John Holmstrom (born 1954) is an American underground

cartoonist A cartoonist is a visual artist who specializes in both drawing and writing cartoons (individual images) or comics (sequential images). Cartoonists differ from comics writers or comics illustrators/artists in that they produce both the litera ...

and writer. He is best known for illustrating the covers of the

Ramones The Ramones were an American punk rock band formed in the New York City neighborhood Forest Hills, Queens in 1974. Known for helping establish the punk movement in the United States and elsewhere, the Ramones are often recognized as one of th ...

albums ''

Rocket to Russia ''Rocket to Russia'' is the third studio album by the American punk rock band Ramones, and was released on November 4, 1977, through Sire Records. It is the band's last album to feature original drummer Tommy Ramone, who left the band in 1978 ...

'' and '' Road to Ruin'', as well as his characters Bosko and Joe (published in Scholastic's ''

Bananas A banana is an elongated, edible fruit – berry (botany), botanically a berry – produced by several kinds of large treelike herbaceous flowering plants in the genus ''Musa (genus), Musa''. In some countries, cooking bananas are called pla ...

'' magazine from 1975 to 1984). At age 21, Holmstrom was the founding editor of '' Punk Magazine''. After ''Punk'' ceased publication in 1979, he worked for several publications, including ''

The Village Voice ''The Village Voice'' is an American news and culture publication based in Greenwich Village, New York City, known for being the country's first Alternative newspaper, alternative newsweekly. Founded in 1955 by Dan Wolf (publisher), Dan Wolf, ...

'', ''Video Games'' magazine, ''K-Power'', and '' Heavy Metal''. In 1986, Holmstrom contributed a comic-based chronology of punk rock for ''

Spin Spin or spinning most often refers to: * Spin (physics) or particle spin, a fundamental property of elementary particles * Spin quantum number, a number which defines the value of a particle's spin * Spinning (textiles), the creation of yarn or thr ...

'' magazine's special punk issue. In 1987, Holmstrom began to work for ''

High Times ''High Times'' was an American monthly magazine (and cannabis brand) that advocates the legalization of cannabis as well as other counterculture ideas. The magazine was founded in 1974 by Tom Forcade. The magazine had its own book publishing d ...

'' magazine as Managing Editor, was soon promoted to Executive Editor, and in 1991 was promoted to Publisher and President. In 1996 he stepped aside to launch the ''High Times'' website. He left ''High Times'' in 2000, and went on to work on other projects. He relaunched ''Punk'' for a few issues (before the events of 9/11 ended it), published a Bosko comic book, and got involved in several Japanese clothing deals. He was quoted in a September 2007 ''

New York Times ''The New York Times'' (''NYT'') is an American daily newspaper based in New York City. ''The New York Times'' covers domestic, national, and international news, and publishes opinion pieces, investigative reports, and reviews. As one of ...

'' article about the

CBGB CBGB was a New York City music club opened in 1973 by Hilly Kristal in the East Village, Manhattan, East Village in Manhattan, New York City. The club was previously a biker bar and before that was a dive bar. The letters ''CBGB'' were for ''Cou ...

Acting

Holmstrom has appeared in the films ''School for Vandals'', '' End of the Century: The Story of the Ramones'', and '' Loren Cass''.

References

External links

*
Official Bosko site''Punk''
* John Holmstrom Papers and Punk Magazine Records. General Collection, Beinecke Rare Book and Manuscript Library, Yale University. American comics artists American comics writers American album-cover and concert-poster artists 1954 births Living people Underground cartoonists School of Visual Arts alumni Ramones {{US-comics-creator-stub