In this series of blogs, I chronicle my path bringing The Singularity to life as a rock album, graphic novel, and concert experience. My previous blogs can be found here: “Discovering Metal,” “Writing the Record,” “Variety of Voices,” “Instrumentalists,” “Boingo Boys,” “Mixing the Madness,” and “Finding Story in Sound.”
One of the most exhilarating aspects of creating The Singularity was collaborating with dozens of visual artists. These conversations inspired and humbled me because I had to grapple with the reality that I am not as versed in the language of visual art as I am with that of music and sound. I suddenly found increasing empathy for the filmmakers I’ve collaborated with over the years, artists speak the language of cinema and often struggle to speak about music with me. Suddenly, I was in their position, striving to communicate my vision but without the lexicon to do it properly. Thankfully, every artist was as patient and open-minded as they are talented, and they helped me chart through new creative waters.
THE ALBUM COVER
During the production of The Singularity graphic novel, I supervised the creation of hundreds of images. However, the most challenging artwork to complete was the album’s cover art. I collaborated with multiple artists over the course of more than a year, struggling to craft the image that could encapsulate everything I wanted to communicate into a single square. The task was utterly daunting. I was honored to work with several artists I admire, who generated inspired imagery, and yet I could not help but feel each attempt was missing something. As I struggled to talk through my thoughts, they were each patient with me which was especially helpful because I was not experienced in speaking the language of visual artists.
At last, I bounced my ideas off a talented graphic designer named John Hofstetter. John has been a part of my creative life for more than a decade, having done album and website work for both me and my company Sparks & Shadows. He has a keen eye, and an intuitive understanding of my tastes from our long years of collaboration. John was willing and able to generate the dozens of iterations that would clearly be necessary in order to find what I was searching for.
From the jump, John landed on an image that inspired me: an inky black space around a burning circular shape. We toiled together for months, generating countless variations. I was inspired by John’s work because it seemed to unify many disparate concepts for me. His images were both pure and graphical, while also retaining elements that seemed photorealistic. The circular shape seemed to function like an inkblot test – it appeared as a black hole, an eclipse, the pupil of an eye, or the cone of a speaker, depending on who was looking. I felt an intense emotional response when I gazed into it. That gut reaction was what I had been craving!
After nearly a year of drafts, I felt that John and I had landed on an image that had the potential to become an icon for the project, emblazoning the sound and narrative with a visual stamp. When the album finally launched, I felt my faith in John’s work was validated. I was honored to see The Singularity on many playlists for new rock and metal on streaming platforms like Apple Music and Spotify, and as a result, the album cover sat amongst dozens of others in the genre. Even compressed down to a few hundred pixels, the immediacy of our image cut through like a laser beam, immediately drawing my eye across the clutter of complex metal album covers, to a single target. The cover felt like a warning to the audience – beware the high voltage!
GRAPHIC NOVEL VISUALS
In 2020, while I finished the music of The Singularity, I explored the possibility of converting the album’s inherent narrative spine into a graphic novel and partnered with Kyle Higgins and his company Black Market Narrative to enlist a talented writer from the comics industry, Mat Groom, to create a script. Mat envisioned a story about three immortal characters, identified by their eye colors, Blue, Yellow, and Red, who are reborn in different universes, with each universe representing a song on the album. When the script was nearly complete, it was time to focus on the most crucial step in the creation of a graphic novel: the art.
Because our primary characters embody new physical forms in new universes in each chapter, I wanted to give each chapter a new visual style, implying each universe has its own physics in which light and matter behave slightly differently. Just as I had brought in multiple musical artists to create an eclectic yet cohesive album, I wanted to collaborate with a diverse group of comic book artists to graphically realize these worlds.
Kyle introduced me to Eduardo Ferigato, a talented artist from São Paulo, Brazil, to create concept art for major characters, locations, and creatures. Designing the look of our protagonist was an exceptional challenge, because they change form in every chapter – we had dozens of designs to work through! Eduardo uncovered in both the album and script a vibrant drama he was able to translate into visuals. For “Midnight Sun,” he drew a jubilant ceremonial crowd gathered around a fire, set in the background behind two figures sitting atop a ledge beneath beautiful aurora borealis. For “Antikythera Mechanism” he drew Yellow as a mighty aquatic creature, with long shimmering fins wrapping around Blue as a deep-sea fish entangles its prey. He envisioned a hideous monster for “Tatarigami” made of thick black sludge consuming Blue’s body. He captured Yellow’s intimidating majesty as she sat atop a throne, towering above Blue in satyr form, amidst the magical technology of “Type III.”
