Marvel Music was a short-lived imprint of

Marvel Comics Marvel Comics is a New York City–based comic book publishing, publisher, a property of the Walt Disney Company since December 31, 2009, and a subsidiary of Disney Publishing Worldwide since March 2023. Marvel was founded in 1939 by Martin G ...

, introduced in 1994 to publish comics developed in collaboration with musicians. The concept descended from previous Marvel collaborations with

Kiss A kiss is the touching or pressing of one's lips against another person, animal or object. Cultural connotations of kissing vary widely; depending on the culture and context, a kiss can express sentiments of love, passion, romance, sex ...

(which starred in a ''

Marvel Comics Super Special ''Marvel Comics Super Special'' was a 41-issue series of one-shot comic-magazines published by American company Marvel Comics from 1977 to 1986. They were cover-priced $1.50 to $2.50, while regular color comics were priced 30 cents to 60 cents, Be ...

'' featuring the band portrayed as superheroes fighting Marvel villains), and

Alice Cooper Vincent Damon Furnier (born February 4, 1948), known by his stage name Alice Cooper, is an American rock singer and songwriter whose career spans sixty years. With a raspy voice and a stage show that features numerous props and stage illusion ...

. In an effort to diversify beyond superhero works, Marvel introduced the Marvel Music imprint in 1994, with Mort Todd as its editor. The imprint featured comics influenced by the life stories and music of various musicians and bands, having published works in collaboration with Alice Cooper,

Billy Ray Cyrus William Ray Cyrus ( ; born August 25, 1961) is an American singer, songwriter and actor. Having released 16 studio albums and 53 singles since 1992, he is known for his hit single "Achy Breaky Heart", which topped the U.S. Hot Country Songs cha ...

, the estate of

Bob Marley Robert Nesta Marley (6 February 1945 – 11 May 1981) was a Jamaican singer, songwriter, and guitarist. Considered one of the pioneers of reggae, he fused elements of reggae, ska and rocksteady and was renowned for his distinctive voca ...

Marty Stuart John Marty Stuart (born September 30, 1958) is an American country music, country and bluegrass music singer, songwriter, and musician. Active since 1968, Stuart initially toured with Lester Flatt, and then in Johnny Cash's road band before be ...

Onyx Onyx is a typically black-and-white banded variety of agate, a silicate mineral. The bands can also be monochromatic with alternating light and dark bands. ''Sardonyx'' is a variety with red to brown bands alternated with black or white bands. ...

, and

the Rolling Stones The Rolling Stones are an English Rock music, rock band formed in London in 1962. Active for over six decades, they are one of the most popular, influential, and enduring bands of the Album era, rock era. In the early 1960s, the band pione ...

. 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 ''

'', dated simply 1977, featured the rock band

in a 40-page fictional adventure written by

Steve Gerber Stephen Ross Gerber (; September 20, 1947 – February 10, 2008) was an American comic book writer and creator of the satiric Marvel Comics character Howard the Duck. Other works include '' Man-Thing'', ''Omega the Unknown,'' ''Marvel Spotlight ...

, penciled by John Romita Jr., Alan Weiss,

John Buscema John Buscema ( ; born Giovanni Natale Buscema, ; December 11, 1927 – January 10, 2002)Social Se ...

Rich Buckler Rich Buckler (February 6, 1949 – May 19, 2017) was an Americans, American comics artist and penciller, best known for his work on Marvel Comics' ''Fantastic Four (comic book), Fantastic Four'' in the mid-1970s and for creating the character Deat ...

, and

Sal Buscema Sal Buscema ( ; born Silvio Buscema, , on January 26, 1936) is an American comics artist, primarily for Marvel Comics, where he had a ten-year run as artist of ''The Incredible Hulk (comic book), The Incredible Hulk'' and an eight-year run as art ...

, which saw the quartet battling Marvel

supervillain A supervillain, supervillainess or supercriminal is a major antagonist and variant of the villainous stock character who possesses Superpower (ability), superpowers. The character type is sometimes found in comic books and is often the primary ...

s Mephisto and

Doctor Doom Doctor Doom is a fictional character appearing in American comic books published by Marvel Comics. Created by Stan Lee and Jack Kirby, the character first appeared in '' The Fantastic Four'' #5 in April 1962, and has since endured as the arch ...

. Issue 50 of '' Marvel Premiere'' (stand date of October 1979) featured a story, ''Tales From the Inside'', featuring

History

In 1991,

Neil Gaiman Neil Richard MacKinnon Gaiman (; born Neil Richard Gaiman; 10 November 1960) is an English author of short fiction, novels, comic books, audio theatre, and screenplays. His works include the comic series ''The Sandman (comic book), The Sandma ...

was approached by an

Epic Records Epic Records is an American record label owned by Sony Music Entertainment, a subsidiary of Sony Corporation of America, the American division of Japanese conglomerate Sony is a Japanese multinational conglomerate (company), cong ...

executive, seeking help in developing a

concept album A concept album is an album whose tracks hold a larger purpose or meaning collectively than they do individually. This is typically achieved through a single central narrative or theme, which can be instrumental, compositional, or lyrical. Som ...

for Alice Cooper. Gaiman was interested in the project, having been familiar with Cooper, telling ''

Spin Spin or spinning most often refers to: * Spin (physics) or particle spin, a fundamental property of elementary particles * Spin quantum number, a number which defines the value of a particle's spin * Spinning (textiles), the creation of yarn or thr ...

