Everything Fab Four: Ladies And Gentlemen, The Pictorial Splendor Of John, Paul, George And Ringo!
The Beatles are no strangers to artistic interpretation. Even during their heyday, the group members were rendered as fun-loving cartoon characters getting into one playful adventure after another. By the time of their disbandment, the Fab Four’s lyrics were interpreted as individual works of art in Alan Aldridge’s lavish The Beatles Illustrated Lyrics series. In recent years, artists have continued in their quest to capture the sight and sounds of the Beatles. Take Andrew C. Robinson’s award-winning panels in The Fifth Beatle: The Brian Epstein Story, a graphic novel authored by Vivek J. Tiwary. And then there’s Mat Snow’s provocative Beatles Solo: The Illustrated Chronicles of John, Paul, George, and Ringo after the Beatles.
Which brings us to Visualizing the Beatles, John Pring and Rob Thomas’ arresting collection of Beatles-oriented illustrations and infographics. A pair of British graphic designers, Pring and Thomas trace the Beatles’ incredible career in all of its pictorial splendor. Along the way, they succeed in educating the casual fan about the band mates’ humble origins, evolving fashion choices, and chart-eclipsing hits. But perhaps even more impressively, Pring and Thomas take the Beatles’ story into the realm of musicology, demonstrating—or, to be more accurate, illustrating—the ways in which they transformed from a simple four-part rock combo into a bravura musical unit of staggering proportions.
Readers of Visualizing the Beatles will likely be struck by the colorful, albeit intentionally blank renderings of the band mates. By purposefully reimagining classic images of the Beatles as faceless representations of highly recognizable poses and period photographs, Pring and Thomas challenge us to “see” John, Paul, George, and Ringo through strangely familiar, yet intriguingly different lenses.
By: Ken Womack
Source: Huffington Post
