Illustrations by the late Daniel Johnston will appear on the cover of an upcoming issue of DC's Batman comic. Three variants of Batman #121, featuring his drawings of Batman, Superman and Orion, are being made by Austin Books & Comics in cooperation with Electric Lady Studios and The Contemporary Austin, and will be available March 1. They are available for preorder now.
The covers came about after Robin K Williams, who curated the current Johnston art exhibition at Contemporary Austin, found a letter from Johnston addressed to his friend Marie Javins, who is now the editor at DC Comics, asking for help getting a foot in at DC. “I thought the letter was strange and touching,” says Williams, “because he was already an internationally successful musician when he wrote it. When I asked Marie about it, she said, ‘Daniel had two loves, music and art, and always wanted to be a comic book artist.’ This gave her the beautiful idea to finally make this happen.”