OK so there's Neal Hefit's "Batman Theme" which has been done-over by many from The Ventures to Link Wray to The Who.

 

The Clique penned "Superman" which was covered by R.E.M.

 

The Ramones did the "Spider-man" theme.

 

I can name a few other instances... but I wanna hear what other comic/music crossovers you might dig.

 

 

http://darlingpetmunkee.bandcamp.com/

 

Darling Pet Monkee do garage songs based aroung the old ads in the back of comics -- they just got boingboinged and made the ep a free download for a limited time  - it's good stuff. Sea Monkeys are Coming For You!

"Batman in The Launderette" , that's great . Link Wray's version of "The Batman Theme" , WITH THE FUNNY VOICE - OVERS (NO ONE SEEMS TO KNOW WHO THEY WERE.)spawned at least two covers - of -covers , by Link Protrudi and The Jaymen (Fuzztones offshoot.) , with a couple of LOCKER ROOM - vintage Gay JOKES ("YOU MEAN PETER PARKER IS A PETER PARKER ?!"). IGGY POP ALSO SHOWED GOOD TASTE IN REFERENCING LINK (WHOM HE'D CITED AS AN INSPIRATION MANY YEARS AGO.) , BUT , good taste in his Batman impersonation? "You're FUCKIN' - A RIGHT , ROBIN , start the goddamned NUCLEAR POWER FOR THE GODDAMNED BATMOBILE !!!" . C'MON ! IT'S HILARIOUS.

REZILLOS - "2000 AD" ( Judge Dredd to my countrymen.) , Elton John -" Dan Dare , Pilot of The Future" ( I can tolerate about three ELTON JOHN songs , more if you count VERY early tracks like "Ballad of a Well - Known Gun" , but this IS a comic book song. Brigitte Bardot and Serge Gainsbourg "Comic Strip" ("Plop , whiz , pow! ) . Beatles - "Continuing Saga of Bungalow Bill "(Captain Marvel reference.). Johnny "Guitar" Watson - "Superman Love". Lurkers - "I Don't Need To Tell Her" ( Not about a specific superhero , just being one.).

Album covers that are sort of Comic Books...The Groundhogs - "Who'll Save The World? The Mighty Groundhogs.".
Jethro Tull "Too Old To Rock'n'Roll , Too Young To Die." Mo - Dettes "The Story So Far". Elton John "Captain Fantastic and The Brown Dirt Cowboy" (Maybe they'd call that a "Graphic Novel " , today. )
George Thorogood and The Destroyers "( Get a ) Haircut " (Great comic strip art by Peter Bagge , but , I could'nt bring myself to buy it , when I knew I'd never listen to it.) .

I'm two ways about the Ghost Rider movie. The story was nearly spot on to the original Ghost Rider series with Johnny Blaze but they hadda make it a bit too PC or preachy. Nick Cage wasn't really great in it but the fact that it stuck to the old motorcycle daredevil carnie plot lines counts for something. Talking about using tunes in super hero movies, I kinda enjoyed hearing Black Sabbath's "Iron Man" in the first movie even though I never really thought the song was about the Marvel character.

John Battles said:

Marty , It seems like somebody did mention Suicide's original. It's almost shocking it did'nt make the movie , but , I heard the movie was pretty awful....Ahhh, how I remember seeing The Gories open for The Gibson Bros. in 1990 , and being the only person standing in front of the stage. Everyone else was about a mile back. I opened for The Gories last year ,and , fortunately , most of the audience was only 1/2 - 2/3rds of the way back during my set.

Marty Shane, Pacifiction Records said:

Surprised nobody's mentioned Suicide's "Ghost Rider" maybe a bit obvious, not really garage, but The Gories do a great cover!

Marty , It seems like somebody did mention Suicide's original. It's almost shocking it did'nt make the movie , but , I heard the movie was pretty awful....Ahhh, how I remember seeing The Gories open for The Gibson Bros. in 1990 , and being the only person standing in front of the stage. Everyone else was about a mile back. I opened for The Gories last year ,and , fortunately , most of the audience was only 1/2 - 2/3rds of the way back during my set.

