Wednesday, September 09, 2009

ROCK ‘N’ ROLL COMICS GETS AN ENCORE AS GRAPHIC NOVELS THROUGH BLUEWATER PRODUCTIONS

Throughout the 90’s, “Rock ‘N’ Roll Comics”, was a popular staple on the newsstands. Now the title will be receiving an encore as newly-packaged graphic novels through Bluewater Productions in partnership with the original creators Revolutionary Comics.

More than seventy biographies of notable bands and rock legends will be published in ten bi-monthly volumes starting in December 2009. They include The Beatles, Elvis Presley, Led Zeppelin, The Rolling Stones, The Who and dozens of others.

"Great ideas, like the marriage of rock 'n' roll and comics, have the half-life of uranium and will always be popular," says Jay Allen Sanford of Revolutionary Comics. "The folks at Bluewater clearly have their fingers on the same pop culture pulse that enabled the original Rock 'N' Roll Comics to become one of the top-selling indie comics of the '90s. Truth is often stranger than fiction...and certainly much more interesting!"

According to Bluewater the issues will be packaged into ten graphic novels ranging from 150 to 300 pages. Each graphic novel, which covers a particular band, era, or style, will sport new covers. Bluewater who is known best for their biographical comics, such as Female Force and Political Power, will create forewords and epilogues written by music journalists, and industry insiders.

“In some cases we will add an epilogue for groups that experienced notable milestones after the issues original publishing,” Bluewater president Darren Davis said. “Like Pink Floyd’s reunion concert at Live8, or the passing of the Who’s John Entwistle or even the release of the long delayed Guns N’ Roses album ‘Chinese Democracy.’”

Volume 1: Hard Rock Heroes
Guns N’ Roses; Metallica; AC/DC; Black Sabbath/Ozzy Osbourne; Motley Crue; Poison; Van Halen; Black Crowes; Motorhead; Pantera; Megadeth; Sammy Hagar; Anthrax; Joan Jett/Lita Ford; Skid Row (unpublished RnR Comics #8)

Volume 2: The Beatles (8 issues)

Volume 3: The Spirit of the '60s
Doors; Grateful Dead; Bob Dylan; Jimi Hendrix; Spirit; Janis Joplin; 60s San Francisco Scene (Bill Graham, Jefferson Airplane, etc); British Invasion (Herman’s Hermits, the Animals, Yardbirds, Zombies, Small Faces, etc.)

Volume 4: Led Zeppelin Experience (5 issues)

Volume 5: A Rock Pantheon
Eric Clapton; Rolling Stones; Elton John; Bruce Springsteen; Aerosmith, Alice Cooper; ZZ Top; The Jackson 5; Rod Stewart; Def Leppard

Volume 6: Pink Floyd Experience (5 issues)

Volume 7: The Art of Rock
The Who; Queen; Rush; Genesis; David Bowie, Frank Zappa; Kate Bush; ELO; The Cure

Volume 8: The King: Elvis Presley (7 issues)

Volume 9: SMASH! A Punk/Alternative Retrospective
Sex Pistols; REM; Jane’s Addiction; Nirvana; Red Hot Chili Peppers; Soundgarden; Alice in Chains; Pearl Jam; Dead Kennedys; Ramones; The Runaways; Iggy Pop/Stooges; MC5; New York Dolls; U2

Volume 10: Hip-Hop and Funk Heroes
Public Enemy, 2 Live Crew, NWA. Ice Cube, Ice-T, George Clinton and Parliament Funkadelic, MC Hammer, Janet Jackson

The original series published by Revolutionary Comics ran from 1989 to 1994. At it’s height in the early 1990’s sources report that Revolutionary Comics was the largest independent comic publisher in the industry. Circulation for each issue regularly surpassed 50,000. During its run, the company won several high profile First Amendment cases securing the right to publish the unauthorized biographies as “illustrated articles.”

The suggested retail price (SRP) for each upcoming graphic novel release is $17.99.

No comments: