SPECIAL ANNOUNCEMENT: The PUNK Magazine/John Holmstrom Art Store is now online!

Art prints, posters, t-shirts, phone cases, yoga mats, tote bags... And more!

store.punkmagazine.com

I’ve been searching for a way to create PUNK Magazine products and my artwork, comic strips and illustrations for years, but I needed another company to produce everything, take online payments and ship them. I don’t live in a warehouse next door to a US Post Office, you know? Finally, I found a Website that does all that and so much more. If you’re interested in setting up your own store let me know (I receive a commission for referrals).

There are six categories in the store (which will be updated from time to time):

1. PUNK MAGAZINE

   This section hosts a new “PUNK MAGAZINE” logo (see above), the PUNK Magazine “EMBLEM”, the “WATCH OUT PUNK IS COMING” poster image, and the first page of the “LOU REED INTERVIEW” from PUNK #1. Just so you know? All of the “swipe”images were drawn by me—none of them were lifted.

   I’ll be adding more images if and when the demand increases.

2. MISS DEBRA T.

   Miss Debra T. and I have been co-hosts for the Joey Ramone Birthday Bash (along with Ramones Tour Manager Monte A. Melnick) for many years. (A tip of the hat here to Mickey Leigh, who organizes the event every year to raise money for the Lymphoma Foundation, which was the cause of death of our friend Joey Ramone in 2001). Metropolis (the largest vintage clothing store in Manhattan) is graciously allowing me to sell this latest design, which will also be available as an in-store t-shirt very soon, so visit the store as soon as you can. The Metropolis store is like my second home, it’s like the new CBGB or something. Please check out the John Holmstrom Dressing Room in the back of the store when you visit.

   We’ve also made the “DEBTROPOLIS” image available in various coloring in a collage (a/la Andy Warhol paintings). Yeah, I think this drawing came out that good.

   Special thanks to Dan Conner, who colored the above image. He also colored an image I did for a special edition of “The Archies Meet The Ramones” comic book cover, and contributed to the most recent issue of PUNK Magazine: A Special Issue devoted to Iggy Pop! (Dan is definitely a punk rocker!)

   Miss Debra has also agreed to allow me to sell a few of her items: A couple of photos of her (when she was the Official Ramones Clothing Model for Arturo Vega), a poster for a very sexy series of portraits by her close friend and fine artist William Baker Rand, signed by Miss Debra and Mr. Rand. They gave me one and I cannot wait to frame it and hang it on my wall.

   

3. ILLUSTRATIONS

   The original PUNK Magazine existed for only three-and-a-half years: late 1975 to Spring of 1979. I revived it in 2000, and have been able to publish a new issue now and then, have made a few t-shirt deals and set up a Website. In between I’ve created a ton of drawings for other people, so I plan to make the best of them available here.

   I’m offering a limited edition art print of a drawing of “CBGB” that was commissioned by my good friend Richard Belfiore (who co-created the Sex Pistols film script with me) during the COVID pandemic. I think a lot of people are interested in this image, but it’s only available as a limited edition art print (for obvious legal reasons). (I think they should contact me to use it for promotion, but I doubt that will ever happen. What do you think?

   This is the 50th anniversary of CBGB becoming CBGB after it was “Hilly’s on the Bowery” before that, when it was a Hell’s Angels hangout. (Those were the good old days!)

   I’m also offering a cover image I did for the first issue of “COMICAL FUNNIES,” a comics zine I created with Peter Bagge (creator of the HATE comic book series, Neat Stuff etc.). I suggested to Johnny Ramone once upon a time that the band should expand their stage show and add a bongo or conga drummer for a song like “Bad Brains” but he wanted to keep doing the same show over and over. I still think that the Ramones might have been more successful if they had expanded their stage show in the early 1980s, and made more of a production and stage show, like what Alice Cooper did. What do you think? Was I right? Leave a comment if you care.

   The “BOSKO PIN-UP” was drawn for the third issue of Comical Funnies and is a personal favorite of mine. It’s a tribute to the King of Cartoons: Tex Avery, whose animations of wild reactions of goofy and horny guys (like me) reacting to beautiful, sexy women are classics.

   “DYLAN MEETS ELVIS” was commissioned by Delilah Books, who were publishing stuff by Lester Bangs before he passed away. This illustration was for a gonzo story Lester wrote about the time Bob Dylan met Elvis in Las Vegas. I always think it came out great, and is one of my best drawings. I hope you agree.

