Marvel Music

Source: Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.
This article is about a former Marvel Comics imprint. For the Marvel Studios record label that publishes its film soundtracks, see
Marvel Music (record label)
.
Marvel Music
Marvel Music (record label) (through Hollywood Records)
Country of originUnited States
Headquarters locationNew York City
Key people
  • Mort Todd (Editor)
  • Karl Bollers
  • (assistant editor)[3]
Publication typesComics
Fiction genresMusic

Marvel Music was a short-lived imprint of Marvel Comics, introduced in 1994 to publish comics developed in collaboration with musicians.

The concept descended from previous Marvel collaborations with

Onyx, and the Rolling Stones
.

The Marvel Music series was considered unsuccessful; Todd felt that Marvel did not market the series well, while only Marty Stuart took up Marvel's suggestion to sell the comics as concert merchandise. Marvel's president Terry Stewart felt that the imprint may have been "doomed at the beginning", and it was discontinued in 1995 in the wake of Marvel's descent into bankruptcy.

Background

Marvel had previously published some music-based comics; the premiere issue of

Mephisto and Doctor Doom.[4] Issue 50 of Marvel Premiere (stand date of October 1979) featured a story, Tales From the Inside, featuring Alice Cooper.[3][5]

History

In 1991,

Spin that "when I was a kid 15 years earlier than that, I had read Marvel Premiere #50, Alice Cooper: Tales From the Inside, and I also loved Welcome to My Nightmare. My cousins were the Alice Cooper fans; I was the David Bowie, Lou Reed fan. But they had made me watch 'Teenage Lament '74' on Top of the Pops."[3]

Marvel president Terry Stewart was seeking to diversify Marvel's output beyond superhero comics; noticing the popularity of Revolutionary Comics' Rock 'N' Roll Comics series, which featured unauthorized biographies of bands, Stewart felt that there was a market for comics based on musicians.[3][5] Marvel published Cheap Trick: Busted and Boo-Yaa T.R.I.B.E: Coming to Yaa as test runs in 1990. Stewart enlisted Mort Todd to serve as an editor for a music-focused imprint. The concept was met with some skepticism internally; assistant editor Karl Bollers recalled that "[when the] superhero heads in the office heard that we were doing rock comics, there was a feeling of, 'Oh my god, this is terrible!'", showing concerns that the idea would either be too kitschy, or follow in the footsteps of Revolutionary, which had been sued twice by musicians over their portrayals in Rock 'N' Roll Comics.[3][5]

In contrast to Rock 'N' Roll Comics, Marvel planned to grant creative control over its music comics to their respective musicians;

Onyx worked directly with Bollers (who was a fan of their debut album Bacdafucup) to develop Onyx: Fight!, a post-apocalyptic story which was written as a tie-in to their sophomore album All We Got Iz Us. Group member Sticky Fingaz was supportive of their collaboration, as he was a fan of Marvel Comics himself.[3][5] Alice Cooper's collaboration with Gaiman, "The Last Temptation", was adapted into a comic and released under the imprint in June 1994.[3][5] KRS-One collaborated on Break the Chain, a one-shot title that was bundled with an audio cassette that featured the story in the comic that also incorporated his music.[6] Another entry in the series, Tale Of The Tuff Gong, was a biographical story based on the life of Bob Marley.[6]

The titles were hampered by poor promotion.[3] Todd felt that Marvel "didn't know how to sell anything that wasn't superheroes", recalling that, "I was talking with their marketing people, and they were like, 'You know, we just can't really sell Elvis or Bob Marley.' And I was like, 'What? There are companies that sell Elvis tampons, and you can't sell an Elvis comic book? What? People love Elvis, people love comics!' So I was infuriated with Marvel and didn't renew my contract."[3] To reach their target audience, Marvel suggested that the comics also be sold as concert merchandise. However, only Marty Stuart took up this recommendation; subsequently, Marty Party in Space was among the best-selling titles under the Marvel Music imprint, alongside the Rolling Stones' Voodoo Lounge.[3]

With Marvel heading into bankruptcy, the imprint was discontinued in 1995.[3] In retrospect, Stewart felt that "Maybe it was doomed from the beginning, there just wasn’t enough of a market. Was it because we couldn’t get into the record stores? I don’t know."[3]

The Marvel Music name is presently used by an unrelated unit of Marvel Studios, responsible for releasing its film soundtracks.[3]

Titles

These comics featured the life stories of famous musicians and bands, while some were album-oriented mini-dramas, drawn song lyrics or superhero fantasies. All of these comics were made with the performers' input.[5] The imprint used the square, bound graphic novels as they were considered better price points for bookstores.[3]

References

  1. ^ "New World Entertainment Inc. Completes Sale of Marvel for $82.5 Million; Company Begins 1989 With Busy Schedule and Further Debt Reduction". PR Newswire. January 25, 1989. Retrieved October 4, 2011.[dead link]
  2. ^ "NWCG [New World Communications Group] Holdings Corp. Form 10-K405". SEC Info, Fran Finnegan & Company. Archived from the original on May 16, 2012. Retrieved November 5, 2011.
  3. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r s t u v w Grossman, David (March 12, 2014). "Marvel Music's Strange, Brief, and Totally Doomed Rock-Comics Revolution". Spin Magazine. Spin. Retrieved May 21, 2016.
  4. ISBN 978-0756641238
    . Marvel Super Special #1 featured the rock band Kiss as super heroes battling Mephisto and Doctor Doom, aided by the Avengers, the Defenders, Spider-Man, and the Fantastic Four.
  5. ^ a b c d e f g h Considine, J.D. (July 10, 1994). "Comics That Rock – It's Not The New Music Video – Yet – But The Comic Book Has Become A Hot Marketing Tool For Top Names In Rock,". The Baltimore Sun. Retrieved 4 October 2011.
  6. ^ a b c "A Look Into Marvel Comics' Collaborations with Hip-Hop". Hypebeast. Retrieved 2017-07-26.

External links

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