Doolittle? Hardly. The Pixies recently released the serviceable EP-1, and the re-reunited alternative-rock pioneers have tour dates scheduled well into 2014 — though they’re down a pair of bassists named Kim. Somehow in all that, frontman Black Francis is also finding time to write a graphic novel. As you’d expect from the man also known as Frank Black, it’s shaping up to be a bit unusual.
As The Guardian points out, U.K. publisher SelfMadeHero has announced it will publish The Good Inn in May 2014. Black Francis is co-authoring the book with Josh Frank, who wrote Pixies biography Fool the World, and the illustrator is The Guardian cartoonist Steven Appleby. A U.S. publisher or release date have not yet been revealed.
The publisher describes The Good Inn as “a fantastical piece of illustrated fiction based on a yet-to-be-written soundtrack to a movie that doesn’t yet exist.” The teenage hero, called Soldier Boy, survives an explosion in France and goes on what sounds like one hell of a journey: “Navigating past homicidal gypsies, combative soldiers and porn-peddling peasants, he takes refuge in a secluded inn, where he finds himself centre stage in the making of the world’s first narrative pornographic film,” per the pitch. Trey Songz invented sex; Black Francis is taking us back to the invention of porn.
Pixies recently shared a Star Wars-inspired video for EP-1‘s “What Goes Boom.” In case you missed it, longtime Muffs bassist Kim Shattuck has parted ways with the Pixies. The band named Shattuck in July to replace former member Kim Deal, who is on tour with the Breeders and, as far as we know, is not yet working on a graphic novel.
