Godspeed, a graphic novel about Kurt Cobain, is being reissued in pocket-sized format, introducing this very modern hero to a different generation

By Alice Jones

Wednesday, 16 March 2011

The cover image, which casts Cobain as fallen angel – on his knees in a torn T-shirt, tattered wings drooping, with tears streaming from his eyes into a puddle on the floor – is typical of Flameboy’s apocalyptic, inventive visuals. It took the Yorkshire-based graphic artist (whose real name is Steve Beaumont) eight months to complete them, “locked away in a room with no windows and just the music and videos of Nirvana plus a copy of Kurt’s journals for company.” Flailing limbs and bloody noses at gigs, the deathly, lonely glow of a heroin hit and violent rows with a nightie-clad Courtney Love, against a backdrop of jagged swear words, all feature. “You know when rock stars say they just went with the flow?” he told NME at the time. “Sometimes I look at these pages and think, ‘did I draw that?’ I can’t even remember drawing it.”

The writers took a similarly dream-like, impressionist approach to the rock star’s troubled life. No ordinary biographical trawl, McCarthy and Legg go into Cobain’s burgeoning childhood “relationship” with his imaginary friend, Boddah (to whom the singer would eventually address his rambling suicide note), his depression following his parents’ divorce and his teenage battles with his sexuality and so-called “suicide genes” (his uncle Burle also killed himself). More happily, it also covers the first flowerings of musical talent, the euphoric early gigs, love and fatherhood. “Writing a graphic novel is different from writing a script. With really good comic art, you can do things you can’t do with other art-forms,” says McCarthy. The book is topped and tailed with imagined scenes around Cobain’s suicide, in the greenhouse of his Seattle home, aged 27 – a controversial piece of artistic licence which drew death threats from still-grieving fans.

via Godspeed: The new smell of teen spirit – Features, Music – The Independent.

Jah Wobble New CD
Cover art by Jim McCarthy

Wobble CD Cover

Check out Jah’s website and store here

http://www.30hertzrecords.com/

comics_godspeed_cover

British artist and writer Jim McCarthy is a veteran 2000 AD contributor known for his graphic novel music biographies. He chatted to DS about Godspeed: The Kurt Cobain Graphic, which was first published in 2003 and is being reissued by Omnibus Press.

What originally inspired you to create the book?

“This book I did with a guy called Barney Legg, who I’ve since lost touch with. I got to know him because he was in a band from Grimsby who my then partner and I moved to London and were managing. It became obvious that he had a lot of talent for writing. We were both interested in Kurt’s story. Omnibus wanted to do a book on him because there was a very big cult thing around him, obviously. He turned the music world around. It’s a very visceral story, very evocative. It was the first one we did – a wish job for us and for the company – and it did very well. Steve Beaumont – also known as Flameboy – was brought on to do the art and I think he produced a very iconic cover. I think he excelled himself. There was something about it that just fell into place.”

How did the collaborative process work?

“Barney and I co-worked on two books – the Eminem one and Kurt. It was done on the phone and through emails. The Eminem book was quite a free process, but the Kurt book was much more structured. It was done quite quickly. We would liaise with the artist a lot and get his stuff through. Because I’m an illustrator myself, I give a lot of art direction. I think that’s important. A script is written for the artist as well as for the public.”

via Comics – Interview – Jim McCarthy (‘Godspeed’) – Digital Spy.