Albums with accompanying books/novels/comics/etc...

[ZeppelinDT]

So I've been talking to one of my friends lately about doing a short article on his library blog about the interaction between music and books, specifically focusing on books that tell an album story or that are album tie-ins. The ones that immediately come to mind are the Dear Hunter Act II Storybook, the Coheed YotBR novel, comics and graphic novels, and the new Rush "Clockwork Angels" novel, but I was hoping for more than three examples, and I figured that since this seems to be a pretty proggy thing to do, where better to ask than the proggiest message board I know.  Anybody know of any other bands that have done this before?  Thanks!

[Adami]

The last Within Temptation album was a concept album that I believe had a comic book accompaniment.

[ZeppelinDT]

Oh, sweet.  I'll have to check that one out.  Didn't even realize they had come out with a new album.

[Adami]

Oh, sweet.  I'll have to check that one out.  Didn't even realize they had come out with a new album.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Unforgiving

[philmcson]

Iron Maiden - Seventh son of a seventh son / Orson Scott Card - Seventh son

...... it may get a bit "difficult" to find that many albums inspired from books, but if you crack it into songs I could give you at least a dozen Maiden songs written by inspired novel readers. However, this is an entire concept album....

[Adami]

Oh another one. Iced Earth - Dark Saga is based off of the Spawn comic.

[SoundscapeMN]

Michael Nesmith - The Prison
The River Empires - Pretty much  every record will have some kind of tie-in to the Screenplay for the TV/Mini/Web Series
Falling Up - Hours (Jessy Ribordy is releasing an audio novel along with the music for this)

Stories with the album
Genesis - The Lamb Lies Down on Broadway
Jethro Tull - Thick as a Brick
King's X - Gretchen Goes to Nebraska

Also if you are referring to story-based releases, Kaddisfly's last 2 records "Buy Our Intention: We'll Buy You a Unicorn" and "Set Sail the Prairie" along with the yet made "Horses Galloping on Sailboats" are conceptual if not story-based trilogy of records in a similar fashion to both Coheed and TDH. It's just they may never have had the interest to have any other literature to accompany them. But I am often reminded of what Coheed and TDH have done, when thinking about those 2 (and possibly 3 someday) records represent.

[Lowdz]

Alice Cooper's Last Temptation album came with a comic.

[Accelerando]

Jag Panzer - Thane To The Throne. There's a little masterpiece called Macbeth it's suppose to be based on 


EDIT:

Of course, if you buy both together, they'll be accompanying each other...

[Genowyn]

Well besides YotBR, SSTB, IKS, and GA1 have all received comic adaptations.

And I think there is some other prog band where every album has an accompanying sci-fi book of some kind that I've seen mentioned on here.

[Big Hath]

the latest 2112 reissue comes with a comic that tells the story.  Not sure if that counts or not.

[Cedar redaC]

the latest 2112 reissue comes with a comic that tells the story.  Not sure if that counts or not.

Rush released it, so I'll count it.

[ColdFireYYZ]

The Tangent - Not As Good As The Book

Andy Tillison wrote a short story to accompany it. Haven't listened to it/read it though.

[MetalMike06]

Symphony X Paradise Lost

[MoraWintersoul]

Chroma Key's Graveyard Mountain Home accompanies a film in a pretty weird way: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Graveyard_Mountain_Home

[wasteland]

Chroma Key's Graveyard Mountain Home accompanies a film in a pretty weird way: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Graveyard_Mountain_Home

The first time I heard of this I thought only KM could do something that depressing 


Also, the yet unreleased "The Raven That Refused To Sing and Other Stuff" by Steven Wilson will feature a companion book, I seem to understand.

[Zantera]

Not sure if it counts, but Amplifier's The Octopus was released in a limited version which came with a graphic novel about the concept.

[ZKX-2099]

Mastodon - Leviathan/Moby Dick.

