John Holmstrom (born 1954) is an American

underground Underground most commonly refers to: * Subterranea (geography), the regions beneath the surface of the Earth Underground may also refer to: Places * The Underground (Boston), a music club in the Allston neighborhood of Boston * The Underground ...

cartoonist and writer. He is best known for illustrating the covers of the Ramones albums '' Rocket to Russia'' and '' Road to Ruin'', as well as his characters Bosko and Joe (published in Scholastic's ''

Bananas A banana is an elongated, edible fruit – botanically a berry – produced by several kinds of large herbaceous flowering plants in the genus ''Musa''. In some countries, bananas used for cooking may be called "plantains", distinguis ...

'' magazine from 1975 to 1984). At age 21, Holstrom was the founding editor of ''

Punk Magazine ''Punk'' was a music magazine and fanzine created by cartoonist John Holmstrom, publisher Ged Dunn, and "resident punk" Legs McNeil in 1975. Its use of the term " punk rock", coined by writers for ''Creem'' magazine a few years earlier to desc ...

''. After ''Punk'' ceased publication in 1979, he worked for several publications, including ''

The Village Voice ''The Village Voice'' is an American news and culture paper, known for being the country's first alternative newspaper, alternative newsweekly. Founded in 1955 by Dan Wolf (publisher), Dan Wolf, Ed Fancher, John Wilcock, and Norman Mailer, th ...

'', ''Video Games'' magazine, ''K-Power'', and '' Heavy Metal''. In 1986, Holmstrom contributed a comic-based chronology of punk rock for '' Spin'' magazine's special punk issue. In 1987, Holmstrom began to work for ''

High Times ''High Times'' is 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.Danko, Danny"Norml Founder Retires – Exha ...

'' 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'' (''the Times'', ''NYT'', or the Gray Lady) is a daily newspaper based in New York City with a worldwide readership reported in 2020 to comprise a declining 840,000 paid print subscribers, and a growing 6 million paid ...

'' article about the

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

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 Album-cover and concert-poster artists 1954 births Living people Underground cartoonists School of Visual Arts alumni Ramones {{US-comics-creator-stub