For years, My Chemical Romance fans have been searching across all corners of the web to find some specific footage of frontman Gerard Way when he was a teenager, appearing on chat show Sally Jessy Raphael in 1994.
Thanks to one very helpful TikTok account (theriddlerhotwheels), the clip has now been found - before now, fans only even knew of Way's appearance on the programme courtesy of an image.
The footage in question sees the singer before he was famous at the age of 16 appear on the American tabloid talk show to defend comic books from censorship, and the segment sees Way get rather worked up about the matter.
"I have a statement. I'm 16. I write for Boneyard Comics...Why don't you go after the media?" he frustratingly questions. "Why don't you go after other things. Just comics? Comics are for everyone".
At the time, Way was the writer of independent comic On Raven's Wings for horror publisher Boneyard Press (who published the frontman's very first comic). In the clip, he's debating censors from the crowd who are targeting Boneyard's editor-in-chief, Hart D. Fisher, over the publisher's alleged graphic content.
Although the unearthed footage is short, there are other recordings of the episode, which focused on the controversy surrounding people's love for serial killers. At the start of another YouTube video, the teenage Way can be spotted sitting in the audience with his mother.
This heart-warming clip is certainly interesting to witness, considering it was a whole ten years before Way's eventual rise to fame with My Chemical Romance's breakthrough album Three Cheers for Sweet Revenge in 2004. And of course, the singer would eventually make himself known as a successful comic book writer with The Umbrella Academy and Doom Patrol.
Check it out below:
@theriddlerhotwheels ♬ original sound - autumn
