Coming from Z2 Comics this spring, the classic heavy metal band Anthrax is teaming up with a host of comic book creators and popular musicians to craft a graphic novel adaptation of their seminal 1987 album Among the Living as part of the band's 40th-anniversary celebration. Band members Scott Ian, Charlie Benante, Joey Belladonna and Frank Bello are joined by writers and artists like Grant Morrison, J.G. Jones, Gerard Way and Eric Powell to adapt each of the album's classic tracks into a short story.

The adaptation of the album's fourth track, "Efilnikufesin (N.F.L.)" brings together Rick Remender, Fall Out Boy lead guitarist Joe Trohman and Roland Boschi for a story exploring the dark price of being obsessed with attaining fame. In an exclusive interview with CBR, Trohman talks about the inspiration behind the story, his roots in becoming an Anthrax fan and writing for the comic book medium and previews the story with some exclusive preview pages illustrated by Boschi.

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CBR: Let's start at the beginning: How did the opportunity to co-write a short story for this graphic novel first come about?

Joe Trohman: For years, I’ve been slowly moving from music into writing, primarily TV. And one of my really close friends, who is also one of my writing partners, Brian Posehn (who also happens to be doing a [story] for this project), introduced Rick and me. And we’ve been close friends ever since.

I was already a huge fan of Rick’s work, and I probably had, not-so-subtly, let it be known that I had an interest in writing comics. But Rick is wonderful -- and instead of telling me to eat shit -- he helped push me to develop some ideas with him. In the meantime, this Anthrax book came up, so Rick called me, thinking it’d be really fun to collaborate. Plus, I’m friends with the Anthrax guys. Scott and I have a band together. It all just made sense.

Given real-world inspiration behind "Efilnikufesin," how did that inform the story you guys were telling, especially given Anthrax's penchant for lyrical storytelling?

Trohman: Yeah, Scott’s lyrics are so vivid; they really take you on a journey. With "Efilnikufesin," it’s about this amazing talent that destroys his life with drugs, John Belushi. It’s a classic cautionary tale about the dark side of fame.

So, in developing our take, Rick and I went through the motions, first with the obvious, “Ok, we could just tell the story of Belushi here.” But that felt too on-the-nose. It’s not that Belushi’s life wasn’t interesting; we just wanted to find a way in that leaned into over-the-top fantasy and horror.

And, since "Efilnikufesin" is a fame parable, we thought to try the “be careful what you wish for” tragedy angle, dust it with some W.W. Jacobs’ “The Monkey’s Paw,” and write about an aspiring comedian that would do anything to make it big.

Do you remember a particular lyric that helped crack the story for you as a writer?

Trohman: "Wasting your life, no future bright, Dancing on your grave, Living like a slave, someone should've said…” And then they basically yell, “Nice fucking life!”

I know what this references, specifically, but this also reminded me of all the people that destroyed their lives, focusing on an unattainable dream of stardom when it was crystal-fucking-clear to everyone this person should hang it up, for everyone’s sake.

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How was it working with Rick as a co-writer on this?

Trohman: First off, any chance I get to work with my friends, I jump at. But also, as a fan of Rick’s work, I was so excited to see what I could make with him and if I’d nail it or blow it. But we cracked the story together in less than an hour, laughing our way through it. And once we knew we liked the outline, the rest was really easy. Honestly, it was just a very smooth process. We’re pretty similar, both workaholic-y, hyper-focused guys. He’s just been doing the thing way longer and is obviously way better than me. But I’m lucky to have him to lean on and learn from. I’m grateful. It’s made me better.

How cool is it working with Roland Boschi and seeing those pages come in and bring your story to visual life?

Trohman: Roland is a beast -- no other way to put it. It’s wonderful when someone can interpret your words better than you can write them and that’s Roland. He doesn’t need direction. He just nailed everything on the first pass. But his work speaks for itself. [He's] a legend.

One of the things I love about Anthrax is they always had more punk sensibilities than the rest of the thrash Big Four. What first drew you to them and their sound?

Trohman: That’s the same thing that drew me to Anthrax as well: The punk element. When I was growing up in the Chicago hardcore scene, there was a rift between metalheads and hardcore kids. If a metal band and hardcore band shared a stage, there would almost always be a fight. I always loved metal but had to keep my love semi-secret.

But everyone in the hardcore scene loved Anthrax. They had legit mosh parts. They had songs about moshing. And also, and I know this for a fact, the Anthrax guys love so many different genres of music and are not asshole metal purists. And by that, I mean they are influenced by all sorts of stuff, not just metal and rock. And that comes through in what they write. I mean, they were one of the first bands to collaborate with a hip-hop group. And then there’s also the King stuff, the comic book stuff -- all of that was attractive as hell to me.

What were the things that drew you to comics and how has it been crafting stories in that creative space?

Trohman: Growing up Jewish in a rural part of the Midwest, I dealt with virulent, direct antisemitism. So comics were an escape from my daily hell. Like a lot of outsiders, I was instantly drawn to X-Men. But then, the more I leaned into my clinically depressive tendencies, I became a heavy Batman guy. I used to say that Batman was the most depressed superhero because he’s obsessed with his dead parents and his happy place is a cave.

Through that avenue, I discovered Alan Mo0re, went backward and got into Swamp Thing, and from there got away from superhero stories and leaned more into dark and/or horror-themed books. My mom raised me to love stories about horror, misery and crime, and that’s where my heart resides. Fun stuff!

Anyway, I love writing in the comic space and really appreciate the opportunity to continue to do so. As I briefly mentioned, I’ve been in the TV space for three to four years, and while crafting even an okay TV script is very, very, very hard, comics might be harder. But I like the challenge of trying to get everything across clearly, without cluttering the page with panels. It also forces me to approach comics and TV, from more of a director’s standpoint, just in understanding what shots are needed where and so on.

But comics aren’t TV. And what’s great about that is that you have more room to explore darker, stranger, fucked-up themes depending on the publisher. I am in the process of working on several other books for different places, and I love that they’re all letting me develop my weirdest stories, ones I’ve been holding onto for a long time.

Anthrax: Among the Living features a whole host of comic book creators adapting each track of the 1987 album. It is expected to be published this spring by Z2 Comics.

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