Music and comics aren’t frequent bedfellows, but when they come together, it is often a satisfying experience. Lately, we’ve been seen more and more artists work with comic publishers to make companion pieces or adaptations of their works. Musicians like Gerard Way and Max Bemis have forged second careers out of their comics writing, whereas folks like Tom Morello or even Courtney Love have written the odd comic now and then. Wayne Shorter’s new album Emanon features a graphic novel that tells a story inspired by the music. This is far more in line with what Coheed and Cambria’s Claudio Sanchez has done with the “Armory Wars” series, but much less literal. Shorter, along with screenwriter/co-writer Monica Sly and artist Randy DuBurke take his new four track record and give it a sweeping, multiversal tale that reflects the music, while adding a healthy dose of superheroics.
Written by Monica Sly and Wayne ShorterCover by DuBurke
Illustrated, colored, and lettered by Randy DuBurkeFeaturing a triple-album and its companion piece – a self-penned, 84-page graphic novel – Wayne Shorter’s Emanon is the definitive look into his artistic multiverse. In her introduction, Esperanza Spalding writes: “After reading and listening to Emanon, you might begin to notice alternative realities glimmering beneath the everyday world around you.”
With a multimedia work like this, it can be important to talk about what came first, in terms of creation. To fully appreciate the work, I think it is necessary to point out that these four songs were the genesis of the project. Shorter wrote these four pieces without an interconnecting story or ambition for a visual component. Only after they were recorded – and after he met Randy DuBurke – was the idea for a comic realized.
According to the press materials, Shorter and co-writer Monica Sly listened to the four songs and identified a fear they felt was reflected in the material, and based each vignette in the comic about that fear. Obviously, Shorter is the composer, and so he likely had a good idea what inspired each song, but the concept of basing a work, specifically this comic, off of fear is an odd one.
The comic itself is a relatively simple, straightforward superhero story, all about the hope that Enanon, the titular character, brings to the people of the various worlds he visits. He breaks them free of their cages, some of which they don’t even realize they are trapped in. Emanon acts as Toto, pulling back the curtain on the Wizard of their various worlds.
But the comic itself doesn’t really traffic in fear. Sure, each of the four worlds Emanon visits are scary or would elicit fear in a visitor, but the populace is subdued and lives in a way that doesn’t feel terrible. It is only after they are awakened that they realize what a terrible existence they’ve been living.
The comic pages themselves are painted, somewhat static images that go more for feel than for any real sequential storytelling. Taken as a complementary piece to the record, the comic works well to extend the tone and message of the music. But the book really doesn’t work as a standalone piece of media, due in large part to the fact that Emanon is given no real depth whatsoever. He shows up as a magic elixir, inoculating each world against the ill that befalls it, but that’s about it.
In addition, each story is, essentially the same. Only one introduces someone that can be generously described as a secondary character. The painted, beautifully constructed visuals are a nice thing to page through while listening to Shorter’s music, but as a separate work to sit and read, or get anything from beyond the most rudimentary story, it just doesn’t work.
The most interesting part of the comic is the presence of the multiverse as a plot element. Emanon traverses various planes of existence, and the book makes it very clear that he’s not flying through space, but rather through various parallel universes. A musical connection to the multiverse is how the stories are presented in a different order in the comic than they are on the CD; in a more straightforward adaptation, I doubt there would be that much of a difference in the order of events.
Continued belowThis, in a way, is also reflected in the musical presentation of the record. The first disc is the ‘studio’ album of Shorter’s quartet and the Orpheus Chamber Orchestra. The second two discs are a live performance by the Quartet, stripped of the orchestration. The orchestration is a fun element, reminiscent of some of my favorite instrumental music of the sixties, specifically (and don’t laugh) the non-surf rock elements of the Batman ’66 score. Rich tones and melodies far more complex than they initially seem, which float in and out of the quartet’s tunes.
But when stripped of that in the live performance, it is like making the jump from one universe to another. While you may lose a bit of the scope and grandeur of the orchestra on the live discs, the Quartet reveals itself as the optimal delivery system for Shorter’s tunes. The interplay between the four members of the Quartet – Shorter on saxophone, Danillo Perez on piano, John Patitucci on bass, and Brian Blade on drums – really shines on the live discs, and gives the songs both an energy and some negative space to play with. It doesn’t feel so crowded, and therefore, there is a poignancy that comes out of the live disc that just isn’t there on the grander platform.
Now, with that said, this whole project stems from a pretty interesting place of a musician wanting to present his songs differently. This is very much a swing for the fences type project for Shorter, both because of the musical challenge of incorporating an orchestra, as well as the difficulty in presenting a visual that matches the tone of the music. While it’s not a perfect one to one match, especially because there’s no way you will need 15 minutes to read one section of the comic, therefore you’re never quite fully reading along at the intended pace of the music, as a whole, this is a fun project and a really interesting way for Shorter to present his new work.
You can absolutely listen to this music divorced from the visuals and lose nothing in the process; sadly, the converse is not true.
