I just want to say this one thing about the Serpent from R. Crumb's Book of Genesis, Crumb did him right, with legs and arms. It was after the garden thing that the Lord God said He would crush the serpent's head and make the serpent slither on the ground. What would you do if you met a Lizard Man creature covered in precious stones? You would probably take his advice too............ eat from a tree to become as god or goddess, just like Adam and Eve did.
A friend Josephine posted on my Facebook concerning this, she writes, "I am going to get Crumb's book" My response was....."yes, (but) remember it is the Bible and even if Crumb (himself) does not believe it is the literal Word of God, he did illustrate it literally and with great respect to the Torah, Israel and Ishmael's descendants too. It is quite obvious to even the casual observer Crumb's own talents are uniquely God given, so you will be reading the Bible just by looking at the pictures if you get this Book of Genesis by R.Crumb. By all means buy it and read it, and if you can get it at a book signing, all the better.
And even if you just want read it in a King James text, because maybe you never read such stories in the Old Testament, you will find the same stories. Only difference is no one ever illustrated it like it is literally written before now. Particularly, Noah having sex with his daughters, after they got him drunk. I am going out so far as to say this will change the way we view the Torah and the Holy Scriptures in years to come, regardless of what Robert or any one of us says about it.
R. Crumb told me over the phone, while I was doing an interview with him in 1985 for Cornerstone magazine, that I would soon be doing other things. He literally prophesied I was going to fall out of favor and lose my job at Cornerstone, as the staff cartoonist. I was stunned, I had nothing to come back with. I remember specifically to this day what R.Crumb said to me. He said, "the die was cast and I would be soon doing other things for Jesus". It was prophetic and almost instantaneous, for shortly after that phone conversation, I was out looking for free lance work. Don't believe it? Ask Skip Williamson, he hired me.
At a time, when I was in no way shape or form ready for going out to fend for my family as a freelancer. There I was out of favor and out of my position as the Comic artist, at the top of my comic career or so I thought. R.Crumb is like Bob Dylan, a prophet to our generation, ask around if you don't believe it. I only know I spent two hours on the phone with him and it changed everything back in 1985. And just because he took great care and time to do a perfect satire on my comic entitled "A Rock and Roll Classic" in Zap no.#10. And after touching on every issue we could think of..... finally he just said, "Mr Cox, Jesus has other things for you, my friend, the die is cast , your days are numbered at Cornerstone...." He was right...
So I am warning folks, not to trifle, this is the Bible and it carries it's warning with in it's pages that God is not mocked, nor is He a Man that He should repent. Only a Fool says in his heart there is No God......and it says it is a fearful thing to fall into the Hands of the Living God, I can testify to that. I am very happy for R. Crumb and his heirs, as this will continue to sell long after he is gone, providing for his family and their descendants for generations. From my perspective it is clearly the Hand of God, a Gift to me and many others, proof that God loves them and has never abandon us even in the hardest times since those cold days in Chicago 1985. Can you still remember how hard it was?
The Book of Genesis, illustrated by a wonderful friend, it is all I want or need for Christmas 2009. Last year I got my one and only Christmas present, to see a parallel movie version of my Dietrich Bonhoeffer Graphic Novel: RESISTANCE, to a tee in certain parts, on the big screen with Tom Cruise in Valkryie on Christmas day. This Christmas, it will be reading R. Crumb's Master Piece, the Illustrated Book of Genesis. I can also testify, there is a Father Christmas, another one of my four kinds of high.......
5 comments:
Great review & i don't doubt it about Crumb's POWERS. I have a sneaky suspicion that this book is coming my way for Christmas... what's fucked up is that i wanted to do an entire Bible comic myself, specifically after reading tons of Crumb & then all of the Cartoon History of the Universe. I thought the Bible would be a great comic, & i'm sure it is. So was Skip Williams the art editor for Cornerstone or did he hire you after that?
Sean,
Actually I would encourage you to do a Book of the Bible. But I would look seriously at Crumb's Genesis and follow his example of doing it literally as it is written. The Bible is SO GRAPHIC that there is absolutely no need to make anything up, just follow the stories and illustrate what is written !!!!!! Crumb's work is monumental in this respect that he broke all taboos of illustrating the most awesome series of Graphic Novels in the History of Mankind....so I would say go for it, but follow the pattern and take a Book you think you can do justice to, and maybe one day several different artists can be joined into one great Volume, at least the Old Testament. Skip was an Art Director for Playboy, but had gotten a higher paying AD job at another magazine there in Chicago I think it was Consumer's Digest or Consumer's Report and he needed free lancers at that time. But it was not long after that I had to move out of the state for family reasons....thx for the comment and I hope you get a copy for Christmas too!!!!
Well, I need to get my hands on this ASAP. Next, illustrating Song of Solomon... who's up for that one?
Bob, I may have been a kid at JPUSA at the time Crumb's parody of Ramsey's "interviews" for C'stone, but I remember it well. I read the funny pages in the Sun-Times and Tribune every day, and in Cornerstone every issue. I was a big fan of your work, particularly "The Last Punk Rocker", and I found it hilarious that Crumb would parody you (and Chris) in such a manner. I would have been highly flattered. Peace!
Oh, by the way, Crumb's JPUSA comic was in Zap #11, not #10.
http://www.comics.org/issue/202444/#594007
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