The Book of Genesis Illustrated by R. Crumb (Hardcover)

Ever since I learned about this on the internet and read its excerpt in the December 2009 issue of Playboy, I tried to search for its digital version. As luck would have it, I found the high quality scans of "Jojo" (he is also the scanner of the Walt Disney's Christmas Classics Vol. 1 Hardcover I had posted earlier) and here we are. Playboy bills it as "the world's most endearingly perverted storyteller's take" on the first book of the Bible, all 50 chapters of it. Considering the nature of R. Crumb's work (honestly and totally irreverent) and his stature (he is one of the pioneers of underground comics gone mainstream) and considering the subject of his illustrations, I must say I do not intend to offend delicate and/or religious sensitivities; my only purpose is to present--and share--here what surely is a groundbreaking and landmark work in comic art. Oh, and please read R. Crumb's Introduction found in page 9 of this CBR--it's priceless. MATURE READERS.

Reviews

Far removed from the satirical reimagining some might expect from the father of underground comix, Crumb's long-awaited take on the first book of the Bible presents the artist's own sensitive, visually intense reflections. Where most visual adaptations edit down their prose sources, Crumb has, strikingly, included every word of the Book of Genesis within his first major book-length work. His humanistic visual response to this religious text imbues even briefly mentioned biblical characters with unique faces and attitudes, and his renderings of the book's more storied personalities draw out momentous emotions inspired by the book's inherent drama. Throughout, Genesis is a virtual portfolio of Crumb's career-long effort to instill fluid cartoon drawing with carefully rendered lifelike detail. Some might miss Crumb's full stylistic and tonal range, but the source's narrative sweep includes moments of sex and scandal that recall the artist's more notorious comics. Indeed, this monumental visual adaptation's basic strategy may subvert simply by demanding a reconsideration of its source, one that continues to motivate the complex cultural struggles that have, for decades, preoccupied this master cartoonist's landmark work. -- Publisher's Weekly

From the Creation to the death of Joseph, here is the Book of Genesis, revealingly illustrated as never before. This eagerly awaited graphic work retells the first book of the Bible in a profoundly honest way....The result, four years in the making, is a tapestry of extraordinary detail, the finest work of Crumb’s legendary career. -- Graphic Novel Reporter "Graphic Novel Picks for Fall 2009"

It’s a cartoonist’s equivalent of the Sistine Chapel. It’s awesome. Crumb has done a real artist’s turn here—he’s challenged himself and defied all expectation. ... I’ve read Genesis before. But never have I found it so compelling. By placing it squarely in the Middle East—and populating it with distinctively Semitic-looking people—Crumb makes it come alive brilliantly. -- Susan Jane Gilman - Morning Edition, NPR

Starred Review. Crumb’s vivid visual characterizations of the myriad characters, pious and wicked, make the most striking impression. His distinctive, highly rendered drawing style imparts a physicality that few other illustrated versions of this often retold chronicle have possessed. The centenarian elders show every one of their years, and the women, from Eve to Rachel, are as solidly sensual as any others Crumb has so famously drawn. -- Booklist

To say this book is a remarkable volume or even a landmark volume in comic art is somewhat of an understatement.... stands on its own as one of this century’s most ambitious artistic adaptations of the West’s oldest continuously told story. -- Paul Buhle - The Jewish Daily Forward

if you love Crumb's art, you will love this book. I am stunned at the sheer volume of work it took to illustrate the thing. Awestruck, really. I've always loved Crumb's art and work, at first (when I was young) because he seemed so twisted and funny, but later, because I realized what a truly fine artist he is... In March of '09, some online articles were calling this upcoming work "subversive"... Not so. There's no intent to be comical here...or to insult Judeo-Christian theology. It seems, in every sense, to be a legitimate illustration of the Book of Genesis. And, I found it beautiful, because Crumb's attention to visual detail is beautiful. -- a reader's online review