The Bible In Comics: How Genesis, Other Biblical Stories Come Alive Through Illustration

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2014/05/04/bible-comics_n_5111481.html

Sacred Matters | by Beth Davies-Stofka, Ph.D.
Posted: 05/04/2014 10:35 am EDT Updated: 05/04/2014 10:59 am EDT


cdrummbks | Flickr

This article first appeared in Sacred Matters housed at Emory University.

The Bible was written on scrolls, papyri, and parchment, and rendered in languages ancient or dead. For some religious people, it would seem an act of disrespect, if not sacrilege, to translate its stories and lessons into pictures. Yet down the centuries, countless believers have eagerly translated the Bible into art, sculpture, music, and architecture. To encounter the Bible in art is to encounter the reverence, the joy, and even the missionary zeal of the artist. In the most notable examples, we also feel the artist’s curiosity, the will to explore the unexplored dimensions of his or her skill. We see the artist discover fresh aspects of a craft, if not a theological meaning.

The Bible in comic book form is a contemporary example of the artist’s translation of words into pictures. Some Bible comics are done in collaboration with other artists or with churches, while others are creations of a single artist following a personal vision. Whether Bible comics are created from a perspective of faith or not, they are works of exegesis. By translating words into pictures, their creators limit the possibilities of meaning, stripping away everything non-essential and leaving a focused and purposeful message.

A fine example is the celebrated Book of Genesis Illustrated by R. Crumb (2009.) In his introduction, Crumb offers some thoughts on his strategy for illustrating such a “venerable” and “powerful” text, which include reproducing every word of the original text “without interpretation,” to the best of his ability. The resulting work is, in his view, a “visual, literal interpretation of the Book of Genesis.”

Crumb created a masterpiece. His interplay of words and pictures is expressive and beautiful. The Book of Genesis is Western civilization’s definitive meditation on the human condition, and Crumb’s work is intensely focused on that. The faces and feelings of the book’s subjects consume every panel, exploding out of the crowded and passionate pages and into the eyes and hearts of readers. Crumb writes that he does not believe the Bible is the word of God. He believes it is “the words of men.” And that belief resounds throughout his art, a message clear and true.

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