Creating Comics!

Punk #1 cover: Lou Reed

Punk #4 cover: Iggy Pop

Client: PUNK magazine

Media: Strathmore Bristol paper,

pen and ink, overlays used for color

Creative Process

This was the first record cover I ever drew, back when that

was a huge deal. (Record covers and national magazine

covers were the highway to fame and fortune for artists back

in the late twentieth century.) I had drawn the inside cover

art and back cover for The Ramones’ Rocket to Russia album.

The people at the record label showed me a sketch by Gus

MacDonald, a Ramones fan from Scotland, that they thought

would make a good cover, and I agreed that someone else

should draw it.

I suggested Wally Wood, but he turned it down, and

suggested one of his assistants. I still wish he’d drawn it.

Anyhow, The Ramones were unhappy with the sketches that

his assistant turned in and called me in at the last minute.

They needed this fan sketch turned into a professional record

cover and pleaded with me to accept the assignment. Worst

of all, they needed the finished artwork by the next day.

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I

n 1972 John Holmstrom moved from Connecticut

to New York City to attend the School of Visual Arts.

There, he studied under comic legends Harvey

Kurtzman and Will Eisner. In 1975 he founded PUNK

magazine, which launched the punk movement and

kick-started the careers of Blondie, The Ramones, and

The Dead Boys, and inspired the London punk rock scene

as well as many crudely designed fanzines. PUNK also

helped launch “punk art,” a short-lived movement that

inspired the East Village art scene in New York.

In the 1980s, after PUNK folded, Holmstrom started

Comical Funnies with Peter Bagge, and Stop! Magazine

with J.D. King. He introduced his character Bosko in both

’zines and in 2006 published Bosko, his first-ever complete

comic book, for Punk Magazine, Inc.

Over the years he has designed posters, t-shirts,

records, books, and CD artwork for The Ramones,

Blondie, The Dandy Warhols, Murphy’s Law, Richard Lloyd,

and others. He also did artwork for Scholastic’s Bananas,

the Village Voice, High Times, Heavy Metal, Video Games,

and others. His artwork has been included in several

gallery shows.

John Holmstrom

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John Holmstrom

John Holmstrom

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(Text)

I recalled how Jack Davis, one of the greatest illustrators of

the twentieth century, told me how he had waited twenty years

to draw a Time magazine cover, and when he was offered the

opportunity to draw one he had to produce it overnight. Well, this

was the same deal. So I stayed up all night and finished the draw-

ing. I did a lot of research. Luckily, working in the PUNK magazine

office I had plenty of photos for reference, so I could draw the

sneakers, ripped blue jeans, leather jackets, and musical instru-

ments and amplifiers correctly. For the bombed-out buildings I just

looked out the window—our office was on the twelfth floor of an

old office building (where twenty-five years earlier MAD Magazine

and EC comics were produced a few floors below).

When I submitted the final artwork, Johnny and Dee Dee

weren’t happy with their faces, so I had to go back to the drawing

board and produce a blander version of their look. The record did

all right, but it didn’t sell as well as the band had hoped, and I

think they blamed the artwork, so I was never offered the chance

at another Ramones record cover. On the other hand, the artwork

has been used so often ever since (such as in the film Rock ‘N’ Roll

High School), that I think the quality of Gus

MacDonald’s original idea, and my rendering

of it, has withstood the test of time. The artwork

was even the basis for a Joey Ramone bobble-

head doll!

It’s a weird feeling, seeing your artwork

turned into a 3-D rendition. But it’s also very

flattering.

[below]

Punk #3 cover: Joey Ramone

Client: PUNK magazine

Media: Strathmore Bristol paper, pen and ink, overlays used for color

[to the right]

Title: Road to Ruin record cover

Client: Sire Records, 1978

Album Design: Spencer Drate

Media: Pen on paper

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(Text)

John Holmstrom

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