The beats : a graphic history

In The 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 the Mad magazine artist Peter Kuper, The Beats takes 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: Kerouac, Ginsberg, and Burroughs. Jack Kerouac / Harvey Pekar, art by Ed Piskor -- Allen Ginsberg / Harvey Pekar, art by Ed Piskor -- William S. Burroughs / Harvey Pekar, art by Ed Piskor -- The Beats: perspectives. The San Francisco Poetry Renaissance / Harvey Pekar, art by Ed Piskor -- Michael McClure / Harvey Pekar, art by Ed Piskor -- Philip Whalen / Harvey Pekar, art by Ed Piskor -- Between Rexroth and Gary Snyder in the Bay Area / Harvey Pekar, art by Ed Piskor -- Robert Duncan / Harvey Pekar, art by Ed Piskor -- Lawrence Ferlinghetti / Harvey Pekar, art by Ed Piskor -- Gregory Corso / Harvey Pekar, art by Ed Piskor -- LeRoi Jones / Amiri Baraka / Harvey Pekar, art by Ed Piskor -- Charles Olson / Harvey Pekar, art by Ed Piskor -- Robert Creeley / Harvey Pekar, art by Ed Piskor -- City Lights and the Beats in San Francisco / Paul Buhle and Nancy J. Peters, art by Jay Kinney -- Kenneth Patchen / Harvey Pekar and Nick Thorkelson, art by Nick Thorkelson -- Lamantia / Nancy J. Peters and Penelope Rosemont, art by Summer McClinton -- Gary Snyder / Harvey Pekar, art by Peter Kuper -- Diane di Prima / Harvey Pekar and Mary Fleener, art by Mary Fleener -- The janitor / story and art by Jerome Neukirch -- Beatnik Chicks / Joyce Brabner, art by Summer McClinton -- Jay DeFeo: the Rose / Trina Robbins, art by Anne Timmons -- Art Beats / story and art by Gary Dumm -- Jazz and poetry / Harvey Pekar, art by Lance Tooks -- The harassment of d.a. levy / Harvey Pekar and Paul Buhle, art by Gary Dumm -- Tuli Kupferberg / Jeffrey Lewis and Tuli Kupferberg, art by Jeffrey Lewis.