“The idea of millions of people taking this so seriously is totally nuts,” he added.
“The Bible doesn’t need to be satirised. It’s already so crazy.”
Crumb’s 220-page epic take on the Book of Genesis painstakingly mirrors every twist and turn, from God’s Creation of the world through the meanderings of Noah’s Ark and the adventures of Jacob of the “coat of many colours”.
The 66-year-old hero of underground comics who wowed the 1960s with “Fritz The Cat” and “Mr Natural”, said he took up the challenge 40 years later of creating another white-haired long-bearded figure “to illuminate the text of Genesis by illustrating every single thing that’s in there.”