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The Who’s abandoned Lifehouse album is finally being released… as a graphic novel

Abandoned in 1971, Pete Townshend’s ambitious sci-fi rock opera is finally being realised visually, as it was imagined at conception.

Lifehouse was always meant to be adapted for the silver screen, intended as the follow up to the Who‘s 1969 album Tommy. At the time though, it was axed in lieu of Who’s Next.

The Who’s Pete Townshend has teamed up with Heavy Metal to realise his vision for sci-fi/spiritual concept album Lifehouse.

Townshend never gave up on his passion project, eventually releasing his own version in 1999. Now teaming up with iconic sci-fi mag Heavy Metal, his vision can finally come to life through the increasingly popular format of a graphic novel. Townshend shares:

Even by 1971, when Lifehouse was written, it had to be treated as a film script, which was entirely beyond my skill set, and beyond the financial scope of The Who. If I had completed my art studies, instead of staying with The Who, I might have made my own graphic novels. I am excited then, with huge anticipation, that at last Lifehouse can be realised visually, and as a story –- part science fiction, part spiritual allegory.

The novel will be written and illustrated by Eisner-award winner James Harvey, and is due for release in July 2020.