Illustrations in storytelling

How do the inclusion of images in the creation story affect one's reading of it?

The inclusion of images in the telling of a story alters the perceptions of the reader and can lead to two different interpretations of the same story. R. Crumb’s comic version of The Book of Genesis, and The Manga Bible: From Genesis to Revelation, present the story of creation in comic form. R. Crumb’s version is much more specific in his depictions of the story while illustrator Siku’s comic gives various images in each panel rather than a complete scene. Looking at each comic’s illustration of Adam naming the animals of the world shows the different styles of the two works. Panel 13 of chapter 2 in R. Crumb’s comic shows Adam, clearly in the Garden of Eden, naming a bear. In Panel 19 of Siku’s comic, Adam names animals as they line up in front of him in an ambiguous location. Crumb looks at the story on micro level, while Siku looks at it on a more macro one. Crumb’s detailed drawings show specific snapshots from the story, leaving less up to the reader’s imagination and making each person’s interpretation relatively similar to one another’s. Siku’s drawings depict the story with various images from a series of events appearing on a single panel. This approach allows the reader to fill in the gaps themselves, leading to a wider variety of experiences for each person who views the comic. The Book of Genesis illustrated by R. Crumb and The Manga Bible: From Genesis to Revelation show the creation story in two very different comic forms that affect the reader’s experience.