In 1990, powerpop band Cheap Trick released a new album entitled Busted, and they partnered with Marvel to release a comic as part of their publicity campaign. A promo-only item, it’s an eight-page black and white pamphlet that tells the story of how the group got together. (Although there may be some artistic license invoked, given that the sequence of events apparently involved thrilling archeological exploits, skydiving spy antics, and a Swedish oom-pah band.) It was written by longtime Marvel editor Jim Salicrup, and though the script makes very little sense (due to the tactic of weaving innumerable Cheap Trick song titles into the dialogue), it moves quickly and is appealingly light-hearted. June Brigman and Ralph Cabrera provided the art, and it’s lovely; full of motion, balancing solid blacks and thin lines to delineate faces and details, and filled in with swaths of Zip-A-Tone for added dimension.
As a promotional item, I don’t know how well it served its purpose, but it certainly is an amusing oddity. It’s not an essential read by any stretch of the imagination, but it is well-executed and stylish… And it’s one more bizarre addition to the pantheon of Pop Comics.
And then there’s The Elvis Mandible. This is, quite simply, one of the oddest comics I’ve ever run across. It was written and illustrated by Douglas Michael, an award-winning playwright and cartoonist, and published in 1990 as part of DC’s avant-garde Piranha line (the same imprint that later released two Prince comics). It’s a conspiracy-theory whirlwind, full of espionage and mysticism, all about Elvis’ legendary lower jawbone and the magical powers it was believed to imbue upon its owner. The story twists to and fro with no particular rhyme or reason, and the pages are filled with oddly assembled panels of wobbly black lines, like a collection of old Playboy cartoons pasted together. It’s baffling, nonsensical, and a totally unique rock ‘n’ roll fueled entertainment.
Neither Cheap Trick’s Busted or The Elvis Mandible have been reprinted, but the original pressings can sometimes be found in comic shops or on ebay.
All articles in the Pop Music Comics series can be found here.