Barnaby Legg, Jim McCarthy and Flameboy

Takes Kurt Cobain's story and turns it into a graphic novel. Combines the dream imagery with objective reality. Colour graphics throughout.

Synopsis: This title takes Kurt Cobain's story and plays it out as a graphic novel.From the luminous colours of an idyllic childhood through the flamboyant hues of success and stardom, Cobain's story inevitably declines into a much darker palette. The script draws from the singer's tortured self-image as well as straightforward biographical fact so that the tone of the book fluctuates between subjective dream-state and objective reality.

Paperback 96 pages (13 October, 2003)

Publisher: Omnibus Press; ISBN: 0711997632

Purchase GODSPEED at all leading bookstores,

and also from Amazon.co.uk - follow the link below:

 GodSpeed: The Kurt Cobain Graphic

REVIEW COPIES:
Requests for review copies should be emailed to Helen Donlon at hdonlon@well.com (UK & Europe), or Alison Wofford at aw@musicsales.com.

Alternatively, visit www.musicsales.com

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NEW! The creation of 'Godspeed'. Click here to see the step-by-step process of how I produced the artwork for Godspeed.

Some Facts About GODSPEED
Flameboy comics cannot make any claims on behalf of Barnaby Legg, Jim McCarthy, Ed Chartelier or Chris Charlesworth. The following relates to Flameboy’s account of the Godspeed project.

First off, thanks goes out to those of you who have bought Godspeed and taken the time to read it and to those of you who have e-mailed me your comments & support.
Ok, here are some points, which respond to the more commonly asked questions. I hope you find them helpful.

Godspeed, is the brainchild of Chris Charlseworth (Omnibus Press) and Ed Chatelier. Chris and Ed invited a number of established comic book artists to submit some samples of work depicting Kurt Cobain as a comic book. At this stage a script for Godspeed did not exist.

I was thrown in towards the end as a bit of a wild card due to Ed reading a rough cut of Homecoming. The work submitted is shown on this page.

It was this very work on which they made their decision. At first I wasn’t sure that a graphic novel about Kurt Cobain was such a cool idea (for all the obvious reasons) but Ed convinced me that it would be a new and different way of keeping the memory of Kurt alive. It was shortly after this that I realised just how many people were unaware of Nirvana or who Kurt Cobain was (Believe me, there are probably more than you’d think). So I decided to accept the project.

The art for Godspeed (which included the pencilling, inking, colouring & lettering) took eight months solid, locked away in a room with no windows & just the music & videos of Nirvana, plus a copy of Kurt’s journals for company.

About Boddah & the way he is depicted: We tried to imagine what type of imaginary friend Kurt would have conjured up. Initially I looked at cartoon characters like Mickey Mouse & Chim Chim the monkey as they were ( we are told ) characters that kurt liked as a child. I also looked at a Peter Pan type character. In the end I opted for a character that was a bit Kurt looking ( as he probably put some of himself into the character ) , a bit Peter Pan-ish & a bit Huckleberry Finn as I imagined that character in some way represented the spirit of Kurt .

Finally, I want to set the record straight regarding Godspeed, due to the amount of e-mails from Nirvana fans who seem to be somewhat offended:

It was never intended that Godspeed be taken as the last word on Kurt Cobain or that it be taken literally as the gospel truth. Yes, there will be comparisons to Charles Cross’s book due to the fact that there is a lot of pure speculation in both books. No one can ever possibly know the truth about the last few hours leading up to Kurt’s death, one can only imagine. And that is exactly where Godspeed stands. Just IMAGINE

It was never my intention to cause pain or upset any relative or fan of Kurt Cobain but until it becomes painfully obvious that this was a bad thing to do, I stand by the work I have produced for Godspeed.

Thanks again to all of you who have supported this project including; Jessie at KDGE radio, Dallas USA, everyone at www.mooch.info/moochv2.html, Bang, NME, Kerrang, Karen & Chris for all their help with this site, and anyone else who I’ve missed due to the small size of my brain.

Flameboy