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Comics/Graphic Novels

My Favourite Songs as Comics

Panelteer Hattie describes comics based on her favorite songs.

Hattie Kennedy

Staff Writer

Hattie is a comics scholar and obsessive reader from Brighton(ish) but living in Glasgow, Scotland where she is working towards a PhD in Canadian Studies, more specifically about Québécois comics and politics. Mostly she reads comics about other peoples’ lives because she’s nosy like that. She is an enthusiastic, if not experienced, seamstress and could win Olympic Gold Medals if only Procrasti-Sewing and Procrasti-Baking were recognised sports. A not insignificant percentage of her free time is spent worrying about whether her cats like her as much as she likes them. She is resident Quebec Comics Monkey over at Graphixia where she likes to lay claim to being more Canadian than she really is. Twitter: @HattieK

View All posts by Hattie Kennedy

One of my favourite things in the world is finding new cover versions of my favourite songs. I am rarely happier than when the band I am seeing choose to drop a cover version into their set or when I stumble across a cool new arrangement of a classic tune somewhere online. Having told you this I am sure you will understand when I tell you quite how much I love finding comics where artists have chosen to take the lyrics of a song and turn them into a comic.

I thought I would do a round-up of some of my particular favourites for you, I’ve chosen all online ones so that you can enjoy them and at the top you’ll find a Spotify playlist of the songs so you can engage another of your senses whilst reading these amazing comics.

This Annie Wu comic based on The Decemberists song ‘The Bagman’s Gambit’ was something I stumbled on a little while ago. I love the way she has evoked the lyrics of this song and the colours are just beautiful.

Bagman's Gambit - Annie Wu

‘Do You Realize’ by The Flaming Lips is one of my favourite songs. I love the sentiment behind the lyrics and this comic version of them by Pablo Stanley makes them even more moving.

Do You Realize - Pablo Stanley

69 Love Songs by The Magnetic Fields is probably my favourite album of all-time. Three volumes of love songs, all in different styles, it is infinitely rewarding to sit down and listen to in its entirety. Luckily Julia Scheele has a similar love for the album and she has curated a collection of comics, by a range of different artists, illustrating the songs from this album. The image below is an extract from Freya Harrison’s illustration of ‘Time Enough for Rocking When We’re Old’.

Freya Harrison - Time Enough

Paste Magazine have a new feature in which they pair together amazing bands with fantastic artists. The first in the series saw Emily Carroll illustrating Neko Case’s ‘Wild Creatures’ and Carroll’s beautiful artwork made me want to check out everything she has done ever. I can’t wait to see the next one in this series.

Wild Creatures - Emily Carroll

Finally I am going to wind this post up with Tom Waits. Isabella Rotman created this stunning version of Waits’ song ‘All the World is Green’ and I think it just perfect! The black and white illustrations are beautiful and it has made me appreciate the original song even more.

 

All the world is green - Isabella Rotman

I hope you enjoyed looking at some of my favourite songs as comics, please do share any of your own in the comments below.