Hustle & Flow: R. Crumb's Illustrated Genesis

Today we have another book I recently reviewed for the Phoenix getting a supplemental appraisal from the one I did a few months back.

To be sure, this one is high on my list. Partly for sheer absurdity and partly for perfect union. What better two-part solution to describe the book of Abraham and Isaac.

Wait. Not The Book Of Abraham. That's a whole other thing. You catch my drift.

R. Crumb's Genesis. One of the best books of 2009.


The Book Of Genesis. Illustrated by R. Crumb. Religion / Graphic Novels. ISBN: 9780393061024. Hardcover. $24.95. Click on the image above to purchase a copy from Powell's Books.

Genesis, especially if you take the time to visualize what is happening, is not for children. At least most people would say it's not. In fact if there was a television show on primetime that had a particularly graphic (for argument's sake we'll say that it is without any full nudity) depiction of Lot being seduced with wine by his two daughters so that they could lay with him and continue his seed, well, if there was such a show it would be canceled after one airing. Apologies would follow, not mention potential boycotting of the station by Tipper Gore.

-from my original review in the Phoenix.

As I stated in the piece I wrote before, the mere mention of R. Crumb's name evokes instant polarities of opinion. If someone can maintain the middle ground concerning the man's career it is probably through a shake of the head and a lingering, sidelong glance at one of Crumb's voluptuously drawn bimbos. I won't split hairs about that. The guy can draw T & A with the best of them.

Crumb is one of those succinctly American characters that populate the world's stage. His fame abroad is mainly due to (well, aside from drawing nudey pictures) his seemingly "anti" status quo stance on nearly everything. Crumb is an oddly curmudgeonly figure whose sweet tooth is strictly for nostalgia. So while in France he may be seen as a antihero, or rather a antiAmerican, he is in fact overly drenched in that most essential of American elixir.

In essence he draws counterculture as it was, he maintains a view of things as they should be. It's a convincing middle ground that allows readers/fans to see create a comfortable misprision of their own design. Bob Dylan comes suddenly to mind. That's a whole other thing.

All this hedonism of voice and place leads me to my essential point about Crumb's Genesis. The book of Genesis is the perfect book for Crumb to impose himself upon. If for no other reason than his artwork and worldview align in perfect, though a hair tongue in cheek, with that of the Old Testament.

Really though, it's not such a stretch to find the similar world-views between Laban and Jacob's wheeling and dealing over Lia and Rachel and Fritz the Cat's manipulative monologue enticing college girls to his sexual will.

All this makes for a very bold publication. The fact is that Crumb maintains a strict interpretation of Genesis and renders it scene by scene as it states itself. Now granted, the women could be drawn with more average physical dimensions but other than that excess, Crumb plays it straight.

By doing so he gives a unbelievable glimpse of the street hustler style violence that inhabits the Good Book's oldest text. I don't care what you say. Esau gets straight bamboozled by Jacob.

To read the original review follow the link provided right here.