[jingle.boy]

Kevin J. Anderson's Terra Incognita trilogy.  He and his wife wrote albums for the first two... released under the band Roswell Six.  First album was (musically) written by Erik Norlander - Gary Wehrkamp, Chris Quirarte (Prymary), Chris Brown (Ghost Circus) accompanying Kurt Barabass (Amaran's Plight).  Vocally, Lana Lane, JLB, Michael Sadler (Saga) and John Payne (Asia).  Second album was written by Henning Pauly, and features some lineup changes, with additional contributions from Steve Walsh, Arjen Lucassen, Alex Froese, and one of my fave female vocalists ever, Canadian Sass Jordan.

https://www.therecordlabel.net/progressive-rock/roswell-six/

Great books, great albums.  Met KJA in the summer at Toronto Fan Expo, and he mentioned that he will do a third album for the third book.

[glaurung]

Also, the yet unreleased "The Raven That Refused To Sing and Other Stuff" by Steven Wilson will feature a companion book, I seem to understand.

It's just an art book, like the ones that have come with his other solo albums.

[Zantera]

Well yeah, but this one is going to have a theme. I don't know how Insurgentes was, but GfD is pretty much a lot of cool pictures by Lasse Hoile, but there's no real connection between them otherwise. With the new album it will be focused on ghost stories, so I guess it will "fit" the album more.

[The Letter M]

Neal Morse wrote a book titled "testimony", which is auto-biographical in nature, similar but not directly translated from his two Testimony albums. I guess you could say the book accompanies the albums in that it's about Neal's life.

-Marc.

[Lucidity]

Well, ITPoE was based on the Priest comics. Not sure if that qualifies.

[Zook]

Stone Sour's new album will have an accompanying graphic novel and a movie according to Corey Taylor.

[Perpetual Change]

dredg's lietmotif, which has the concept story written in the linear notes, is almost always overlooked.

[cramx3]

The new Kamelot album, Silverthorn, is a concept album and the box set comes with a 44 page book that tells the story the album is about.

[lonestar]

Secret Sphere's Portrait of a Dying Heart is based on a novella that was commissioned specifically for the album.

[ZeppelinDT]

Awesome.  Thanks... lots of good stuff here.

I think maybe I was a little unclear in my initial explanation.  All of this stuff is good, but my real focus is really on books/comics/graphic novels/etc. that are specifically based on an album (i.e., where the music comes first, and then the book follows), rather than songs/albums that are based on pre-existing books or just general concept albums with a basic sketch of a story laid out in the liner notes.  I actually didn't even think about the full scope of possibilities here, so I can definitely use all these different categories to form a bigger picture, but the stuff that's especially on point is anything where a band wrote an album (or even a song, or a series of albums), and then the music inspired some sort of tie-in book.  Essentially what I'm planning on writing about is how bands are creatively using accompanying literature as a way to sort of enhance the overall artistic experience and as a way to encourage listeners to actually buy physical media instead of digital.  But anything you can think of along the lines of what's already been said will be helpful, so keep them coming.  Thanks!

[jingle.boy]

Well, the Roswell Six/Terra Incognita didn't happen in that order, but they were both lyrically written by Kevin J. Anderson.  So, that's a little different... it wasn't a band doing an album around a book, it was a band created specifically by the author to create album(s) for the book(s).

[Lolzeez]

One of my Rick Wakeman albums came with some book.

[ZeppelinDT]

Well, the Roswell Six/Terra Incognita didn't happen in that order, but they were both lyrically written by Kevin J. Anderson.  So, that's a little different... it wasn't a band doing an album around a book, it was a band created specifically by the author to create album(s) for the book(s).

Yeah, I had actually completely forgotten about that one.  I read about it years ago, but never really checked it out.  I think that works for my purposes too, and that one is especially unique.

[SoundscapeMN]

The River Empires and Falling Up would still qualify for what you're looking for. At least Jessy had not written any SCREENPLAY for it until after Epilogue came out. And the Falling Up album Hours, the same could be regarded as well, as the music may have been totally written before he wrote or is writing the audio novel.

The Michael Nesmith album The Prison as well, although as far as I know, they were released TOGETHER, but as far what came 1st, it's possible, even probable he wrote the music 1st.; and then got the idea of having the novel to be read while listening to the album. Why I say that is, Mike had a boatload of music he wrote and even recorded/demo-ed prior to leaving the Monkees that The Monkees never used on any of their albums. So, much if not all of that stuff from The Prison could have been among that work the band never used.