Interview Serves Up Comic Book Tattoo Details, Eye Candy

“In the case of some of the stories, the connections to the songs are apparent — not so much what you would expect, but more of a case of reading it and saying ‘yeah, I can see where that comes from,’” said Hoseley. “Others, however, have just blown me away, riffing on the themes and ideas in the song in ways I never would have imagined and invariably, those ones are the stories that leave me grinning like a kid on Christmas.”

Today, Comic Book Resources provides the most details yet regarding everyone’s favorite impending comic book, including a first peek at the spiffy cover by artist Jason Leveque. This piece is a real feast for the eyes, with pages from “The Beekeeper” by Neil Kleid and Christopher Mitten, “I Can’t See New York” by Adi Tantimedh and Ken Meyer, Jr., “Devils And Gods” by Jessica Staley and Shane White, “Gold Dust” by Hope Larson, “Leather” by John Bivens, “Caught A Light Sneeze” by Mike Maihack, “Little Amsterdam” by Leif Jones, and “Past the Mission” by Ted McKeever.

In the course of the article, editor Rantz Hoseley goes into great depth about the process of choosing work, as well as how the various songs came to new life as comic stories. Go check it out!

Thanks to Eurico, Jayce, and, of course, Rantz for sending this our way.

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The 2009 RAINN Calendar Takes Shape

In addition to taking the time to listen to the Indie Spinner Rack podcast, DavidMackGuide.com also breaks some news about RAINN’s 2009 Tori Amos Calendar, which they briefly mentioned in a previous update:

The new Tori Amos calendar for 2009 features such top shelf comic talent as Dan Brereton, Lee Moyer, David Mack, and Mike Dringenberg, as well as illustrators such as Kazuhiko Sano and Sterling Hundley. Don’t miss your opportunity to order this stunning calendar, benefiting RAINN (Rape, Abuse, and Incest National Network). Includes a bonus poster by Lee Moyer.

Quite a cadre of talent, so it should be good! Per his production schedule, it’s expected to become available in June. Thanks again to David Thornton!

Note: Kyle Webster’s contribution to the 2009 calendar has been available for purchase from ImageKind.com since late last December — we must have missed that in the hub-bub of the holidays and tour recuperation period. Mea culpa!

Here Lies Info On "Here Lies Love"

Tori’s peeps have cleared up the David Byrne/Here Lies Love mystery for us: David visited Tori at her studio in January where they worked on a couple of tracks for a recorded version of Here Lies Love (with Tori on vocals, yippee!). The song cycle is based on the story of Imelda Marcos and Estrella Campos, the hired woman who raised her. The album is expected to be released through Nonesuch Records sometime this autumn. (There are currently no plans for Tori to be involved in any live performances of this musical.)

Spinning on the Indie Rack With Rantz

Rantz Hoseley, editor of the upcoming Comic Book Tattoo anthology, is the latest guest on the Indie Spinner Rack podcast. During the episode, he discusses, more importantly, the legacy of Steve Gerber but also, perhaps of more interest to Toriphiles, touches on the monumental task of editing the anthology. Check it out!

UPDATE on April 1 @ 9:00 PM EDT: I’ve been traveling and still haven’t had a chance to listen to this podcast yet, but DavidMackGuide.com reports that Rantz announced during the issue that the anthology’s line-up of authors, illustrators and songs will be announced, along with a release date, within the next couple weeks. Tip o’ the hat to David Thornton for that pointer!

Legs & Boots: Everything Must Go!

Just a reminder that Legs & Boots, the official purveyor of downloadable, complete, soundboard recordings from the American Doll Posse tour, will be closing its virtual doors on March 31st. So, Monday will be your last chance to pick up any of the official bootlegs. If you’re planning on buying any, this weekend is the time to do it!

Unfortunately, it seems that arrangements could not be made to sell these downloads to those outside of the United States and Canada. However, the two free downloads that Legs & Boots are offering — Amber Waves and Not David Bowie are available to all.

