Vault Comics - Hysteria: The Graphic Novel - Spring 2025

[CindyJ]

Vault Comics partners with Metallica, Def Leppard and others for new Headshell imprint

By Samantha Puc published about 1 hour ago
Vault Comics imprint Headshell will produce graphic novels written by musical icons

Vault Comics has announced a new, music-focused imprint called Headshell. But it won't just publish comics about music - it will publish graphic novels written by musicians including Metallica, Def Leppard, the Beach Boys, Fall Out Boy's Pete Wentz, Redman, and more.

Vault has enlisted songwriter, producer, music executive, and publisher Richard Rudolph to guide strategy and artist relations for Headshell, which will release more info about its debut group of titles in coming months.

The first title to be released from Headshell is Dying Inside, co-written by Wentz and Hannah Klein, and drawn by Lisa Sterle. In the announcement, Wentz says, "Creating a new graphic novel with Vault and one of my favorite writers, Hannah Klein, has been an insane experience - in the best possible way.

"Between her perspective, honesty, and super dark sense of humor and Vault's creative support throughout the entire process, I'm excited to share it with the world soon."

Metallica co-founder Lars Ulrich says, "The team at Vault are pushing boundaries and are bold storytellers. We are excited to partner with them."

According to the announcement, Headshell graphic novels feature original stories that are inspired by and draw from artists' careers and music. Sony Music Publishing president and global chief marketing officer Brian Monoco reveals that the title of Def Leppard's graphic novel is Hysteria. Similar to Ulrich's statement, Monoco says the team at Sony is "honored to partner with Def Leppard and Vault Comics.

"There are many exciting opportunities for songwriters across the graphic novel space and I look forward to working with Vault to further amplify the stories of SMP songwriters," he continues.

Vault CEO Damian Wassel adds, "We have one overriding goal at Vault: to bring readers the very best comics and graphic novels. We're thrilled to bring that experience creating amazing, award-winning stories to Headshell in partnership with some of the biggest names in music. I can't wait to share the Headshell line of books with the world."

Headshell graphic novels will be available in multiple editions: standard, deluxe, and collectors. Vault has not yet specified the difference between these editions, but we expect more details will be released in the coming months. The announcement explains that each book will first be available for direct sale, then produced for mass market release through Vault's distribution partners, including Simon & Schuster.

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[CindyJ]

VAULT COMICS TO REVEAL HEADSHELL IMPRINT NEWS AT SOUTH BY SOUTHWEST
March 7, 2023

VAULT COMICS TO MAKE FIRST APPEARANCE AT SOUTH BY SOUTHWEST NEXT WEEK TOGETHER WITH DEF LEPPARD’S PHIL COLLEN AND KAJABI

The Company Makes First Public Appearance in Support of the Previously Announced Headshell Imprint

MISSOULA, MT–Late last year, Vault Comics announced Headshell, a new line of graphic novels from iconic recording artists, including Def Leppard, Metallica, The Beach Boys, Fall Out Boy’s Pete Wentz, Redman, and more. With details around most of these exciting projects largely yet undisclosed, the company heads to South by Southwest next week to reveal details around their collaboration with Def Leppard’s Phil Collen and Kajabi, the platform for creator-led business.

Tuesday March 14, on the Creative Industries Expo- Next Stage in Exhibit Hall 4 of the Austin Convention Center, Vault Publisher and CEO Damian Wassel will appear alongside Collen and Kajabi President and Chief Product Officer (CPO), Sean Kim, to talk about the future of the Headshell lineup and plans to leverage technology to power unique fan connections. Full details are below:

Def Leppard’s Phil Collen & Vault on Storytelling

March 14, 2023, 11:30 – 12:30, Creative Industries Expo- Next Stage, Exhibit Hall 4
In an era of endless reboots and spin-offs, fans are desperate for new stories. Yet, it has never been harder to break through with unique and new storytelling. The crowded content landscape has created a war for attention where meaningful audience connections matter far more than clicks and views. Kajabi’s Sean Kim sits down with legendary guitarist Phil Collen of Def Leppard and Vault Comics’ CEO Damian Wassel to discuss how they are cutting through the noise in the market, building original stories for a new generation through graphic novels, and leveraging technology to power unique fan connections.
Headshell works with iconic recording artists to create unique graphic novels that resonate with artists and audiences. Headshell graphic novels present original stories inspired by artists’ careers and music, giving fans an all new way to connect with the artists and music they love.

