Comic book legend Stan Lee announced at New York Comic Con that he will be collaborating with Japanese icon, Yoshiki. Lee explained: “This absolutely great musician has agreed to do some work with me. We’re going to do a motion comic together. He going to do the music. I’m going to do whatever else needs to be done.” The project is planned for a 2011 release.
Yoshiki co-founded and plays in the 5-man Japanese rock band, X Japan. He serves as the primary songwriter. He also performs both drums and piano. The group has played to sold out shows at the 50,000 seat Tokyo Dome 18 times.
After exchanging salutations, hugs, and bows, the two media personalities sat down to answer some questions about the forthcoming collaboration. To clarify, Lee defined a “motion comic” as “more than a comic, but less than an animated film. It’s somewhere in between.” The superhero will be modeled after Yoshiki and he will possess a “very unique super power.” Lee credits Yoshiki with conceiving of the original story idea and Lee himself asked the Japanese musician how he came up with it. Yoshiki answered, “I am a superhero anyway.”
Lee went on to say that the final product will be available in several languages so that the whole world will have access to it. When Yoshiki was asked to name his favorite superhero, Lee warned him by saying, “Better be a Marvel.” Yoshiki answered, “Of course Spider-Man. But, because we’re called ‘X Japan’, also X-men.” Lee made a recent contribution to X Japan with a cameo appearance in their latest music video shot in Los Angeles.
Check out our New York Comic Con tag all week for more coverage of the massive convention.