Z2 AND CBGB ARE TURNING UNDERGROUND ROCK HISTORY INTO COMICS

CBGB is dead as a venue, but apparently nobody told the culture to stop moving. Z2 and CBGB & OMFUG have officially joined forces for a new partnership built around comics, graphic storytelling and the long, loud, beautifully filthy legacy of one of the most important rooms in music history.

The collaboration will dig into CBGB’s history, the artists who came through its doors, the scenes that exploded out of the Bowery and the personalities that helped turn one grimy club into a global symbol for punk, hardcore, new wave and every kid who ever thought three chords and a bad attitude could change their life. If Z2 does this right, there is a ridiculous amount of material to work with.

Z2 President Josh Bernstein called CBGB the pulsing heart of the Bowery, and that is not hype. The club helped launch or shape the careers of the Ramones, Blondie, Talking Heads, Television, Patti Smith Group, The Dead Boys, Richard Hell, The Dictators and plenty more. By the 1980s, hardcore bands like Agnostic Front, Murphy’s Law, Cro-Mags and Gorilla Biscuits made the place part of their own mythology too.

The first major publishing project announced under the partnership is The Illustrated History of CBGB, arriving in 2027. Daniel Kohn and Josh Bernstein are writing the book, which will focus on the true stories that happened inside the club. That is the part I want to see handled with some teeth, because CBGB does not need to be cleaned up into a cute nostalgia package. The stories should smell like beer, sweat, busted amps and bad decisions.

The announcement also lands just days before the CBGB Festival returns September 26 at Under the K Bridge Park in Brooklyn. The lineup includes Morrissey, Patti Smith, Interpol, Sex Pistols members Steve Jones, Paul Cook and Glen Matlock with Frank Carter, Bikini Kill, Mannequin Pussy, Circle Jerks, Buzzcocks, Agnostic Front, Militarie Gun and more. That mix of originals, veterans and newer acts is pretty much the entire point of keeping the CBGB name alive instead of freezing it in 1977.

Z2 and CBGB are also releasing an official festival poster illustrated by HeCreative Studios. The 11×17 print is available through Z2, with limited quantities also being sold at the festival. It is a smaller piece of the partnership, but it gives fans something immediate while the larger publishing projects are being built.

CBGB Brand Manager Phil Sandhaus said the goal is to connect longtime fans with a new generation, and that is where this partnership will either work or fall flat. If the books just replay the same five stories everybody already knows, that gets old fast. If they dig into the weird people, overlooked bands, scene politics, busted nights and cultural collisions that actually made the place matter, then Z2 has something worth getting excited about.

Z2 has already built a whole lane around music-driven graphic novels with artists including Iron Maiden, Pearl Jam, Blondie, Pantera, Joan Jett, Public Enemy, The Doors, RZA, Type O Negative and a pile of others. CBGB fits that catalog almost too perfectly. Now the challenge is making sure the books feel dangerous enough to deserve the logo.