Headshell books will be available in standard, deluxe, and collectors editions, including special one-of-one rarities. Each graphic novel will debut first for direct sale, and will subsequently have a mass market release through Vault’s distribution partners, including category leading distributor Simon & Schuster.

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[skinnybill]

So, am I reading this right? There will be a new Def Leppard comic book coming out soon?

[CindyJ]

Mar 7, 2023 19:00:27 GMT -8 skinnybill said:

So, am I reading this right? There will be a new Def Leppard comic book coming out soon?

Yes, in long-format graphic novel style.

[seaoflove]

Fingers crossed this leads to a well produced biopic or a mini series. Been wanting a good biopic on these guys for a while now but honestly they have so much story they could tell, been thinking lately they could do like a 6 - 8 episode run

[Blair]

Mar 8, 2023 14:06:32 GMT -8 seaoflove said:

Fingers crossed this leads to a well produced biopic or a mini series. Been wanting a good biopic on these guys for a while now but honestly they have so much story they could tell, been thinking lately they could do like a 6 - 8 episode run

Like the mini series that was shot during the first Vegas residency.

[CindyJ]

This event will be available on Instagram live via Kajabi: www.instagram.com/kajabi/

[CindyJ]

Phil and his tech, John, are in place in Austin for the SXSW Vault Comics event tomorrow, and Phil is performing at a dinner tonight. Livestream of tonight's performance will be here: www.instagram.com/kajabi/

[CindyJ]

Today at 11:30AM CT. I won't be available to watch the Instagram livestream and report. Anyone else able to do it?

Livestream: www.instagram.com/kajabi/live/

[CindyJ]

Video of Phil is in Kajabi's IG stories. Expires in 24 hours. Includes electric This Guitar.

www.instagram.com/stories/kajabi/3058060605007003345/

[CindyJ]

[CindyJ]

[CindyJ]

[CindyJ]

[CindyJ]

[CindyJ]

March 14th 2023

Phil: (39:04) We've actually got a really big announcement to make, but I can't say anything about it. That's happening later on, this Summer actually."

[CindyJ]

Thanks to savagegroove for the heads up!

Sign up here: vaultcomics.com/pages/def-leppard

[CindyJ]

To be released 30 November 2024.
Pre-order here: vaultcomics.com/collections/all-books-all-books-for-series-block

[CindyJ]

Def Leppard Guitarist Phil Collen Makes Graphic Novel Debut with ‘Hysteria’ (Exclusive)

What an animal: Collen co-wrote the appropriately titled Vault Comics title about a demonic guitar.

BY BORYS KIT

As a teen in England, Phil Collen was obsessed with all things American. The music, be it rock or blues, were major influences, but of particular interest to the guitarist of heavy metal glam band Def Leppard were the comics that were being imported into London shops in the 1960s.

It was in these shops that Collen picked up copies of Silver Surfer no.1 by Stan Lee and John Buscema and The Hulk No 3 by Lee and Jack Kirby. He still has those copies, stored in a case in his home in London. The Hulk was one of his favorites, as was Batman.

“I really got into the vibe of it and the culture of it,” Collen says on a Zoom from Nashville, where he is taking a short break from Leppard’s circuit as part of the Journey for the Summer Stadium Tour, which also includes acts Cheap Trick and The Steve Miller Band.

Now, Collen will be able to make his own impact on that comic culture. The guitarist, who has been with the band since its 1982 breakout Pyromania, has co-written a graphic novel that blends his musical career and his love of horror.

Titled Hysteria, the same name as the band’s 1987 album, still one of the best-selling albums of all time, the graphic will be published in spring 2025 from indie publisher Vault Comics. It will be the second title from the company’s Headshell imprint, which features sequential art collaborations with recording artists Metallica, Slash, Pete Wentz of Fallout Boy, among others.

