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When Z2 Comics Offers The Blues Brothers: The Escape Of Joliet Jake, and Unreleased Recordings!

Fans of the Blues Brothers will want to make sure they’ll catch the Katy this time, because there’ll be music to accompany this graphic novel release.

The Blues Brothers: The Escape of Joliet Jake A day that changed comedy forever. With the release of The Blues Brothers, John Belushi and Dan Aykroyd unleashed a film that would thrill and entertain generations with their Mission From God. Now, exactly 45 years later, Z2 Comics has partnered with the Aykroyd and Belushi families and estate to deliver the sequel to that film in the original graphic novel, The Blues Brothers: The Escape Of Joliet Jake.

Uncovered by the late Judy Belushi Pisano, this series of unreleased recordings is a rare musical glimpse at Joliet Jake and Elwood Blues at the height of their blues powers. Belushi and Aykroyd blast through a 13-song set with some of the greatest musicians who ever lived. The gang’s all here, as Blues Brothers legends Matt “Guitar” Murphy, Steve “The Colonel” Cropper, Donald “Duck” Dunn, Paul “The Shiv” Shaffer, Lou “Blue Lou” Marini, Tom “Bones” Malone, Alan “Mr. Fabulous” Rubin, Steve “GETDWA” Jordan, and Tom “Triple Scale” Scott show why this band is timeless.

The album features unheard versions of blues classics including “Hey Bartender,” “Rubber Biscuit,” and “Green Onions.” This album will be available exclusively as a Royal Blue-colored vinyl release, packaged with the graphic novel.

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Who’s Ready For The Blues Brothers? The Escape of Joliet Jake Marks A New (and Old?) Chapter for the Franchise!

Although The Blues Brothers is mostly a cover band, just what they represent is much more than to bring that Chicago Blues sound to the masses. Their passion and need to connect with the genre’s essence must be honoured in this upcoming graphic novel, The Escape of Joliet Jake.

Release Date: Oct 2025

The beloved Blues Brothers whom two generations have grown up with are not gone. Instead, there are plans to bring this franchise back to the fore with “forays into television, film, live events, music and much more,” according to one press release. Everything begins with the graphic novel release of The Blues Brothers: The Escape of Joliet Jake. While Dan Aykroyd will not be performing at every stop (he is getting on in age so he’s most likely not going to be as intense on stage), his presence will mean everything why his daughter is taking charge of continuing on!

All I can think of is the attempt with Blues Brothers 2000. This movie pays tribute to the first film and shows how the music changes style from one side of the country to the other. And it also reveals that to be a brother means you just have to embrace the music, and that’s all anyone needs to chase the blahs away.

To kick things off will be this graphic novel from Z2 Comics. It’s written by Stella Aykroyd, Luke Pisano and James Werner with artist Felipe Sobriero.

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Spiritbox’s Eternal Blue. From Album to Graphic Novel, Sometimes the Search for Answers is Worth it.

Just how well the punk music band Spiritbox does with their single “Eternal Blue” from years back really depends on telling the world there’s also a graphic novel adaptation of this album too.

Z2 Comics

Eternal blue is one of those graphic novels that’s very hard to find. When it’s been published by a boutique publisher with a low print run, not even Diamond Comic Distributors have copies at their warehouse. I didn’t want to preorder as this company didn’t have a solid reputation for getting books out on time, and hoped there’d be a supply after it finally got released.

New fans of the heavy metal band, Spiritbox, are not missing out with the standard retail release. What’s drawn from the album gets a solid interpretation, and I feel this work is only for die-hard fans. This group of musicians came into prominence in 2019. Although their sound is more nupunk than anything else, the fact they made waves while still living in my hometown of Victoria, BC said everything. Leading vocalist Courtney LaPlante and guitarist Mike Stringer started this group; although they’ve since relocated since then, the fact they had local roots made me want to keep tabs on their future.

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Blondie’s Musical Archives is Coming in One Big Z2 Package!

Blondie Against the Odds Graphic Novel and Album Release News is GOLD!

Blondie Against The Odds

In the mid-70s, singer Debbie Harry and guitarist Chris Stein were more than pioneers. Not only did they pioneer the new wave genre, but also broke the mold for what the New York sound was about. The band Blondie was more than a punk rock band too. From their self-titled debut album, “In the Flesh” got heads turning, and all it took were two more albums before they became mainstream with the disco-infused “Heart of Glass.”

I fell in love with their music somewhere in between, and back then, all I had were regular magazines to get any information about who they were. We didn’t have the Internet back then. Because they were relatively young, and as their fame grew, so did my passion to collect all their albums.

Coinciding with the upcoming launch of the Blondie: Against The Odds graphic novel–which features a short biography, and stories based on their music–this fall, Z2 Comics and Blondie will include the 124-track archival box set Against the Odds 1974 – 1982 too! It’s a curated collection, remastered from original analog tapes on vinyl and I can’t be any more excited. Now if only they can visit Victoria, BC and perform here! Realistically, it’d have to be in Vancouver, BC; I’ll be fine with that too.

The album will be out on August 26, 2022, but if you’re patient, buying the version with the graphic novel will make the experience all the more worthwhile.

Blondie

From the Z2 Press Release:

The package features 52 bonus tracks across four albums—Plaza Sound, Parallel Beats, Coca Cola, and Home Sounds—and comes with a 128-page hardcover book inside a foil-wrapped slipcase.

The package definitively captures the iconic band’s inception and rise, as Blondie merged disco, rock, and beyond in the punk cradle of New York City’s Lower East Side. Limited to 100 copies, the Blondie 1974-1982: Against The Odds 4-LP box set will be released in platinum editions of the Blondie: Against The Odds graphic novel anthology.

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From Beyond the Grave, Spiritbox’s Eternal Blue Gets a Graphic Novel!

This adaptation of the concept album tells the eerie tale of Eva, a brilliant painter on the verge of unbelievable acclaim and success.

Z2 Comics
Eternal Blue Slated for Late Spring 2022 release
Available to preorder online.

Following their formation in 2017, in Victoria, BC, the heavy metal quartet Spiritbox found a different way to haunt the charts. Although they’ve moved to Joshua Tree, California, let’s hope they’re still “Victorians” at heart. One of their singles, “Secret Garden,” may well allude to Frances Hodgson Burnett book of the same name, and suggest where a few of their tracks draw inspiration from.

But the pandemic stalled their plans for a proper debut in the tour circuit. Online, heavy metal fans took notice. This band’s debut album is getting the Z2 treatment and their debut LP, Eternal Blue will soon come out as a graphic novel. This was co-created with comic book writer Jim Krueger (Earth X, Justice) and artist Amilcar Pinna (Poppy’s Inferno, Generation X). Deluxe editions include a vinyl record and a spooky keepsake, a replica ghostbox!

This adaptation of the concept album tells the eerie tale of Eva, a painter on the verge of unbelievable acclaim and success. But her inability to reconcile her public perception with her true self allows a Spiritbox—a device used to communicate with the dead—to transport her to an ethereal world. Here, she finds herself trapped in a realm where false shadows become real and dangerous.

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