The Beats: A Graphic History

At its best, which is quite good indeed, The Beats reflects the creative energy of the movement it chronicles--it makes you want to dash off a poem before you have time to reconsider, or dust off your beret and organize some kind of jam session. Younger readers, in fact, might find inspiration in its pages while, one hopes, avoiding the excesses for which Jack Kerouac and his buddies are well known. If they do, credit largely goes to editor Paul Buhle, who has done an admirable job of presenting the "big picture" in terms of the Beats: One comes away with a sense that what counts is culture over the long haul, that personal demons take one out of the game and, obviously, diminish one's legacy. The counter-examples provided to Kerouac's sad flame-out are just too strong to ignore, whether it's the way Allen Ginsburg turned to spirituality and became a champion of social justice or how William S. Burroughs, apparently relying on pure, dumb luck, survived to become a hero to the punk crowd, among others, in old age. Remarkably comprehensive, The Beats isn't content simply to spotlight the late-'50s explosion of the "beatnik" subculture onto the American scene. Instead, it traces its antecedents back to early 20th century circles of bohemians and left-wing artists/raconteurs, and also thoughtfully covers its influence on '60s and '70s counterculture through the lives of bridge-figures such as Tuli Kupferberg and LeRoi Jones/Amiri Baraka. Many of these connections are explicit, but some of them readers must make for themselves. That's because the content isn't presented in a single, cohesively epic sweep, but in an anthology format that takes individuals and "scenes" (e.g., City Lights Books) as the topics for its sections. The rewards of this approach are many, as it allows the book's contributors to spotlight more tangential personalities, even if only for a few pages at a time. In doing so, The Beats provides a platform for a variety of artists to fashion mini-bios of the figures that clearly move and inspire them; in this respect, the quietly transcendent profile of Philip Lamantia by Nancy Joyce Peters, Penelope Rosemont, and Summer McClinton comes to mind. But that's not the only gem here. There's also the piece on Kenneth Patchen, drawn by Nick Thorkelson and cowritten with Harvey Pekar, which itself captures the innocent wisdom of this beloved poet-artist. Similarly, Peter Kuper (again working with Pekar, who scripted most of the book) supplies a mere two-page spread on Gary Snyder that nonetheless captures the meditative and nature-oriented tone of the subject's work. Equally inventive is Mary Fleener's portrait of Diane di Prima, in which each page-width panel resonates like a small mural. Resembling a conventional sequential narrative even less is Jerome Neurkirch's piece on Slim Brundage, which manages to be fun and challenging at the same time. In fact, so effective, surprising and delightful are such passages that one wishes a bi

Comic legend Harvey Pekor, his collaborator Ed Piskor, and a number of other comic writers and artists have created a fine survey of the Beat generation and its experiences, offering an anthology of graphic illustrations in black and white that survey the Beat Generation's heroes, antics, and sentiments. An outstanding graphic survey blends history, culture and biography in a graphic account recommended for any general lending library.

Well written, in Pekar's minimalist style. Insightful and well drawn. You will enjoy having this one on your shelf.

I am a big Harvey Pekar fan and so of course I did enjoy this book. If I was forced to complain about this book I would say that even though i understand why they did what they did the second half is not very compelling with the short little stories about the not so notable Beats. Also I soon noticed the parts that were not written by Harvey, they simple not as well written. Over all good fast read pick it up.