What does it says about you when your face can be used in cartoons and comics, when your mug has reached this level of familiarity that everyone instantaneously recognizes who you are once sketched by more than three dozen of different artists? Well you have reached iconic mythological level, celebrity status beyond return!
I don’t know who came up with this idea that Henry Rollins and Glenn Danzig could be a couple but this is a hilarious idea, which picked up so much that an exhibit featuring over 100 pieces of original art from the new graphic novel ‘Henry & Glenn Forever & Ever’ has just opened at the wacky La Luz de Jesus Gallery. Of course, I went to the grand opening on Friday night, to admire the artwork and laugh at all these paintings, comic pages hung on the walls, featuring the infamous couple in the most scabrous, weird and touching situations.
The show features all of the art of painter and cartoonist Tom Neely, as well as other work by Josh Bayer, Jeremy Baum, Chuck BB, Champoy, Alex Chiu, Max Clotfelter, Andrew Cox, Matt Crabe, Beth Dean, J. T. Dockery, Gabrielle Gamboa, Ken Garduno, Bruno Guerreiro, Justin Hall, Megan Hutchison, Keenan Marshall Keller, Ed Luce, Benjamin Marra, MariNaomi, Gabe Martinez, Kiyoshi Nakazawa, Scot Nobles, Jeremy Owen, Marc J. Palm, Nate Powell, Grant Reynolds, Mark Rudolph, Jim Rugg, Sean Stepanoff, Gin Stevens, Mark Todd, Dalton Webb, Mikey Wetzel, Eric Yahnker, Dan Zettwoch… so there was a lot to see and read!
No matter how they are drawn and depicted, they are still Henry and Glenn! These two seem to be crazy in love and having one of the strangest relationships ever, a ‘romance at the end of the world’: Glenn is the total weirdo he is in real life (right?) Satan worshipper while still attached to his mother, whereas Henry is going through all the phases, from super hero to zombie, from old school Batman (and his Robin) to Frankenstein creature, machine killer and lover of course. Two of my favorite pieces were that Ghost (the movie) scene recreated with the punk duo, and this other piece representing the couple in bed with Morrissey.
It is as if all these artists had reunited all their fantasies about the iconic couple in this series of work inundated by homoeroticism and a lot of tenderness. Henry is the cool and calm one, while Glen is the one with the tantrums, while Hall and Oates drop frequently in the cartoons for some reason, fueling inside jokes for music fans.
The exhibit was attended by the most intriguing and underground punk crowd I had ever seen, while punk songs were blasting through the speakers the whole time and artists were signing the book… not a bad way to start the weekend, although I was secretly hoping for Rollins and Danzig to appear in person!
The exhibit runs through November 2nd at La Luz de Jesus Gallery on Hollywood boulevard.
