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The Book of Genesis, Illustrated by Robert Crumb

The Watchmen, story by Alan Moore, illustrated by Dave Gibbons

It’s hard to find the right language to offer coherent views about The Book of Genesis, Illustrated by Robert Crumb (2009), and The Watchmen (1987), by Alan Moore and Dave Gibbons.  Both are remarkable achievements, and both have been called comic books, though “graphic novel“ is the fashionable phrase.  But The Watchmen was originally published in 12 comic book-sized (and styled) installments by DC Comics, while Crumb‘s Genesis is neither comic (except where the story calls for it) nor a novel.  The Watchmen made Time magazine‘s list of the 100 greatest English language novels since 1923, the only graphic novel on that list.

Robert Crumb is eccentric, to say the least; some might say disturbed (maybe I wouldn‘t).  The father of underground comics in the 1960s, Crumb was perhaps equally influenced by Mad magazine and Bruegel.  His gifts to popular culture include Mr. Natural, the comic book character who, after all these years, “keeps on truckin‘,“ Fritz the Cat, Schuman the Human, album covers for bands like Big Brother and the Holding Company, and other iconic characters and images.  Illustrating the Book of Genesis was a five-year project for Crumb, who now lives in France.  It’s not a summary - every word of Genesis is there, mostly in the highly regarded 1996 translation by Robert Alter, with some smatterings of King James.  There is nothing about Crumb‘s Genesis that is not serious.  It is as if Classics Illustrated commissioned an idiosyncratic artist to bring this complete story to the grown-up masses.  The New York Times reviewer noted that given Crumb‘s old predilections for sex and sleaze, this presentation is remarkably restrained, though (pardon the expression) occasionally graphic - but remember that the Bible is full of events that we would call crimes of abuse today.  Crumb‘s God is more human than God-like, a frightening, sometimes arbitrary bearded man who resembles, as the Times reviewer noted, both Leonardo‘s self-portraits and Thomas Nast‘s 19^th century depictions of St. Nicholas. I thought this was a marvelous book. It was like reading Genesis with fresh eyes, the old language revitalized for me.

The Watchmen, story by Alan Moore and illustrations by Dave Gibbons, is legendary by now.  It transformed comic books the way Sgt. Pepper‘s Lonely Hearts Club Band stood rock music on its ear.  The book depicts an alternative political history of the United States, in which superheroes (who, with one accidental exception, do not possess superpowers) played a prominent role in the 20^th century until costumed vigilantes were outlawed by the Keene Act.  Most of those superheroes later retired or worked for the government, but as the story opens one of them, Edward Blake a/k/a The Comedian, is brutally murdered.  His murder is marked by symbolism that runs throughout the entire story, from the cover page to outer space to the last panel.  As the tale unfolds, difficulties befall other former Minutemen (as they were sometimes known): one is murdered, and Walter Kovacs a/k/a Rorschach is framed for the crime; former associates of Dr. Jon Osterman a/k/a Doctor Manhattan experience a distressingly high rate of cancer; Adrian Veidt a/k/a Ozymandias survives an assassination attempt.  Rorschach and some of the other ex-Minutemen (Night Owl II, who is sort of a Clark Kent figure, and Silk Spectre II, the daughter of a retired superhero) decide to investigate.

The psychology of these and other characters in The Watchmen is compelling.  I know that giving them superhero names makes them sound like, well, like comic book characters, but Moore and Gibbons give them depth and complexity.  The story line is exceedingly well done, with many intriguing minor characters, one of whom loiters near a newsstand in New York City and reads a horrifying comic called The Black Freighter, parts of which are woven into the main narrative in gripping fashion.

While the protagonists attempt to discover who is after the Minutemen, the Soviet Union invades Afghanistan, and justified fears of a Third World War begin to unhinge Americans.  The resolution of that geopolitical conflict gives The Watchmen its final emotional kick, and reaches its end even as The Black Freighter reaches its own dismal end.

The book takes its title from the Roman poet Juvenals line in his Satires, Quis custodiet ipsos custodes?  Who watches the watchmen?  The Watchmen is quite unlike any other book I can think of - recommended!