DC Comics Honors Daniel Johnston with Special Variant Covers
A new series of variant covers from DC Comics will honor the late singer/songwriter Daniel Johnston. Johnston, who was a visual artist in addition to his musical career, is currently being honored with a gallery exhibition in his hometown of Austin, Texas, and to commemorate the occasion, DC will release three different variant covers for Batman #121, each featuring an illustration from Johnston. The issue goes on sale in print and digital March 1st.
Daniel Johnston was a singer and songwriter, who in the late 1980s began amassing a cult following in the Austin, Texas music scene. Johnston’s albums were lo-fi, recorded on boom boxes; Johnston would hand out cassette copies of his albums to people. Johnston was also an artist, drawing his own album covers; Nirvana frontman Kurt Cobain famously wore shirts featuring Johnston’s artwork, which furthered expanded Johnston’s appeal. Before his untimely passing in 2019, Johnston became just as known for his art as his music, with gallery exhibitions in New York and London. Daniel Johnston was also a lifelong comic book fan who aspired for a career in the industry, and this March the dream will be posthumously realized in a series of variant covers for Batman #121 featuring Johnston’s artwork.
DC revealed the three covers in an article on AIPT; the covers are shared below. The variants are timed with a special exhibition of Johnston’s work at The Contemporary Austin, titled Daniel Johnston: I Live My Broken Dreams, which runs through March 20. The covers feature Batman, Superman and Orion of the New Gods; the Batman cover will be released in limited quantities and the set of three will be sold exclusively through both the Contemporary and Johnston’s websites, as well as through Austin Books and Comics.
Daniel Johnston was an artist’s artist, achieving commercial success later in life; he lived to see his work exhibited in prestigious galleries as well be the subject of an award-winning documentary The Devil and Daniel Johnston. Johnston was a creative force of nature in both music and art, and his fans are many. DC’s Editor-in-Chief Marie Javins was a long-time friend of Daniel Johnston’s and was “thrilled” to see Johnston’s covers come to life. The covers featuring DC icons Batman and Superman clearly have the Johnston touch, lovingly drawn in his unmistakable style. Orion gets a similar treatment in an illustration that combines Johnston’s style with Kirby flourishes.
The DC Comics variant covers are the culmination of a lifelong dream that Daniel Johnston had to be a comic book artists, and hopefully more of his comic book illustrations will be showcased in the future.
Source: AIPT