A cool book here for those of you in the mood for cool books. In fact, get it for your cool sister for Christmas (if she has a coffee table strong enough to hold it). It’s the first major monograph from artist Jamie Hewlett — he of tank-driving outlaws and mutant kangaroos, Chinese operas and multi-platinum selling virtual pop groups — and what a joy it is to flick through.
He’s got a whole 25 years worth of designs behind him now, from those early anarchic Tank Girl strips that began in Deadline magazine at the tail end of the 1980s, through to his work with Gorillaz; the mind bogglingly postmodern band he co-founded with Damon Albarn in 1998. Hell, he even created a special Tank Girl design for the cover of i-D’s Sharp Issue, way back in heady days of 1995 (have a look, if you don’t believe us).
Anyway, it’s pretty much all in there, contemporary Chinese operas and Olympic Game animations and all. There’s even a little interview with him and Jean-Baptiste Mondino, during which JBM likens Hewlett to a stylist for his incredible attention to detail (“I say, why did you find this cap? It’s great, all the details, every time”). So, what are you waiting for? The cool cats at TASCHEN have given us some exclusive pics and you can check them out below.
Jamie Hewlett, published by TASCHEN, is very nice and out now, we believe.