Freethought & Rationalism Archive

Toto · 01-01-2006, 04:42 PM

It has been reported in various places that the cartoonist Robert Crumb (of "Keep on Trucking" fame) is working on an illustrated version of the Book of Genesis.

link

Quote:

Now comes word from our correspondent (and milwaukeeworld.com cartoonist) Tea Krulos, that Crumb has a new project ahead – one that could occupy him for several years.

The job? It is Crumb’s assignment to produce an illustrated Book of Genesis – the first chapter of a certain best-seller called “The Bible.�?

Krulos said he got the word by telephone in a conversation with Denis Kitchen, the former Milwaukeean and also legendary, yet active, figure in the underground comic market. Kitchen arranged the deal, he said, and it is being announced here for the first time, from what we can tell.

Guardian interview

Quote:

AKC: He's embarking on a long project that he doesn't want to talk about. It's going to take at least two years, this project, which is secret.

SB: It's not secret. Robert's doing the Book of Genesis, straight.

AKC: He doesn't want to talk about it because that would dissipate the energy. So you'll just have to wait.

SB: Why don't you do the Book of Revelation; top and tail the Bible? Presumably you're not going to work your way through?

RC: That would take a lifetime. First I got fascinated by the Adam and Eve story, and then I just decided to do the whole Genesis thing.

AKC: It's juicy.

RC: It is. It's rich. Can't make that stuff up.

AKC: You hope that it'll offend...

RC: I don't have to offend them. I just want to make them to see, like, the scene where Abraham is having sex with his daughter-in-law, who is faking being a temple priestess. That's in the Bible. How will they take that, I don't know. I'm just going to do what's in there. It tends to get glossed over. It's surprising what's actually in there, when you read it closely.

SB: So, it's not like you've suddenly got a burst of religion.

RC: I'm a religious kind of guy, in my own personal way.

AKC: Mystical.

RC: I ask God to help me sometimes - "God help me!"

Toto · 04-01-2009, 01:45 PM

Update: Book is due this autumn

R Crumb Products

R Crumb blog

Quote:

Robert has finished the Genesis project. It's 201 pages. He has also finished the Cover, the Introduction, the commentary (for the back sleeve) and also the Map, which will be in the beginning of the book. The book is soon going to production and it's planned to be released this fall.

Toto · 10-17-2009, 07:21 PM

Update: An Artist Drew God & Saw That It Was Good

Quote:

The words come from both the King James Version and a recent translation by Robert Alter. The pictures come from Crumb's pen, the same sort of art pen that he's done all of his life's work with -- all of it, no pastels, watercolors, pencil, just this pen scritching away for half a century in a fury of crosshatching and black-and-white starkness.

....

God said . . . R. Crumb? Here they are, together at last on the first page of this book, Crumb drawing God as if he were a madman inventor, beard and hair down to his ankles, and the whites of his eyes showing over the tops of his irises and his hairy, thick-fingered hands grasping what looks like a combination of a circle saw and a black hole, "without form, and void."

. . .

The big difference between this book and Crumb's other work is that there's no comedy, except on the dustjacket, which lures potential buyers with an ironic: "Adult Supervision Recommended for Minors," and "The first book of the Bible graphically depicted! NOTHING LEFT OUT!" That's Crumb's sense of humor, and it's the last you'll see of it. He tells the story the way it's always been told.

andrewcriddle · 10-18-2009, 07:57 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Toto

Quote:

RC: I don't have to offend them. I just want to make them to see, like, the scene where Abraham is having sex with his daughter-in-law, who is faking being a temple priestess. That's in the Bible. How will they take that, I don't know. I'm just going to do what's in there. It tends to get glossed over. It's surprising what's actually in there, when you read it closely.

Judah not Abraham see Genesis 38

Andrew Criddle

Toto · 10-19-2009, 07:06 PM

Religious groups object to turning the Bible into titillation

Well, that should increase sales.

Quote:

"If you are going to publish your own version of the Bible it must be done with a great deal of sensitivity. The Bible is a very important text to many many people and should be treated with the respect it deserves.

"Representing it in your own way is all very well and good but it must be remembered that it is a matter of people's faith, their religion.

"Faith is such an important part of people's lives that one must remember to tread very carefully."

Other religious figures were more supportive.

DCHindley · 10-19-2009, 07:54 PM

Looks like there are a number of comic book versions of the bible (OT & NT, or just NT) sold for decades. There is even a Japanese Manga style comic (not hentai). The earliest one I located on Amazon was published in 1980, but I seem to recall seeing something like it in the 70s as well.

I do not believe any of them satirized the sex and violence like Crumb's version, but I recall some folks objected to bringing the bible down to the level of a comic book. There have long been children's book versions of the stories of the bible, often with simplistic art. The quality of the art varied from really simple to J C Chick-like to Adventist style art to professional illustrator quality.

DCH

Quote:

Originally Posted by Toto

Religious groups object to turning the Bible into titillation

Well, that should increase sales.

Quote:

"If you are going to publish your own version of the Bible it must be done with a great deal of sensitivity. The Bible is a very important text to many many people and should be treated with the respect it deserves.

"Representing it in your own way is all very well and good but it must be remembered that it is a matter of people's faith, their religion.

"Faith is such an important part of people's lives that one must remember to tread very carefully."

Other religious figures were more supportive.

GakuseiDon · 10-19-2009, 09:43 PM

R. Crumb: "I'm just going to do what's in there. It tends to get glossed over. It's surprising what's actually in there, when you read it closely."

"... Crumb drawing God as if he were a madman inventor, beard and hair down to his ankles, and the whites of his eyes showing over the tops of his irises and his hairy, thick-fingered hands... "

I'm pretty sure that God is not portrayed as an old man with a long white beard in the Bible, for what it's worth.

Sheshbazzar · 10-19-2009, 09:56 PM

No, but that does seem to be a quite common visual conception, particularly when the tropes picture him as the much older 'father' of a bearded son in his mid-thirties.

Toto · 10-19-2009, 10:03 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by GakuseiDon

...

I'm pretty sure that God is not portrayed as an old man with a long white beard in the Bible, for what it's worth.

...

Somehow, that's not one of the objections that the religious groups thought to raise. :constern01:

Zucco · 10-20-2009, 07:41 AM

Average Xtian: Don't show me what's really in the bible. Just tell me what I think is in the bible.

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10-19-2009, 09:43 PM	#7
GakuseiDon Veteran Member Join Date: Apr 2003 Location: Australia Posts: 5,714	R. Crumb: "I'm just going to do what's in there. It tends to get glossed over. It's surprising what's actually in there, when you read it closely." "... Crumb drawing God as if he were a madman inventor, beard and hair down to his ankles, and the whites of his eyes showing over the tops of his irises and his hairy, thick-fingered hands... " I'm pretty sure that God is not portrayed as an old man with a long white beard in the Bible, for what it's worth.

10-19-2009, 09:56 PM	#8
Sheshbazzar Veteran Member Join Date: Sep 2003 Location: On the path of knowledge Posts: 8,889	No, but that does seem to be a quite common visual conception, particularly when the tropes picture him as the much older 'father' of a bearded son in his mid-thirties.

10-20-2009, 07:41 AM	#10
Zucco Regular Member Join Date: Jul 2003 Location: Beautiful, crime-free Flower Mound, TX Posts: 156	Average Xtian: Don't show me what's really in the bible. Just tell me what I think is in the bible.

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