Marty Shane, Pacifiction Records said:

Surprised nobody's mentioned Suicide's "Ghost Rider" maybe a bit obvious, not really garage, but The Gories do a great cover!

Surprised nobody's mentioned Suicide's "Ghost Rider" maybe a bit obvious, not really garage, but The Gories do a great cover!

 I almost forgot , "Lois ,Lois " by Superman's Girlfriend ( Dallas - Fort Worth Punk/New WAVE GROUP.). It's a hilarious , concieved on the spot , number about Superman , his girlfriend ,Lois Lane ,  his best friend , Jimmy Olsen , and the boss at The Dailey Planet , Perry Stewart (Local Rock writer for Buddy Magazine.) , instead of Perry White (OK , he gets mentioned once.). Singer , Erin Humphries ,assumed the identity of "Lois"on stage , and after the band performed a one - shot reunion (BUT THEY DID'NT DO "LOIS , LOIS "!!!), a few years ago , ERIN STARTED A NEW BAND CALLED "Lois's Last Good Nerve". Their other singer , Jim Nabors , did NOT assume the identity of Gomer Pyle.

"Alice Cooper , you know , everybody bothers Alice Cooper so much ,to where he can't even open his mouth !" Roky Erickson.

I have the Marvel Alice Cooper book too... It was wedged in a record collection I bought  a few years back. My copy has some scribbles on it that are supposedly Alice's signature, but I've never bothered figuring out if it was legit or not.

 

Glad you liked the page!   Michael Neno is one of those "Should be famous" type guys and it has a real honor to have him do my book.  http://www.quackypig.com/

John Battles said:

Ken , wow , this looks great. A bit like Vampirella , when she gets her comeuppance on would - be "She's just a GIRL!" attackers...In the last panel , the Priest looks VERY much like Question Mark. I just saw him two weeks ago , so I remember his visage well. What I could see of it.

Ken said:

Well, and to toot my own horn... Lots of music stuff in my own comic.  Here's  page from my first issue drawn by Michael Neno.  The main character for these stories is a monster hunting "priest" who plays in a rock band and scours seedy bars for creatures of the night.  (I told Michael to borrow from Joey Ramone and Question Mark for the character's general appearance.)

 

Holy hole in a donut Batman! While I was out fighting crime this thread really boomed! Lot's of secret knowledge here that I will have to peruse! In the meanitime, I saw the recently formed Japanese girl garage/powerpop band The Phantasms cover THE SHAPES' "Batman in the Launderette." Here's the original:

 

And sticking to punk/powerpop, here's THE TEARJERKERS (from Ireland) who reference Doctor Strange, X-Men, Avengers & Fantastic Four in their song "Comic Book Heroes." Here it is:

Black Lips have 'Spidey's Curse' catchy little song about Peter Parker.

Ken , wow , this looks great. A bit like Vampirella , when she gets her comeuppance on would - be "She's just a GIRL!" attackers...In the last panel , the Priest looks VERY much like Question Mark. I just saw him two weeks ago , so I remember his visage well. What I could see of it.

Ken said:

Well, and to toot my own horn... Lots of music stuff in my own comic.  Here's  page from my first issue drawn by Michael Neno.  The main character for these stories is a monster hunting "priest" who plays in a rock band and scours seedy bars for creatures of the night.  (I told Michael to borrow from Joey Ramone and Question Mark for the character's general appearance.)

 

Ken , I've got that Marvel  Alice Cooper comic book. It's great ! It's done in an EC Horror / Mad comics style , with similar attention to detail. Gunther Toody and Francis Muldoon from "Car 54 , Where are You" even appear in one panel...   I happen to know the guy who created the "Howlin' Wolf" character you mention , BUT , I scarcely see him , anymore , and I think he'd be glad that someone even knew where he got the name !  Another company did an Alice Cooper comic book tie - in with his low - key return to form CD "The Last Temptation" . OK, "lOST IN aMERICA " WAS'NT SO LOW KEY , WITH THE INCLUSION ON " BEAVIS AND BUTTHEAD" , whom Alice said he wrote the song for , anyway.

