R.L. Crumb’s Book of Genesis and Siku’s The
Manga Bible take the classic stories of Genesis and add their own twists to
the stories. Crumb stays pretty true to the source, either directly pulling
text or using similar language and style as the original story. On the other
hand, Siku takes more liberties than Crumb, adding in light dialogue and manga
style illustration to give the story a much more casual feel. This can be seen in their respective portrayals of creation myth. Crumb sticks to the usual script with God ruling over the days of creation, while Siku takes a more creative route, animating the creation of light with "ZZZAAAPPPP!!". Does this creative liberty embodied by twisting and almost playfully presenting the creation myth and biblical stories as a whole violate their inherent sanctity?
Crumb’s
depiction of the story is very similar to the usual versions of the story that
are continuously told and envisioned. The style of illustration is relatively
tame, and God is depicted in the traditional “bearded wise man” style. Due to
this conformity, it’s hard to argue that Crumb is threatening the sanctity of
the myth. On the other hand, Siku’s work blends many other atypical influences into Genesis. For example, the illustrations themselves
clearly have Japanese influences, and at one point in the book, he refers to
Jesus as “a samurai stranger”.[1] Is
this an infringement on traditional sanctity, or in today’s increasingly
secular society is this simply a creative way to reach out to a new audience that otherwise wouldn't be interested in reading biblical myths?
[1]Banerjee, Neela. "The Bible as Graphic Novel, With a Samurai Stranger Called Christ". The New York Times. Feb. 10, 2008.
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