Genesis: From Creation to the Flood

by Jason Quinn, Naresh Kumar

"Let there be light!"
The greatest story ever told begins with Genesis. Witness the Biblical creation of the world, the tempting of Adam and Eve in the Garden of Eden, and the tragic story of Cain and Abel, before joining Noah and the animals on the voyage of a lifetime. Told in a vivid graphic format, Genesis: From Creation to the Flood, is the perfect introduction to the Old Testament. Experience life in the Garden of Eden and life on board the Arc as Noah, his family, and the animals embark on a voyage that will end in a new beginning for life on Earth.

Genres: Graphic Novels

80 pages, Paperback

First published February 10, 2015

About the author

Jason Quinn is the award winning author of Campfire's Steve Jobs: Genius by Design. He learned to read with Marvel Comics and was devastated when his teacher told him Spider-Man did not exist. He has worked in publishing for the last twenty years as an editor and writer, working on everything from Spider-Man toBarbie. He moved to India in 2012 and currently works as Campfire's Creative Content Head

Reviews

[Manybooks · Rating 3 out of 5]

Genesis: From Creation to the Flood (2015) presents a full-colour graphic novel adaptation of the first nine chapters of Genesis (from the Old Testament of the Holy Bible) and with Jason Quinn's text and Naresh Kumar's cartoon pictures showing the Creation, Adam and Eve being cast from Garden of Eden, the story of Cain and Abel, and finally the tale of Noah and the Great Flood (and for me really delightfully, with God being omnipresent in Genesis: From Creation to the Flood but never showing up as an actual person, that in particular Kumar's illustrations render God as entirely spiritual and as such not being a someone, and which is something that I personally do hugely and massively appreciate in oh so many ways and on oh so many levels). And in my opinion, Genesis: From Creation to the Flood is suitable for readers/listeners from about the ages of six to ten or elven but that older than eleven year olds might well find Genesis: From Creation to the Flood just a bit too simplistic for total reading enjoyment (with Quinn using fragments of the Biblical text in his presented narrative for Genesis: From Creation to the Flood but generally showing a rather modern and sometimes also kind of choppy sounding adaptation and both words and images also pointing out in Genesis: From Creation to the Flood evil, violence, sexuality and the like but equally avoiding either verbal or visual explicitness, so that for example Adam and Eve are illustrated by Kumar as originally being naked in the Garden of Eden but not showing either Eve's breasts or Adam's phallus and that Cain slaying Abel is depicted and pointed out both textually and visually but fortunately not with excessive gore, and not to mention that Noah cursing his son Ham after Ham sees his father drunk and naked, is completely ignored in Genesis: From Creation to the Flood even though this is in fact considered an important part of Noah's story).

Now Jason Quinn with Genesis: From Creation to the Flood does try to make Biblical characters personable and relatable to modern, to today's children (but which in my opinion only sometimes works as this for in particular my inner child often kind of feels a bit distracting and as though the events of Genesis: From Creation to the Flood albeit they are supposed to be occurring from around 4400 BCE to 2300 BCE are happening today, in the 21st century, not a huge textual issue to be sure but definitely a bit frustrating and also sometimes even throwing me out of the narrative a trifle). And combined with the fact that Naresh Kumar's cartoons for Genesis: From Creation to the Flood (although they are brightly colourful, lively, descriptive and with nicely realistic looking animal and landscape depictions) use a horridly creepy and weird humanoid green skinned lizard as the Serpent that tempts Eve and also present human figures who for some strange reason seem to appear like North-Western Europeans, who look very white skinned and certainly not Middle Eastern (and which really should be the case since Adam, Eve, Noah et al all were Middle Eastern and thus should not look in Genesis: From Creation to the Flood like they are German, French, British, Scandinavian etc.), while I do think that Genesis: From Creation to the Flood provides a decent enough juvenile themed graphic novel adaptation of Genesis from chapter one to nine (and also lists other flood mythology from around the world to show that the Great Flood story of the Old Testament is global and in fact not unique), sorry, but for me, the combination of Quinn's textual adaptation and Kumar's artwork for Genesis: From Creation to the Flood does have some issues both textual and visual that I cannot and will not ignore (and that my three star rating for Genesis: From Creation to the Flood should therefore also be considered as being rather generous).

[Nikki in Niagara · Rating 3 out of 5]

A pretty straightforward retelling of the first nine chapters of the Book of Genesis from the Old Testament of the Bible. No religiosity is included and the story is presented in the same way as any ancient "myth" would be told. This graphic novel is best read by non-Judeo-Christians who want to know the "stories" of Adam & Eve and Noah. The book then ends with a few pages summarizing other Old Testament stories of interest then another few pages summarizing other ancient cultures' flood "myths". The story-telling is entertaining however, I found the art to be particularly unattractive and downright ugly at times.

