Unite and Take Over Vol. 2, Record Store Day variant cover by Jason Pedersen

​One of our favorite Kickstarter success stories was last year's Unite and Take Over, a graphic collection of songs inspired by the lyrics of The Smiths.

Editor and writer Shawn Demumbrum took to the crowd-funding site to raise the $3,000 needed to press the comic. It worked. The book debuted at the Tucson Comic-Con in November, 2011, and can now be found at record stores, comic shops, and online. As with a lot of compilations, not every story moved me -- though Shelby Robertson's vintage Image-y "Handsome Devil" cracked me up, and I don't know if it was intentional -- but most of the tome, especially Dave Baker's "This Charming Man," Sterling Gates and Ernie Najera's noir "William It Was Really Nothing," Foo! and Sam Laggren's coming of age "How Soon is Now?" and Kayla Cagan and Tara Abbamondi's "Boy With a Thorn in His Side," adeptly tapped into the awkwardness, loneliness, and maudlin humor of Morrissey and the 'Lads.

Well, as the saying goes, "If it ain't broke, launch another Kickstarter campaign to press Unite and Take Over Volume 2, featuring more stories inspired by the lyrics of the Moz." Demumbrum has considerably upped the ante, looking to raise $6,000 to press the book, which will include new contributors (including Brad Dwyer, of Up on the Sun's weekly comic strip Record Heat), and some returning writers/artists. Demumbrum is looking to release the comic on Record Store Day (April 21 on normal calendars).

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Ed Piskor

​American comic book artist Ed Piskor has a keen eye for pop culture.

His 2009 collaboration with Harvey "American Splendor" Pekar, The Beats: A Graphic History, turned its eye to the Beat poets, and his Brain Rot series for Boing Boing touched on vintage Nintendo Entertainment Systems, real-life Seattle superhero Phoenix Jones, and pro wrasslin'.

His latest draws the lines between the superhero comics and hip-hop's music of his youth, likening enormous gun-toting mutant Cable to Dr. Dre's pre-NWA group World Class Wreckin' Cru.

Piskor's strip is funny and warm, tossing in a few keen nods to two cultures that have shaped him (experienced eyes with catch the appearance of MF Doom, an emcee who owes his whole existence to vintage Marvel Comics).

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​As our extensive Comicon coverage hopefully proved, comics and music have never been so closely linked. Bands like Coheed and Cambria are keeping the sci-fi/rock 'n' roll tradition alive, but so is local act A Life of Science.

The electro-indie duo is prepping the release of their upcoming album, Vita Nova, the second in a trilogy the band started with 2009's The Apneist.

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Jason Pedersen

​You know, when you think about it, Morrissey is kind of like a comic book character already. Call him "Super Sad Man," or "Captain Sexually Ambiguous."

Don't expect Shawn Demumbrum's Unite and Take Over: Comic Book Stories Inspired by The Smiths to be as stupid as those ideas, though.

Demumbrum's set up a Kickstarter page, were potential financial contributors can get the scoop on The Smiths comic, which Demumbrum is hoping to premier at Tucson Comicon in November.

"The concept for Unite and Take Over is pretty simple. What story plays in your head when you listen to your favorite Smiths song? I approached some of my fellow comic book creators and asked them to create 4-8 pages stories inspired by their favorite Smiths songs. The song acts as an inspiration, jumping off point, theme or mood for the story. Each story varies in style and genre," Demumbrum writes.

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