England’s Gorillaz are anything but a conventional band. Formed in 1998 by Blur’s Damon Albarn and Comic Book Artist Jamie Hewlett as a counterreaction to the vacuous Pop music industry of the 1990s. Meant to be satire and poke fun at manufacturing a band, the experiment caught on and Gorillaz piqued the interest of many, with their 2001 debut single “Clint Eastwood” becoming a massive hit and their self-titled debut album peaking in charts around the world.
With a concept that worked, while some felt that perhaps Gorillaz was a gimmick, Albarn set out to prove everyone wrong and continued the project alongside Hewlett with the release of Demon Days in 2005. Yet another tremendous success, Demon Days impressively also topped charts and outperformed their debut. Proof that Gorillaz were here to stay, the project has continued to entice with its mix of fictional cartoon characters with varied personalities and exceptionally eclectic music. Mixing Alternative Rock, Hip Hop, and Electronic textures, all of these years later, Gorillaz have toured regularly, while putting out one exceptional album after another through to 2023’s Cracker Island.
Now expected to release their ninth studio album, The Mountain, on February 27, 2025, it has been over 20 years since Gorillaz first blurred the line between music and virtual reality. A history of imagination and lore, in 2020 Gorillaz’s Damon Albarn and Jamie Hewlett joined with Z2 Comics to put out an extradionary book entitled Gorillaz Almanac 2020. Extremely peculiar and delightful, this book provides an illuminating history of Gorillaz and its cast of characters.
Released on December 22, 2020, the standard edition is eight by ten hardcover book with a massive 208 pages that include an introduction to each members (2D, Murdoc Niccals, Noodle, and Russel Hobbs) personalities, amply eye-catching illusrations, the band’s first ever comic strip, fan dedicated sections, fictional interviews, puzzles, quizzes, and even cutout Gorillax masks and coloring pages (but who would you want to use them and ruin the book?).
Perfectly started with an amusing foreword from Beatrix Blotter (the fictional editor), from this point on, you know you are in for plenty more treats. Featuring art from Jamie Hewllet, along with Masa Minoura, the primary writing was by Ed Caruana and Thomas O’Malley (who have been the primary scriptwriters for Gorillaz since 2016). Well put together, it all feels very much like Gorillaz and everything they have been about, with cleverness, a tongue-in-cheek sense of humor, and more.
A project put together to celebrate 20 years of Gorillaz, the vast universe it creates is brought to life in a way that will make fans smile. Modeled after classic British hardback annuals, if you are a fan of satire publications like Mad Magazine, but all within the realm of Gorillaz, you are going to love this book. Uncertain whether they will do another almanac; let it be known that since this release, Gorillaz put out The Gorillaz Art Book through Z2 Comics in 2022, which is also a great coffee table conversation piece.
With all this in mind, if you missed Gorillaz Almanac 2020, you can still find the hardcore edition at various stores, including the Z2 Comics website. Extremely worth it for dedicated fans, Cryptic Rock gives Gorillaz Almanac 2020 5 out of 5 stars.
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