It’s been a big week for Claudio Sanchez: Not only did his band Coheed and Cambria rip up the LiveStrong stage at Austin City Limits, but his new comic Kill Audio hits the racks.
Sanchez is already midway through adapting the epic science fiction saga behind Coheed’s albums into graphic form through his own Evil Ink imprint and Image Comics, but this is a whole new venture, released through Boom! Studios. Like He Man, it actually started life as an action figure (actually, a limited edition vinyl art piece of Sanchez), but evolved into a full title. Described as “the tale of an immortal little man, seeking out his purpose in life,” it’s also the highest profile project to date for buzzworthy artist Sheldon Vella.
Before ACL, Sanchez talked to the Chronicle about his new venture into the world of graphic arts and the difficulty of picking an artist.
Austin Chronicle: How did you make the move between media?
Claudio Sanchez: I’ve always loved comics and wanted to do something in comics. Originally, I wanted to be an illustrator, but it just turned out that sequential art just wasn’t my thing. But I’ve always loved telling stories, and even before Coheed and Cambria a lot of the songs were taken from personal experience and embellished on until they almost became fiction. Being able to bring that to comics as a writer opens new doors for me.
AC: This the first time you’ve stepped outside of the Coheed and Cambria continuity and the recording studio.
CS: Music certainly plays a role in Kill Audio, but it’s not involved with Coheed and Cambria. There are certainly things within the imagery that fans may catch, but they’re very small and you really have to look into the panels to see them.
AC: So how did you hook up with Sheldon Vella?
CS: That was Joe Keatinge at Image Comics. For a while, we were looking for an artists after the first volume (of The Amory Wars) was finished, we weren’t sure who was going to complete the second volume, and before we found Gabriel Guzman, one of the suggestions was Sheldon. I loved his work, but for The Amory Wars and for continuity, his style was a bit too stylized. I thought the contrast would a little awkward for the people that had invested in the first volume, because we wanted to find someone who could take what was happening in the first volume and give it new life. At first Sheldon did a coloring job for us on the graphic novel cover, but I always thought there was something we could do. So when my fiancee and I were working on the Kill Audio doll, I was looking at it and realized that there was a story behind it. Not just a likeness or caricature of myself. So I started working on the concept and when it clicked it was obvious that Sheldon was perfect for it, and it just spiraled from there.
This article appears in October 2 • 2009.
