The Tiny World of Comic Book Music

Paul Taylor
Oct 6
5 min read

Comic books have the been primary source for media adaptations ever since Marvel's MCU took off big with Iron Man back in 2008. We've seen movie, TV, or video game adaptations for virtually everything from the A-through-C listers from the Big Two to Robert Kirkman's Invincible and The Walking Dead to the Gerard Way written The Umbrella Academy among many others. But music? Music seems an odd choice indeed.

Now... my first caveat: the "comic book music" I'm analyzing here aren't really adaptations in that traditional sense. These aren't audio dramas which take stories and characters once featured in the funny books and builds music around them. Instead I'm referring to the highly limited world of music which take style and influence from comic books, and in the most well known case, even some of the narrative structures which are most associated with comics.

Off the bat I should mention that there are examples of comic book tie-ins to musical artists: from Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds' music-biography-by-graphic-novel to the Sumerian Comics adaptations of various records including The Dillinger Escape Plan's One of Us is the Killer and Interpol's Antics. And there are even music tie-ins to actual comic book characters, like Black Canary, a pop group dedicated to DC's heroine of the same name.

This all however, as interesting as it may be, has little to do with what I really want talk about here. So without further ado: up, up, and away.

Of course the first artist I absolutely must mention here is the indomitable MF DOOM. Dumile Thompson aka DOOM became a world renowned, critically lauded, and near-universally loved artist from a combination of his unapologetic and honest uncoolness, combined with his enormous capability for personality filled, utterly unique rhymes. Thompson is far from the only musician to perform under a fictional identity, but what he did that was truly innovative was develop a full cast of identities, different persona's for different albums-- his own MF DOOM music universe. Naturally his most famous was DOOM himself, modelled after Marvel's Doctor Doom in everything from style to appearance. On top of DOOM was the darker, twisted Victor Vaughan, and the kaiju adapted King Geedorah.

Looking at DOOM's music, well... musically, there are more connections to the world of comics. From further references to comic book characters to his iconic sampling of older superhero media, especially the classic Fantastic Four animated show. This on top of his frequently comic-influenced album art and even music videos, and DOOM established himself as the irrefutable king of comic book music. Of course MF DOOM's music isn't singularly dedicated to comic books, thematically his music is often a dizzying mix of real world commentary, pop-culture references, and personal anecdotes-- the ingredients which otherwise construct virtually all music.

These musical comics don't start and stop with MF DOOM, but for an artist like Czarface it's a style very explicitly influenced by DOOM. Much like their occasional collaborator, Czarface's records belay the exploits of their fictional super-villain personas.

If Gangsta Rap is a fantasy of usually artificial toughness and criminality, the style of Czarface and MF DOOM is a fantasy of dramatic origin stories, mega-egos, and high-scale villain activities.

But on the whole the most common connection with comics for other artists is in the aesthetics, themes, and album covers. Most Czarface covers feature direct references to the boiler-plate design of many comic book covers, with numbering, pricing, and a bold logo. Under the name Metal Fingers, DOOM had his own line of albums with covers looking ripped straight from classic Silver age comics-- in this case from the interiors rather than covers. On the Special Herbs, Vol 1-6 albums Thompson put out swathes of his instrumental backing tracks from 2001-2003, both from existing songs and those unused. A true gift this is given that his albums from this era, from MF DOOM's Operation: Doomsday (1999) and MM..FOOD (2004) to Viktor Vaughn's Vaudeville Villain (2003), are renowned for their exceptional jazz rap beats.

As I alluded if we expand this to records and artists who primarily act to reference comics though the covers you can find a treasure trove of obscure music.

For some Silver Age records there's the crunchy space rock on Neil Merryweather's Kryptonite, featuring him and his band depicted in spandex suits.
Then in 1986 there's the explicitly comic book-y The Adventures of the Krewmen from the titular pscyhobilly Krewmen.
Later on there are the covers for Slough Feg's Hardworlder (2007) and Voivod's The Outer Worlds (1993). Voivod are particularly notable for including a cover of the classic Batman (1966) TV show theme on the expanded edition of Dimension Hatröss.
And an interesting one are the covers for Ja tu tylko sprzątam and Eternia, two notable Polish hip-hop records from O.S.T.R. and Eldo respectively.

Cover galley.

One of my absolute favourite examples however comes from outside the world of rap, in the Maine doom metal group Ogre. On the whole Ogre are a pretty normal stoner-doom group... apart from one peculiar record from 2008. Because unlike these other artists, this comic book thing was not part of the groups very DNA. Instead Ogre elected to make a 1-song, 37 minute concept album about cyborgs and oil wars in the middle of their career. The comic connection isn't super strong here outside of the cover, but it has perhaps the most proper story-telling. Plague of the Planet is at once a hammy trad-doom telling of a story about Dog-kings and the Queen of Gasoline and at the same time a completely badass prog-metal epic about our reliance on oil, and how car-focused infrastructure has condemned our future to smog and barren concrete wastelands.

"The would-be ruler of this ruined place. Wipe out the vestiges of humanity. 'I am the king that brings technology'... vehicle of misery"

Unfortunately it would seem that even for as little of this as there already is, it's unlikely that it'll make any kind of comeback. MF DOOM tragically passed away in October 2020, and even by the end of his career his schtick from the early 00's had faded from prominence. Czarface are still going strong with frequent album releases but with somewhat dwindling reception and audience. In fact in some part I wonder if the reason this all peaked in the 2000's was simply that it was only shortly after the collapse of comic book sales in the mid 1990's, which the medium has never been able to recover from.

Either way, I hope you found this an interesting read, I certainly enjoyed writing and researching it. Until next time, super-friends.

-Paul Taylor

(Assistant News Director at WXOU)