The book will also have a foreword by American actor Johnny Depp, as well as art critic Waldemar Januszczak. Depp, a collector of MacGowan’s artwork, had this to say in the foreword: “It’s rare for a creative genius like Shane to have one avenue of output. Such an incendiary talent is likely to have a multitude of facilities …. And so, revealed here, is Shane’s propensity for the wild, for the absurd, for the political, for the beautiful …. but, regardless of medium, his work will always be full of poetry – a bit like the great man, and my great friend, himself; the artist, Shane MacGowan.”

Fans will also get to see pictures of MacGowan’s notorious nightlife. Nights out with, among many, Bob Dylan, Nick Cave and fashion model Kate Moss will apparently be on display, along with a number of MacGowan’s sketches, character studies, paintings, self-portraits, stories and “abstract snippets”. However, it’s a marvel in the first place that such a wealth of material has become available in the first place.

MacGowan’s wife (and collaborator on the book), Victoria Mary Clarke, has said that they only found the drawings during the making of last year’s documentary on MacGowan – Crock of Gold: A Few Rounds With Shane MacGowan – when her mother found thousands of the drawings, which she delivered in a bin bag. She said “we didn’t even know it existed, it was miraculous, like finding a crock of gold!“

It seems an important venture for the famous musician, for whom art has been a life-long passion. He said in a statement that art was “one of the only O levels I got”. The singer has had a history of designing his own album covers, such as The Pogues’ Red Roses For Me and If I Should Fall From Grace With God. He also noted some of his favourite artists and stylistic periods, ranging from the renaissance (such as Caravaggio) to the impressionists (Lavery, Brendan Fitzpatrick) and the surrealists (Dali, Chagall), opining that “there’s millions of them”.

The collection is set to be released next April, but it will be limited to only 1,000 copies, so it’s best for fans to get in quick. If you want to pre-order now, you can look here. If you want to read more about the upcoming release, you can look here. If you want some Christmas cheer, you can look below, and reminisce with this Pogues classic.

It will be released in April 2022 via Z2 Comics, The Gorillaz Art Book promises to give fans “new interpretations of 2D, Murdoc Niccals, Noodle, and Russel Hobbs in one expansive volume”, with the likes of Jack Black, The Cure’s Robert Smith and Little Dragon all contributing.

Speaking about the project, Hewlett said: “Gorillaz have always collaborated with music but this is the first time we’ve done an art collaboration. I’ve really enjoyed working with so many of my favourite artists and the result is this amazing book.”

The book will be case bound in Italy and measures 12.6 x 9.2 inches and is set across 288 pages of luxury art paper. It’s available to pre-order now from here and costs £68.99. The band also shared news of the announcement on their social media which you can view below.

The Gorillaz Art Book
Featuring brand new artwork by Jamie Hewlett and a host of guest contributions from friends and admirers of the band
Set across over 250 pages, expertly printed and bound in Italy
Released Spring 2022 https://t.co/jnhkVIcWZ3 pic.twitter.com/nsQHxydMWz

— gorillaz (@gorillaz) December 9, 2021

The frontman Damon Albarn has confirmed that a feature-length Gorillaz film is also in the works at Netflix. During an interview with Apple Music about his new solo album, ‘The Nearer The Fountain, More Pure The Stream Flows’, Albarn said: “I’m at Netflix because we’re making a full-length Gorillaz film with Netflix. It’s really exciting to do that. It’s something we’ve been wanting to do for a very long time. It’s been through so many incarnations…this Gorillaz doing a movie. Honestly. But I can’t say anything more about it, obviously, because… No, no, no.”

You can view the complete list of guest artists for The Gorillaz Art Book below:

Ana Godis
Andre Carrilho
Andrew C. Robinson
Anna Cattish
Ben Bocquelet
Brendan McCarthy
Chloe Nicolay
Craig McCracken
Dana Terrace
Daniela Uhlig
Del the Funky Homosapien
EPHK
Erik Fountain
Glyn Dillon
Gregory Hergert
Holly Warburton
J.A.W. Cooper
Jack Black
Jared Cody Wolf
Jean-Baptiste Mondino
Jens Claessens
Jeremy Enecio
Kerbcrawlerghost
Kim Jung Gi
Laurie Vincent
Little Thunder
Marella Moon Albanese
Marianna Ignazzi
Miss Jisu
Nicolas Dehghani
Robert Smith
Robert Valley
Ruffmercy
Sainer
Tara Billinger
Taya Strizhakova
Tim McCourt & Max Taylor
Valeria Ko
Vanesa R. Del Rey
Venla Linna
Vincent Roucher
William Wray
Zeen Chin