Ray Wall is single-handedly championing what he calls Comic Book Rock. He first burst on the scene with the “Fantastic Four Song” in 2005 and the song rivaled the actual “Fantastic Four” movie soundtrack on iTunes. He followed that up with the ambitious “X-Men Song: A Super-Hero Rock Opera,” which Wall describes as “a nine-minute state-of-the-art journey deep into X-Men territory which includes voice actors, choirs, multiple music styles, special effects, and more.” Now, the Wharton MBA is working on another FF song called “Silver Surfer Rises.” You can hear a clip on his MySpace page (his songs are also available on iTunes). In a Blogzarro exclusive, Ray announces another project, this one involving a certain web-slinger (see below for more details). And with Marvel announcing a Spider-Man musical, Ray Wall might find himself at the forefront of a thriving genre.

What is comic book rock?
Comic book rock is a new genre of music that we are trying to introduce and define. It’s an innovation that allows contemporary music to intersect with some of the more imaginative aspects of our popular entertainment culture. That means comic books, yes, but it also includes many of the fanship communities that center around science fiction, fantasy, video games, anime, and similar pursuits. All of these popular works have been successful in print, art, TV, and the movies. What I am saying is that comic books and these other things can also be expressed in music in a way that’s new and exciting to fans of all stripes. Comic book rock is real deal, fan-based, content-true music that talks about superheroes by name, their powers, what they do, their arch-enemies and so on. Generic songs about courage or novelty tunes that devote one line to Superman don’t qualify. At its best, and with time, comic book rock may become as grown-up and engaging as any other genre music out there. Combining music with superheroes can be a powerful and fun listening experience.

What spawned the idea for comic book rock?
Like many people these days, I’m a big fan of today’s state-of-the art superhero movies. But as the movies themselves were evolving and getting better I felt that the pop/rock soundtracks that accompanied them were getting worse. Having 15 otherwise fine bands on a superhero soundtrack that were playing music that had absolutely nothing to do with the movie seemed to me to be just an exercise in record label artist promotion and blunt economics rather than giving movie fans a way to enhance and prolong their experience of their favorite superheroes through music. In plain English, if I go to a Spider-Man movie, sing me a song about Spider-Man! Is this rocket science? After we put out “The Fantastic Four Song” in 2005 and especially “The X-Men Song: A Super-Hero Rock Opera” a year later, my hunch that people would be interested in comic book rock was confirmed. MySpace and iTunes were instrumental in giving this feedback.

You’ve been the leading proponent of comic book rock, and now Marvel has announced a Spider-Man musical with music written by U2. What did you think when you heard the news?
Well, you know a few serious people asked me after the X-Opera if we should someday write a Broadway musical about superheroes. HELLO! On the whole, however, I think a Broadway play about Spider-Man would be amazing! (Pun intended.) Spider-Man is the most transcendent superhero of our time. People are endlessly fascinated by him and should flock to go see him in the flesh on stage. People will want to touch him after the show. They have a $15 million budget so it should be good if the writers don’t stray from the original source material too much, which is the secret to the success of the movie franchise.

Do you think the Spider-Man musical will capture your vision of comic book rock?
I guess it will capture U2’s vision, but yes, this is an interesting question. The dynamics of a Broadway musical are different from rock. What will they do? What will the tunes be like? Will the theater production use a rock band? Good questions. One thing is for sure, in a play they will really have to focus on the content of the lyrics for it to work, which is exactly what rock bands in superhero movie soundtracks are not doing presently. But bottom line, hiring U2 is a smart co-branding marketing strategy and is part of the trend of bringing elder established rock stars to Broadway to pen musicals like Phil Collins and Elton John have done. If I were to guess, the issue of comic book rock will get lost on the media and the public will eat up the soundtrack as a wildly successful musical production that happens to be about Spider-Man. This is not a bad thing. However, it should be watched carefully to see if any other iconic bands jump into this new world of comic book rock, or to see if DC attempts to respond.

So are you planning anything for Spider-Man?
If you could see the poly-bagged boxes of Spidey comics in my house from my kid days you would not have to ask (laughs). Clearly that’s a big YES! Ray Wall Band’s “Spider-man Song” will be released later this summer on iTunes and also will be on our MySpace page. With this tune we take direct aim at the classic Spider-Man song everyone knows and loves. I have written a new millennium theme song for Spider-Man that’s still fun and singable, but also rocking while keeping ‘ol web head front and center. Not a break from the past, but an update. I feel responsibility to comic fans, of which I am one, to get it right for such an important character. I hope Spider-Man fans and the general public will like it.

Tell me about the new “Silver Surfer Rises” song you’re working on:
“Silver Surfer Rises” is the world’s first musical comic book, and I think it shows another interesting direction comic book rock can go in. All of the lyrics are actually laid out like a story arc that has real plot: a beginning, middle, and end. There are breaking vocal ensembles that interrupt the story every so often that act like chapter endings. The story follows much of the classic Fantastic Four comics from the 1960s where the Surfer made his first appearance. I am guessing that the new FF movie will stay close to the original story, which is what the song does. Musically, the tune is very simple, which is offset by the fact that the lyric content is very deep. It’s something different for our fans that are expecting hard rock like our X-Opera. I wrote the entire song in one sitting on New Year’s Eve 2006 when I started to panic that the Surfer song that I had already written sucked. I stayed up all night and missed the ball dropping (laughs).

What are your musical influences?
First and foremost I am a guitar player. I take my cues from all of the great players of the ’70s and ’80s without regard to style and my all-time guitar hero is Hendrix. I am equally happy playing rock, funk, jazz fusion, blues, bebop, finger-style acoustic, or classical guitar. I hope later to write some tunes that feature my guitar playing more prominently. Growing up in a college town the way I did was great and it had a major impact on me musically. I spent half of my teen years going to major rock concerts and other shows. It’s funny, but with the RWB project I don’t really feel like I’m part of the music industry at all. Because of our fan base and media, I feel much more like we are in the comic or film industry. That’s a pretty interesting place to be these days.

What superheroes will you be writing songs for next?
Well, our policy is sort of not to say too far in advance. However, to date we have always released new tunes near the debut of major superhero movies. Our MySpace friends know this and start to send us letters the second a new movie is announced asking if we are recording a song for it. This is really cool and very flattering, but we can’t do every hero out there, although with time we hope to do many. People have asked us to do The Flash, Spawn, Wolverine, Ghost Rider, etc. Having said that, after the Spidey/FF orgy of this summer is over we hope to record our first DC song and our first sci-fi tune which I can say now will be related to Star Trek. You will also see us cover some villains as well. As a final tease, I will say I have a small pile of songs already written waiting for their respective future movies.

Will we ever see a Bizarro song by the Ray Wall Band?
Ok, well it’s not impossible that I write some kind of a jazz or swing tune about The Hulk or a heavy metal piece about Lois Lane (laughs).

What would a Bizarro Ray Wall be like?
You don’t think writing superhero music is Bizarro enough? (laughs.) I think that a busy person getting involved with anything as hair-brained as all this qualifies as fairly Bizarro to begin with. But I have to admit, it’s fun fighting crime and supervillains with my band!