Hysteria is a horror story dealing with the dark side of rock stardom, and even features a cameo from the band itself. It tells of Foz, the frontwoman of an indie band named Darkside who inherits her father’s estate and discovers it comes with a half-remembered guitar from her childhood. The guitar is demonic, thanks to being made from some cursed wood back in Mesopotamian times. It speaks to her, promising fame and success — and soon, it delivers. When the band’s equipment is stolen before it is due to open for the band Def Leppard, Foz, in a nod to Bruce Banner seeing the ragefull Hulk unleashed, lets loose her own dark side, so to speak, in order to get the guitar back.

“Poured out on the pages of this graphic novel is a story (Phil) couldn’t tell you in a song that takes you to places Def Leppard have never gone before with their music,” says Vault CEO Damian Wassel, who helped put together the rest of the creative team of the book.

Eliot Rahal, who previously penned the ninja vampire tale Bleed Them Dry for Vault, co-wrote the graphic novel. Alex Schlitz, who previously drew short stories in compilations such as YULE: Dreadful Tales for the Holiday Season and Sagas of the Shield Maiden Vol. 2, is handling the illustrations. Fabi Marques is the colorist and Andworld Design is lettering.

Collen said that the co-writing process was very much like working with bandmates. “It reminded me of songwriting with someone you really like,” he says. “You’d go, ‘What about this?’ And ‘What about this line? And we can follow up with this melody.’ It was very much like that, bouncing ideas, and he would run with it.”

He adds, “When you hit on something, it runs away, and you’re part of the slipstream. It was very inspiring, I gotta say.”

A similar feeling arose when working with Schlitz, who is making her graphic novel debut after working in the anthology shorts world.

Hysteria will come in retail and deluxe editions. A befitting a rock ‘n roll tour, there will be merch, including Dark Side T-shirts. And Vault also had a custom-made guitar built to Collen’s specification that the guitarist will unveil later on this summer’s tour.

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[CindyJ]

[CindyJ]

[savagegroove]

Too expensive for something that appeals to a very specific demographic (that may or may not include fans).

[CindyJ]

[CindyJ]

Def Leppard’s Phil Collen Powers Comics’ Push To Reach New Fans With ‘Hysteria’
Rob Salkowitz

Def Leppard, the multiplatinum-selling 80s-era rock band, is in the midst of a 23 city stadium tour, playing to close to three quarters of a million fans. But the group’s guitarist, Phil Collen, has a more targeted audience in mind for his latest project, a graphic novel called Hysteria, due out in April from publisher Vault Comics. It’s just the latest example in the comics industry’s eternal quest for new customers, bringing together celebrities enthusiastic to try their hand in a new medium with the potential to tap into lucrative comics-adjacent fanbases and subcultures.

How did a member of one of rock’s most iconic bands find himself in the comics business? Part of it was a deal struck between the publisher and band management via mutual connections, and part because the project fit the guitarist’s passions as a storyteller with a longtime interest in the medium.

Collen, 66, takes his musical craft extremely seriously, waking early to hit the gym and keep himself in fighting shape for the band’s energetic performances, constantly recording on his mobile studio, and always looking for new sounds from his collection of guitars. He said that he sometimes unwinds on tours by writing short stories for his own amusement, but never had any particular ambitions for them.

“It’s just like writing songs,” Collen said in an interview in early September, ahead of Def Leppard’s show at T-Mobile Field in Seattle. “You do it as a creative expression. I travel everywhere and I’m very interested in the history, so I write these stories. They’re dark things; they come out a bit like Stephen King!”

Growing up in the UK in the 1960s, Collen said he became a fan of American comics like The Hulk and Silver Surfer, because they represented something colorful and exciting in a culture that didn’t offer a lot of pop culture entertainment. “People ask why there are so many British bands,” he said. “It’s because there was nothing else to do! American pop culture, whether movies, music or comics, was something different and I got really into that.”

