wish he could have made it through the entire Pentateuch, or even just Revelations, but I can see not wanting to devote another 5 to 20 years to such a project, and of course the whole bible would take more than a lifetime at this level of detail, and I've heard him say in interviews that he has no intention of doing so. ( )

No doubt faithful to Genesis, but all that begatting--basically a recitation of names (for which Crumb supplies made-up, mainly bearded faces)--is no more interesting in comic form than in print. Not Crumb's fault, except for taking on this admittedly prodigious project. And given who he is and what he's done previously, you can't fault the reader for hoping Flaky Foont or Mr. Natural will appear in the next panel, to at least break up the unrelenting succession of flowing white-bearded patriarchs and their capricious god. ( )