Gerard Way Details New 'True Lives Of The Fabulous Killjoys' Series

My Chemical Romance may have had to reschedule their highly anticipated reunion tour in the wake of the coronavirus pandemic, but Gerard Way's kept himself plenty busy during quarantine. Aside from putting out new solo music and working on The Umbrella Academy's fourth volume, Way's also prepping a whole new series of his True Lives Of The Fabulous Killjoys called National Anthem. On Wednesday (July 22) the musician/comic writer gave a detailed description of what fans can expect from the new story, which comes out October 14, in an Instagram post.

"Yesterday, we announced a new True Lives Of The Fabulous Killjoys series: National Anthem," Way began the lengthy caption. "We’re really excited about this book, because we take everything back to the original concept for the series that could have been, many years ago, before it became an MCR concept record and subsequent comic series, now known as TLFK: California."

"The first thing to know about National Anthem is that it’s very different from any Killjoys material you have seen, read, or heard before," he continued. "You may recognize some visual elements of the characters, but these are completely different characters from the gang we saw in California 2019. These are the original characters: Mike Milligram, The Codes— Red and Blue, Animax, Kyle 100%, and a ton of others, as well as changes these characters go through years later, and an eventual new member of the gang. This story is set in the 1990’s and the 2000’s, in a world as its was back then. All these years later, Shaun and I couldn’t get this story out of our heads, and thought it was powerful, unique, and different enough from what we had done before to warrant actually making the thing, and I’m really happy we did."

"The first issue was written in one and a half weeks, about 44 pages long, and it was dying to get out. So, try and come to this with a fresh brain and unlearn everything you know about the Killjoys. It’s also a mature readers book," he added before giving props to the team that helped him create the new series. "The creative team is one of the best I have ever worked with, some old friends and new friends. Shaun Simon co-writes with me, @leo_romero11 handles the line art, @whoajordie handles the colors, @natepiekos handles the letters, @beckycloonan as well as @prentler and others, handle the variant covers. And everyone is doing something they’ve never done before, and operating from a new and experimental place. It hits shops and digital on October 14th, published by @darkhorsecomics. We can’t wait for you to check it out."

See Way's post below.

Photo: Getty Images