Following this weekend’s C2E2 convention in Chicago, Z2 Comics has teamed up with Rise Records and Dance Gavin Dance for 'A Robot’s Tale: A Dance Gavin Dance Graphic Novel,' announced just ahead of the release of their brand-new album Afterburner, out April 24!
Mirroring the band’s deconstructive approach paired with humor, A Robot’s Tale brings together the comic book wit of writer Eliot Rahal and artist Ian McGinty, who utilize the band’s animal imagery to tell a story with heady themes of existence, as experienced through the perceptions of its anthropomorphic antagonist, upon the discovery that the universe is merely a simulation in which all living things are trapped.
“Dance Gavin Dance is perfect for the world of comics. Their album art is every bit as interesting and inspired as their music, so visual storytelling suits them perfectly, and is guaranteed to be as rewarding to graphic novel readers as to the band’s fans” says Z2’s Josh Frankel. “Eliot and Ian are the perfect team to bring this story to the page, and I can honestly say this is one of the most bats#@t crazy fun books we have published yet!”
A Robot’s Tale: A Dance Gavin Dance Graphic Novel is created in partnership with the band by Elion Rahal and Ian McGinty with Z2 Comics. Also included are 30 pages by Poppy: Genesis 1 artist Masa Minoura. The original graphic novel clocks in at just over 100 pages, and will be released in a standard edition in comic shops and bookstores alike in May, as well as a limited deluxe edition directly through the Z2 website. The deluxe edition includes a special exclusive colored vinyl edition of the band’s upcoming album, Afterburner, unavailable anywhere else!
Where most bands erroneously claim wholly distinct identities, Dance Gavin Dance truly defies categorization.
The Sacramento based outfit possess the kind of artistic compass shared with broadminded but heavy metal & hardcore-punk rooted iconoclasts like The Mars Volta and Coheed & Cambria, but use it to diverge wildly, charting a new course that incorporates the melodic screamo of Thursday or Taking Back Sunday, with a taste of the earnest pop melancholy of Death Cab For Cutie.
The current & most definitive incarnation of Dance Gavin Dance is responsible for half of the band’s albums, including their most recent effort, Artificial Selection.
There’s the angelic & R&B infused highs of the sweet voiced Tilian Pearson; the unhinged guttural growls & chaotic screams of cofounder Jon Mess; the dizzyingly unpredictable arpeggio-led guitar crunch of cofounder Will Swan; the soulful poly-rhythmic backbone of longtime bassist Tim Feerick; & the mind-blowingly powerful nuanced foundation laid by drummer and cofounder Matt Mingus.
Now more than a dozen years on from their inception, Dance Gavin Dance celebrates an insurgent career, in the tradition of iconoclastic artists from Frank Zappa to Nirvana who did what they wanted, how they wanted, confident that an audience would catch-up. Eight studio albums deep, a thriving fanbase champions the band’s irreverent diversity & propulsive power.
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