TGIF!

TGIF!

R. Crumb's Book of Genesis - Illustrated!

Thank God it's Friday!  And to celebrate, I thought I could recommend a comic for you that will not only satisfy your religious needs for the weekend, but all your non religious needs as well.  What I'm referring to is Robert Crumb's Illustrated Book of Genesis.  That's right, every chapter, including the boring "begats" part, is illustrated completely and 100% literally.

God never looked so majestic.

When I say the word literal, I mean it literally.  Crumb has left nothing said in the Robert Alter translation of the Bible as metaphor or symbolic.  So we see Noah and the arc, as it is described.

You see, most animals can be folded up for storage.  With his literal visualizations, Crumb strips down the story to what it inescapably is: A story.

 

A story about love.

Love.

But aside from this indictment of the text by merely presenting it literally, Crumb gives us a a gorgeous set of pages to look at that make the oftentimes tedious text fall away from your consciousness.  Simply from a visual standpoint, the comic itself is gorgeous, full of texture, drama, and gloriously narrative images.

The comic rightfully had a lot of praise when it was released.  He received several award nominations and public praise and even scorn.  The scorn. to me. is hilarious, since it came from religious fundamentalists who think its all true anyway.  If they don't want sex and violence in Bible adaptations, they need to get a new bible. I mean, Crumb is only trying to accurately translate world mythology into his own art form.

What a Jerk!

Have a nice weekend.  Hope we don't get wiped off the face of the earth on a whim.