For the book itself, Eduardo would then go on to draw three chapters, crafting a ragtag group of rebels for “Exiles,” and massive combat sequences for “Rallying Cry” and “The Last of the Old Gods.”
With a script and concept art locked, Kyle and Matt at Black Market Narrative assembled a diverse and experienced group of artists, not unlike a band of superheroes that might populate pages of their books.
The narrative framing device of The Singularity, also the book’s gripping emotional spine, was drawn by Eisner, Harvey, & Schuster Award-winning artist Ramón K. Pérez. Ramon brought an earthy immediacy to the depiction of Blue Eyes, creating a vision of his home life that was so pastoral and welcoming that readers could feel his burning desire to return to it motivating his every move. Ramon’s chapters, “The First Life, Parts I – V” are spread across the book.
Brazilian artist Danilo Beyruth drew a book-only chapter called “Interlude,” as well as “Escape from the Machines Part II,” “Leviathan” and “Tears for the Dead Life.” Danilo was responsible for crafting the visual identity for Blue Eyes and Yellow Eyes in their truest forms, and he created beautiful, emotionally resonant sequences, capturing the spirit of so many songs.
Eisner Award nominee Matías Bergara brought his distinct visual style to “The Automaton’s Heart” and “Roko’s Basilisk,” with coloring support from Patricio Delpeche. I was particularly struck by his ability to create a dynamic action scene that spread across two full pages!
Eleonora Carlini brought invigorating cosmic energy to “Rage Child,” imprinting on to the page the song’s relentless pulsing percussion.
Lorenzo Colangeli, captured a panicked astronaut in a spaceship crashing down in “Redshift.” I could almost hear the song’s signature ripping synth arpeggios blaring like warning sirens.
Valeria Favoccia created a striking escape sequence for “First Day Out,” amplifying Mega Ran’s exuberant rap.
Marco Locati’s brutal action in “Incinerator” evoked the impact of two giant rock monsters pummeling each other, evoking Serj Tankian’s brutal screams.
Helena Masellis infused “Overture,” “Midnight Sun” and “Last Stop” with high contrast, inky depth, representing the emotional range across these songs.
The vibrant worlds of “Antikythera Mechanism” and “The End of Tomorrow” were brought to life by Simone Ragazzoni, perfectly matching those songs’ cinematic styles.
Stefano Simeone’s cinematic camera placement put the characters in “Industrial Revolution” in fantastic frames, giving form to the song’s wheezing hurdy gurdy, snapping pizzicatos, and crunching gear sounds.
Federico Bertoni delighted us with his vibrant action and designs for “Tatarigami” and “Escape from the Machines Part I,” which captured the impact of these two songs.
Rod Reis brought a painterly, watercolor aesthetic to the high-tech wonderland of “Type III,” capturing in visual form the music’s flowing electronic loops, rich orchestral lines, and operatic vocal from Rufus Wainwright.
Eisner Award winner John J. Pearson pushed the boundaries of the book’s visual style with his daring interpretation of “Red Eyes,” with support from Lola Bonato. This chapter was the direct inspiration for the album’s inclusion of three dramatic monologues, spoken by acclaimed film and television actors. Pearson’s rendering of the imposing character Red Eyes was matched by actor Ryan Hurst’s booming baritone reading.
For several of the book’s collages, representing montages of Blue’s various lives, we were fortunate to get small but impactful contributions from Toby Cypress.
We also were thrilled to get a striking panel from Morgan Sorne, the singer and co-writer of “Tears for the Dead Life,” making him the only artist on The Singularity to contribute both audio to the album and visuals to the book.
Coloring for the book was provided by Natália Marques and Rod Fernandes, with lettering by Becca Carey.
With each completed page, the book took a step closer to becoming as emotionally and thematically dynamic as the album.
Having spent the last twenty years creating music for visual media, I was exhilarated by the opportunity to reverse the process, and work with visual artists to create images to support my music. Each artist brought unique sensibilities and storytelling style to The Singularity.
—Bear
