I've been too busy to post here lately, my life is getting weird! I feel like I am living in Bizarro World.

For most of my career, I've been a pariah. An outcast. A nobody. A nothing. Even people who were my friends would be like, "Holmstrom? What, you kidding me? I don't know that loser!" 

Yes, my reputation was THAT bad...  

All of a sudden, I am hip, and cool, and happening.  

My stuff is selling like hotcakes! And everyone loves my artwork.  

Yeah, I know what most of you are thinking: "Holmstrom's smoking pot again!"

But no. Even worse, decided to google myself. You know, see if anything else is happening out there. So check this out, I just found this oddity online:

 

Ya know who that is? It's Kate Moss, doing her best Marlene Dietrich imitation. Ya know what? I heard a rumor that she even wore a PUNK t-shirt at one time or another, and that there's a photo someplace on the Internet! The image above is from some weirdo blog or whatever:

The Wit of a Staircase 

The blog (or whatever it is) references a quotation that's become something that's helping to revive my career, BIG-time:

"If I were wearing a tuxedo I'd want to wear it with satin Converse sneakers. I'd want my tuxedo to be shrunken and ill-fitting, so I'd look like one of the John Holmstrom cartoons from Punk magazine."

--Marc Jacobs

Marc Jacobs, whoever and wherever you are?  Thank you for the recognition. Seems like you got some pull with the media! We should have a beer sometime! 

And let's design that bad-fitting tuxedo, dude!

I guess a lot of people still aren't aware of this cool t-shirt deal I got going on in Japan. Anyhow, i wanted to share another image from the kidswear line, it's so cute. It's a little kid in a PUNK #16 t-shirt: 

 

Click on the little "Chubbygang" banner (above right) to see more!  

I saw these "Ramones-style" t-shirts  on sale:   

 

 

The weirdest thing about these t-shirts is that, although they use the image of the Presidential seal, they are being promoted and sold as "Ramones-style t-shirts." (You can click on either shirt to check out the page.) Which is kind of weird, like the tail wagging the dog...  Know what I mean?

 

I spent most of the past week glued to my TV set, watching the stock market tank. I'm glad I don't have any money in stocks. It was brutal. Cathartic. Sort of fun! The richer you are, the more money you lost, so not many people I know were affected by it.  

I'm hoping the New Depression will bring about culture change. Maybe parents won't have the money to send their kids to NYU anymore, and we can get our city back. Maybe prices for everything will come down and we can buy a decent lunch for $5 again. I'm hoping the stupid greed that's taken over the popular culture (as personified by rich bitches like Paris Hilton taking over the media) will fade away... Is it too much to ask that we see talent rewarded, instead of good PR people? I've already heard that a lot of those stupid "bottle service" clubs on the West Side are tanking, so good things are beginning to happen. 

Heck, the 1970s were a similar disaster area when it came to the financial situation, but it was a lot of fun back then!  

In other news, my friends in Japan sent me some recent publicity from a magazine. Apparently one of the companies making PUNK and John Holmstrom stuff also produce stuff with Disney, so Mickey and Minnie Mouse appear on the same page as PUNK and Bosko! 

 

And you got to love those PUNK wool caps. 

Thanks to everyone who participated in the bidding war for those Ramones t-shirts. I am hoping to do another auction or two before the end of the month, but that will be the end of it. I plan to be very busy VERY soon making new artwork for Japan. The new deal begins in a few days!

So... Anyone who was smart enough to buy the stuff I've been auctioning off recently during this horrible financial meltdown? (And you know who you are!)

I think you made a good investment! Thanks so much!

I was cleaning out my closet and found some "old t-shirts." Then I checked the prices for this kind of thing on eBay and did a double take! Apparently rock 'n' roll tee shirts from the 1960s-1980s are a big deal. So I put them up for sale:

ROAD TO RUIN T-shirt

 

Rocket to Russia T-Shirt 

I did the artwork for both of these t-shirts , which were made by the Ramones and/or Sire Records, back in the late 1970s. The Road to Ruin was, as I remember, strictly promotional, while the Rocket to Russia marked the first time the Ramones repurposed my artwork for their t-shirts. I guess it sold pretty weel, since they've made t-shirts out of anything with my artwork on it ever since! 

I'm offering to sign them, add a letter of authenticity, etc.