Thursday, September 7, 2017

Toon Rock: Don't Answer Me (1984)

Remember when Marvel opted to literally adapt their comics, using actual panels to animate their characters?

In 1984, the Alan Parsons Project took that concept a step further. Using the then-latest in technology, the band crafted a fictional comic book as the backdrop for their video for "Don't Answer Me", off the album, "Ammonia Avenue". You could say that "Answer" could be the forerunner to the later motion comics that Marvel and others have released.



It's too bad no one asked Arista, the band's label, about adapting Nick & Sugar into a real comic book or animated series. Would've been fun.

4 comments:

Chris Sobieniak said...

This video was animated by a studio out in Washington, DC called "Broadcast Arts" which also ran a satellite studio in NY.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qStZdmfYIVw

Years later, there was a music video featuring hip-hop artist KRS-ONE (under the pseudonym "Big Joe Krash") that coincided with the release of a comic created by Kyle Baker called "Break The Chain". I think that's about the closest synergy I could think of...
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FolzX9SkflA
https://comicvine.gamespot.com/break-the-chain-1-break-the-chain/4000-180615/
https://pressrewind.wordpress.com/2007/02/05/89/

I still have the comic, but I never opened it out of the bag it came in (which also contained a cassette of the tune), so don't ask me what happens!

hobbyfan said...

Hmm. I'll have to find that video, Chris. Thanks.

Unknown said...

I was recently reminded of how the making of this video came about. Alan Parsons arranged a contest in cooperation with MTV, mainly directed at budding filmmakers, to create a music video for the song. I can't recall exactly what the grand prize was, but I do recall that one of the other entries that only made it as far as the finals was a similarly animated piece involving two people, a man and a woman presumably, each of them stranded on separate desert islands. The short ends eventually with both of them finally meeting each other after one of them manages to build a bridge long enough to reach the other island.

hobbyfan said...

I seem to recall seeing ads for said contest, Androu. Thanks.