Neil And Tori Slumber Party in Cornwall

Now, this sounds like a fun vacation: Neil Gaiman blogged this morning about a recent visit to Tori & company in Cornwall, where he got to stay in the cushy suite at the Martian Engineering studios. He writes:

I stopped daydreaming about being a famous rock and roll star about thirty years ago, when I stopped being in a band. And it’s not a daydream that’s ever come back. But I spent the night with friends in Cornwall and got to stay at http://martianengineering.com/residential.html (in the bedroom on the top right of the photos, oddly enough), which is the part of the studio that visiting bands stay when they record music, and I found myself wishing that I was a band so that I could come and stay here for three or four weeks and use all the cool buttons and switches and jaccuzzis and everything. I suppose I could always come and stay anyway, but it wouldn’t be the same.

Amanda, Karen, and Laura, who do you think won “Truth or Dare” that night? :)

Yamaha Spills Its Bosey Plans

Richard Handal spotted this news item today, affirming Yamaha’s plan to keep the Bosendorfer name on high-end pianos made by the Austrian pianomaker responsible for some of Tori’s favorite instruments. In addition, the article reports, “Yamaha has decided to set up a new sales channel separate from the one used for the Yamaha brand.” For more, follow the link. We’re just glad the next tour won’t have to change the name of the solo section to T&Ya, aren’t you?

Tori Connected With Byrne's "Here Lies Love"?

Julie reports that the newest issue of Paper magazine (with Lindsay Lohan on the cover) has a small feature on Brit singer Candie Payne, which reports “In addition to the record, Payne is working on an Imelda Marcos musical with David Byrne, alongside Tori Amos and Martha Wainwright.” This is more surreal than surreal; Imelda Marcos? If anyone has more details, now’s the time to share ‘em.

UPDATE: Amanda sent us a link to David Byrne’s official page for Here Lies Love. It doesn’t say anything about Tori or Candie Payne being involved, but then again the info currently there relates to a one-time performance at Carnegie Hall in February of 2007.

To clarify, this is not related to “The Light Princess” in any way. “Here Lies Love” is an already-existing musical by David Byrne and Fatboy Slim that was premiered in Adelaide (Oz) in March of 2006. In May of 2007, David Byrne was in London and, among other things, had a meeting to pitch “Here Lies Love.”

Now, if someone told us we either had to come up with a theory based on what little we know or we’d be forced to sniff an old pair of Imelda’s shoes, we’d speculate that there just might be a London performance in the works. If this is the case and we hear any concrete details about a certain redhead being involved, we will definitely pass it on. (Speaking of Imelda’s shoes, we were hoping the musical might include a song titled “Shoes, Glorious Shoes” done to the tune of “Food, Glorious Food” from the musical “Oliver!,” but apparently there is not one single mention of shoes in the whole thing. Darn.)

Bloggers to Support RAINN

Sexography author Carly Milne, blogger Kevin Apgar and others are launching a monthlong blogathon in support of RAINN’s campaign to establish a 24-hour/seven-day-a-week toll-free hotline. The month in question is April, also known as National Sexual Assault Awareness and Prevention Month. Bloggers who want to participate in order to raise money should swing on over to Kevin’s blog and read up on what they’re looking for. Among other things, if you participate, you get to use this spiffy icon on your blog.

Legs & Boots' Last Legs

ToriAmos.com has announced that Legs & Boots, the purveyor of official bootlegs from Tori’s 2007 American Doll Posse World Tour, will be shutting down on March 31st. So, if you were sitting on the fence about downloading any more of the 27 shows released, you have until the end of the month to jump off said fence, one way or the other. If you need an incentive to buy, the holiday discount for multiple show purchases remains in effect: if you’ve bought 5 or more shows, you’ll receive 10% off your purchase price and if you’ve bought 10 or more shows, the discount increases to 20%. And, as the graphic says, previous purchases do count towards the discount level.