You already know Fall Out Boy for their hit records and elaborate videos. Heck, you may even have a T-shirt or something, but now you're going to get to see another side of the band as they fulfill their fanboy fantasies of having their own comic. The hugely popular pop-punk outfit is delving into the world of comics, toys and animation with their new multimedia project Fall Out Toyworks.

Teaming up with publisher Image Comics, Fall Out Boy and co-conspirator L.A. designer Darren Romanelli (a.k.a. Dr. Romanelli) just released the first part of Fall Out Toyworks, a five-issue mini-series written by Brett Lewis, drawn by Sam Basri and inspired in part by a Fall Out Boy song.

"The thing that [the band] and Dr. Romanelli agreed on is that there's not enough people that understand that you can make pop art be cohesive across different media," said bassist and FOB mouthpiece Pete Wentz. "Like a song, a video, a movie, a comic book, a toy and a micro-site can all make sense next to each other in some [Andy] Warhol-ian kind of way. That's what we're trying to do, and the comic is just the first part of it."

StreetLevel got on the horn with Ashlee Simpson's baby-daddy to discuss the story behind the project, his love for KAWS, Marvel comics and Star Wars toys, and what his wife thinks of all the crap in his house.



What's the new comic all about?

I think the comic itself, or the narrative of the comic -- it's like Kubrick did it, Pinocchio did it -- but it's the idea of whether you can manufacture love. And I think [the comic] brings a lot of questions that are morally ambiguous in the context. Whether if something's a sentient being and is able to learn to feel emotional or physical pain... Like could your computer be your slave? Or if you unplugged your computer, would you be killing something? And I think it's interesting because that's the direction our world is headed to. I don't think we're racing a mile a minute in that direction; I don't think that's happening tomorrow. But even with the social networking sites, it's like people want to be more connected by being less connected, you know?

That's pretty heady stuff. So how does it relate to the song "Tiffany Blews" [from Fall Out Boy's 2008 album "Folie à Deux"]?

Well, all of that's not the concept for the song. The concept behind the song is the perfect girl. We were working with Darren Romanelli, and we decided on this song. We picked a bunch of characters from this song, Mr. Moth, Crybaby, Gravity Wells and the main character Tiffany. So those characters are drawn from the song, the idea of the perfect girl and the perfect love.

I mean, we could've put out a comic book that was like "Fall Out Boy As Crimefighters" or something if we just wanted to make money. I think it made more sense this way. And we know we can't write in panels; we don't know how to do that. So we brought in a writer to envision the idea and to write the actual dialogue. Because I think it would probably be the most terrible comic ever if it had been done by us. [laughs] And maybe people would've bought just because we're a band, but it wouldn't have been a good arc.

I was going to say, I think "Fall Out Boy As Crimefighters" would still sell.

[laughs] Yeah, I know, but you can only jump the shark so much before the shark's just flying.

So why go with the comic book medium, since you guys aren't comic writers?

I think people will get this more as it goes, but the thing that we and Dr. Romanelli agreed on, where we're kindred spirits, is that there's not enough people that understand that you can make pop art be cohesive across different media. Like a song, a video, a movie, a comic book, a toy and a micro-site can all make sense next to each other in some [Andy] Warhol-ian kind of way.

That's what we're trying to do, and the comic is just the first part of it. We actually have a teaser for the animation up right now on the "Fall Out Toyworks" website. But eventually, there will be toys and we have like grander ideas. But honestly, if I say them and they don't happen, that would suck. [laughs]

How did you team up with Dr. Romanelli in the first place?

He has these clothes that he makes. It's bizarre, and hard to explain. He takes these old army jackets and stuff like that from World War II, and he kind of revamps them and makes them modern. He leaves a Polaroid of what the original was, and when I saw them, I was like, "I have to meet whoever this person is."

We were introduced by a friend that we had in common, and then I went over to his laboratory -- which really is a laboratory. You can tell that there's crazy ideas going on over there, and I was just like, "Oh, I know I have to do something with this guy, I just don't know what it is." It took a while to figure it out, but we did eventually.

We both liked the idea of curating something grander, on a bigger scale. He was the one who knew a couple of people at Image Comics. They've been really cool about working with us, like letting us see a couple of different writers and letting us choose the writer. They haven't really been like, "Oh yeah,and you guys need to appear in the comic." They've been really easy to work with, and it's been a good partnership so far.

Do you have any ideas for toys yet?

I grew up on Transformers, G.I. Joe and Thundercats, but I don't see it being that. I see it probably more as like the Japanese vinyl toys. That's kind of what I see it as being in my head right now. That could change, I guess. We haven't started the concept yet.

