Gerard Way

Gerard Arthur Way (Summit, New Jersey; April 9, 1977) is an American musician, singer and comic book writer, known for being the vocalist of the band My Chemical Romance, singer solo, author of the comic The Umbrella Academy and founder of the Young Animal publishing label (DC Comics).

Described as "a rock star in the purest sense" and as "a very recognizable voice in the mid-2000s," Way is the founder, vocalist and songwriter of the band. rock band My Chemical Romance, with which he produced a discography of -mainly- four albums, between 2001 and 2013. In 2014 he announced his solo career and published Hesitant alien, his first album; He then went on his first solo tour.

In his career as a cartoonist—praised by critics—he published two limited series of his comic The Umbrella Academy between 2007 and 2009, one of which received an Eisner Award, and which would be adapted from 2019 into a Netflix television series. In 2013 she published the series The true lives of the Fabulous Killjoys, as a continuation of the plot described in the fourth and last album of her band. In 2016 she founded Young Animal, a DC Comics publishing sub-imprint in which she supervises or writes several comics for adult audiences, including Doom Patrol.

Childhood, studies and first jobs

With a mechanic father and a hairdresser mother, Gerard Arthur Way was born on April 9, 1977 in Summit (New Jersey), although in reality he lived in Belleville throughout his childhood. He describes this municipality as "one of the areas [of New Jersey] more full of crime, but it is the cherry blossom capital of the world." About his childhood, which he shared with his younger brother Mikey, he has said that "we spent a lot of time reading comic books, we lived a lot Inside our own heads, we played a lot of Star Wars things; We couldn't really play outside much. It wasn't the safest area, [...] so Mikey and I had one or two friends, and that was it.

His interest in comics dates back to when he was in third grade, and he was hospitalized for tonsil surgery; Then, his grandmother gave him a trio of comics "that came together and were bought at the supermarket," one of which was about Captain America; He has said: "I read it and instantly fell in love with it. She walked to the corner kiosk and bought them. Then I became interested in X-Men.

Gerard Way first sang for a Peter Pan play that was performed at his school, when he was in fourth grade. He attended the audition encouraged by his grandmother, Elena, and won the lead role. In Way's own words, his grandmother had taught him "practically everything: how to sing, paint, and how to perform live."

When he was nine years old, his grandmother bought him his first acoustic guitar, although he stopped playing for a while and started playing again at the age of fifteen, at which time he began to join musical bands. One of those bands He was expelled, according to him, because "he was a terrible guitarist." Despite this, he bought a Fender Stratocaster electric guitar and at the age of sixteen he began writing songs.

After graduating in 1995 from his high school, Belleville High School, he entered the School of Visual Arts in New York, where he studied for four years and graduated with a bachelor's degree in fine arts in 1999, with a majorin cartoon illustration.

After graduating from the School of Visual Arts, Way spent a year and a half working at the DC Comics publishing house, where he "helped in editorial [work] and helped in the FedEx room. One of my biggest tasks was to take the drawings and [...] photocopy them. Shrink them and put them together so that the editors could read them.

In 2001 Way tried to sell an animated series to Cartoon Network, called The breakfast monkey, but they rejected it because a cartoon was being broadcast at that time on the Adult Swim channel that was very similar., called Aqua Teen Hunger Force.

Way eventually had a job as a toy designer, which he had to quit due to the decision to tour with his band My Chemical Romance.

Musical career

2001-2013: My Chemical Romance

At the time of the September 11, 2001 attacks on the Twin Towers in New York, Way worked at a comic book store near the area and witnessed the disaster. Since then he felt that he was wasting his life and decided to do something meaningful with it, forming the band My Chemical Romance. Way approached his high school friend Matt Pelissier with the idea of forming a band, so they began writing songs together; The first was "Skylines and turnstiles", a song that Way wrote inspired by the 9/11 attacks. Two weeks after the attacks, the band had its first rehearsal, simply with Pelissier on drums and Way singing and playing guitar.

Later Ray Toro, Way's younger brother (Mikey Way) and Frank Iero (who joined the band in pre-production of the first album) joined to play along the west coast of the United States. In July 2002, the band released their first album under the Eyeball Records label, titled I brought you my bullets, you brought me your love. A dark and sinister album that talks about the problems of depression and suicide that Way had dealt with; This was reflected in songs such as "Honey, this mirror isn't big enough for the two of us", "Demolition Lovers", "Drowning lessons", "Our Lady of Sorrows" and "Vampires will never hurt you". In 2004, together with his band, he achieved success around the world, publishing Three cheers for sweet revenge, an album that includes very popular but also deeply personal songs such as "Helena", written after the death from Way's grandmother.

