Posted in: Comics | Tagged: beethoven, Brandon Montclare, David Mack

Brandon Montclare Writes Beethoven Comic – But Who Is Drawing It?

Published Fri, 17 Jul 2020 09:53:41 -0500

Z2 Comics has been grabbing the comic book rights to a number of musicians and bands to turn them and their work into graphic novels or whatnot. You'd have thought that getting the rights to a Beethoven graphic anthology would have been free, given how long he has been dead. But, apparently not. Because Z2 Comics has done a deal with classical record label Deutsche Grammophon, today announced a new original graphic anthology looking 250 years into the past at one of the most celebrated musicians of all time: Ludwig van Beethoven. It will be accompanied by a new compilation album from Deutsche Grammophon, mirroring the story through the composer's own works. Brandon Montclare (Rocket Girl, Moon Girl & Devil Dinosaur) is writing the comic and they've gone and got David Mack to do the cover, which is nice.

Brandon Montclare Writes Beethoven Comic - But Who Is Drawing It? — Cover by David Mack.

But they have decided not to say who is actually drawing the graphic anthology itself, across 144 pages. Just that it's coming out in November. Publisher Josh Frankel comments, "Beethoven wrote some of the most universally recognizable pieces of music in the history of the planet. It is of course, incredibly exciting to publish the work of some of today's well-known artists, but to have this chance to tell comic book stories from and inspired by the life of one of the most legendary artists of all time is humbling. We have done our very best to honor this by putting together what we believe will be an essential read for music lovers of all ages."

He just won't tell you who they all are. Kleopatra Sofroniou, Vice President Marketing Deutsche Grammophon, comments, "As one of the longest-standing record labels, Deutsche Grammophon has been celebrating Beethoven's 250th anniversary this year with a number of projects, including the most comprehensive New Complete Edition of Beethoven's works ever issued and wonderful new releases with stars like Anne-Sophie Mutter, Daniel Barenboim, Yo-Yo Ma and Rudolf Buchbinder. We are delighted to be encouraging the dialogue between the visual arts and classical music and hope that this exciting new project will open doors for comic book fans to discover the magic of Beethoven's music."

Beethoven: The Graphic Novel (even though it isn't a graphic novel, it's a graphic anthology) will be released in November, if they can actually persuade enough people to draw the thing.

Enjoyed this? Please share on social media!