Thirteen artists take on Bob Dylan’s most famous tunes, re-imagining them in graphic-novel style in the beautifully illustrated Bob Dylan Revisited.
Grouping together luminaries such as Neil Gaiman co-conspirator Dave McKean and Italian illustrator Lorenzo Mattotti, the book visually interprets essential Dylan, from the giddy “I Want You” to the somber “Knockin’ on Heaven’s Door.” Each song is recreated in sequential format, perfectly suiting Dylan’s folk-story songwriting.
Detached from the music, the graphic-accompanied lyrics emphasize the stark — at times unsettling — nature of Dylan’s imagery. Seeing the “black branch with blood that kept drippin’” described in “A Hard Rain’s a-Gonna Fall” evokes entirely different emotions than the words alone, which are normally masked behind bright major chords.
