Welcome to Litsy!

If you know Crumb‘s work, you know how strange it is he‘d be tackling a straightforward project as illustrating one of the Bible‘s essential chapters. Through drawing Crumb shows the perversion of some of the stranger chapters (lots of incest🤮) and the highlights (Creation, Noah‘s Ark) in his beautifully grotesque, crosshatched style. It could‘ve been a blast watching Crumb take aim at Genesis‘s wackier parts, but this book is dutifully accurate.

An impressive achievement by Crumb. As a gentile, I had no stake in the faithfulness of the adaptation (and may have even subconsciously looked for some subversion), but it seemed a straightforward interpretation. Strong, consistent style highlighting the text instead of distracting from it.
As for the text itself: I'm not religious, but came with an open mind. I don't get it. Almost everyone is awful. So much sex! What do people get out of it? 🤷

Recently I was talking with friends about the Bible, which I admitted only read as Bible stories, not the original text. I joked, "I need the comic version!" - and my friend came out with this book, which I promptly borrowed. It is an illustrated version where the author is sticking to the original text, and the illustrations are well reasearched and authentic. There is nudity in this text, people.