Paul Buhle

Actually the first "graphic" book (history or otherwise) I've read. I had mixed feelings about it. It's pretty breezy, the graphic aspect means there is not a lot in the book by way of actual words. Some of the illustrations seem kind of dumb. For example, in a panel where Kerouac is in the Merchant Marine, a dialog bubble says "Washing pots and pans isn't my idea of fun, but I'm learning, getting more experience." And there's more like that. The book covers lots of ground and lots of writers, and it seemed pretty shallow at times, but on the other hand I've read worse surveys of literature, and they did work hard to give you at least a superficial feel for each author's work. But I would have liked even more poetry.… (altro)

According to this bullshit, John "Johnny Appleseed" Chapman is the most important figure in American history, restructuring all of the existing religious belief, basically causing the Civil War and then ending it through his proxy, Abraham Lincoln, before going on to write Jack Kerouac's books for him.

Actually, the author isn't so much interested in Chapman as he is the delusional religious movements of the 19th century, especially the one kicked off by a strange man who talked to Martians, Emanual Swedenborg. Chapman often wanders away from the book's pages -- off planting trees? -- as we hear about Swedenborg and an endless string of other people who may have inspired or may have been inspired by Chapman. King Arthur gets thrown in there at one point. Yikes.

So, yeah, a good book to read if you're not particularly interested in Johnny Appleseed.… (altro)

The authors of this graphic biography are so bad at writing comic books that they felt compelled to add four to six pages of text at the start of every chapter to try to explain the choppy, opaque, context-free mess that follows. People march across the page with little or no introduction and, too often, for no reason.

My favorite non sequitur comes at the end of Chapter 2 when we are told, "Depressed at his wife's death in an automobile accident, the great editor, J. A. Wayland, commits suicide." Wayland had only been referenced previously in one panel as the editor of the Appeal to Reason, a socialist newspaper. If his death is so important, perhaps his life should have been also?

Ironically, the best and most coherent chapter -- Debs' sedition trial -- was written by the guy who only gets a "with" credit on the cover. Next time, give him his own book free of those fools Paul Buhle and Steve Max. Noah Van Sciver's art is fine, but I'm lumping him in with Buhle and Max as an enabler because he knows how to make a good graphic novel and went ahead and drew this instead.

FOR REFERENCE:

Contents: Time Line of Debs's Life -- Debs: An Introduction -- 1. The Rise of Eugene V. Debs -- 2. "Debsian Socialism" -- 3. Triumph – and the Edge of Tragedy -- 4. Martyr Debs -- 5. The Debs Legacy: Norman Thomas, Michael Harrington, Bernie Sanders -- Further Reading -- Acknowledgments -- List of Sustaining Contributors… (altro)

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.… (altro)