Wednesday, August 11, 2010

One Way

When a person can wow me with the comic books AND music they put out, well that's something.

At 33 years of age (about 6 months older than me), Gerard Way has achieved just about everything that I've ever wanted to do with my creative life. His band My Chemical Romance has two certified platinum albums here in the U.S. and Way's comic book series The Umbrella Academy is an Eisner and Harvey award winner.

Having not long ago read the first volume of The Umbrella Academy and having been pumping the Three Cheers for Sweet Revenge and The Black Parade albums by My Chemical Romance for a while now, I've gotten a whole new respect for the man. And you guys know how I love giving props to those out there being creative. Especially when it's with two things that I hold so close to my heart.

In this first post I'll concentrate on giving you some snippets from the second MCR album (the one that I got into first), Three Cheers for Sweet Revenge and some things from The Umbrella Academy: Apocalypse Suite (the first volume of Mr. Way's comic).

First, as I'm known to do, the music videos from the singles from Three Cheers for Sweet Revenge with titles ABOVE the songs.

Here goes:

I'm Not Okay (I Promise)





Helena





The Ghost of You

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9f0Pkfp0xqg&feature=related



I couldn't find an embeddable (is that a word?) video for "The Ghost of You" so there's the link to YouTube. It's really a cool video and a song that's a bit different from their others on that album. Copy, paste, and watch if you'd like. I'd recommend it.

And as for those of you who may like I used to be before I really took a good listen to this band and label them as "emo", I beg you to take another listen. Way himself has been quoted as saying, "I think emo is fucking garbage, it's bullshit. I think there's bands that unfortunately [we] get lumped in with that are considered emo and by default that starts to make us emo.” and, "I think emo's a pile of shit.”

The music on "Three Cheers for Sweet Revenge" does have a punk edge, as does some "emo" music, but the content, concept, and smarts of the record take it way beyond any label. And who fucking needs any labels, anyway? It's rock music. Drink it up.



And now some artwork/pages from The Umbrella Academy: Apocalypse Suite. Gerard Way didn't draw the pictures, he wrote the script. But still... Just a taste for you...

The cover for the trade paperback



Some interior artwork/pages









So anyway... Hopefully you guys have gotten some enjoyment out of this or taken a look at something you may not have before. I'll return with another post about Gerard Way. I've been listening to "The Black Parade" nearly nonstop for a while now and am planning to read "The Umbrella Academy: Dallas" soon.

I'll give you some more thoughts on those things soon.

Peace...

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