While I will admit that I’ve never been a close follower of his work, it has been my general impression that most of Robert Crumb’s artistic output since the release of Terry Zwigoff’s documentary about him has been about Crumb’s bizarre persona as presented in the film. The cover of Self-Loathing Comics #1 from 1995 proclaims “Exposed! Details of R. Crumb’s everyday life!” I can’t say I’ve ever been particularly interested. Even his well-known material from the 1960s and ‘70s is so steeped in the alternative drug culture of the time that it fails to appeal to me, as someone with no particular interest in that period of history.
However, no one can deny that Crumb is an absolutely brilliant illustrator. He consistently creates comic pages of astounding detail and is possessed of an instinct for page layout and panel progressions. Watching film of him drawing, either in Zwigoff’s Crumb or in Ron Mann’s excellent comics documentary Comic Book Confidential, he makes the process look effortless. It’s too bad I find most of his work so obnoxious.
Which brings us to The Bible Illuminated: R. Crumb’s Book of Genesis, an exhibition of Crumb’s original artwork for his recent comics adaptation of the first book of the Bible, currently showing at the Portland Art Museum.
The book itself is not at all what I expected. In his introduction, Crumb states “I approached this as a straight illustration job, with no intention to ridicule or make visual jokes.” True to his word, he approaches the material as literature and refrains from injecting any personal commentary into his treatment of it. Unlike previous comics versions of the Bible, Crumb’s adaptation doesn’t shy away from the sex and violence inherent in the story, but it doesn’t dwell on it either. It really does try to present the stories from the Book of Genesis as completely as possible including everything from the Garden of Eden to the Flood to Joseph’s reunion with his father, and for the most part it succeeds. He even manages to give some visual interest to the rather dull litanies of the “begots” though a series of inventive portraits.
The museum exhibit is exhaustive, with all 207 pages of Crumb’s original art for the book. It’s amazing how small the pages are, only slightly larger than the pages are printed in the book. Most comics artists work anywhere from one and a half to two times the size of the final pages, relying on reduction of the art to tighten up their line work. Crumb’s exquisitely detailed drawings don’t really need the help. It’s also interesting to note that every single page is hand lettered, a dying art these days, and especially impressive considering that the pages contain every word of the Book of Genesis!
Even more interesting are the display cases of research material, with everything from pages torn from middle eastern magazines to still images from Hollywood biblical epics, and even a few earlier comics adaptations of the Bible.
After seeing the exhibit and reading the book I have a new found respect for Robert Crumb and his work, I think because The Book of Genesis Illustrated finally manages to separate Crumb the bizarre character from Crumb the thoughtful master storyteller.
– Jefferson Powers
Nice job Jefferson. I pretty much feel the same way as Crumb as you do. I haven’t had a chance to read the Book of Genesis but from some of the previews I have seen it is some amazing work.