Visualizing Comics

Since comics is a juxtaposition of images that occupy different spaces (rather than one space for film), it holds the ability to create multiple layers of preservation and extension for myths and symbols. R. Crumb’s “The Book of Genesis” and the “Lion Graphic Bible” are two comics novels that offer similar yet different accounts of of the biblical Book of Genesis. 

Both comic strips follow the same narrative of the creation myth but offer a different visualization of it in terms of style and color. Crumb follows the biblical story almost word by word, with each illustration directly depicting the narrative and emphasizing key sacred symbols. The author even gives God a human appearance, with long hair and beard, as the Book of Genesis mentions that man was created according to His image and likeness. The Lion Graphic Bible on the other hand, does not physically illustrate God, instead His presence is omniscient as we can only observe his work and hear his voice in the end. The authors also created a new identity for the Garden of Eden, as they illustrated it more like an African savanna (the presumed birthplace of the modern man) rather than a densely cultivated garden.  

The freedom that Anderson and Maddox took to illustrate the Temptation and "Fall" emphasize the ever-changing aspect of myths. According to the authors, the serpent is the evil itself, as suggested by the text in the first panel in which it appears. In the book of Genesis,the serpent does not force Eve to eat the fruit, it is the possibility of knowing good and evil (and thus being like God) that tempts her into doing so. In the Lion Graphic Bible, the serpent goes as far as calling God a liar and demands the fruit to be eaten. The top-down layout of the last page further emphasizes the humanity's fall to sin. The top image of Adam and Eve fleeing is a borderless panel and the gutter for the whole page, which is connected to the bottom image of Adam hiding in fear.