In the beginning, there was Crumb

The controversial comic artist has drawn the Book of Genesis, but detractors are not finding his work to be a revelation.

By LILLY FOWLER, Religion News Service

Last update: October 30, 2009 - 4:05 PM

The Book of Genesis might be a sacred text to many, but it's also chock-full of sex, violence and betrayal -- elements that underground comic artist R. Crumb was only too eager to take on.

"[It's about] ruling elites victimizing people in sadistic ways, which is human beings at their nastiest," Crumb said. "They have power over others, and they derive pleasure from inflecting pain on other humans. That's about as nasty as people get."

In his new "The Book of Genesis Illustrated," Crumb illustrates all 50 chapters of Genesis, relying on literary and religion scholar Robert Alter's translation and the King James Version of the Bible.

The famously eccentric artist doesn't take liberties with the text. Instead, he painstakingly draws 224 black-and-white pages, from the creation story -- where God is a Charlton Heston-type with a long gray beard -- to the destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah. There's also the attempted escape by Lot's wife, as she turns into a pillar of salt, and the story of Joseph and his coat of many colors. It took Crumb nearly five years to complete the book.

"If people of faith say what I've done is blasphemous or profane, I'd shrug my shoulders and say, 'I just illustrated what is there,'" Crumb told USA Today. "I'm not ridiculing it, just illustrating the exact words that are there."

Crumb started in the art world by illustrating greeting cards for American Greetings before moving to San Francisco and selling his comics on the streets of the old hippie district, Haight-Ashbury, creating characters such as Mr. Natural, Fritz the Cat and the comic magazine "Weirdo."

Some of Crumb's signature marks -- bulging eyes, voluptuous, big-boned women, anxiety-infused characters sweating profusely -- can be spotted in "Genesis."

"Genesis has a strong appeal to artists, I think. There's this great big mash-up of the cosmic and the mundane, where God and human beings meet and interact, where divine mandates are tested in human interactions, where practical ethics are explored against a mystical backdrop," said David Zimmerman, associate editor at Christian publishing company InterVarsity Press.

Still, some take issue with Crumb -- a self-described agnostic, who has called taking the Bible literally "completely insane and crazy" -- attempting such a project.

"The Bible is not mere literature. It's a spiritual book with an eternal message and needs to be interpreted by spiritual people, guided by the Holy Spirit. Anything else is just printed pictures on paper," said Nathan Butler, president of COMIX35, a Christian comics ministry.

Bob While, Crumb's editor at W.W. Norton, which published "The Book of Genesis Illustrated," said he's surprised at how intense the reaction has been. While says that when he learned Crumb had been considering such a project, Norton made an offer because it believed in Crumb as an artist and trusted that he would be respectful of the text.

"It was a very good marriage from the start," While said.

While says that Crumb obsessed over every detail and that the completion of the book affords the artist the kind of mainstream approval that has eluded him. It also allowed Crumb to steep himself even further in the ancient cultures he had already been fascinated by, such as those of Babylon and Assyria.

For his part, Crumb says any controversy stirred by the release of the book won't surprise him. Nor will it particularly concern him.

"I expect that this comic version will offend some orthodox fundamentalist believers," he said. "I show God's face. I show people having sex. I illustrate the stories not as religious propaganda. ... If that outrages some believers, well, you can't please everyone."

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