There’s been a lot of buzz about the upcoming graphic novel/CD Murder Ballads. The comic is by Gabe Soria, with art by Paul Reinwand and Chris Hunt, but it’s the soundtrack by blues artist Robert Finley and Grammy winner Dan Auerbach (best known for his day job with The Black Keys) that makes this a unique project. The album was based on the graphic novel, and its being distributed exclusively with the book.
The idea of a CD with a graphic novel is one that’s been done before, but Murder Ballads is taking it to a new level. Mondo is partnering with publisher Z2 for an exclusive Limited Edition of MURDER BALLADS which includes these prints by artist Tyler Boss, revealed here for the first time.
And there’s a trailer.
The album itself includes Finley and Auerbach’s cover of the classic Leadbelly song “In the Pines” and four original songs created specifically by Finley and Auerbach to accompany the GN. The regular edition of Murder Ballads will include a download code for the soundtrack.
The Mondo Edition (pictured here) goes for $200 and include physical copies of both book and album, as well as album cover art by Jon Langford.
A meditation on music, obsession and how far someone will go to see their vision become real, MURDER BALLADS follows the fall and reinvention of Nate Theodore, the dead-broke and deadbeat owner of a failing record label who is on a cross-country drive in the dead of winter, fleeing the wreckage of his business and trying to save his crumbling marriage. Nate is given an unexpected chance to reverse his fortunes when, during a stop in a desolate rust belt town, he “discovers” Donny and Marvell Fontweathers, two African-American brothers who play a raucous brand of doom-laden country blues.
And here are the prints by Tyler Boss:
