The Book of Genesis Illustrated by R. Crumb (Signed, Limited, Slipcased Edition) [Hardcover]

R. Crumb (Author)

Book Description

ISBN-10: 0393075931 | ISBN-13: 978-0393075939 | Publication Date: November 9, 2009 | Edition: Signed, Limited, Slipcased Edition

A signed and numbered limited edition, slipcased and with a signed print: 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. 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. This special signed and numbered limited edition is slipcased and includes a signed print.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

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. (Oct.)
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved. --This text refers to an alternate Hardcover edition.

Review

“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 )

“Crumb achieves a miracle all his own: he makes one of the world's oldest stories new again.” (Newsweek )

“[A] beautifully drawn and relentlessly faithful rendition of the first 50 chapters of the Bible by an apostle of the 1960s and sometimes profane progenitor of underground comics. Crumb has produced what could be the ultimate graphic novel.” (David Colton - USA Today )

“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 )

“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 )

“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 ) --This text refers to an alternate Hardcover edition.

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Hardcover: 224 pages
• Publisher: W. W. Norton & Company; Signed, Limited, Slipcased Edition edition (November 9, 2009)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0393075931
• ISBN-13: 978-0393075939
• Product Dimensions: 11.5 x 9 x 1.2 inches
• Shipping Weight: 2.9 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 4.5 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (145 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #2,052,874 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Born in Philadelphia, R. Crumb is the author of numerous comic works and one of the pioneers of underground comics. His books include Kafka, The Complete Crumb Comics (17 volumes), The R. Crumb Sketchbook (10 volumes), R. Crumb Draws the Blues, The Book of Mr. Natural, The Book of Genesis Illustrated by R. Crumb, and many more. He lives in the south of France with his wife, the artist Aline Kominsky-Crumb.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

207 of 213 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars For Those Who Love Crumb, October 1, 2009

By 

C. Riness (Wisconsin, USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: The Book of Genesis Illustrated by R. Crumb (Hardcover)

Sorry to disagree with the previous review, but I think it needs to be said...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. I say, never mind the "is it passionate" crap.

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.

Crumb relies on two sources for the translation including the King James version, and more so, Robert Alter's "The Five Books Of Moses". So, sure, there may be some disagreement in translation for individuals who are version specific. I would suggest we look past that and just enjoy the book for its merits and Crumb's talent.

One should be aware that a few panels may be considered "steamy" for younger children. Some nudity appears and, for instance, when in Chapter 19 it is written that Lot's daughters gave their father wine to drink and then lay with him, Crumb illustrates it. It is my belief, however, that Crumb's intent here is simply illustration, not subversion.

At any rate, it is an amazing work of art, not to mention a book of many important stories.

64 of 67 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A cartoonist's Sistene Chapel, October 19, 2009

By 

Steve Reina (Troy Michigan) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)   

This review is from: The Book of Genesis Illustrated by R. Crumb (Hardcover)

When R. Crumb set out to create an illustrated Genesis, he planned two years for the project.

Five years later we have what amounts to a cartoonist's answer to the Sistene Chapel, audicious and bold I guess in the same way that great art always seems to be audacious and bold.

For those who would suggest that the work satirzes its material or attempts to demean the underlying Biblical text I would suggest they re-read their Genesis. Where the Bible says Judah had relations with his daughter Tamar thinking her a cultic prostitute, the illustrations show Judah having relations with Tamar thinking her a cultic prostitute. Where the Bible says Lot while drunk had relations with each of his daughters in a cave, the illustrations show Lot while drunk having relations with each of his daughters in cave.

In this way, and with all due respect, those offended by Crumb illustrations should probably in fact be offended by the text as well.

If this material was noteworthy only for its prurient value, it would be easy to dismiss but the work is filled with nuance and mood reflecting the nuance and mood of the underlying text. For example, the anxious confabulation of Adam and Eve when confronted by God for eating of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil is readily revealed in their faces (including a glance of reproof by Eve at having been blamed by Adam). Later we see Abraham in sorrow as he contemplates the problems of his people, dimly depicted as the hallow faced of the Holocaust we have become so familiar with.

In all this work ably succeeds in doing what it set out to do: to provide an illustrated version of Genesis. That it was produced by an atheist does not rob it of any of its artistic potential nor does it prevent us from appreciating it on whatever level we may choose to do so.

44 of 51 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Not Funny, October 1, 2009

By 

Sanford A. Faden - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: The Book of Genesis Illustrated by R. Crumb (Hardcover)

To those of us who have been Crumb fans from the beginning, the first reactions must be: it's not funny; it's not revolutionary; it's not "Mr Natural Meets God". So what is it? It is exactly what the title proclaims, Genesis straightforward in text and illustration, without criticism or commentary, more a scholarly work than a comic book. Perhaps, in 2009, straightforward is radical, as parodies of religion have become the norm. That is the genius of the work. Of course, it is all Crumb with his attention to detail and direct depictions of violence and sex. And most happily for me, the Crumb Women are present in abundance. I am struck by the magnitude and thoroughness of the work, including imagings of the lists of Begats with each character distinct and notable. What is radical about the work is contained within the text itself. Crumb's work is more an illumination of the Word of God than a set of illustrations. Now that is radical.