print
Interpretations of the Bible come in every medium—from art to music to film, and are made for any variety of audiences, from blood and guts readings to those of the more family-friendly variety.
But this new one, well, this one’s got us thinking…
Famed satiric cartoonist R. Crumb, best known for his underground cultural-commentary works like “Keep on Truckin’” and his work illustrating some seriously great album covers, is the artist in question this time. You’d think that Crumb’s illustrated take on the bible would include some sort of social satire, right? Not so, says Crumb about his just-released The Book of Genesis Illustrated. “Rather than monkey around with such a venerable text,” he said in a statement, “I approached this as a straight illustration job, with no intention to ridicule or make visual jokes.” Crumb also pointed out the irony that illustrated Bibles made by the faithful—of which he doesn’t include himself—are more likely to create visual representations not faithful to the text, as they, with their own personal interpretations, include “completely made up narrative and dialogue.”
Crumb’s source material was a compilation of Bible translations; while he did draw from the King James version, his main text was Robert Alter’s more recent The Five Books of Moses. While many adaptations of the Bible aim to modernize it for an audience detached from the text’s ‘eye for an eye,’ Crumb’s illustrated Genesis is a straight(er) reading—he lets the passages speak for themselves.
“If you actually read the Old Testament,” Crumb told Time, “[God is] just an old, cranky Jewish patriarch.”
Got news tips for Paste? Email news@pastemagazine.com.
Female Characters in Comics
Whitney Houston: 1963 - 2012
The Week in Gaming News
OK Go Talks Bands, Brands and Creative…
Sennheiser & Paste Present The Stages on…
The 50 Best Movies of 2011
The 50 Best Movies of the Decade…
The 20 Best Movies of 2011 (So…
2012 Grammy Awards Live Blog
Album Stream: Eisley - Deep Space
Video Premiere: Rhett Miller - "Tower of…
Live From CMJ: Robert Ellis
Song Premiere: Milagres - “Quiet Street”
Some of us appreciate Crumb as a trend setter and yes, he did break through the wall of censorship that went up after the Congressional comic book hearings in the ’50s. I had a sneak peak of the book of genesis illustrated here and wanted to compare more independent opinions.
For some of us it’s nostalgia—I was a horny, teen-age hippie when I first discovered undergrounds back in the ’60s. That being said, if you study his body of work you start to understand the point of view he brings to even the simplest illustration. Crumb is a self-aware, sexually immature, cynic who has few heroes (blues musicians, etc.). Sure, there are better illustrators but none that would deliver the Bible from his POV. I think of Crumb as the cartoonist’s Ivan Albright. He could draw/paint the loveliest subject and still make you wonder if there wasn’t something rotten just out of view.
Some of us appreciate Crumb as a trend setter
and yes, he did break through the wall of
censorship that went up after the
Congressional comic book hearings in the
’50s. I had a sneak peak of the book of genesis illustratedhere and wanted to compare more independent opinions.
For some of us it’s nostalgia—I was a horny,
teen-age hippie when I first discovered
undergrounds back in the ’60s. That being
said, if you study his body of work you start
to understand the point of view he brings to
even the simplest illustration. Crumb is a
self-aware, sexually immature, cynic who has
few heroes (blues musicians, etc.). Sure,
there are better illustrators but none that
would deliver the Bible from his POV. I think
of Crumb as the cartoonist’s Ivan Albright.
He could draw/paint the loveliest subject and
still make you wonder if there wasn’t
something rotten just out of view.