Where to start... If he gets permissions from the copyright holder, do you approve? If he publishes this without permissions, he will get sued. Do you oppose all posthumous work? Some Bukowski treatments are pretty offensive, but not only do I like this one, but think that Hank would like it too. The only way to know is to ask the estate. If they approve, then that is as good, really, as Hank approving.
And not sure how making money especially if royalties are paid to the estate is offensive. This seems to be the same tired, old argument that Bukowski just wanted to write and drink and hated the idea that people made money off his writing ("he was just about the words, maaaaan...") It is complete bullshit. He understood that it is a business and that it afforded him and now his widow a comfortable life.
he understood that it's a business but i think he also managed to transcend that business aspect of it because of how much substance he had and how much knowledge and skill and chops and experience and sensibility. But I don't think that what I'm saying is the tired argument that you reference here at all. I'm saying that there are some principles at play here. i know that they're not the end-all be-all, but then neither is whether it makes a buck and/or looks cool.
and i think that the 'Hank would've liked it' argument is garbage. first of all he was a fickle fucker (maybe i'm projecting, just my opinion there), and secondly he's dead. i always hate when people say 'oh so and so would LOVE this' ...
I've been taking other parts of your post to heart though and
Jordans too and even though i'll bicker about the subtleties, I
am changing my mind about the end result. It
is a bit like like taking his poems and making the into a song, as
MJP said, but if the estate is cool with it, nuff said. I was probably projecting some marxist anti-commodification/exploitation crap and its high time to get over it. bottom line, if somebody published these renditions with the approval of his heirs, I'd buy it up and tell my friends to buy it too.
back to the objection from
Hooch, though, anybody who wraps their work around somebody elses work is either collaborating or stealing/tainting. i guess i'm using collaborating in a broader, metaphysical sense here, the sense in which old ben kenobe and young skywalker collaborated on taking down the death star. saying it's 'just an illustration' makes it seem like the 'illustrator' isn't altering the presentation of the work, which he is. after reading the comic, nobody will read the original the same, there will be this little picture of a cat in the back of their mind. so it's a big deal and thats what got me going hard to the hole about it in the first place.
but then just cuz its a big deal doesn't mean it shouldn't go down. The world is changing, Hank seems to me to have seen that, and even though we can't say whether he would have liked it or not, i think he would have at least understood why his heirs should see fit to approve this project.
sorry so long:nw: now back to my regularly scheduled program of ... crafting a 3-d version of the mona lisa from lincoln logs and play dough :p