Collen says that Vault Comics approached him to do a graphic novel associated with the Def Leppard brand, which gave him an opportunity to explore this side of his creativity. In collaboration with writer Eliot Rahal (Bleed Them Dry) and relatively new artist Alex Schlitz, Collen cooked up a tale of a guitar made from ancient, cursed wood that comes into the possession of a young musician in a punk rock band.

“The story is a metaphor for the obsession with fame and celebrity,” Collen said. “We’ve seen it throughout history down to the present. Celebrity, whether it’s a musician, actor, politician or whatever, makes people lose their minds. The guitar taps into this blind ambition.”

The 40 page sample that Vault provided shows a well-paced, well-drawn story centered on the character journey of Foz, lead singer of Darkside, who inherits the cursed instrument from her father. Frankly, if not for the Def Leppard branding and Collen’s participation, Hysteria would fit neatly on the shelf alongside the offerings of Image Comics, Boom! Studios, Mad Cave Studios, AWA, or any of the other small to midsize publishers publishing non-superhero comics in horror/fantasy/science fiction/thriller genres: comics that, while creatively appealing, rarely move the sales needle and fight to stand out on retailers’ shelves.

But it’s not just any comic. That association with one of the world’s biggest, longest-lived rock bands wins attention. If one Def Leppard fan in a hundred bought the Hysteria graphic novel, it would be one of the top sellers in the business. So Collen, despite not wanting to create some kind of corny tie-in, has woven a bit of Def Leppard into the texture of the story, and is releasing an EP of new music under the “Darkside” moniker in collaboration with a contemporary indie-rock band. To further kindle interest, Vault just announced an “issue zero” to tease and preview the graphic novel this month, and promises more intriguing promotions to keep interest in the book high after publication.

Comics have struck licensing deals with celebrities and musicians going back decades. Marvel memorably did a comic based on Kiss (an act perhaps uniquely suited to being adapted in a comic book) during the band’s heyday in the 1970s. Graphic novel publisher Z2 has built its entire business model on publishing work based on famous albums and musicians, often selling direct to consumers or in unusual venues for comics like music performances and record stores.

The recent example that set the template for success was BRZRKR, a violent adventure/fantasy series co-created by Keanu Reeves (along with writer Matt Kindt and artist Ron Garney), which raised over $1.45 million on Kickstarter, sold an astonishing 650,000 copies of its first issue, and is currently in media development in several formats. The publisher, Boom! Studios, was recently acquired by Penguin Random House.

Vault, which was founded in 2016 and recently closed a round of funding led by investors with deep connections in the entertainment and music industries, clearly has its eyes on that example. Hysteria and another project called Dying Inside based on the poetry of Fall Out Boy’s Pete Wentz due out September 24, are the first manifestations of the company’s strategy to crosspollinate music and comics.

“In the past with recording artist collaborations, you’ve seen a very straightforward name-image-likeness play, just taking the artist and shoving them into the pages of genre fiction and hoping it sells,” said Damain Wassel, cofounder and CEO of Vault Comics. “That’s very much not what we’re doing. We’re creating novel IP with every artist we’re partnering with, creating a great graphic novel with them, but also establishing a path to do all sorts of other stuff beyond that.”

Wassel also said that Vault is not crowdfunding its publishing projects, despite the potential to monetize fan interest directly, as Boom! Studios did with BRZRKR.

“We did a preorder campaign on our own platform, which achieved the same result in terms of predicting demand,” he said. “There’s a certain patina with crowdfunding that maybe our artists don’t want, and we want to make sure that we’re building this side of the business by having customers interact with our ecosystem, and not the ecosystem of a third party tech business.”

Collen says he’s looking forward to promoting the book at comic cons once the band is finished touring, and Wassel says Vault is pursuing a bunch of avenues to reach fans beyond the traditional business, including ads and partnerships in the venues where the band is playing. It’s a model the company hopes to repeat with upcoming projects featuring Metallica, The Beach Boys, Post Malone and others.

However the project turns out commercially, Collen says he very much enjoyed his first go-round as a comics creator. “It’s been a great experience artistically and a lot of fun,” he said. “With the whole backstory we’ve created, this could definitely do a sequel, or a series. It could go on as long as you wanted.”

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