SDCC 2024 Interview: “Jimi Hendrix: Purple Haze”

Upcoming graphic novel Jimi Hendrix: Purple Haze stars Jimi Hendrix in a space adventure inspired by his music.

At this year’s San Diego Comic-Con, Titan Comics debuted Jimi Hendrix: Purple Haze. Set in space, the graphic novel portrays the late musician Jimi Hendrix on an adventure inspired by his music and his impact on the world. The Geekiary sat down with Hendrix’s sister Janie Hendrix and writers DJ Ben Ha Meen and Mellow Brown to discuss the graphic novel and the lasting impact of Hendrix and his music.

The Geekiary: How did the concept for the story come about?

Janie Hendrix: Back in 1942, Jimi was born [laughs]. No, Jimi really was a huge sci-fi fan growing up and of course the book is really about him, but also fictitiously parts of people that are kind of surrounding him, and kind of the life that he lived, and the life we all continue.

I had asked my attorney about doing a graphic novel and so she said, “If we’re going to do one, we’ve got to do it big. We’ve got to go to Titan.” She is also the lawyer for The Beatles, so as we are approaching Titan, kind of cosmically, simultaneously, these two were trying to pitch a deal to do the graphic novel. So I would say really together, we kind of all combusted together and made this happen.

TG: What made you pursue it as a graphic novel as opposed to another medium?

DJ Ben Ha Meen: In terms of it being a graphic novel, this book is pretty extreme. It has a lot going on and it’s one of those things that not even if it was a film – there’s something about the feeling that you get within a graphic novel that you can kind of sift these pages. Similar to the music, it’s something you should be having an emotional moment with, even on just a visual level even before you get to the story. It’s kind of a perfect medium for it so that you can kind of just vibe out with it at whatever pace you want. That kind of helps you focus on where he is in that particular part of the story, especially because it’s focusing on a really complicated part in his life.

TG: What do you think has made Jimi Hendrix’s music have such a lasting impact?

Mellow Brown: I think it’s because he changed the rules of music so much and he advanced the art of not just rock, but just in general. In this book, we talk about the concept of the river of music. Jimi was such an important part of that river, that his influence goes far beyond his time. People are still learning, and new forms of music are still being invented on the things that he did back then. That’s why his music and his imagery, everything about him is so timeless.

TG: Was there anything you wanted to include in the story that didn’t end up making it into the finished product?

Meen: Surprisingly, no. We went as extreme as possible. We also delved into a lot of stuff, we actually independently researched a lot about Jimi before we had the opportunity to speak to Janie. Because of that, we were like, “Let’s just shoot for the moon. Let’s tell the best story possible and see where it ends up at the end of the day.” Speaking with Janie, we got really lucky because she was like, “This is it. This is the thing.”

Hendrix: I think for Jimi, he wrote over two hundred songs in four years, and he had a message. A message of love, power of the soul, to share with us through his music, through his genius guitar playing. He created a sound that was so uniquely different than anyone before him or after him. That’s why his music continues to be viable, and new and fresh today as it was then. As far as things we may not have included in this, I would just say, stay tuned because that may be in the next volume. That’s definitely what we would be looking at next.

TG: What were the most rewarding and challenging aspects of bringing this story to life?

Hendrix: It was during Covid [laughs]. We worked very hard on this during Covid, so all of our meetings that we had during the process of creating this was on Zoom calls. Thank God for Zoom calls. Some were just on the speakerphone. That was probably the most challenging, not to be able to see people in person, as far as sending things back and forth. Up until today, this is the first time we actually got to see, touch, feel, hold, and see up close the beautiful pages and the weight of it.

To tell you the truth, I thought it was going to be like a comic book, it was going to be thinner pages. Because we only saw what we saw on our emails and little cells. You’d have to try to blow it up bigger, and that was probably the most challenging.

Meen: For me, I think it’s the most challenging and the most rewarding thing about it was knowing that it’s Jimi Hendrix. Because it’s such a challenge that we knew that we had to step up and make sure we were telling a story that was worthy of him. And that’s also the most rewarding thing because you’re working on Jimi Hendrix and then you’re working on it with someone who knew Jimi and someone who takes care of his whole, everything about him to this day. Someone who is very involved and very much wants to put out the best version of him. That was very challenging and then at the same time it was immensely rewarding.

TG: What are you most excited for fans to experience when they receive their own finished copies?

Brown: I’m excited for fans to identify with him. Despite it being very specific that it is a Jimi Hendrix story that is taking place in space, it is the story of what happens when you transition into who you want to be next as an artist. How you break out of the barrier of what everyone is expecting of you, what your label wants you to be, and what your current fans think you are. And you realize that none of that matters if I’m not being the person that I want to be next, it doesn’t matter if anyone allows me to evolve, I’m just going to do it. I’m excited to see how people react to that.

TG: You mentioned the possibility of future stories; if you could have this version of Jimi Hendrix cross over with another comic book character or another musician in a future installment, who would it be and why?

Hendrix: I would say it’s endless. It’s infinity. You could do that with so many artists. There are so many artists that he actually crossed paths with, or he incorporated their music into his music from the roots to the fruits and then his fruit became the roots of others in the future. I mean, really, it’s endless. It’s whatever we wanted it to be because I think Jimi has touched so many musicians. It’s rare to hear a guitar player say he was not inspired by Jimi because pretty every guitar player was always inspired by Jimi.

But more than that, he was a musician and he touched so many other musicians’ lives, whatever they played. This could go on forever, because he could be interacting with everyone, past, present, future.

Brown: Also, I don’t want to say yet. I think if you read the book, you can get an idea of someone we would really…

Meen: Yeah, definitely. There’s a couple of people in the book, hints of things we would like to do next, some we like to see him interact with.

Titan Comics will release Jimi Hendrix: Purple Haze on August 27.

Author: Jessica Wolff

Jessica Wolff is a graduate of Drexel University with a BS in Film/Video. She has a passion for entertainment and representation in entertainment. She currently resides outside of Washington, DC.

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