If there were to be a Venn diagram displaying comic book fans and rock and roll fans, I have a feeling that there’d be a pretty big overlap. Here are seven rock bands that were clearly started by comic book geeks like you and me.
1 Thin Lizzy. Eric Bell, the original guitarist for the band, was a huge fan of Eric Clapton and his band, John Mayall and the Bluesbreakers. When he saw Clapton reading a copy of the British comic book The Beano on the cover of their 1966 album, he bought a copy of The Dandy, the sister magazine of The Beano. Bell then suggested to his own bandmates they name themselves Tin Lizzie after a robot character in the comic, but that they should change the spelling and add an “h” because, being Irish, they would typically pronounce the “th” sound “t” anyways, and the resulting confusion would be hilarious (indeed, early on, they tended to be referred to in print as “Tin Lizzy” or “Tin Lizzie”).
2 Devo. Devo is best known for their 1982 hit single, “Whip It,” but the origins of the group go back more than a decade earlier to when Kent State art students Bob Lewis and Gerard Casale began joking about the concept of “de-evolution,” the notion that human beings were becoming dumber and less thoughtful as time went on. There are a few examples of de-evolution found in pop culture (including an H. G. Wells novel), but oddly enough, they were inspired by an old issue of Wonder Woman by William Moulton Marston and H. G. Peter. In 1944’s Wonder Woman #9, a scientist developed an evolution machine that is damaged, becoming a de-evolution machine. This same device appears in Wonder Woman #28 and subsequently reprinted in a 1971 Adventure Comics, which the guys from Devo picked up. In a 1978 interview Gerard Casale confirmed, “Devolution was a combination of a Wonder Woman comic book and the movie lsland of Lost Souls.”
3 Suicide. This protopunk band consisted of Alan Vega on vocals and Martin Rev on synthesizers and drum machines. Their comic connection is an interesting one, as I’m pretty confident that they named themselves in error. Vega was a big comic book fan and liked the Ghost Rider comic book that Marvel had released in 1972 (first as the featured character in Marvel Spotlight and then in his own title). He has repeatedly said in interviews that he named the group after the title of a story in Ghost Rider called “Satan’s Suicide.” When he suggested that to Rev, Rev countered with just plain “Suicide.” Vega has been very consistent with this version of the story. However, the problem is that there is no Ghost Rider story with that name and the phrase does not appear on any cover of Ghost Rider or Marvel Spotlight.
4 The Mekons. Formed in 1977, this British punk band was on the first wave of punk bands in the country. They named themselves after Mekon, the evil, super intelligent villain from the planet Venus that would fight space pilot Dan Dare in the Dan Dare comic feature in the British comic magazine Eagle.
5 Thompson Twins. This British synth pop trio had its biggest hit in the United States with “Hold Me Now” in 1983. The group was named after the bumbling twin detectives (with the different last names) Thomson and Thompson from Hergé’s famous comic book, The Adventures of Tintin.
6 The Teardrop Explodes. The postpunk band the Teardrop Ex-plodes debuted in 1978. While it was only around for a few years, its frontman, Julian Cope, has had a successful solo career in England since the early 1980s. This band is right up there with Devo for most obscure reference. The band took its name from an issue of Daredevil (#77, to be precise) written by Gerry Conway. In the comic, a giant fiery object that looks like a teardrop appeared over Central Park in New York City. The teardrop then speaks, asking for Namor, the Sub-Mariner. Naturally, with this object appearing in New York City, both Daredevil and Spider-Man show up. When Namor shows up as well, Spider-Man and Daredevil tussle with Namor for a while (that just seems to be what comic book characters do when they meet up with one another) before, well, the fiery teardrop explodes! Cope was inspired by the odd caption “The teardrop explodes!” and made it the name of his band.
7 Love and Rockets. Daniel Ash and Kevin Haskins were already quite famous from their old band, Bauhaus, before they formed the alternative rock band Love and Rockets. They reached greater levels of fame with their new band, including a top five hit with “So Alive” in 1989. The band was so famous that people are often confused as to the timeline of the band with regard to the comic book series Love and Rockets, which gave them their name. The acclaimed comic book series launched in 1982 and the band formed in 1985, a small enough distance that you can understand why people often believe that the comic took its name from the band.