Some other bands that resonate with your audience have done comics too, like My Chemical Romance and Coheed and Cambria. Did you look to those for inspiration?

There could be a trend. I'm not really sure. Ours is not supposed to be singular to the comic world, though. I don't know want "Fall Out Toyworks" to be known only as a comic, and hopefully it will expand beyond that. I think that's the difference [between ours and theirs]. [My Chemical Romance singer] Gerard [Way] is able to write and probably draw his own comics, because that's what he's been so passionate about. We have nothing but respect for that, but I think our comic is way different. Ours is more of a coming-of-age story, and it's not as superhero-based.

Do you read comics?

Well, I'm not the most avid comic reader, currently. But back in the day, I was a Marvel dude, so I really liked X-Men, Wolverine, Daredevil and everything in that world. But my favorite comics were the "What Ifs," where it was like. "What if Marvel Boy had lived?" and those kind of things. Those are the things that I liked the most because they're the alternate universe things.

Are you a toy collector?

I'm a pretty big toy collector, but only certain things. I have the G.I. Joe aircraft carrier, I have all the first series of Transformers pretty much, even some of the ones made with lead. I have stuff from Toy Story and Iron Giant. ThunderCats. Star Wars. I have a ton of Star Wars toys. My friend randomly sent me a full-sized R2-D2 that was used promotionally, but it's like crazy good; it's like four-feet tall in my house.

Actually, you know what I really like? All the KAWS stuff. He's very good. I have a lot of his art in the house, like the Sponge Bob stuff.

I have too much stuff though. I have the actual Simpsons characters, I don't know if you saw it when the movie came out, but these are these [life-sized] figures sitting on a couch. I have those things in my house somewhere.

Is your wife [Ashlee Simpson] cool with all this stuff in your house?

[laughs] I went into this comic store and I tried to buy just Bart, and the guy was like, "I don't want to separate the family." Then the guy didn't want to sell it. I was like,"Ah f**k it, whatever." And the next day I came home and my wife was sitting there with Bart in the house and she's like, "I got it for you." I was like, "What the f**k? How did that happen?" So yeah, she's cool with it.

So not only does she tolerate it, she seems to fully support it.

Yeah. Though I think she gets a little weirded out by how into toys I am. [laughs] But at the same time, she thinks it's funny.

Mark Hoppus is a toy collector, and he's designed toys for his band blink-182. I know you guys are friends, so did you talk to him at all about any of this stuff you're doing?

Yeah, we talk about everything pretty much because he's one of the few other guys that I know who has a son and is in a band; I get a lot of advice from him. For toys, we talked about from sampling to manufacturing, and how to go about doing the whole process. The bunny that he has onstage -- sometime before the end of the tour I'm going to kidnap that thing.

Do you think he's going to help you concept the toy?

Nah, I think he would give advice as a friend. He does just the same as he does with our band. But me and Mark talk all the time about doing some kind of project together though. We had a lot of fun doing these USB drives together where he remixed one of our songs and gave these drives away. We always talk about doing something.

Will it be something musical or a product -- or both?

I don't really know. We never really have gone in-depth into it, we've both just expressed interest in it. I think we will. It's just a matter of finding time between blink and Fall Out Boy to do something creative, and that doesn't step on each other's feet. Also, finding time between kids and everything else that goes on in life.

Do you see more comics and toys accompanying future Fall Out Boy albums?

No, for this, I want it to be a whole world. We could've put out the toys first, or we could've put out the animation first, but it seemed like that this was a natural order. And working with Image was so easy, but it's hopefully, at the end of the day, it'll be everything across the spectrum, and that's the point of this particular project. I don't necessarily see us ever doing it again. Usually when we do things like this or take on different projects, they don't happen again. You kind of lose the magic after you do it once.

So you're saying these five issues and the theme with the toys and animation right now are a one-off?

I think Matt Damon said it the best. He said, "I always get asked if I'll do a fourth "Bourne Identity." I would love to do the movie, but the movie can't be, 'I forgot who the fuck I am.' We've done that movie three times." To me, it's like the same thing. If there's a need for the narrative to go on, then that makes sense. And if there's not, then why bother doing it? If not it was just a fun thing to do, and we explained it the best we could in five issues. I don't know, we'll see.

Did your wife have any influence on this project at all?

[laughs] Yeah, she gives me feedback. It's probably not the most interesting thing to her, but she comes to the signings, and she reads the comic. She's supportive and a good sounding board. It's hard to say. I guess in some weird ways Tiffany in the song is about her. But maybe not. I don't know!

Wait, what do you mean "maybe"?

[laughs] I hate to dual-interpret lyrics, but in the song, Tiffany's the perfect girl. So how can you not marry the perfect girl, you know?

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