Here’s what Gerard Way first envisioned as the concept of ‘Killjoys’

Gerard Way is more than just My Chemical Romance‘s frontman. He’s a renaissance man combining music, drawing, literature and other elements of a wild imagination into fantastic works of art that appeal to everyone. 

In a recent interview, Gerard Way talks about a moment in his history that ultimately shaped the way their final studio album would come across. Originally, Danger Days: The True Lives of The Fabulous Killjoys had a much different concept. 

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Before My Chemical Romance, Gerard Way was dabbling around drawing or playing Peter Pan. He was also jamming in various bands such as Nancy Drew. 

One of his first characters he ever created was called Night Reaper. Night Reaper skulked around in a hooded black cloak and skull makeup (due to Way’s love of the Misfits). To change from just a regular Joe into his Night Reaper costume, blood began dripping from the character. Finally, he was awash with the crimson liquid and his costume would be on. It’s safe to say that Gerard Way had developed his love for horror early on. That’s great because it would ultimately go on to influence My Chemical Romance.

As Gerard Way continued with MCR, he also continued writing comic books including The Umbrella Academy and then into a graphic novel, The True Lives Of The Fabulous Killjoys, that became a tie-in to his band’s studio album. At first, the two were very separate. 

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Way sat down with Ed Piskor and Jim Rugg on the Cartoonist Kayfabe show and spoke about how at first he was hesitant to marry the album and the comic together and that originally, Killjoys had a much different vibe and concept. 

“The comic [Killjoys] was really different back then,” Way begins. “The Killjoys project is an interesting thing because it…it really evolved and it grew into this other thing. It was the thing I was most obsessed with creatively so it bled into the music. Then, it became a concept album and a comic. And I was hesitant to marry the two things because I felt like I had done such a good job separating the two things.”

“But this one, was just so a part of my brain that I wanted to make this concept album that connected with the comic. But because of that, I had changed some things about it for the sake of being part of MCR. I made things a little more dystopian, a little more like a colorful punk rock post-Mad Max thing. There’d an evil corporation because a lot of the album Killjoys is like art versus commerce so I wanted to show that. These free and colorful people versus like the stark white, sterile kinda corporate society.”

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“So the story changed a lot and it really started out about a bunch of teenagers that could bend reality by tapping into their trauma. That’s how Killjoys really started and I think that’s something we’ll revisit one day.”

So Killjoys could have been much, much different than the one we know and love. We really hope Gerard Way revisits that original concept because that would make for a very interesting story. 

Watch the full interview in the player below 

Who’s your favorite Danger Days character? Tell us in the comments below!

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