In 2006, they released the album The Black Parade. According to Rob Cavallo, producer of his third and fourth album, the most sincere music comes from what one fears most. Following this, Way said: "I used to be afraid of death, but I discovered making this record that I was more afraid of living. Making this album was about facing those fears." During the world tour for this album, The Black Parade World Tour, Gerard Way's live performances were compared to those of Bob Geldof as the film's main character. Pink Floyd the wall; He has also been compared to Freddie Mercury, and to David Bowie when he played Ziggy Stardust.

At the beginning of 2009, Way participated in the soundrack of the film Final fantasy VII: Advent children complete, collaborating with the Japanese singer Kyosuke Himuro on the song "Safe and sound", which was used to promote the film and its credits in its edition for Japan.

On Thursday, August 13, 2009, My Chemical Romance announced that they would play at the Australian Soundwave 2010 festival. Although, due to Way's problems with his throat during the recording of his fourth album, and on medical advice, he had no other choice. option other than canceling your participation in the event.

On November 19, 2010 the band released their fourth studio album, Danger days: the true lives of the Fabulous Killjoys, for which they performed the World Contamination Tour and Honda Civic Tour 2011.

My Chemical Romance gave their last concert on May 19, 2012, in the city of Asbury Park (New Jersey). About this last performance, Way commented: «The concert is... good. Not spectacular, not bad, just good. [...] I interpret and sing, semi-automatically, and something is wrong. I'm acting. I never perform on stage, not even when it seems like I do [...]. The following months were full of suffering for me: I became empty, I stopped listening to music, I never picked up a pencil, I began to return to old habits. [...] I used to see art or magic in all things, especially the mundane; skill was buried under disaster." He also noted that "there are many reasons why My Chemical Romance ended." The band announced their split on March 22, 2013.

2013-2015: «Hesitant alien»

Way collaborated with Canadian electronic music producer deadmau5, on his song "Professional griefers." The song was leaked online on March 22, 2012, while its official release as a single was on August 14 of that year. Both musicians also filmed a video clip for the song, which was released a few days later. Then, in December 2012, Way released a demo of a song titled "Zero Zero", under the pseudonym DannyTheStreet.

In May 2013, after the breakup of My Chemical Romance, Gerard Way stated the following: «I'm definitely not taking a break. I'm usually up until at least 2am. m. writing music. He revealed that he has been composing songs of multiple styles in his home studio, and that he hasn't done "anything concrete, except write tons of stuff."

Some time after the breakup, Gerard Way released the demo of a song called "Millions", on October 5, 2013 at the Sydney Opera House (Australia).

In May 2014, Way launched his official website, and announced that his first solo album was "close to being finished." She commented on her website that she entered into a contract with Warner Bros. Records, and also published an instrumental excerpt of a song, as a preview. On June 11, 2014, Way released "Action Cat", a preview of her first studio album. Way gave some of his first concerts as a soloist at the Reading and Leeds festivals (England), on August 22 and 23, 2014. His first stage look consisted of a blue suit electric and an orange toupee, all inspired by Bryan Ferry and David Bowie of the eighties.

Meanwhile, his debut album Hesitant alien was published in September 2014, and has been promoted by the singles "No shows" and "Millions", along with their respective video clips. The album is strongly influenced by shoegaze, Britpop and post-punk. He also carried out the Hesitant Alien Tour, which included stops in the United States, the United Kingdom, North America and Europe. in general, Asia, Australia and Russia, between 2014 and 2015.

2016-present

About his next studio album, Gerard Way said that he planned to begin recording it in September 2015. He noted that he had already started composing, and that the music he had written "feels more similar to 'Get the gang together'." ” [from Hesitant alien]; It feels like it's moving in a direction of garage and old soul music." However, regarding the year 2016 he later said the following: "For the first time I would like to free myself from the cycles and spend a year creating, without thinking about publication dates. [...] I need a solid life experience to find what will come next.

In April 2016 Way published the single Pinkish/Don't try in seven-inch vinyl record format; and in April 2017 she commercially released the song "Into the cave we wander" as a twelve-inch vinyl record. Both releases were made to celebrate Record Store Day.

Since October 2018, she has released the singles "Baby you're a haunted house", "Getting down the germs", "Dasher", "Hazy shade of winter" and "Happy together".

Career as a cartoonist

Gerard Way wrote his first comic script at an early age, using his grandmother's typewriter; although "nothing happened with that," he said. Later, Way's first comic strip published (by Boneyard Press) was a horror series called On Raven's Wings, which was canceled after its second chapter; Way was just fifteen years old, and was credited as "Garry Way."

