Alan Oldham’s Return Of JOHNNY GAMBIT graphic novel is launching with a Kickstarter campaign in September. The Detroit native who currently calls Berlin home is bringing back the character with a double album. JOHNNY GAMBIT debuted in 1986 as a black and white comic published by Hot Comics in Chicago. Two more issues were completed in 1987 by Detroit’s Eclectic Press. The character was cited in the first article about Detroit Techno written in The Face magazine in 1987. Oldham took a trip to New York that year and gave promotional copies of JOHNNY GAMBIT #1 to Marvel’s editors and three years later a familiar visage with pink hair and a trench coat named Gambit appeared in Uncanny X-Men #266.
Oldham started making techno music and DJing for Underground Resistance in the early ’90s and took on his DJ T-1000 moniker to differentiate between his graphic art and music personas. He also founded the Generator and Pure Sonik labels. He returned to visual art in the mid-2000s and had exhibitions in Detroit, Berlin, Amsterdam, Paris, Vienna and his latest private showing in Kobe,Japan, beginning August 12th.
The JOHNNY GAMBIT reboot is something Oldham has been working on part-time for the last decade. The sci-fi hero comes to life in 124 B&W pages on high gloss paper and a smooth matte cover. The music to accompany the comic is Oldham’s 2009 album and a 2012 compilation of music inspired by the character from Blaktony (Aux 88), FBK, Nino Sebelic and more.
The pre-launch page is live now and there will be more bonuses added to the various tiers. Sign-up for more updates and the full campaign that officially starts on September 5th below. Oldham will also play a live DJ set at his hometown’s 9th annual Charivari Detroit Music Festival on August 12th.
