I did a session for a portrait for my old friend Curt Hoppe several months ago, but I had no idea it would come out this great:

 

Photo above: copyright Curt Hoppe courtesy Woodward Gallery, New York

This painting is bigger than life. I mean--look at this thing, it's several feet behind me, and it's still bigger than me! It's huge! It took Curt two months to render the thing. And it is as photo-realistic as you can get. To the left, you can see a bit of the portrait Curt did of East Village graffiti art legend Richard Hambleton. These portraits will be part of a series of living East Village art guys and gals, and the gallery opening is set to take place in early 2013. It's part of a series of paintings of East Village denizens like me, Clayton Patterson, Penny Arcade, Arturo Vega and others. 

I first met Curt in 1978, when the WPA show was being put together by Marc Miller. His painting of the Ramones created a lot of media attention: This was the first time the punk rock scene got some concrete attention from the art scene. Also, the WPA show became an influence on the East Village art scene in the 1980s. For instance I remember meeting Patti Astor, who started the Fun Gallery a few years later, at a WPA show event.

Anyhow, check out Curt's work. He was one of us: the NYC artists who worked in the underground scene of the 1970s. Back then we paid the rent by working for porno rags like Screw magazine (no self-respecting underground artist didn't contribute to Screw back in the day). No offense to any other "East Village artist," but to me if you didn't work for Screw? You weren't part of the New York City underground scene. For instance, Bruce Carleton, Punk magazine's art director, worked there for several years, and after Bruce finished, Ken Weiner took over. Kevin Hein, who worked for Ken as an assistant, and then continued the Screw tradition of supporting the NYC underground scene.

I'd like to thank Curt for including me in his series of portraits. He's a good guy and I am very glad that this series of portraits look like they'll gain him some art cred, and some well-deserved bucks. 

 

One of my favorite Japanese companies is Chubbygang. They've been using my work on all kinds of great stuff, and best of all they sell most of their designs to kids. Punk rock kid clothing is big in the USA as well, but as usual the Japanese do it better. I've posted a lot of their stuff on this blog, and people always love to see those cute Japanese kids dressed in a PUNK t-shirt or whatever, but this one is the best so far. 

 Shortly after I got back from my Japan trip, Morrison & Co. sent me these amazing photos of a little kid who was wearing a PUNK magazine t-shirt on TV! From what I understand, this is a very popular quiz show in Japan, so millions of people watched...

 

 

 

Yes, it's weird that a kid is wearing a skeleton drawing on his t-shirt. But I like to think that he really likes this shirt, and wanted to wear it on TV. I understand that he won! So this is one very intelligent kid, right? And he has good taste!

 What's more than a bit weird is that this t-shirt also features the "Death to Disco Shit" editorial I wrote and lettered for PUNK #1! Honestly, people always ask me if I thought this or that about what's happened with punk over the years, but I promise you that I never ever thought that my "Death to Disco" editorial would end up on a t-shirt that a young kid wore on a Japanese game show 35 years later.

Shortly after my trip to Japan, I was invited to draw the next CD cover for The 50 Kaitenz! Actually, their next THREE CD covers! I was really excited to do this, since I am a big fan of their music and performance, and had such a great time hanging out with them.

They gave me a long list of very specific instructions, and photos of what the drawing(s) were supposed to look like. The main theme seemed to be inspired by Brian DePalma's Phantom of the Paradise. I actually saw this when it hit the theaters back in 1974, so I was even more impressed by 50 Kaitenz's knowledge. (Since their main musical influences are the Ramones and Dr. Feelgood, well... You know.) DePalma is best known for directing Scarface of course, as well as Carrie, Dressed to Kill and Blow Out.Phantom of the Paradise was an early success for him, not a blockbuster but it helped put him on the map. 

The logo was taken from the original theatrical poster for the film (and the most difficult part of the project to draw), and the girl at the top right of the poster is wearing the Phantom's mask. They even took photos of models wearing the mask! They were the most organized and efficient band I have ever worked with. Here are some of the photos (which I think look much better than my drawings):

 
Evil Girls with the Phantom Girl

 

Hippies!

 

Bikini Zombies

Dory, bass and vocals

Danny, guitar and vocals

 

Bogie, drums

The coolest thing was the guitar Danny played... This was the weirdest looking rock 'n' roll instrument I've ever seen! 

 

It was a lotto squeeze all of this into one drawing, but somehow we managed to do it.

 Best of all, you can buy the CD online! It's available at amazon.com, just search "Japan Import CDs" and then "50 Kaitenz." They have almost all of The 50 Kaitenz music there, so buy everything! "Rock 'N' Roll Magic" also features a very funny video, starring the band. So now you have no excuse--you must buy a copy right now, before they're sold out.

 The thing I like best about working with my friends in Japan is that they always give me full credit, and add my "© John Holmstrom" to everything I do. A lot of people I've worked with in the states fight me on this, as if I'm not supposed to own my own artwork, but in Japan they treat artists with a great deal of respect.Well, they're just a lot of fun to work with as well!

Someone from Belgium just asked me if they could find a Website selling the Rolling Stones stuff, I found one on a clothing tag. I have no idea if they ship worldwide, and everything is in Japanese, but they do display everything I did and all the other artists from every year. So this only for informational purposes:

www.buddyz.co.jp