REVIEW: Howl the Graphic Novel

Howl: Poetry, Animation and Graphic Novel Adaptations

Poetry written by Allen Ginsberg 1955.

Animation was published 2010

Graphic Novel was published by Drooker 2010.

Howl Graphic Novel analysis

· The graphic novel was definitely built around the narrative of the poem, making it not necessarily an amalgam of text and illustration but rather illustration purely a means for aesthetic representation of Ginsberg’s work for the reader

· The graphic novel further has the handicap of being a graphic novel adaptation of the animation to which came before it, as illustrations were made in favor of a scene by scene nature as opposed to a panel by panel

· Furthermore, the graphic novel provides a comparison to the film and the real life Ginsberg, to which further solidifies this piece as a but the after work of the poem, the animation and the film, not making this graphic novel a piece of its own

· The poetry had its own mental interpretation to the reader whereas the graphic novel forces a specific interpretation of the poem to the reader, although Ginsberg had a hand in Drooker’s work so it would be as accurate to Ginsberg’s intent as it could be

· The spilt page of the phallic symbol of the woman was unnecessarily split between the pages in a spread, as the animation had not this handicap. It felt almost as censorship to the animation by this(Drooker 110-111)

· The imagery of Jazz in the graphic novel felt fixed as opposed to fluid as with the animation and the reading of the poetry, going against what Jazz is supposed to represent as a free flowing form of expression(Drooker 22-23)

· The imagery at the end as opposed to the forced narration to the illustration was arguably the best part of the graphic novel as it felt organic in its composition: the artist was illustrating a paneling that seemed coherent in its composition as opposed to the illustration being built exclusively around the text(Drooker 217-220)

· The illustration merely holding the place of Ginsberg as opposed to any context besides the implied lobotomy served little purpose as the panel tells nothing secular about the event. Little can be inferred visually from the panel and this page more than others forces the readers to take the text as the only source of information for the section (Drooker 118-119)

· The imagery of the building on the island overlooking the city was gorgeous. In context to the text it gave a feeling of intellectual isolation that I liked about the poem (Drooker 90-91)

· Drooker’s composition of the illustration in a V shape didn’t have a natural flow of the eye as readers are forced to take the text out of context to the panels. Had the poem be place under the V, this wouldn’t have been a problem. However, this method of storytelling seemed slipshod at best (Drooker 120-121)

· The Moloch segment excluded a powerful segment in the animation where children were sacrificed in a baptism of war to the god, which felt lacking in context to the graphic novel should one had seen both

· The scene with the fire typewriter seemed lacking in intensity as opposed to the animation where the scene was emphasized by the movement of the fire. In a still, there is no subtle means of indicating movement and this felt lacking in the graphic novel (Drooker 132-133)

Bibliography

Ginsberg, Allen, and Eric Drooker. Howl: A Graphic Novel. New York: Harper Perennial, 2010. Print.