Ken said:

Alice Cooper had a one shot deal with marvel in the late 70s.

 

There was a great Spider-Man comic in the 80s where he was singing an Elvis Costello song.  I can't remember which one, but I remember as a kid it was the first time I had heard of him.  (Not long afterwards, Mad did a parody of him where they called him Elfish Costello.)

 

Marvel did a REALLY bad character in the 90s who was named after Howlin' Wolf. He... uh... turned into a wolf.

 

It was either the Statics or the 145s that did a song about the Human Torch in the 90s that was really funny.

Well, and to toot my own horn... Lots of music stuff in my own comic.  Here's  page from my first issue drawn by Michael Neno.  The main character for these stories is a monster hunting "priest" who plays in a rock band and scours seedy bars for creatures of the night.  (I told Michael to borrow from Joey Ramone and Question Mark for the character's general appearance.)

 

Alice Cooper had a one shot deal with marvel in the late 70s.

 

There was a great Spider-Man comic in the 80s where he was singing an Elvis Costello song.  I can't remember which one, but I remember as a kid it was the first time I had heard of him.  (Not long afterwards, Mad did a parody of him where they called him Elfish Costello.)

 

Marvel did a REALLY bad character in the 90s who was named after Howlin' Wolf. He... uh... turned into a wolf.

 

It was either the Statics or the 145s that did a song about the Human Torch in the 90s that was really funny.

It's such a great record, but , hard to find in decent shape , since kids used to leave their records lying around to get stepped on , or whatever...Now that records are "Coming back" , maybe the tradition will continue. I recently found a rpretty good copy ,not perfect....It was reissued under Sun - Ra's name (Even though he did'nt have much to do onit.) ca. 1999 or 2000 , w/o the great DC comic art cover....
"Superman" was on "Low Budget" ....I think. I have more Kinks records than I have time to play. In the 90's ,I 'd find 'em  for a dollar all the time...But , I like their Late 70's "Comeback" material. I have a boot , on tape , somewhere , they're very drunk (Say it ain't so !!! ) ,doing "Superman " and the "Batman" theme , which, of course , they'd done since The Year of Our Lord , The Batman , 1966
DammitDave said:

"The Sensational Guitars of DAN AND DALE - BATMAN AND ROBIN" album come highly recommended. Both were rumored to feature Lou Reed on guitar  . The latter LP , MORE RECENTLY , WAS REVEALED TO FEATURE SUN RA (On organ) , with The Blues Project."

 

I used to have that lp as a kid!  Loved it!

 

In the 70’s, the Kinks did a song called Superman.  It was on Low Budget, I think.

Do my spider-senses detect the makings of a comic book themed podcast in this thread?

Someone really should get working on it…

"The Sensational Guitars of DAN AND DALE - BATMAN AND ROBIN" album come highly recommended. Both were rumored to feature Lou Reed on guitar  . The latter LP , MORE RECENTLY , WAS REVEALED TO FEATURE SUN RA (On organ) , with The Blues Project."

 

I used to have that lp as a kid!  Loved it!

 

In the 70’s, the Kinks did a song called Superman.  It was on Low Budget, I think.

No , I think it's interesting. The 3-D iNVISIBLES from Detroit have been recording and performing Horror -Garage songs for well over 25 years. Later on , they did a block of superhero songs , too , which are all great.    

Jonathan Brandon Sawyer said:

This thread is right up my alley.

Horse The Band - The Red Tornado:  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bQlobg7r7Co
Horse The Band - A Million Exploding Suns (about Marvel's The Sentry): http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sMN9eDpFFe0

And being a huge comic fan myself, all of my bands have written songs about comics. Here is one from my current band.

