Grant Morrison Is the Devil in My Chemical Romance Video

The literary bromance between comics luminary Grant Morrison and rockstar Gerard Way appears ready to reach its zenith, as made plain in a startling new promotional video by Way's band, My Chemical Romance.

"Art is the Weapon" is the very Morrisonian title of the clip, which surfaced on YouTube over the weekend. An audio-visual teaser for MCR's next album, "The True Lives of the Fabulous Killjoys", the clip features Way and his bandmates in a bright and colorful aesthetic that's completely divorced from that of their previous work, "The Black Parade", as well as Morrison himself as some kind of devilish villain.

Beyond his musical career, Way is a celebrated comics author, having created "The Umbrella Academy" for Dark Horse Comics, a work he's always credited Morrison with influencing through such books as "Doom Patrol" and "The Invisibles." For his part, Morrison wrote the introduction to the collected "The Umbrella Academy: Apocalypse Suite", and appeared with Way on their "Born Under a Dark Sun" panel at 2008's Comic-Con International in San Diego. It was on that panel that Way first remarked upon the idea of casting Morrison as the Devil in a music video.

The "Killjoys" concept is something Way has been developing for some time. 2009's Comic-Con saw the announcement of a "Killjoys" comic that was to be illustrated by Becky Cloonan ("Demo") and published by Dark Horse. In an interview with CBR, Way described the book thusly:

['Killjoys' is] almost like a strange kind of love letter to the really great comics of the '90s that kind of pushed things. If 'Umbrella Academy' is me taking a look at, among many other things, 'Doom Patrol,' 'Killjoys' is me, with my co-writer Shaun Simon, taking a look at when the best stuff was going on in the '90s, things like 'Invisibles' and stuff like that. It's a mature readers title, which is another first. We specifically wanted 'Umbrella Academy' to be an all ages title. This thing is going to deal with much more mature and controversial themes, such as hate crimes and homophobia, the homogenization of American culture and American life. 'Umbrella Academy' is set in its own world, with its own rules; 'Killjoys' is set in modern America. I find that sometimes you can say a lot when you're dealing in our times, with what people can relate with right now. It starts off at the end of the '90s and picks up today. I would say it's more violent, heavily, and deals with much stronger themes.

Little else is known about the nature or fate of the "Killjoys" comic book, but the accompanying spider graphic has made it into the "Art is the Weapon" video.

UPDATE



Dark Horse editor Scott Allie tells ComicsAlliance that the "Killjoys" comic book is still coming, which co-writer Shaun Simon confirmed in a post to Twitter: "The comic is coming out soon. Now you all why it's taking so long."