emerging creativity

Saturday, May 17, 2008

Login |
Signup

Launch Radio

cover image by Jason Levesque

Amos ink

Toriphiles await summer release of musician's comic book

By Daniela Garcia
Published: April 21st, 2008 | 5:05pm

Article Tools
print
share
- Del.icio.us
- Digg
- reddit
- Facebook
- Newsvine
- Permalink
save

Music and comics make good teammates.

Comic artist Jeph Jacques' centers his series Questionable Content around “indie rock, hipster romance, and sentient computers." And there are comics created by musicians themselves, such as the dark series called The Umbrella Academy by My Chemical Romance frontman Gerard Way.

Comic Book Tattoo is a 480-page book of art inspired by 20 years and 12 albums worth of Tori Amos’ music. Released July 23, the full-color anthology consists of 50 illustrated stories based on themes and ideas behind Amos’ lyrics. Some of the comic world’s best and brightest talents contributed work, including The Nightly News creator Jonathan Hickman, sci-fi series Finder creator Carla Speed McNeil, Rent Girl illustrator Laurenn McCubbin, and Choked Up creator Nikki Cook.

Comic Book Tattoo is not a random assembly of artists slapping together drawings and putting Tori Amos’ name on it. In fact, Amos was involved throughout the production process and worked alongside editor Rantz Hoseley. Even prior to this endeavor, Amos already had a well-established connection to the comic world through good friend Neil Gaiman, author of The Sandman comic series. Amos wrote the introduction to Gaiman’s Death: The High Cost of Living and references Gaiman and his work in her music. Gaiman returns the favor by writing the introduction to Comic Book Tattoo.

Krystal Hagan, a Venus Zine reader and Tori Amos fan, looks forward to seeing the final result. “To know that Tori was so deeply involved in the process — and that some of the best comic book artists in the world contributed — makes me confident that it will be a beautiful piece of art,” she says.

With a title that includes “tattoo” in the title, you can’t help but wonder if more than a few fans will be inspired by the Amos-based art to get some real ink on their skin. “I won’t be surprised at all to see images from the book permanently etched on the body parts of Toriphiles at the next concert,” Hagan says.