Mind Powers - Where Is The Laser? Ask The Police! (A song about Hank Pym creating Ultron...the title is a reference to the infamous poorly translated line Ultron utters in the Captain America and The Avengers arcade game):  http://soundcloud.com/mindpowers/05-where-is-the-laser-ask-the

We also have a currently unrecorded song called Space Widow that makes references to Ego the Living Planet, the Green Lantern Mogo, the Negative Zone, and the Phantom Zone.

The lyrics of two of my former bands, Manchester Black and Gamera! The Invincible, were almost solely about comics. We had songs about The Hulk, Spider-Man, Crisis on Infinite Earths, Green Lantern's destruction of Coast City, etc. If anyone is interested I will post the EPs on here but I don't want to blow this thread up with self-promotion if you guys don't want it, haha.

I'm sure it was mentioned, but Clowes also did a Las Vegas Grind Cover, Charles Burns did the popular Brick by Brick Cover for Iggy - guess someone said that too. Sorry if I doubletrouble.

John Battles said:

Yeah , and Dan Clowes did ones for The Headcoats , Supersuckers , Victor Banana and others.  Peter Bagge did a 45 sleeve FOR THE LATE , GREAT , THE BROOD , an A-Bones/Girl Trouble split , His own band,  Action Family , and others. He did a T-Shirt for Tad , don't know if the artwork appeared elsewhere , and The Troggs' Tribute comp , "Groin Thunder!". 

Bibliodiscoteque said:

Jaime Hernandez did a cover for The Makers and Sam Kieth did one for the Groovin' Ghoulies

 

I heard of the "SEDUCTION..." band, nice play of words in the title there. Didn't catch much of their music yet though.

Didn't Joe Tex had some Super Hero quote in one of his songs? ...ah I forget.

John Battles said:

There's actually a band , Seduction of The Innocent * , made up of people in the Comic Book Industry , including Bill Mumy , of "Lost in Space" and "Barnes and Barnes" fame.     * The name comes from an infamous book , released in the

50's , that suceeded in getting the Comic Book Industry neutered , as well as slandering Rock'n'Roll and Horror movies , anything that made being a kid bearable.

The Unbelievable Uglies had an INSANE Garage Punker called "Spider - Man" , tho' it sounds like it may be about a monster , not the Comic Book Hero.  Jan and Dean had an (Also Insane) Pop Art - Rock LP about Batman and Robin.

Scotty McKay (Ex - Gene Vincent's Blue Caps) can be seen in the movie "Creature of Destruction" wailin' on a cool groover ( I sound like The Real Don Steele . Sorry) just called "Batman" , with a chorus similar to the TV theme . but far enough from it to avoid lawsuit. I read that he was threatened with one , anyway.

the Liverpool Scene had a very cynical Batman song ("Are you going to get us out of Vietnam....BATMAN ?").

SKY SAXON EVEN HAD ONE CALLED "SUPERMAN 5". It's not one of his better moments.

Donovan referenced Green Lantern . Marc Bolan , Dr. Strange and Silver Surfer. Chrissie Hynde , tho' I'm no fan , Howard The Duck.

Paul McCartney and Wings had one about Marvel Comics' "Magneto and The Titanium Man". Reportedly , Macca attempted to purchase Marvel Comics for $Two Million , a lot of money in The 70's.

I'VE GOT A POSTER FROM THAT Pipettes' song about Archie....BUT , didya know , The Archies were the first group to drop Jimmy Page's name in a song? Don't believe me ? Look up "Waldo P. Emerson Jones" on You Tube. Ron Dante might have known him....   A lot of superhero kiddie records were made in the 60's and 70's that actually have some pretty rockin' studio creations. "The Super Dupers" LP and "The Sensational Guitars of DAN AND DALE - BATMAN AND ROBIN" album come highly recommended. Both were rumored to feature Lou Reed on guitar  . The latter LP , MORE RECENTLY , WAS REVEALED TO FEATURE SUN RA (On organ) , with The Blues Project. Still sounds like Lou , to me.

This thread is right up my alley.

Horse The Band - The Red Tornado:  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bQlobg7r7Co
Horse The Band - A Million Exploding Suns (about Marvel's The Sentry): http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sMN9eDpFFe0

And being a huge comic fan myself, all of my bands have written songs about comics. Here is one from my current band.

