The Hammer Museum presents seminal comic artist R. Crumb’s adaptation
of the first book of the Old Testament, the Book of Genesis. Crumb has
spent the last five years on this incredibly ambitious endeavor. The
exhibition features 207 individual, black and white drawings
incorporating every word from all fifty chapters, as well as a cover,
title page, introduction and back cover. Each drawing contains six to
eight comic panels illustrating the stories of Adam and Eve, Noah’s
Ark, Sodom and Gomorrah, and more. Using his signature bawdy style,
Crumb’s version of the Book of Genesis puts an entirely new twist on
the Bible.

For nearly fifty years R. Crumb has contributed a plethora of zany,
outrageous, and riotous figures to the world of comics. His impact on
the underground comic world is immeasurable and his drawings have been
highly influential to countless artists working in the contemporary art
field and commercially. Drawing from everyday events and characters, he
tells stories of pathetic men (often modeled after himself), randy old
men chasing exceptionally voluptuous women, and other odd characters
including gurus, seers and talking animals. His stories illustrate the
most basic human qualities: fragility, hubris, weakness, cruelty,
paranoia, neuroses, fear, and shallowness. He is unabashed in his
depictions of the lowest depths of misery and the dark sides of
humanity, yet always maintains a sense of humor. Often criticized for
being overtly sexual, violent, racist and misanthropic, he is steadfast
in his convictions to share his perspective. Like a modern day Daumier,
he keenly observes the hypocrisies and idiosyncrasies of human behavior
with the sharp wit and cutting eye of a staunch critic.

http://hammer.ucla.edu/exhibitions/detail/exhibition_id/167