Crumb’s ‘Genesis,’ A Sexy Breasts-And-Knuckles Affair
by Frank Browning
NPR Morning Edition / Listen to the story here [5 min 50 sec]
October 19, 2009
R. Crumb, a pioneer of underground comics, got his start drawing illustrations for greeting cards.
R. Crumb, the bespectacled, gray-bearded artist who is regarded around the world as granddaddy of underground comics, has taken on what might be his biggest subject ever: the first book of the Bible.
Crumb’s new comic, The Book of Genesis Illustrated
The warning is not just because of the relentless sex that peppers the story, but also, as Crumb explained at a press conference in Paris, because of the “violence” and “nastiness” of the story:
“[It’s about] ruling elites, victimizing people in sadistic ways, which is human beings at their nastiest. They have power over others, and they derive pleasure from inflecting pain on other humans. That’s about as nasty as people get,” he said.
French publisher Jean-Luc Fromental, who’s been a Crumb fan since he was a kid, says that at first he couldn’t imagine what Crumb would do with the Bible. Continue reading “R. Crumb Takes on Genesis”