Legendary music producer Steve Aoki has long been a comics fan. So it’s no surprise that his work jumps around various media. But when he steps away from music and into graphic novels, he knows who to call on to collaborate: New York Times best-selling author Jim Krueger. You may know Jim’s name from an influential stint as Marvel’s creative director, and his work on Earth X and Foot Soldiers. As of last week, you should know him as the co-writer with Aoki of HiroQuest: Genesis & Double Helix, a graphic novel from Gungnir Entertainment.
It’s going to be more than a graphic novel and ongoing music releases. But we’ll get to that in a bit. Jim and I met up recently to talk about HiroQuest, which combines manga storytelling with YA novel with… again, we’ll get to that in a bit.
This interview has been edited for length and clarity.
Derek McCaw: We’re here talking about Steve Aoki’s HiroQuest, but it’s also Jim Krueger’s HiroQuest.
Jim Krueger: It’s Steve Aoki’s HiroQuest. I’m just happy to be part of the band.
Derek McCaw: This is an interesting project. I don’t think I’ve ever talked to somebody about adapting an album into a graphic novel.
Jim Krueger: It’s even more than a graphic novel. I mean, it’s got so many visuals inside, but it’s a prose novel, really. It’s like a YA novel, a 50,000 word novel that has sections at the end of every chapter that are part manga.
And there are parts of it that have graphics related to the keys to not only the music, but also the songs and the lyrics of the entire thing. It’s like an epic experience of all things Steve Aoki’s HiroQuest.
Derek McCaw: Whose choice was that format? It’s presented as a graphic novel, and then it’s immediately a prose chapter. And then it’s jumping around in time and space, quite literally. And format! So why that approach?
Jim Krueger: I know that Steve has always loved comics. Wolverine is his favorite superhero, his favorite comic character. He’s always been into fantasy and science fiction and adventure and all that stuff.
And when you look at so much of his music, you can see even those influences. What was really funny is I had worked with Steve and a bunch of other really talented writers on (his album) “Neon Future” a number of years ago. Recently, like last year, I had gone to one of Steve’s concerts just to catch up because he was he was performing in Solana Beach and I love that area. It’s right out of San Diego and even when I do Comic-Con, I’ll usually go down there and stay in that area and either take the train in or drive in.
Anyway, I was there and went backstage to say hi to Steve. And Steve looked at me and he was like, “oh my gosh, yes, yes, you. I’ve got this giant thing, this giant story, Jim. You’re the guy. And here you are. Oh my gosh, I can’t believe it!”
Then I started talking to management guys and all that other thing. And he asked “what would go faster, a novel or a graphic novel?”
I said well, probably a novel but he’s like, “yeah but I also want graphic novel parts of it and I want these really cool visuals because this is part of not only my music and my videos but also part of this card game that I’m creating, this giant thing because I’ve always been into Pokémon. I want to do this game and all these visuals. Jim, would you? Can you help me?”
And I was like, yeah, of course. And that’s kind of how it began. But it’s not like Steve made a decision to create all this stuff or do this because he thought graphic novels were popular. He’s always been into it. He’s as much a nerd or geek or whatever the word is that’s acceptable now. I don’t think Dweeb ever made it in. But he’s as much of that as I am, just a lot cooler.
Derek McCaw: I’ve seen him show up at Comic-Con several years in a row. So his bona fides are real. And I think this format kind of adds to the feeling of album tracks. What did you find most exciting or challenging about doing this?
Jim Krueger: The way it started is Steve said, “here’s the deal. It’s about a character named Hiro, H-I-R-O.” That’s actually Steve’s middle name. And so HiroQuest became the quest of a hero. And he’s like, “so it’s like this character to save Earth. He’s got to go 400 years into the future and collect these 10 rings of power from these 10 different worlds. And every one of these worlds is different. One world’s filled with mutants that work.” Meaning we have to build worlds with the correct type of creature. “One world’s AI, one world’s this one…”
Then he says, “OK, Jim. You know, let’s talk. Let’s go back and forth.” That’s really what it’s been, going back and forth. Kind of figuring out these worlds. He was just in town yesterday and our breakfast, our lunch was filled with us talking with our mouths full about book two. A little gross, yeah, but also really awesome.
Derek McCaw: Are you writing part of the card game as well?
Jim Krueger: I’ve written a lot of the cards already, and as it goes from here we’ll have the visuals for the cards that we’ve developed so far. Now we’re going into the development of the card game, and I totally expect a LOT of cards.
And we’ll keep an eye out for the game… for now, how about an anthem?
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