Gerard Way's dysfunctional music family inspired by the Umbrella Academy – Rolling Stone

The Umbrellas Academy reads like a catharsis. Almost 12 years ago, Gerard Way released the comical Dark Horse at the height of the power of My Chemical Romance. Over the course of six issues, Way channeled the growing dysfunction and discord of his group into the fictional story of seven adopted children with superpowers struggling under the weight of an oppressive education from their recently deceased father. It was classic X-Men archetypes, sprayed with kerosene and examined through a psychedelic prism.

Surrealistic, kinetic and personal, The Umbrella Academy: Apocalypse Suite was filled with murderous children, talking chimpanzees and violin solos that ended around the world, but the comic was essentially about how the family could irreversibly and irreversibly the way we overcome this pain. "We [My Chemical Romance] were in a big pot of celebrity and notoriety and the experience of the characters only in comics and the show, "says Way of his creation.

After years spent in the limbo of development and cinema, The Umbrellas Academy finally found a house on Netflix. Now, his ultimate challenge is to show the humanity behind the main characters with extraterrestrial gorilla bodies (Spaceboy) and time-killing teenagers (Number Five). On the phone, Way describes the creation of the comic book, how his musical life inspired the story and how paternity changes his writing.

Where does the idea of ​​the Umbrella Academy comic book come from?
The philosophy I apply to all the arts I do is that you should create something you would like to read, listen to, or see, something that you think does not exist in the specific way that you see in your head, something that can not be said through your lens. In comics, I have not seen anything like it The Umbrellas Academy. I've seen a lot of things that were based on continuity that had lasted for 50 years and stories that had been going on for so long, but I did not see anything that plunges the reader into the thick of it and put it right in the right material. right now.

What comics did you grow up with that were your Bibles?
The first comic I remember being hooked on and bought alone at the store was Chris Claremont and Marc Silvestri. X Men. This has a great influence on what I do with Academy of Umbrellas. In the way they told the story, you went through the different characters through a series of vignettes and you got those little slices of their life that ended up resembling each other. It's a bit like what I do in Academy of Umbrellas.

guardians had a huge impact on me, and there are obviously elements of Umbrella who are inspired by it. Dark Knight is back was a tall, Daredevil: born again was a big one. Then I discovered Grant Morrison's work in Doom Patrol and this has become my mixtape of strange and awesome things.

Academy of Umbrellas before becoming a television show, it was supposed to be a movie at Universal. Was this process strange or emotionally difficult?
Yeah, it was emotionally hard and it was really tedious and exhausting. I've been more involved than I would have probably been in it. I've been involved in a lot of early conversations. While this was going on, I remember going there and having meetings about it. He was not going anywhere. I do not think anyone who was at the head of the time believed it. It was exhausting. So, after that, I made a decision when I made more comics than I made sure that the comics were in the center of my concerns and that everything that happens around him abandons control and let it exist on another medium.

How did it go from a movie to Netflix as a TV series?
Universal had this option for a movie for a long time, and then finally they finally told us they were not going to do it. The option ran out and then Dark Horse contacted me to say, "Well, you know, TV is starting to get really crazy. What do you think of Umbrella as a TV show? I said, "I think it's great, because I'd like to spend more time with these characters. Umbrella Academy's cartoon analysis goes very fast. This first graphic novel, which could have easily made 12 numbers, was kept to a minimum.

Anyway, they said, "Hey, we'd like you to meet UCP [Universal Cable Productions]there is a production company. They develop a lot of television ', so like all different networks. I sat down with Dawn [Olmstead, President of UCP] and I really like her and the people she's worked with and they're really good friends. Dawn asked me what my goal was and I replied, "My goal is to make a really amazing comic. I've somehow done the Hollywood thing. I've gone through this machine. If I do a very good job, you will always have the material to do shows. As a co-executive producer, I found myself a little more involved in this project, but I knew that at first I knew that was going to be different from my comedic.

read back[[[[Academy of Umbrellas]it's such a story about parenthood, fatherhood and your family that irrevocably transforms you. What did you experience while writing these first comic books?
Being in a group, it's like being in a dysfunctional family and all these personalities are really different and very big, not just the people in your group, but the people you meet on the road or your team members who work with you. One group, in particular, is a dysfunctional family, so there is a bit of me in all the characters, some of the types of some of these characters and the different roles we would play in the group and how these roles would change sometimes . We were in a big pot of celebrity and notoriety and the characters make the experience in comics and the show.

The children of the family are different races, you have Mary J. Blige [playing Cha-Cha]. What was the thought process behind the diversity of the series?
These were very early conversations about the fact that we all wanted there to be diversity in casting and performance. We really wanted it, and that's one of the ways that really improved the source material. The actual source material is not very diverse, but it was very early in the conversations between Dark Horse and myself, Jeremy Slater and myself, who is the original showrunner, and he wrote the original pilot. He wanted a lot of diversity. UCP wanted it and when we talked to Netflix, they wanted it, and that's the ideal situation for that diversity because they've all been adopted.

The Umbrellas Academy finally gets a show the same year The accursed patrol is to get one. What do you think of these two comics that make it a good entertainment for 2019? Is the audience ready for the left superheroes?
The time has come for this stuff because they want something different, because they need something different. They have spent the last ten years watching original stories. I think the public needs something that cleverly treats them and throws them to the bottom. Odd, it's different. Odd, it's fresh and new. They are ready for things that go further. We should not be content to take into account the fact that some of these people are sometimes divine.

What about your writing has changed? There was this break. It's the same comic book, but it seems like you grew up as a creator in your style.
When I sit down and think about the experiences I've had since this second volume, there have been quite a few. There was a group separating and dissolving. One of the best things was to raise my daughter and rub her around often without touring. So fatherhood, parenthood has become a much more important role in my life. I have accumulated wisdom. I learned to give up my ego. I have gained humility. I learned to shut up and start listening. I am much better at all these things.