The most surprising thing in comic books this year isn’t a superhero returning from the dead, or the latest Marvel or DC mega-crossover. The most surprising comic book/graphic novel event is that legendary underground comics creator R.

Crumb has adapted the biblical book of Genesis into the comic book format in a hard-cover edition.

Robert Crumb became famous in the 1960s for his graphic cartoons of harried and hairy hippies, amply bosomed women, and the X-rated adventures of Fritz the Cat.

He was also the subject of a loving, yet strange documentary of about a decade ago. He has proclaimed himself an atheist. Yet, in “Genesis Illustrated,” Crumb does not mock Scripture.

His is a pain-staking adaptation of the Bible’s first book, which covers God’s creation of the world, Adam and Eve, Noah and the Ark, Sodom and Gomorrah, and Abraham.

Crumb spent five years working on this project. The dedication shows.

He even draws miniature portraits of all of the men listed as having begat the next generation.

He applies the same lines and detail to “Genesis Illustrated” as he did his classic underground comics.

He does depict the biblical book in all of its graphic form, and this edition is not suggested for young readers. Crumb’s “Genesis Illustrated” is an eye-opening surprise.