Really? Who could possibly have seen that coming?

R. Crumb “ most famous for the comic Fritz the Cat “ has released an illustrated version of the Bible’s first book, complete with sexually explicit images and graphic violence. The book’s cover includes a warning that “adult supervision [is] recommended for minors,” despite the fact that the text is taken directly from the original source, in particular Robert Alter’s translation and the King James Bible.

But fidelity to the original text hasn’t stopped Christian groups from getting in a twist. The Telegraph quotes Mike Judge of the Christian Institute (and presumably not the creator of Beavis and Butthead), who criticizes Crumb’s book for “turning the Bible into titillation”:

“It seems wholly inappropriate for what is essentially God’s rescue plan for mankind.

“If you are going to publish your own version of the Bible it must be done with a great deal of sensitivity. The Bible is a very important text to many many people and should be treated with the respect it deserves.

“Representing it in your own way is all very well and good but it must be remembered that it is a matter of people’s faith, their religion.

“Faith is such an important part of people’s lives that one must remember to tread very carefully.”

The author himself, quoted in The New York Times, bristles at the suggestion that his book is in any way blasphemous or scandalous:

I had no intention to scandalize the Bible, he said. I was intrigued by the challenge of exposing everything in there by illustrating it. The text is so significant in our culture, to bring everything out was a significant enough purpose for doing it.