San Diego Comic Con 2017: Masters of the Sun:The Zombie Chronicles by the Black Eyed Peas

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During the cluttered madness of San Diego Comic Con,  the Black Eyed Peas emerged with the announcement of their collaboration with Marvel comics on their upcoming graphic novel, Masters of the Sun.

Yes, indeed, THE BLACK EYED PEAS. The same super pop group that gave us songs that permeated our brains such as “Boom Boom Pow” and “I gotta feeling.”  This global recording  music hit machine has been creating content spanning multiple musical genres since 1995.  For the past four years, Will.i.am, Taboo, and Apl.de.ap, have been working together to create this graphic novel which will be released in August 2017.

The band went to comic titan, Marvel Entertainment, Inc to collaborate on producing and creating Masters of the Sun–The Zombie Chronicles. The novel and was written by Will.i.am and Benjamin Jackendoff, based upon an original story by Will.i.am and Nir Studnitski. The art team features noted comic pencil artist Damion Scott and colorist Sigmund Torre, with color assists from Takoko Sono and Jim Krueger, consultant. Letter design was created by Dave Lanphear at A Larger World Studios.  The book’s cover art team, spearheaded by Will.i.am, also includes Pasha Shapiro, Erik Weber, Eddie Axley and Cody Achter.

The synopsis:

The fictionalized saga begins with the City of Los Angeles under attack by aliens, while humans are morphing into zombies. The main character, Zulu-X, who also has a penchant for Hip-Hop, is thrust into the middle of the action-packed adventure, fighting a nefarious ancient order with the combination of wisdom and street smarts. Blending music with comics, “Masters of the Sun” draws upon Will.i.am’s personal story from his youth in the 1980’s, and embodies real-life social allegories that include L.A. gangs, Hip-Hop and street dance culture.

 

Masters of the Sun page Masters of the Sun page

 

So to summarize: aliens, zombies, hip hop, Los Angeles.

Yes, yes, yes, please oh yes!

FangirlNation was granted the opportunity to sit down and chat with Black Eyed Peas on this new endeavor in their career.  Will.i.am was the most most vocal in introducing the comic and the ideas behind it but there was an ease and contentedness from Taboo and Apl.de.ap that one can sense the overall pride in this project. Everything the Black Eyed Peas have done involves innovation, creating new media, and forging new perspectives. So to hear that Black Eyed Peas is debuting a graphic novel is hardly surprising. Their imagination and energy is more than enough to create a whole world between pages.

With the topic of diversity and representation being the hot trigger for most conversations, a graphic novel created by one of the most globally recognized group will be a great answer to the call.  To take the issues that have plagued Los Angeles with the gangs and drug culture and incorporate that into aliens and zombies is something that this correspondent is most definitely looking forward to.

Since Black Eyed Peas is strong in their visuals in terms of music videos, so I am crossing my fingers on a massive multi-media experience.There was a mention of a musical connection following the release of the graphic novel, so the excitement is just completely doubled!

 

 

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