Mind Powers - Where Is The Laser? Ask The Police! (A song about Hank Pym creating Ultron...the title is a reference to the infamous poorly translated line Ultron utters in the Captain America and The Avengers arcade game):  http://soundcloud.com/mindpowers/05-where-is-the-laser-ask-the

We also have a currently unrecorded song called Space Widow that makes references to Ego the Living Planet, the Green Lantern Mogo, the Negative Zone, and the Phantom Zone.

The lyrics of two of my former bands, Manchester Black and Gamera! The Invincible, were almost solely about comics. We had songs about The Hulk, Spider-Man, Crisis on Infinite Earths, Green Lantern's destruction of Coast City, etc. If anyone is interested I will post the EPs on here but I don't want to blow this thread up with self-promotion if you guys don't want it, haha.

Yeah , and Dan Clowes did ones for The Headcoats , Supersuckers , Victor Banana and others.  Peter Bagge did a 45 sleeve FOR THE LATE , GREAT , THE BROOD , an A-Bones/Girl Trouble split , His own band,  Action Family , and others. He did a T-Shirt for Tad , don't know if the artwork appeared elsewhere , and The Troggs' Tribute comp , "Groin Thunder!". 

Bibliodiscoteque said:

Jaime Hernandez did a cover for The Makers and Sam Kieth did one for the Groovin' Ghoulies

 

There's actually a band , Seduction of The Innocent * , made up of people in the Comic Book Industry , including Bill Mumy , of "Lost in Space" and "Barnes and Barnes" fame.     * The name comes from an infamous book , released in the

50's , that suceeded in getting the Comic Book Industry neutered , as well as slandering Rock'n'Roll and Horror movies , anything that made being a kid bearable.

The Unbelievable Uglies had an INSANE Garage Punker called "Spider - Man" , tho' it sounds like it may be about a monster , not the Comic Book Hero.  Jan and Dean had an (Also Insane) Pop Art - Rock LP about Batman and Robin.

Scotty McKay (Ex - Gene Vincent's Blue Caps) can be seen in the movie "Creature of Destruction" wailin' on a cool groover ( I sound like The Real Don Steele . Sorry) just called "Batman" , with a chorus similar to the TV theme . but far enough from it to avoid lawsuit. I read that he was threatened with one , anyway.

the Liverpool Scene had a very cynical Batman song ("Are you going to get us out of Vietnam....BATMAN ?").

SKY SAXON EVEN HAD ONE CALLED "SUPERMAN 5". It's not one of his better moments.

Donovan referenced Green Lantern . Marc Bolan , Dr. Strange and Silver Surfer. Chrissie Hynde , tho' I'm no fan , Howard The Duck.

Paul McCartney and Wings had one about Marvel Comics' "Magneto and The Titanium Man". Reportedly , Macca attempted to purchase Marvel Comics for $Two Million , a lot of money in The 70's.

I'VE GOT A POSTER FROM THAT Pipettes' song about Archie....BUT , didya know , The Archies were the first group to drop Jimmy Page's name in a song? Don't believe me ? Look up "Waldo P. Emerson Jones" on You Tube. Ron Dante might have known him....   A lot of superhero kiddie records were made in the 60's and 70's that actually have some pretty rockin' studio creations. "The Super Dupers" LP and "The Sensational Guitars of DAN AND DALE - BATMAN AND ROBIN" album come highly recommended. Both were rumored to feature Lou Reed on guitar  . The latter LP , MORE RECENTLY , WAS REVEALED TO FEATURE SUN RA (On organ) , with The Blues Project. Still sounds like Lou , to me.

Ey Marty,

quite the other way around, in the way that some great french Comic artists are making some great new covers for Rock'n'Roll records: Here's a show the comicartist BARU put together, the video's in german but you can get a look at the covers and the music is there too.

 

Here's the article on french - Including pictures.

 

The VIDEO won't embed, so here's the link: