From Genesis to Consternation.

• Author: Doherty, Brian
• Position: Artifact - Robert Crumb's controversial adaptation of the book of Genesis - Brief article

FOR APPROXIMATELY a month after its release, the underground comics legend Robert Crumb's painstakingly drawn adaptation of the book of Genesis was unavailable due to unexpectedly high demand. With fans have come detractors, including Mike Judge of the Christian Institute, who finds the project "wholly inappropriate" and thinks "it is turning the Bible into titillation."

It isn't that Crumb changed the text; it's that he didn't. Crumb neither adds nor detracts from the stories in Genesis: Where they are crude, violent, or sexual, so is he.

The emblem on the cover saying "adult supervision recommended for minors" is funny because of the holy book's reputation for family friendliness. But it's holy because its creators and believers think it tells the...