Review by Graham Johnstone
Punk Rock in Comics, a 2025 addition to NBM’s music “in Comics” series, also marks a plausible 50th anniversary for punk. “Main Editor” Nicholas Finet, and “Comics Writer” Thierry Lamy were the right age but wrong place (France), to be punks, so how do they cope with this surprisingly complex phenomenon?
They tell the stories of key bands and developments, and bookend them with features on punk origins and legacy. In each case there’s a fair balance between Britain (Pub Rock / Sex Pistols / Clash / Damned) and America (CBGB / Ramones / Johnny Thunders). Bands taking punk spirit in different directions are well represented by Buzzcocks and Siouxsie and the Banshees. Less enduring bands still offer interesting angles: The Vibrators representing ‘older’ (thirtyish!) musicians riding the punk wave, and Sham 69’s efforts to mobilise disaffected youth being colonised by the far right. If readers’ favourites aren’t on the contents page, they may well appear in chapters on local scenes, “girls”, and overlapping musical developments. The influence of managers in shaping punk style and philosophy is also well captured as broad and thorough coverage also gives credible shape to a phenomenon resisting a single chronology.
Individual stories are well-told, building on pivotal moments, like Joe Strummer quitting his ‘Pub Rock’ band to join The Clash. Lamy avoids the awkwardly expository dialogue of some companion titles, through better use of narrative captions, and smart devices like letting bands expound their views from the stage. Most stories achieve a documentary-style objectivity. However, some use other perspectives, in the case of The Sex Pistols, that of contemporary fans, revealed in the final panel as the author(s). Personal perspectives are less welcome in unattributed, hyperbolic claims like “undeniable talent” and “…undoubtedly the most legendary and most influential…”. The authors’ distance from contemporary sources is exposed in nuances like the timing and characteristics of related genres like, New Wave and Post-Punk. They also confuse earlier genres, blaming ‘twenty minute solos’ on Glam instead of Prog(ressive) Rock. However, few readers will find much wrong or missing here.
The series’ usual selection of artists works well here. At one extreme is the very documentary Gilles Pascal, his sober greyscale washes suiting the era’s monochrome music papers, and Pub Rock’s no-frills ethos. At the other extreme, Martin Trystram stylishly cartoons The Clash, subtly exaggerating their builds and hairstyles. His mixture of high contrast inking and spot colours nods to the band’s record sleeves. However, he shows guitarist (Mick) Jones finding the band name in a newspaper headline (pictured, right), which the text attributes to bassist Simonon. Benoît Frébourg nails punk jesters The Damned with Beano-meets-Bretécher cartooning. Thierry Gioux provides the most eye-catching art for the most iconic band – The Sex Pistols. Perfectly pitched between realism and cartooning, he captures their likenesses as accurately as their demeanours: guitarist Steve Jones’s swagger and frontman Johnny Rotten’s provocation. The other artists are mostly good, and similarly well matched to their subjects. Design details like the contents page channeling punk zines and Jamie Reid’s ‘ransom note’ lettering, and the cheap paper effect, add further appeal.
Finet and Lamy pack their 160 pages, offering a thorough overview and convincing individual narratives. Favouring breadth over depth is a sound approach to punk’s tangled narratives, though it feels more like watching news reports than actually being there. The series’ format of short comics by different artists, made other volumes slightly disjointed. However, this kaleidoscopic approach fits a phenomenon with multiple geographic and stylistic threads, and thoughtful matching of artists to subjects help make Punk Rock in Comics perhaps the strongest volume so far.
