Joey Ramone and Punk magazine editor John Holmstrom in 1976, one of the classic photos in “The Best of Punk Magazine.”
It might be a tad heavy, physically speaking, for summer beach reading, but “The Best of Punk Magazine” (HarperCollins, $30) is definitely a hot property.
The 350-page, “coffee-table”-size book, which came out during last winter, was a labor of love for the East Village’s John Holmstrom.
The Cramps playing at CBGB.
A cartoonist and writer, Holmstrom founded the iconoclastic Punk magazine with Legs McNeil in 1976. Holmstrom and Co. were tight with the Ramones and the bands in the CBGB scene, and every musician who appeared on the cover of Punk became a star in the punk galaxy.
The hefty “Best of” tome includes interviews with the Ramones, Sex Pistols, the Velvet Underground’s John Cale and Brian Eno, plus cartoons by R. Crumb, Holmstrom and others, as well as two “graphic novels” — “The Legend of Nick Detroit” and “Mutant Monster Beach Party.”
Deborah Harry of Blondie at a Punk magazine Christmas party.
There are also photos by renowned Punk lenswoman Roberta Bayley, documenting the scene and all its scenesters, plus the famously steamy photos of Deborah Harry of Blondie in her ripped-up “Vultures” T-shirt.
Lincoln Anderson