Despite music, he has not left comics aside, so much so that in 2007 he published The Umbrella Academy, whose first volume (Apocalypse suite) It won the Eisner Award for best limited series of the year and, due to its good reception, Way wrote a second volume titled Dallas.

At the 2009 San Diego Comic Con, Way announced that he was working alongside Shaun Simon and Becky Cloonan on a new comic called The true lives of the Fabulous Killjoys, which would eventually be published during 2013, and whose story is the continuation of My Chemical Romance's fourth album, which is titled Danger days (2010).

In October 2014 she published Edge of Spider-Verse #5 through Marvel Comics, a story in which she created a female variant of the superhero Spider-Man. That same year she published "Untitled" in the magazine Vertigo quarterly: Yellow .

As of June 2014, Way was working on volumes 3 and 4 of The Umbrella Academy. In December 2015 he stated that "Gabriel Bá is about to start drawing" the third volume, Hotel Oblivion.

In April 2016, at the Emerald City Comicon in Seattle, Washington, Way announced that he would be in charge of Young Animal, a DC Comics publishing sub-imprint in which he supervises or writes several monthly comics. These consist of Doom Patrol (in a reboot written by Way), Cave Carson has a cybernetic eye (written by Way and Jon Rivera), Mother Panic (written by Jody Houser) and Shade, the Changing Girl (written by Cecil Castellucci). The first chapter of Doom Patrol was published on September 14 of 2016.

In July 2017 Gerard Way confirmed that Netflix together with Universal Cable Productions would make a television series based on The Umbrella Academy, the first season of which premiered on February 15, 2019.

Personal life

In an interview for Rolling Stone in 2007, Way confessed that a few years ago he was the "living dead." He was addicted to cocaine and alcohol, habits that helped him deal with his shyness. Finally, after a concert given in 2004 in Osaka (Japan) Way fell violently ill. Since then, Way abandoned those habits. However, years later (in 2010) he declared that he had recovered the habit of drinking occasionally, and days after the announcement of the end of the band, in March 2013, he acknowledged that he had resumed drinking. "old habits."

On September 3, 2007, the day the Projekt Revolution 2007 tour concluded, Way married bassist Lindsey Ballato, in the American city of Englewood (Colorado), at the Coors Amphitheater. The ceremony took place in the backstage of the amphitheater, after a concert. Way and his wife had met in 2002, when My Chemical Romance opened for Ballato's band, Mindless Self Indulgence; However, they were not dating until 2007, and celebrated their marriage after a relationship of two and a half months. On May 27, 2009, his first daughter, Bandit Lee, was born in Los Angeles (California).

In 2014, Way opened up about her gender identity conflict, discussing the topic online and in interviews. In October of that year he stated: "I have always been extremely understanding of those who have gender identity issues, because I feel like I went through it too, even if on a smaller scale. I've always identified quite a bit with the female gender, and I started at a certain point in My Chemical Romance to express this through my look and my style when performing live. So it's no surprise that all my inspirations and influences were pushing the boundaries of genres. Freddie Mercury, Bowie, Iggy, early glam, T. Rex... Masculinity has always made me feel like it wasn't right for me."

Discography

Solo career

• 2014: Hesitant alien

My Chemical Romance

Primary study albums

• 2002: I brought you my bullets, you brought me your love
• 2004: Three cheers for sweet revenge
• 2006: The Black Parade
• 2010: Danger days: the true lives of the Fabulous Killjoys

Other studio albums

• 2013: Conventional weapons

Comic book bibliography

Miniseries

Individual authorship

• The Umbrella Academy
  • Apocalypse suite (2007-08)
  • Dallas (2008-09)
  • Hotel Oblivion (2018-19)
• The Condemned Patrol
  • Brick to brick (2016-17)
  • Nothing. (2017-18)

Co-authored

• The true lives of the Fabulous Killjoys (with Shaun Simon)
  • California (2013)
  • National Anthem (2020)
• Cave Carson has cybernetic eye (with Jon Rivera)
  • Going underground (2016-17)
  • Every me, every you (2017)
• Doom Patrol: Weight of the worlds (2019; Jeremy Lambert)

«Spin-off»

• Stories of The Umbrella Academy
  • Hazel and Cha-Cha Save Christmas (2019; one chapter)
  • You look like a dead man. (2020; with Shaun Simon; miniserie)

Individual chapter comics

• On raven's wings (c. 1992; series cancelled after chapter 2)
• Edge of spider-verse n.o 5 (2014)
• «Untitled» Vertigo quarterly: Yellow (2014)
• «Joan of Arc», in Femme magnifique (2017)
• «Untitled» The secret loves of geeks (2018)
• Dairy Wars No. 1, 4 (2018)

Sources

References

Referred sources