The standalone graphic novel Jim Lives: The Mystery of the Lead Singer of The Doors and the 27 Club asks: what if the conspiracy theory that Jim Morrison lived was true? The Image Comics title will be a piece of speculative fiction about the rockstar's supposed death. The graphic novel reunites writer Paolo Baron with artist and colorist Ernesto Carbonetti as the creative team.
Jim Lives will be the second book in a standalone trilogy of graphic novels by Baron and Carbonetti. Their previous title, Paul is Dead, focused on the death of Paul McCartney and his fellow Beatles members searching for answers. Both graphic novels are part of Image Comics' impressive line of titles, including Nocterra—which has been called "the most unique apocalypse in decades"—and the horror anthology Ice Cream Man.
Image Comics will be releasing Jim Lives: The Mystery of the Lead Singer of The Doors and the 27 Club prior to the 50th anniversary of Morrison's death. The story takes place after the apparent death of Jim Morrison. A man is looking for his son, a reporter for an American newspaper, whose last message read: “Jim Morrison isn’t dead. He’s hiding out in Italy. I saw him with my own eyes.” Comic book stores will have the graphic novel available on June 16, 2021, while bookstores will begin carrying it on June 22, 2021.
This graphic novel seems to be taking a reverse approach to the Paul is Dead graphic novel. Rather than the characters trying to figure out the mystery behind McCartney's death, these characters are trying to confirm if Jim Morrison is indeed still alive. There have certainly been other comic books that take a look at the legend of the 27 Club, which is a list of famous people who died at the age of 27, eliciting a slew of conspiracy theories around these people and the number 27. Jim Morrison has also been portrayed in media, such as when Val Kilmer played the rocker in The Doors, an initially hated casting choice that turned into a beloved performance.
Jim Morrison and The Doors as a whole have been pivotal figures in music history and have been featured in numerous films and television shows, including The Lost Boys. This influence is explored in another upcoming graphic novel, Morrison Hotel, to be released by Z2 Comics in May (previously it was to be an October 2020 release, but it appears to have been pushed back to May 2021). It will be an adaptation based on the fifth album of the same name by The Doors coming out this October. However, unlike the Image Comics standalone book, Morrison Hotel will be taking a look at The Doors as a whole and the importance of the band in the counterculture movement as well as their influence on artists. It will also focus on the shifting times between the '60s and the '70s. It will be interesting to see how these two graphic novels present the legacy of Jim Morrison and The Doors through their own unique approaches and try to carve out a little piece of history of their own.
Source: Image Comics