Gorillaz co-creator and animator Jamie Hewlett has announced a new art book called Phoo Action: Silver Jubilee.
Hewlett, who founded the cartoon band along with Damon Albarn in 1998, will release the 368-page hardcover title in late November via Z2 Comics. It’s priced at £41.56, and is available to pre-order here.
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The book contains an oral history of Phoo Action, the TV pilot that was created by Hewlett and Mat Wakeham. Broadcast on BBC Three back in 2008, the show is based on Hewlett’s Get The Freebies comic from the ’90s.
Co-written by Wakeham, Phoo Action: Silver Jubilee collects the entirety of the 12-part comic for the first time.
It’ll also boast a never-before-seen introductory comic to a planned second season of Phoo Action that was never produced, with a prose novel from Wakeham detailing the rest of the chapters.
Additionally, fans can pour over original illustrations from comic artist Philip Bond (The Invisibles, Kill Your Boyfriend), as well as a “treasure trove” of previously unseen development and character artwork from Hewlett.
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The book is said to “present a definitive and exhaustive timeline of this cult masterpiece”, per an official listing.
“To say that I hold dear these characters and this property is an understatement,” Wakeham said in a statement. “I am so extremely grateful to be their current custodian and curator, and that I still get to be a creative.”
Earlier this year, Z2 Comics published The Gorillaz Art Book which presented “new interpretations of 2D, Murdoc Niccals, Noodle, and Russel Hobbs in one expansive volume”.
That title saw Hewlett team up with over 40 guest contributors, including Jack Black, The Cure’s Robert Smith, and Little Dragon.
Gorillaz recently joined forces with Thundercat on a new single called ‘Cracker Island’. Prior to its release, the group had been performing the collaborative song live during their current world tour. A trippy official video for the track came out late last month.
The band released their seventh and most recent studio album, ‘Song Machine: Season One – Strange Timez’, in October 2020.