Z2 Comics If you’re looking for something to read while listening to Skillet‘s new album Victorious, look no further than Eden, a new graphic novel created in collaboration with the band. For frontman John Cooper, the chance to write a graphic novel was a dream come true.
“I love comic books,” Cooper tells ABC Radio. “I’ve got a bunch of Marvel tattoos, superheroes all over my body, on my leg. I just love comics, I’ve loved them ever since I was a kid, and I love science fiction, Star Wars and things like that.”
As fate would have it, a publisher called Z2 Comics, which has worked with musicians included The Black Keys‘ Dan Auerbach and Black Veil Brides‘ Andy Biersack, gave Cooper a call and asked if Skillet would be interested in the graphic novel treatment.
“He said, ‘Do you have ideas?’ I said, ‘Of course!'” Cooper remembers. “I’ve got a million…bizarre science fiction ideas for novels that I just assumed I’d never do anything with.”
Cooper’s ideas eventually were turned into the story of Eden, which features all the Skillet band members as fictional characters in a post-apocalyptic world.
“[We’re] trying to find a gateway to a better world, to a world that isn’t so hateful, that isn’t so violent,” Cooper explains.
Thematically, Cooper wanted Eden to reflect his favorite sci-fi stories.
“I just think that all science fiction has a great philosophy to it: philosophical, theological, metaphysical sometimes,” he says. “So this has got all those great elements of science fiction.”
Eden is out now. It’s on track to be Z2 Comics’ best-selling book.
Meanwhile, Skillet will launch a co-headlining tour with Alter Bridge September 22 in Baltimore.
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