'The Umbrella Academy' by Gerard Way and Gabriel Bá
I believe this is a first for my humble little blog and I - a comic book! Or graphic novel, whichever you prefer, though in my humble opinion that particular term is really only relevant to the likes of Marjane Satrapi and Art Spiegelman. Anyway, comic book or graphic novel, this is still a first, and what I have here is The Umbrella Academy: Apocalypse Suite, the first in a planned series by New Jersey-born musician/comic book writer/all-round force to be reckoned with, Gerard Way, and Brazilian comic book artist Gabriel Bá. And if you’re reading this right now, chances are you arrived here via the ‘Gerard Way’ tag, in which case I apologise for not being a sexy photo set or a video of Gerard in a passionate clinch with his rhythm guitarist (which, for the record, happened just once) but I am in fact here to talk about The Umbrella Academy.
It is important to remember that comic books are a collaborative effort, not only between writer and artist but also among those responsible for the colours, lettering and, perhaps most critically in this case, the editor. Spare a thought for poor old Scott Allie, editor of The Umbrella Academy, who was given the unenviable task of liaising between a somewhat frustrated artist and a writer whose day job was taking him all over the map and sometimes off it. As Allie explains in his afterword to the Apocalypse Suite story: 'The worlds of Gerard’s imagination chasing each other around the globe, with me calling and e-mailing Gerard in whatever city the band took him to, one phone breaking down after another, or getting stolen, whole nations where internet access seemed impossible to come by. Me begging for script pages for Gabriel. While Gabriel hung out in South America working diligently, and amazingly fast, for the twenty-two pages of each issue, Gerard traveled the world, and banged out scripts in Tokyo, Russia, Nevada, Germany, and Jersey - in more different cities than there were issues in the series.' This should give you a good idea of what Scott Allie was faced with, and why he deserves every comic book editor accolade going.
The first issue of The Umbrella Academy: Apocalypse Suite came out on September 19th, 2007 (ah, I remember it well), while this collected edition was published in the summer of 2008, just as Gerard and his band were wrapping up a mammoth world tour and taking a much-needed break. As the purists began to realise that The Umbrella Academy was anything but a rock star vanity project - Fall Out Toy Works anyone? - Way and Bá began to receive well-deserved acclaim for their work, and at the 2008 Eisner Awards Apocalypse Suite took home the award for Best Limited Series, which was first won by Watchmen in 1988. There have been whispers about The Umbrella Academy being made into a film - Dark Horse Books have a first option deal with Universal - but, like many projects, it seems to be stuck in development limbo and last I heard Way was taking a step back from the process.
If you have managed to read this far I salute your patience and will now try my best to explain just what The Umbrella Academy is all about. The members of The Umbrella Academy, a disbanded and dysfunctional team of superheroes, reunite following the death of their adoptive father Sir Reginald Hargreeves (also known as 'The Monocle’) an alien disguised as a world-famous entrepreneur. Hargreeves adopted the members of The Umbrella Academy shortly after their shared day of birth, later training them to save the world from an unspecified threat. In the wake of his death, the remaining members carry his plan to save the world.
To be continued…
This piece was originally published on alisonlaurabell.tumblr.com in March 2013.