Z2 Comics Bring Graham Coxon’s ‘Superstate’ To Comics – Soundtracking The Graphic Novel
by Richard Bruton
The new Graham Coxon album, ‘Superstate’, becomes a graphic novel and original new soundtrack experience.
Out on 27th August from Z2 Comics, the former Blur guitarist and songwriter and damn good solo artist brings you Superstate, a new graphic novel and accompanying original soundtrack.
The high-concept world of Superstate encompasses the pairing of an original album soundtrack of 15 new songs from Graham Coxon, with a graphic novel of 15 stories featuring the work of 15 artists, and writers Alex Paknadel and Helen Mullane, with album and book cover artwork by Coxon himself.
Superstate sees Graham Coxon and the creative teams working together to realize what Z2 are describing as a ‘reading and listening experience unlike any other.’ Taking Coxon’s original concept and songwriting, the writers and artists bring you a set of 15 stories inspired by Coxon’s 15 new tracks. What you’re getting is a collection of 15 graphic stories with their own quite brilliant soundtrack.
According to Coxon, Superstate is about a dystopian world where angels and villains alike promise the people paradise, disenchanted children live feral in vast rubbish dumps and the masses are pacified by a drugged out, government-mandated digital dreamscapes and robot partners while they wait to perish on this dying planet. It seems all hope is gone but there might be one place in the universe where the most desperate can escape… heaven.
“Superstate is… A story of escape… in a society where war rages between the forces of negativity and positivity, encouragement and discouragement…
Where only the struggle from oppression, chaos and brutality leads to the fragile road to freedom.
A road that burns its way through the far reaches of space to a planet called… heaven.” – Graham Coxon
Superstate is written by Graham Coxon, Alex Paknadel, and Helen Mullane, with different artists for each of the 15 tracks…
1. Yoga Town (Artist: Kendall Goode)
2. Uncle Sam (Artist: Eryk Donovan)
3. It’s All In Your Mind (Artist: Andrade Estevez)
4. Only Takes A Stranger (Artist: Anna Readman)
5. L.I.L.Y. (Artists: Luisa Russo)
6. Bullets (Artist: Goran Gligovic)
7. I Don’t Wanna Wait For You (Artist: Ryan Kelly)
8. The Astral Light (Artist: Soo Lee)
9. Heaven (Buy a Ticket) (Artist: Koren Shadmi)
10. The Ball of Light (Artist: Vasilis Lolos)
11. Tommy Gun (Artist: Minerva Fox)
12. Goodbye Universe (Artist: Kim Canales)
13. Butterfly (Artist: Dave Chisholm)
14. We Remain (Artist: Ivan Stojkovi)
15. Listen (Artist: Taylan Kurtulus)
“The reason I got into comics was first and foremost to create innovative, amazing art. Superstate is just that, a true fusion of comics and music. It’s rare where we have a project where the art and music are so linked. Superstate is a true hybrid with each song and story intertwining to reveal glimpses of a larger truth. The fact that it comes from Graham Coxon makes it that much more special: as an odd duck American who is a massive fan of his, it was a true treat to get to work with Graham to help make his vision come to life in the truly transcendent Superstate.” – Josh Frankel, CEO, Z2 Comics
As we’ve come to expect from Z2 Comics, you’re going to be able to experience Superstate in plenty of formats. As well as a standalone digital release, the Superstate soundtrack will be available on vinyl bundled with the book, as well as a separate option to get the Superstate book on its own in hardback and paperback. And then there’s those Z2 bundles for you – the deluxe bundle includes the soundtrack, a hardback copy of the book with exclusive slipcase and three art prints. And there’s the super-duper limited super deluxe bundle that also includes a copy of the Superstate book signed by Graham.
You can pre-order from Z2 Comics, and be sure to check out the first story track and story, Yoga Town, right here… (or at YouTube.)
