When Phil CollenĀ was growing up in London in the 1960s, comic books werenāt as popular as they were in the U.S. But theĀ Def LeppardĀ guitarist was a fan anyway. āSome of the news agents would sell these American comics, and I used to just load up on them,ā the 66-year-old tellsĀ Rolling StoneĀ via phone from his California home. āIāve actually gotĀ The Silver SurferĀ No. 1. Iāve still gotĀ The Incredible HulkĀ No. 3 and early Batman stuff, all from the Sixties.ā
Although heās admittedly not an ardent comics fan now and hasnāt followed any recent titles, Collen latched onto the art form recently when Vault Comics asked him if heād like to make a title of his own. Fall Out Boyās Pete Wentz had created a graphic novel for them, which Collen enjoyed, but he had other ideas of how it could be done. The guitarist explained that he been writing his own āreally dark short storiesā lately. āBefore you knew it, Iām talking to the writer [Eliot Rahal], and Iād come up with a plot and a plan, and we just kind of expanded on that,ā he says.
Now Vault is releasingĀ Hysteria: The Graphic Novel, a book that shares its title with Def Leppardās magnum opus but little else. Instead, it tells the story of indie rocker, Foz, who fronts a band called Darkside. When she inherits her late fatherās estate, she rediscovers a guitar he owned when she was little. Eventually, the instrument begins speaking to her with promises of fame and fortune and she learns the instrumentās true history, part of which is revealed in the graphic novelās first pages above, premiering here, and hysteria ensues.
āWriting this just seemed like a very natural, normal thing to do,ā Collen says. āEven the process was really ⦠I wonāt say easy, but itās fun.ā
Now Collen is writing music for a real-life Darkside project to record and says heās just starting to understand the full power of graphic storytelling.
Read the full interview and preview the Graphic Novel at RollingStone.com