InThe Beats: A Graphic History, those who were mad to live have come back to life through artwork as vibrant as the Beat movement itself. Told by the comic legend Harvey Pekar, his frequent artistic collaborator Ed Piskor, and a range of artists and writers, including the feminist comic creator Trina Robbins and theMadmagazine artist Peter Kuper,The Beatstakes us on a wild tour of a generation that, in the face of mainstream American conformity and conservatism, became known for its determined uprootedness, aggressive addictions, and startling creativity and experimentation. What began among a small circle of friends in New York and San Francisco during the late 1940s and early 1950s laid the groundwork for a literary explosion, and this striking anthology captures the storied era in all its incarnations—from the Benzedrine-fueled antics of Kerouac, Ginsberg, and Burroughs to the painting sessions of Jay DeFeo’s disheveled studio, from the jazz hipsters to the beatnik chicks, from Chicago’s College of Complexes to San Francisco’s famed City Lights bookstore. Snapshots of lesser-known poets and writers sit alongside frank and compelling looks at the Beats’ most recognizable faces. What emerges is a brilliant collage of—and tribute to—a generation, in a form and style that is as original as its subject.

The Beats:A Graphic History🍒🍒🍒
2009
Hill & Wang/ Farrar,Straus & Giroux

This was a fun, simple overview of The Beat writers and their influence on other writers and artists. Focussing mainly on SF and NY, the obvious choices, I was glad to see Chicago mentioned as well.
The bios are brief and look at their lives at large, the graphics are fantastic. My favorites are the first three: Jack Kerouac, Allen Ginsberg and William S. Burroughs. Diana DiPalma and Michael Mc Clure were good also.
The Beat movement was an interesting and intriguing group of thinkers, unfortunately most were cruel to women and abused drugs. The stories they tell fascinate and horrify.
Recommended. ( )

Some of it was interesting, some of it was boring. The last chapter is just printed too small- even with glasses it was illegible and so I didn't finish it. The larger sections on Kerouac, Ginsberg and Burroughs just convinced me never to read their actual work, so in that sense the book was unsuccessful when it came to promoting them. As others have said the articles are uneven in terms of quality. Joyce Brabner's contribution was the best-written. ( )

No other group of writers inspires the level of interest that the Beats do. Harvey Pekar and his cohorts tackle this phenomenon in The Beats: A Graphic History. Wisely, Pekar and artist Ed Piskor spend the first half of the book recounting the labyrinthine origins of the group by focusing on its intriguing and tragic core of [a:Jack Kerouac|1742|Jack Kerouac|http://photo.goodreads.com/authors/1185997896p2/1742.jpg], [a:Allen Ginsberg|4261|Allen Ginsberg|http://photo.goodreads.com/authors/1206649831p2/4261.jpg], and [a:William S. Burroughs|5025|William S. Burroughs|http://photo.goodreads.com/authors/1222708167p2/5025.jpg]. Pekar and Piskor masterfully and concisely convey the fascinating, interrelated stories of these three pioneers. The remainder of the book explores, with varying degrees of success, different aspects of the movement and their profound influence on entertainment. ( )

I really thought this would be better, but found most of it was uninteresting to me. I didn't read everything in the book, but skipped around looking for something that would be of interest to me - I think the short history of Tuli Kuperberg and The Fugs was the only thing I really enjoyed. ( )