A review by shanviolinlove
Howl: A Graphic Novel by Allen Ginsberg, Eric Drooker

4.0

I love the idea of adapting Howl into a graphic novel, and indeed, reading Drooker's initial response to this proposition proved that this was no small feat. The images do create a dynamic, visual mise-en-scene to complement Ginsberg's powerful lines (I especially loved watching the evolution of Moloch as he emerged more and more visibly as the poem progressed), but I also realized that Ginsberg's language is so imagistic, the illustrations almost didn't add to the evocative emotion. Howl is powerful and resilient to the test of time, because its readers can visualize the angel-headed hipsters and bodies leaping off of towers, the desolation of the rise of the "machinery of night," even without the pictures.

Do read Howl. With images. Sans images. You will be disturbed either way.