The Lost Art of Ah Pook Is Here: Images from the Graphic Novel

I was aware that William Burroughs' text Ah Pook is Here was originally conceived as a graphic novel, but I had no idea how much art had been generated for it. Unfortunately the Burroughs estate wouldn't let text from the book to be reprinted beside the images, so you sort of have to dodge back and forth to get the full effect of what might have been. Certainly the artist here has the ability to compliment Burroughs' words line for line. Artistically the original intended volume would have been a major achievement. Commercially it probably would've been a disaster. The imagery alternates between stark and lush, beautiful in its horrible nature, and brutal in implications. They are well admired on their own - in and out of context. The reproduction here is top notch and well worth a look.

Malcolm McNeill is an award winning (including Emmy) artist with a unique background of work with Beat writer, William S. Burroughs, started when Burroughs lived in London around 1970. The work the two did together include Burroughs only comics, and the art for Burroughs' graphic novel, Ah Pook Is Here. Decades later, the complex and massive works of art are finally published by the famous Fantagraphics Books (some of the art is 25 feet long).The results are both beautiful and horrific, with sex and violence and naked bodies -- mobs of people roaming the post-nuclear landscape invented by Mc Neill and Burroughs. For the art alone, this is a must own book. But for any true Beat Generation/William S. Burroughs fan, it covers a little known and undercovered period of the writer's life, before he came back to the USA in the early 1970s from his decades living overseas.

Great Book

Beautiful artwork, and great print quality.

The art in this book is amazing. If you're into Burroughs you will love it. It's totally surreal and crazy.

Great Solid Artbook, Thick full-color landscape width Hardcover.