This is a book that gives new connotations to the concepts of Classics Illustrated and Illuminated Manuscripts. On the dust jacket illustration Crumb shows Adam and Eve getting shown out of Eden by a stern looking Ancient of Days God. Surrounding this scene are advertising banners proclaiming, “Adult Supervision Recommended For Minors,” ‘All 50 Chapters,” and “The First Book of the Bible Graphically Depicted! Nothing Left Out!” Famous for his underground comics, Crumb says that he approached this as strictly an illustration job, and in his introduction he makes it a point to say that he added no words of his own to the text. What he has added is his own thickly embodied human figures, which he has superbly portrayed with individual faces. He is a master of revealing the emotions in those faces. As promised he has left nothing out, including the “begots” and a fair number of scenes of the begetting, hence, the caution for adult supervision on the cover. There are no fig leaves on Adam or Eve before they take a bite of the fruit, or on any of the scenes of violence in the rest of the book. The illustrations give the impression of a dark and gritty realism surrounding all from the creation through the lives of the patriarchs and matriarchs. ( )

Reviewed by Mr. Overeem (Language Arts)
To many, the very idea of Crumb taking on this task (which took him five years, every day of which you can see just in his cross-hatching) would portend unspeakable sacrileges. On the contrary, the legendary comic book illustrator sticks very close to the text--"All 50 Chapters!" the cover boasts--and resists the temptation to apply to it his mordant wit. Most of the thrills, spills, and chills are simply in the story itself. Caution: BECAUSE Crumb sticks so closely to the text, he's right to advise parental supervision on the cover as well! Also, flip to the back after each chapter to read his commentary--he's especially interested in the often-puzzling roles of women in the book. ( )

The edition is limited to 250, with each book slipcased, signed and numbered by Crumb. Also included in each book is a signed 9 color serigraph print (printed by Alex Wood of Wildwood Serigraphs) which measures 8 x 10". ( )

This eagerly awaited graphic work retells the first book of the Bible in a profoundly honest way. Peeling away the theological and scholarly interpretations that have often obscured its most dramatic stories, R. Crumb—using the actual text word for word—has imagined the Bible as it really was. Now, readers of every persuasion—Crumb fans, comic book lovers, history buffs, and believers—can gain astonishing new insights from these harrowing, visceral, and even juicy stories. Crumb’s The Book of Genesis reintroduces readers to Adam and Eve’s Eden, Noah’s Ark, Sodom and Gomorrah, and the Pharaoh’s Egypt. Using clues from the text, Crumb fleshes out the parade of biblical originals: from the sensitive dreamer Joseph to the crafty Jacob, to the still-fetching Sarah, to God Himself. The result, four years in the making, is a tapestry of extraordinary detail, the finest work of Crumb’s legendary career.

An amazing effort by R. Crumb. I was powerfully moved by the visual assault by this very well done tomb. I now long for him to tackle the last book of the Bible. Five years to wait....maybe more. I dough I will see it, but I can hope.