While Damon Albarn and Jamie Hewlett are the masterminds behind the Gorillaz, 2-D, Murdoc Niccals, Noodle and Russel Hobbs have been at the core of the band. And to celebrate the birth of these great characters, the band is releasing a special book to commemorate the band’s 20-year visual history.
Entitled The Gorillaz Almanac, the 120-page book will feature Hewlett’s artwork as well as new visuals including a comic strip featuring the gang, “puzzles, games and a raft of special guest appearances from Gorillaz collaborators past and present,” Rolling Stone reported.
“Every fan of comics and animation has dreamed of seeing the Gorillaz make their comic book debut, with the Z2 team chief among them,” Z2 publisher Josh Frankel said in a statement. “The artwork, the music, and the mythos all add up to what is destined to be one of our most buzzed about releases in history, and when fans see just what we have planned, I know everyone will agree it was well worth the wait.”
This isn’t the first time that Hewlett has dropped an “almanac” project. He did the same in the mid-90s for Tank Girl. So he’s looking forward to showing how the characters have evolved since the 2001 self-titled album.
“Twenty years of drawing the same characters you can’t avoid change, I think I tried to draw more realism into them around the 4th album but now I find myself looking back at the original style, which reminds me of 1970’s Hannah Barbera cartoons which I grew up on,” Hewlett told Rolling Stone. “Ultimately I would love to create an animation style as good as Chuck Jones’s style during the late 70’s. Also, I can afford to buy better pens now.”
The Gorillaz Almanac is due to release in October.
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