Grammy nominated producer Metro Boomin is getting into comic books, according to a Rolling Stone report. But there’s a familiar face behind the venture: Josh Frankel, formerly the owner of Z2 Comics, and currently CDO at IDW, is now the CEO of Zero Zero, a new company on the scene.
“The Metroverse” launched last week with The Rise #1, in which Metro becomes a superhero. The comic is by writer Ryan Cady and artist Vasilis Lolos, and comes with an art print and an enamel pin. Published in an edition of only 4,000, the set is available at the Metroverse.Media site.
Metro has his comics bonafides, according to RS:
Superhero mythology has been a theme across Metro’s work in music, including his debut album, 2018’s Not All Heroes Wear Capes, his joint album with 21 Savage, Savage Mode II (which includes action-flick narration from Morgan Freeman), and his platinum, Grammy nominated sophomore album Heroes & Villains. Metro was nominated for Producer of the Year at the 2024 Grammys as well. Last summer, he helmed the official soundtrack for Spider-Man: Across The Spider-Verse and had a cameo animated into the blockbuster film as well. “It’s a dream come true to have my own comic book on shelves,” Metro Boomin tells Rolling Stone in a statement.
Frankel’s involvement in the project isn’t mentioned in this news story, but a little digging finds this on his LinkedIn:
I have been working on this for a while. It’s the first launch of Zero Zero. The whole idea behind this new company is to be completely of service to our partners, customers, and stakeholders. To this end, we build the brand out from scratch for anyone we work with. All of our products live ship with no pre-orders.
Our first launch is the Metroverse, and crafting this with Metro has been a fantastic process; each issue launches as a limited edition bundle pack that reflects a different era of comics. The first issue is a Jack Kirby-inspired silver age story deftly drawn by Vasilis Lolos.
There will be more from the Metroverse as time passes, and stay tuned for some other projects!
The soecialty music-to-comics connection goes back a long time, perhaps to the brief Marvel Music line of the 90s, which put out a Prince comic by Brian Bolland. Most recently, Z2 Comics became a prolific producer of limited edition comics based on musicians, podcasts and more, with collabs with Gorillaz, Iron Maiden, and just about everyone else. (Disclosure: I edited a Cheech and Chong comic for them.) Frankel was a co-founder of the company, but left a few years ago before joining IDW last year.
But now he’s back! We’ll undoubtedly have more on this in the weeks to come.
