"The Bible Illuminated: R. Crumb's Book of Genesis": Weakness. Deception. Catastrophe. Lust. The Bible's Book of Genesis was a ripe source of inspiration for underground comics guru R. Crumb, who has built a career out of crafting humorous, ribald depictions of everyday foibles and triumphs. Published to acclaim in 2009, Crumb's illustrations of Genesis, the first book of the Bible are currently on display at the San Jose Museum of Art.
The exhibition incorporates Crumb’s original drawings from the 224-page book, as well as a cover, title page, introduction, and back cover adaptation. Crumb drew mainly upon the King James Version of the Bible for his unabridged Genesis. Each drawing contains six to eight comic panels that illustrate the stories of Adam and Eve, Noah’s Ark, Sodom and Gomorrah, and more, all in the artist’s signature bawdy style. In his review of the book for the New York Times David Hajdu wrote, “Crumb luxuriates in the carnality of Genesis without playing it for gratuitous shock or comic effect.”
One day 15 years ago, for no reason he can remember, Mr. Crumb decided he wanted to read the myths of ancient Sumer. Eventually he found a scholarly work that said some of the myths were similar to the stories in Genesis. He read Genesis closely, and the idea of illustrating it clicked. He told a literary agent friend that if he could fetch a big enough advance, he’d do it. W. W. Norton & Company came through with $200,000, which seemed enough; Mr. Crumb thought he could bang out the project in a year or two. It took four.
Crumb initially approached the Old Testament (based on the King James Bible) with the intention to lampoon tradition, yet he soon became deeply inspired by this "text so great and so strange that it lends itself readily to graphic depictions." He ambitiously undertook a complete, literal adaptation of the Book of Genesis: over the course of five years, Crumb made 207 individual, black-and-white drawings into which he incorporated every word from all fifty chapters. Each drawing contains six to eight comic panelsm and reflect Crumb’s profoundly careful focus on his subject.
As unlikely as it may seem, Mr. Crumb has become something of a Bible scholar. In a New York Times telephone interview from France, he bristled at a description of his book by his British publisher as “scandalous satire.” “I had no intention to scandalize the Bible,” he said. “I was intrigued by the challenge of exposing everything in there by illustrating it. The text is so significant in our culture, to bring everything out was a significant enough purpose for doing it.”
Crumb’s comic career began in San Francisco in the 1960s, when he drew Zap #1 and Zap #2 and sold them on the street. He went on to create a plethora of zany, odd, and riotous figures, notably Fritz the Cat and Mr. Natural. His drawings have influenced countless artists, illustrators, animators, and designers. Crumb’s comics often tell everyday stories of randy old men (sometimes modeled after himself), who chase exceptionally full figured women. Crumb’s influence as an artist and an illustrator has spread far beyond the world of comics and graphic novels: many of his images are now icons of our visual culture.
The San Jose Museum of Art is located at 110 South Market Street in downtown San Jose, California. The museum is open Tuesday through Sunday, 11 a.m. to 5 p.m. For more information, call 408-271-6840 or visit www.SanJoseMuseumofArt.org.
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