Members of Metallica, Fall Out Boy, Def Leppard and The Beach Boys have announced their involvement in an upcoming graphic novel series, under an imprint titled Headshell.
The forthcoming series from Headshell — a title under the Vault Comics banner — will enlist different musicians to contribute individual instalments to the series, led by Fall Out Boy bassist Pete Wentz alongside the full line-up of bands including Metallica, Def Leppard and The Beach Boys. The graphic novels won’t offer biographical recounts of their musician authors, but will rather tell individual stories based on their respective careers, music and individual songs.
Wentz’ novel, titled Dying Inside, will be the first Headshell release in the series, and is co-written by Hannah Klein with illustrations by Lisa Sterle. While the plot of Dying Inside has been kept under wraps — along with an exact publication date — Wentz shared his excitement about the project in a press statement. “[This] has been an insane experience in the best possible way,” Wentz said, “I’m excited to share it with the world soon.”
While details of Metallica’s instalment in the series remain scarce (we do know it’ll arrive sometime in 2023), it will mark the band’s second foray into the graphic novel world, having co-written the more biographical comic, Nothing Else Matters in 2014. The Beach Boys’ entry into the canon, meanwhile, is titled Hysteria, although details of its plot and publication date have not yet been announced.
The artists’ comic book aspirations fall in line with a slew of fellow musicians who’ve released graphic novels in recent years. Yungblud, “Weird Al” Yankovic, Vince Staples, Joan Jett, Blondie and Machine Gun Kelly are among those who have co-authored their own titles within the genre, with Yankovic’s The Illustrated Al: The Songs Of “Weird Al” Yankovic arriving in May of this year.