'' 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 David Robert Jones (8 January 194710 January 2016), known as David Bowie ( ), was an English singer, songwriter and actor. Regarded as one of the most influential musicians of the 20th century, Bowie was acclaimed by critics and musicians, pa ...

Lou Reed Lewis Allan Reed (March 2, 1942October 27, 2013) was an American musician and songwriter. He was the guitarist, singer, and principal songwriter for the rock band the Velvet Underground and had a solo career that spanned five decades. Althoug ...

fan. But they had made me watch '

Teenage Lament '74 "Teenage Lament '74" is a song by Alice Cooper. It was released on the album '' Muscle of Love'', and was written by Cooper and Neal Smith. The song reached #12 on the UK Singles Chart in 1974. The song also reached #16 on the Ireland chart, ...

' on ''

Top of the Pops ''Top of the Pops'' (''TOTP'') is a British record chart television programme, made by the BBC and broadcast weekly between 1January 1964 and 30 July 2006. The programme was the world's longest-running weekly music show. For most of its histo ...

''." 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. Marvel published ''

Cheap Trick Cheap Trick is an American rock band formed in Rockford, Illinois in 1970 by guitarist Rick Nielsen, bassist Tom Petersson, lead vocalist Robin Zander and drummer Bun E. Carlos. Their work bridged elements of '60s pop rock, guitar pop, '70s har ...

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

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 Kirk Jones (born November 3, 1973), better known by his stage name Sticky Fingaz, is an American rapper, record producer and actor best known as a member of multi-platinum hardcore rap group Onyx. Sticky Fingaz was discovered by Jam Master Ja ...

was supportive of their collaboration, as he was a fan of Marvel Comics himself. Alice Cooper's collaboration with Gaiman, " The Last Temptation", was adapted into a comic and released under the imprint in June 1994.

KRS-One Lawrence "Kris" Parker (born August 20, 1965), better known by his stage names KRS-One (; an abbreviation of "Knowledge Reigns Supreme Over Nearly Everyone") and Teacha, is an American rapper from the Bronx. He rose to prominence as part of the ...

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. Another entry in the series, ''Tale Of The Tuff Gong'', was a biographical story based on the life of

. The titles were hampered by poor promotion. 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." To reach their target audience, Marvel suggested that the comics also be sold as concert merchandise. However, only

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''. With Marvel heading into bankruptcy, the imprint was discontinued in 1995. 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." The Marvel Music name is presently used by an unrelated unit of

Marvel Studios Marvel Studios, LLC, formerly known as Marvel Films, is an American film and television production company. Marvel Studios is the creator of the Marvel Cinematic Universe (MCU), a media franchise and shared universe of films and television ser ...

, responsible for releasing its

film soundtracks A soundtrack is a recorded audio signal accompanying and synchronised to the images of a book, drama, motion picture, radio program, television program, or video game; colloquially, a commercially released soundtrack album of music as featured ...

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. The imprint used the square, bound graphic novels as they were considered better price points for bookstores. * ''

: Tale Of The Tuff Gong'' #1–3 (1994–1995) * ''

: The Last Temptation'' #1–3, by

and

Michael Zulli Michael Zulli (December 20, 1952 – July 8, 2024) was an American artist known for his work as an animal and wildlife illustrator and as a comic book illustrator. Best known for his work on the Sandman. Career Michael Zulli's career in the c ...

, with Alice Cooper (1994) — based on The Last Temptation album by

** ''The Compleat Alice Cooper: Incorporating the Three Acts of Alice Cooper, The Last Temptation'', by Neil Gaiman; Michael Zulli; Alice Cooper (1995) * ''Break The Chain,'' based on the life of

— issue #1 included an

audio cassette The Compact Cassette, also commonly called a cassette tape, audio cassette, or simply tape or cassette, is an analog audio, analog magnetic tape recording format for Sound recording and reproduction, audio recording and playback. Invented by L ...

of its title track. (1994) * ''

Woodstock The Woodstock Music and Art Fair, commonly referred to as Woodstock, was a music festival held from August 15 to 18, 1969, on Max Yasgur's dairy farm in Bethel, New York, southwest of the town of Woodstock, New York, Woodstock. Billed as "a ...

, 1969–1994'', by Mort Todd and Charles Schneider, illustrated by Pat Redding (1994) * ''

: Marty Party In Space'', by Paul S. Newman,

, and Pat Boyette (1995) * ''

'', by Paul S. Newman, Dan Barry, and Gail Beckett (1995) * ''

Rolling Stones The Rolling Stones are an English Rock music, rock band formed in London in 1962. Active for over six decades, they are one of the most popular, influential, and enduring bands of the Album era, rock era. In the early 1960s, the band pione ...

: Voodoo Lounge'', by

Dave McKean David McKean (born 29 December 1963) is an England, English artist. His work incorporates drawing, painting, photography, collage, found objects, digital art, and sculpture. McKean has illustrated works by authors such as S. F. Said, S.F. Said, ...

(1995) * ''

: Fight!'' by Karl Bollers and Larry Lee (1995)

References

External links

* {{Marvel Comics Marvel Comics imprints