I used to play bass in a garage rock band called Stroker Ace with Dark Horse senior books editor Chris Warner. He doesn’t brag about it, but Warner’s well-known and respected in the Portland music scene as founder and front man for legendary ‘80s punk band The Cleavers, and let me tell you—the guy can shred on that strange Gibson Strat-style guitar he slings. He could teach a course on rock and metal history, and that’s why I was stunned in those Stroker Ace days to hear he’d never watched Metalocalypse—the animated series airing on Cartoon Network, and Brendon Small’s spot-on send up of heavy metal and all things brutal.
Metalocalypse follows the adventures of Dethklok—the most famous and successful death metal band on the planet. Their music inspires self-jeopardizing devotion in their fans; their album and merchandise sales have made them the seventh largest economy in the world; their elaborate live performances often leave their audiences dead or dismembered and screaming for more; and they may or may not be prophesied to bring about a world-ending Metalocalypse. They’re also a quintet of morons.
And therein lies the genius of Brendon Small’s and co-writer Tommy Blacha’s creation. Through these five lunkheads—grunting lead singer Nathan Explosion, Swedish guitar god Skwisgaar Skwigelf, self-loathing bass player William Murderface, sweet natured Norwegian rhythm guitarist Toki Wartooth, and Midwestern drug vacuum Pickles the Drummer—Small and Blacha impale everything from shallow celebrity culture to music industry stupidity to the horror of being alive. Oh, and there are plenty of dick jokes, too.
Which makes the character-and-dialogue-driven series is a perfect fit for comics. Over the course of the new three-issue miniseries, the Metalocalypse mythology is expanded explored, giving fans of the animated series a deeper look into the character’s back-stories (why Dr. Rockzo the rock ‘n’ roll clown was sacked from hair metal rockers Zazz Blammymatazz; how high school survived William Murderface, and so on), while treading all over new and sacred ground. It’s also entirely assessable for new fans that’ve not yet learned that we’re all going to Die for Dethklok.
Not only has editor Chris Warner since become a steadfast Metalocalypse acolyte, he’s upheld his allegiance to Dethklok (and to all things metal) and by bringing them to Dark Horse, and—working directly with Brendon Small and concept designer/series director/towering maniac Jon Schnepp—assembling a team of pros uniquely suited to deliver the pure Metalocalypse experience.
Artist Lucas Maragnon—ably assisted by Eduardo Francisco on inks and Thomas Mason on colors—maintains the look of the show while injecting his own style and charm into the pages. Anyone who’s read Lucas’ work on books like Star Wars: Tag & Bink are Dead or his creator-owned Akira-by-way-of-South-America series Hellcyon knows that he’s a master of character expression and he can pull of a visual joke like no one else in comics. Pulling it all together are dueling cover artists Jon Schnepp and The Goon’s Eric Powell, both of whom have delivered some of the most ruthless work of their careers. And me…well, I just take Small and Schnepp’s fevered scenarios, mix in a little of my own insanity, and tell those guys what to draw.
If you’re a fan of subversive satire, if you dig metal and brutality, if you’re a dick joke connoisseur, or if you’re just flat out sick of shelling out four bucks for twenty-two pages of nostalgic superhero pandering, give Dethklok/Metalocalypse a shot. I don’t want to overstate it, but it’s probably the best thing you’ll ever read and will forever ruin everything else that comes after.
And if any of you kids want to break into comics — clearly the best way is to go pick up a guitar and start a rock band first.
Throwing the horns,
-Jeremy Barlow
Klokateer #622