   “IGGY PUP” was created for Morrison & Co. in Japan, who licensed the CBGB t-shirt back in the day and still work with Godlis, Roberta Bayley and I. They are producing some really nice stuff now with several Japanese fashion outlets. They asked me to draw some “punk rock funny animals,” so I ended up making dozens of record cover parodies like this, as well as many other images. Thanks you Taka san, Suzuko san, Yuki san and Motohiro san for ever!

   “ARMY LAFFS” is an illustration I did for SCREW magazine in the early 1980s. I forget when I made it, but after PUNK Magazine folded, Art Director Bruce Carleton became the Art Director at SCREW, but he couldn’t stand working for Al Goldstein so he soon quit. Then PUNK Magazine cartoonist Ken Weiner took the job. He also went nuts working for Al Goldstein—both of them had to move out of New York City and get as far as possible, away from New York City and Al Goldstein after losing their minds working for the guy. Damn, I miss them. Even though I can’t remember if Bruce or Ken were the art director for this, it’s my favorite drawing that I ever created for SCREW. It was also the first publication to publish my artwork—in 1974.

   

4. JOE

   Does anyone remember my JOE character anymore? I started this newsletter by posting my comic strips with the JOE character for Scholastic’s Bananas magazine. It became the “side gig” that paid the rent and enabled me to work on PUNK Magazine back in the day. “HAPPY PILL 2” is from “The Joe Show” Cartoon Concert I created with Batton A. Lash when we were students at the School of Visual Arts. “SOUND EFFECTS” was made for Maniac Magazine after Bananas tried to rebrand itself. It’s my personal favorite JOE comic strip, based on my weird uncle who recorded sound effects for record companies way back when.

   

5. HEP CAT

   I was desperate for paying jobs in the mid-1980s, but when High Times magazine invited me to create a comic strip for them, I was stuck. Being a punk rocker I never quite got stoner humor, so I stopped by The Village Idiot bar where my friend Aid MacSpade was bartending. I explained my predicament and he soon rattled off several comic strip ideas that ended up being accepted by the editor, and soon I not only had a magazine publish my artwork at a decent page rate but I soon got a full-time job with a salary and benefits. Before I knew it I became Publisher and President and launched the Website early in the history of the World Wide Web. I try from time to time to revive the character—I think I did some of my best work with Aid MacSpade. Anyway if you smoke pot? And like cats? You’ll probably like Hep Cat.

   

   1. CARL HOLMSTROM

      As a young man my father aspired to be a commercial art illustrator, but instead he joined the military during World War Two to fight “Hitler and the Nazis” and all that well-intentioned stuff. He trained to become a bombardier and was sent to North Africa for the very first missions against the German and Italian Fascist/Nazi governments. His plane crash-landed in Tunisia after their first mission, and he became one of the first US POWs.

      He spent the rest of the war behind barbed wire as a guest of the German government To me it is interesting that the Nazis, as evil as they were, never tortured him. The fact that the US government uses torture against enemy POWs (aka “terrorists”) is horrendous. We are worse than the Nazis, thanks to George W. Bush, Obama, Trump and the rest of them.

      After my father’s imprisonment he was forced to go on a “Death March” to avoid the Russian troops that were advancing on Germany. (POWs were a bargaining chip.) Carl Holmstrom carried his drawings instead of food supplies during the Death March: He was that dedicated to his art. I guess this a reason why I grew up with an extreme appreciation of art, and freedom of expression. The severe PTSD my father suffered also turned me into an anti-war activist for life: FUCK WAR: WHAT IS IT GOOD FOR? ABSOLUTELY NOTHING! I’m still at heart an anti-war hippie.

      So I’m now making a few of the many drawings my father made during his imprisonment available in whatever format. The “APPELL” image above describes the morning roll call of POWs at Stalag Luft 3 (where “The Great Escape” took place, my sister Susan wrote a book about it). “GUARD TOWER” is a drawing of the structures that contained Nazi guards with machine guns, ready to shoot down any prisoner attempting to escape the barbed wire prison. “LIBERATION” was drawn by my father after the war’s end to describe how US POWs felt after General George Patton arrived and liberated them from Nazi oppression. That was a great moment for US POWs.

      “DEATH MARCH” is another drawing my father created after the war to describe visually what that ordeal was like. I have researched the Death Marches and they were horrendous, a chapter of World War Two history that is rarely told. Someday I hope to do a graphic novel that tells the whole story. Meanwhile my sister’s book can be purchased at:

      

      https://www.amazon.com/Great-Escape-Forger-Holmstrom-Artist/dp/1526767988

      So there you go: This is my new Art Store. If you’d like to support my Substack newsletter, and buy something you like? Great. If not, I don’t mind at all. I just want to tell my stories and post my old artwork and hopefully get support for my new art.

      https://store.punkmagazine.com