[Theediscerning · Rating 2 out of 5]

A pretty-pretty approach makes the Fall of Man, Cain and Abel and Flood stories into a very colourful and very child-friendly comic. All complexity (the second tree in the Garden of Eden for one) and a whole lot of begatting (Seth just goes around and gets a family – a child will only assume via Eve) are ignored for silly dialogue bubbles, the voice of god in orange capitals and copious glowing eminences from above. If it featured any more mystical lights and ethereality it would be about as long as the original, but it is much curter, with good use of design and full-page spreads. It's clear the intent is to be a modern equivalent of the mediaeval church decorations that told the stories to the fully illiterate, and as a result it's nowhere near being even the cousin of R Crumb's recent straight illumination of the book. You must take your pick as to which works for you.

[Brindi Michele · Rating 1 out of 5]

I almost DNF this before Adam and Eve were even exiled. It seems this graphic novel takes quite the liberty with biblical events. Very, very frustrating. But I forced myself to finish...I won't be recommending this to anyone, small or big.

[Kristina Aziz · Rating 5 out of 5]

In the age of turning classic books into graphic novels, it was only a matter of time until someone looked at the Bible to do the same.

That's not a bad thing. The Bible is confusing. Among Christian communities it's prescribed as required reading for children, but who can really keep up?

I remember trying to read the Bible as a kid and getting lost in all the footnotes and bloodlines to really appreciate and think about what the stories were about. Things became clearer with the creation of Veggie Tales, a cartoon series that simplified the Bible and left you with the morals of the stories.

Graphic novels do about the same thing. Things that were a bonus in this book:
-Family Trees
-acknowledgement of other cultures and religions with similar stories
-The fact that the serpent had legs in Eden.

Of course there are other factors that are debated and controversial that weren't included in this novel (perhaps for good reason). The two biggest being Dragons and Giants.

We've established that the serpent has legs in Eden. Every culture has some rendering of Dragons. Who's to say the serpent wasn't a dragon instead of an odd sort of lizard man?

Also, Giants. The children of Fallen Angel and Man. Did they help Noah and his family build the Ark? We may never know.

Star rating: Five of Five. I hope for more in the future.

[Elle Markov · Rating 4 out of 5]

Well, it was only a matter of time before they turned the Bible into a graphic novel; maybe they'll also do the Ramayana; anyway back to this book, I am not a religious person, but I still found this book enjoyable.

So the book goes from creation to the flood [says it in the title]. In the first section "Creation" God creates the world in 6 days and rests on the 7th.

Next we have Adam and Eve in paradise and then eating from the forbidden tree and being cast from paradise and eventually having children.

Then we have Cain and Abel, personally I like the Supernatural version better; Cain kills Abel to save him from Lucifer and damning himself instead; way better than big brother killing little brother out of jealousy.

Adam and Eve eventually have another son, Seth and his descendant Noah builds the Arc that God tells him to.

The book was entertaining reading it as pure mythology, the illustrations were decent so no complains there. The dialogue was simple which I'm guessing is a good thing, if the market this to Sunday schools [not sure if those still exist and if they do, poor children][note I'm not religious whatsoever, I'm hardcore on the evolution side of the debate] and parents with young children.

Rating 4 out of 5
Read@Book

[DelAnne Frazee · Rating 4 out of 5]

Title: Genesis -Low Res Graphic Novel - From Creation to the Flood
Author: Jason Quinn & Naresh Kumar
Published: 3-3-15
Publisher: Sherforth Press
Pages: 80
Genre: Religion & Spirituality
Sub Genre: Comics & Graphics
ISBN: 9789381182031
Reviewer: DelAnne
Reviewed For: NetGalley

.

Bright and colorful graphics grab you from the very beginning to bring the bible stories we grew up with to life. For those new to the bible or a young reader that will read this book and add it to his or her keeper collection. Although not as detailed as the Bible itself it does stick to the true stories without leaving out the key points. Even those well versed in the Bible themselves will not find this book lacking in details form the IN THE BEGINNING... to This Bow shall be a symbol...





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[John · Rating 4 out of 5]

I was sent a free digital copy from the publisher through netgalley in exchange for an honest review. I thought the story told as a graphic novel worked really well. Although I'm familiar with the story I was still interested. Many children who normally wouldn't want to read the bible would probably very much enjoy this. My only complaints would be that the artwork didn't really stick out to me and the book as a whole didn't really impact me very much. However, it's possible I would have had different feelings had I not read a digital copy. Overall I enjoyed this and think it's a great way to make a biblical story like this appeal to children who would be reluctant to pick up a bible and read it.

[Rebecca Rogers · Rating 5 out of 5]

I enjoyed this. It was a quick read featuring the storylines of Adam and Eve, Cain and Abel, Seth, and Noah. I liked the bonus material at the end, as well: Adam and Eve’s family tree (so much easier than reading paragraph after paragraph of descendants), other stories in the book of Genesis, and accounts of a great flood in other cultures and religions.

Overall, if you enjoy graphic novels and Biblical stories, then I’d recommend picking this up.

**ARC courtesy of publisher via NetGalley