By Zack Quaintance — Daniel Johnston — the late singer/artist who drew Austin, Texas’ iconic Hi, How Are You mural — is posthumously having his artwork used as a series of variant covers for Batman #121.

As a former resident of Austin (2012 - 2016, baby…don’t even recognize the place now), I’ve long found Johnston to be a fascinating artist, and these covers are in keeping with his earnest body of work, powered as it is a by an almost-childlike passion and glee. There are three Johnston variant covers for Batman #121, which is set for release on March 1, and they feature Batman (naturally), Superman, and Orion.

These limited covers are being released via the retailer Austin Books & Comics (a fine shop, well-worth a visit if you’re in town), in cooperation with Electric Lady Studios and The Contemporary Austin. This Batman variant cover release actually coincides with a retrospective of Johnston’s work being held at The Contemporary Austin. It’s called Daniel Johnston: I Live My Broken Dreams, and it’s running through March 20.

Check out the covers below, available for pre-order now…

Daniel Johnston Batman #121 Variant Covers

How these Daniel Johnston Batman #121 variant covers came to be is pretty interesting, too. Here’s a snippet from DC Comics’ official announcement…

The exhibition’s curator, Robin K. Williams, noticed a letter Johnston had written in the 1990s or 2000s addressed to his friend Marie Javins, now Editor-in-Chief at DC, requesting her help getting his artwork into comics. “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.”

Javins, meanwhile, had been collecting Johnston’s artwork since meeting him back in 1986, and they’d remained in correspondence, with Johnston regularly sending her artwork and even collaborating with her on some art while she was working as a colorist. It’s all very touching, even more so when you also consider this quote (also from the announcement) by Lee Foster, the managing partner of Electric Lady, which handles Johnston’s art catalog on behalf of his surviving family.

“This is a complete realization of one of Daniel’s biggest dreams—to have his designs featured on a DC cover and sold in his favorite comic shop. It puts a lump in my throat.”

If you’re interested, relevant information from DC Comics’ announcement about how to purchase these variants can be found below…

Batman #121 with the Daniel Johnston covers will be available for preorder on February 14. Limited quantities of the trade-dressed Johnston cover featuring Batman will be sold individually while sets of all three covers, featuring Batman, Superman, and DC’s New God Orion, will be packaged in unique folios and sold in limited quantities at The Austin Contemporary, Electric Lady Studios, Austin Books & Comics, and hihowareyou.com. Each partner will have an exclusive colorway for the folio.

On Wednesday, March 9 at 5:30pm, The Contemporary Austin will host a launch event with DC’s Editor-in-Chief Marie Javins in conversation with Curator Robin K. Williams. The Contemporary’s colorway set of Batman #121 with the Johnston variant covers will be available on site. Tickets and information will be available soon at thecontemporaryaustin.org/events.

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Zack Quaintance is a tech reporter by day and freelance writer by night/weekend. He Tweets compulsively about storytelling and comics as Comics Bookcase.