jazz...poetry...drugs...
and MURDER
The Beat Generation. It is a term used to encompass certain American writers (Kerouac, Ginsberg, Burroughs, and others) and soon transferred its way into art and music. The "Beat" material was considered raw, improvisational, and free from structure. Poetry in writing and jazz in music saw the greatest growth and often the "coffee houses" would feature free form exhibits of both.
The "Beats" believed in personal experience to branch out to their artistic endeavors and drugs, sex, and mysticism were all part of a new form of expression that began in the late 1940’s and existed through out the 1950’s before sliding towards the hippie movement in the 60’s.
But one thing that transcends any kind of artistic movement is MURDER.
Beat is a murder mystery set in the midst of the Beat Generation. Philip Danbow is a police detective that gets pulled into the world of the coffee clubs of the beatniks. Danbow must venture through the worlds of beatniks, jazz musicians, and prostitutes to investigate the crime of a murdered musician. With only Tracy, a cigarette girl, as his help in understanding the world, Beat will look into the strange era and is filled with the unique lingo and attitudes. Coming across the likes of Jack Kerouac and some musical and film guests, the detective finds himself trapped by a culture who treat murder as just a natural form of death.
As Danbow begins falling for the beautiful yet elusive Tracy, more murders begin to happen and the suspicion falls on people that Danbow has begun to like and trust. But as he digs even deeper, he finds out that the murders are connected yet each have their own reasons. And he must now determine if the law has a right to intervene.
Brief Description: A murder mystery set in the world of the Beatniks that revolutionized culture in the 1950’s.
Key Elements: Murder, mystery, and procedural crime. Appealing setting of the beat coffee houses with guest stars from the world of the beatniks.
Association: Can be compared to LA Confidential and Mulholland Falls in that the crime is taken place in an American cultural setting with its own flavor.
Format: Beat is a comic series in development from Caliber Comics and is also being co-developed as a screen treatment.