I am the law! Anthrax launch Among The Living graphic novel and it looks amazing

(Image credit: Z2)

Anthrax have announced the publication of a graphic novel based on their 1987 album Among The Living.

The original album included I Am The Law, a thunderous tribute to UK comic 2000 AD’s most famous character, Judge Dredd, and a song that provided guitarist Scott Ian with the perfect opportunity to indulge a newfound love. Scott had discovered Dredd after visiting London’s Forbidden Planet store while on a promo trip for second album Spreading The Disease in early 1986. And now the band have gone a step further.

“Doing a comic book has always been a huge goal for me” says drummer Charlie Benante. “I’ve tried for years, but something always comes up and sidetracks me. I was ecstatic when Josh Bernstein [head of business development at Z2 Comics] brought the idea to us to do a graphic novel based on our album Among the Living. I felt that it was the perfect time and opportunity to fulfil that dream.

"I am a lifelong artist and have been drawing during the pandemic more than ever, so I had the idea to bring my own artwork to this project. As a fan of the Judge Dredd series since the 80s, it was an honour to create cover art based off of Dredd and Judge Death. The amount of talent that is going into this project is astounding, I scratch my head just thinking about it!"

The Among the Living graphic novel will feature original stories from writers including Grant Morrison, Gerard and Mikey Way, Rob Zombie, Corey Taylor, Jimmy Palmiotti, Rick Remender, Brian Posehn, Brian Azzarello, and Joseph Trohman. Illustrations will comes from the likes of Scott Koblish, Darrick Robertson, Roland Boschi, Maan House, Dave Johnson, Erik Rodriguez. JG Jones and Eric Powell.

Among the Living will be released in multiple formats, including deluxe and super deluxe editions, which will include a vinyl picture disc, a gold record award, t-shirt, a MadBalls toy and a set of art prints.

Among The Living will be published in April 2021, but is available to preorder now. Z2 have previously published graphic novels in association with BabyMetal, Dio, Grateful Dead, The Doors, Ice Nine Kills. Poppy, Skillet and Yungblud, amongst others.

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Online Editor at Louder/Classic Rock magazine since 2014. 40 years in music industry, online for 27. Also bylines for: Metal Hammer, Prog Magazine, The Word Magazine, The Guardian, The New Statesman, Saga, Music365. Former Head of Music at Xfm Radio, A&R at Fiction Records, early blogger, ex-roadie, published author. Once appeared in a Cure video dressed as a cowboy, and thinks any situation can be improved by the introduction of cats. Favourite Serbian trumpeter: Dejan Petrović.