The Four Color Media Monitor

It's not just film and television actors like the aforementioned Tom Hardy and Keanu Reeves who're getting involved in comics writing. Even pop musicians like Kid Cudi are too, as announced by Entertainment Weekly:

Kid Cudi is known for being a multidisciplinary artist. Beginning with his first mixtapes, he combined rapping with singing in a way that proved influential in pop music. In subsequent years, he moved into other genres, such as rock and avant-garde, and last year his album Entergalactic was accompanied by an animated Netflix special of the same name.

Now he's unveiling a new venture. The musician (real name: Scott Mescudi) revealed at New York Comic Con on Saturday that he's releasing a comic book, Moon Man, due out next year from Image Comics, Black Market Narrative, and Mad Solar.

Co-written by Kyle Higgins (Radiant Black), with art by Marco Locati and Igor Monti, Moon Man tells the story of astronaut Ramon Townsend, who becomes a celebrity after saving his crew from a near-disastrous moon mission. But certain moments during that mission weren't captured by cameras, and they will change Ramon into something the world has never seen before.

"This might be one of the top three coolest things I've ever been a part of," said Mescudi at the event. "This story is something that took a lot of love from everyone involved. I promise you this comic will be unlike anything you've read before. To each and every person that picks up a copy and shows support in January — I love you more than you can imagine."

Higgins compares Moon Man to Alan Moore's classic comic Miracleman, which explored the effects a superhero might have on the real world. With his popular series Radiant Black and the whole "Massive-Verse" it has spawned, Higgins and his creative collective Black Market Narrative have been reimagining superhero comics for the modern era. Though it is not technically part of the Massive-Verse, Moon Man is the latest example. [...]

Mescudi's interest in comics dates back to his 2009 debut album, Man on the Moon: The End of Day, which boasted cover art from legendary comics artist Bill Sienkiewicz. Moon Man reunites Mescudi with Sienkiewicz, who provided a variant cover for the series' debut issue along with other big artists like Rod Reis and Christian Ward.

Ah, here we go again with the completely unnecessary venture of variants, which minimizes the seriousness of the promotion. And comparing it to Moore's Miracleman? Now that could be worrisome, because as explained at this site, some of Moore's writings have dealt with themes like sexual assault, and how do we know this new indie comic won't build on anything similar? Citing such a comic as Miracleman viewed in context of the adult themes it builds upon doesn't inspire much confidence, even if Moore did write his stories with a recognition that sexual violence is offensive. If anything, the problem with how Higgins, Cudi and company are promoting their comic, allegedly inspired by Moore's, is that if it comes within even miles of building on bleak, repugnant themes, then it's hardly what you could call something unread before. How doesn't that occur to them? Also note that Higgins once put political stealth propaganda into Nightwing, when he worked at DC comics several years ago, so one could wonder if Moon Man too will end up serving as a cynical political vehicle.

And that Mescudi would have an animated special to accompany one of his albums streamed on Netflix is another letdown.

Labels: conventions, indie publishers, msm propaganda