Posted in: Comics | Tagged: crystal planet, heavy metal, Joe Satriani, Richard Friend, tony lee

Tony Lee & Richard Friend's Joe Satriani $19.98 Crystal Planet Comic

Published Tue, 12 Jan 2021 09:10:34 -0600

Incendium and Heavy Metal Magazine have announced the launch of Crystal Planet, a new comic book created by Joe Satriani and Ned Evett, under all-new music focused OPUS imprint, but actually written by Tony Lee, drawn by Richard Friend and coloured by Carlos Cabrera. Tony Lee will be known to Bleeding Cool for his work on Doctor Who, Harker, Pride and Prejudice and Zombies and MacGuyver. Richard Friend is well known for working on the likes of Batman, Justice League, The Pitt and WildCATS.

A vivid space odyssey where Satchel Walker, a man out of time, finds himself caught between desperate factions as they battle for resources in the perilous orbit of a dying star. In a bold and brutal saga of sentient storms and Wingsuit armies, it's music, and more importantly the power and emotion that music can conjure, which could bring an end to the conflict, restore harmony to the timestream, and reveal Walker's true place in the universe.

Crystal Planet is a five-issue series which originally ran in Heavy Metal Magazine #295 a couple of years ago, now being published inits own title by Heavy Metal in March 2021. And despite just being a standard prestige-format comic book they will be charging $19.98 for each copy, four times the standard price, and limiting it to 1998 copies.

Joe Satriani is a legendary electric guitar player and tutor, with many of his former students achieving fame, such as Steve Vai, Larry LaLonde, Rick Hunolt, Kirk Hammett, Andy Timmons, Charlie Hunter, Kevin Cadogan, and Alex Skolnick; he then went on to have a successful solo music career. He is a 15-time Grammy Award nominee and has sold over 10 million albums, making him the best-selling instrumental rock guitarist of all time. In 1988, Satriani was recruited by Mick Jagger as lead guitarist for his first solo tour. Satriani briefly toured with Deep Purple as the guitarist, joining shortly after the departure of Ritchie Blackmore in November 1993. He has worked with a range of guitarists during the G3 tour, which he founded in 1995. Satriani has been the guitarist for the supergroup Chickenfoot since joining the band in 2008.

Joe Satriani states "July 1994 I'm on tour with Deep Purple and I'm warming up with my guitar backstage in a bull's isolation cell at the Plaza de Toros in Gjion, Spain. Then and there I start writing the opening riff to a song that will become "Crystal Planet" and a few years later it's the title track for my '98 album release. Fast forward to 2013, friend and fellow guitarist Ned Evett makes an animated sci-fi video for my song "Lies and Truths" using artwork from my "Joe's Art 2013" book. We projected that video on a 30ft. screen every night of the Unstoppable Momentum Tour. It was a hit with the fans which got us thinking we could expand the clip into a "Crystal Planet" sci-fi epic. Ned and I formed Satchtoons, a company focused on creating animated content, and we got to work on scripts and demos for the "Crystal Planet" pilot."

"Seven years later, thanks to Llexi Leon and Heavy Metal, here we are with our first comic book series! Llexi and I had worked together on his awesome "Eternal Descent" comics, and by coincidence, we met again when Heavy Metal published a short excerpt of "Crystal Planet" adapted by Brendon Small for the magazine's 2019 music issue. Both Ned and I love working with Llexi and the Incendium creative team, they bring so much artistry and expertise to our time-traveling adventure. I am thrilled to finally offer our fans the first full issue of what will ultimately be a three novel trilogy."

"Crystal Planet is a thrilling rollercoaster through space and time, it's Mad Max Vs TRON – with guitars! This has been an incredibly rewarding project to bring to fruition, digging deep into the lore behind one of the greatest instrumental rock records. Working with Joe has always been a pleasure, having collaborated in comics with Eternal Descent years ago his love of the medium is well known." Llexi Leon says, "There was a treasure trove of concepts and character exploration compiled over decades by Joe and his writing partner Ned that formed the basis of this project, with the ultimate goal to take fans on a journey to Crystal Planet for the first time. Tony, Richard, Carlos, and Jacob have done a tremendous job realizing an incredible world and telling its story. It's fitting that our publishing venture with Heavy Metal would begin with a space-faring time travel adventure!"

A Joe Satriani Crystal Planet action figure is also available to pre-order now for $29.95, featuring Joe in a Tri-Diver suit from the comics with his signature Crystal Planet Ibanez guitar for May 2021.