In a post about songs I would have chosen for the Watchmen movie if I were its music supervisor, I mentioned a comic book that came with its own original soundtrack: the Devil's Due series Spooks, a Ryan Schifrin/Larry Hama collabo that spawned a score album co-composed by Schifrin's father, legendary Enter the Dragon and Mission: Impossible composer Lalo Schifrin.
Witchblade is another comic with a soundtrack. Megadeth and Cibo Matto's Miho Hatori were among the artists who contributed original songs that readers could rock out to while following the adventures of their favorite scantily clad NYPD detective-turned-warrior woman.
Spooks and Witchblade are comics I've never read, so I was kind of excited to learn a comic I do read is joining the list of comics with original theme songs: Runaways (no, not The Mark Sanford and Maria Story, but the witty Marvel teenage superhero series created by one of my favorite comic scriptwriters, Brian K. Vaughan, and featuring an Asian American Goth chick, Nico, as the team leader).
Runaways editor Nick Lowe--not to be confused with Nick Lowe of "Cruel to Be Kind" and "I Love the Sound of Breaking Glass" fame--has written and recorded theme music for his own series. This isn't the first time Lowe and his brother Matt, a member of the Down Lowe, created a theme for a comic Lowe edited. The brothers also recorded a theme for Nextwave.
MTV's Splash Page debuted a music video of Lowe's Runaways theme, which can be downloaded in mp3 form from Marvel's site, and interviewed Lowe about his recording:
"'Runaways' has always hit me like the best of the teen TV shows," said Lowe of the inspiration for his musical contribution to the series. "It's got it all: making out, poor decisions, and angst. Sure, they have super powers, but that's not what it's all about. So I tried to write a song that felt like something that would be played on 'Gossip Girl' or 'Ugly Betty.'"...How does the Runaways theme fare? It's alright--it breaks down the comic's premise in a tuneful way that makes me miss old-school TV themes like the ones that opened the '60s Spider-Man cartoon, The Greatest American Hero, Jack of All Trades and The Knights of Prosperity--but it's not exactly the theme I had in mind while reading Runaways.
Marvel's Senior Art Director, Jeff Suter, said he didn't know what to expect from Lowe when the theme song was first pitched around the publisher’s office. Charged with putting the song to video, he said the finished musical element was quite a bit different than he anticipated.
"He came to us with the concept of an opening montage of a sitcom or Saturday morning kids show," said Suter. "I knew he's come back to us with something clever, but I really had no idea he'd bring such a catchy pop tune, something reminiscent of some of the great 1990s TV themes."
The theme I would have gone with is "I Love Playin' with Fire" by... the Runaways.
[Via Robot 6]
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