Preview: The Yawpers Release Disturbing Comic Alongside Boy in a Well LP (NSFW)

This year has already witnessed a number of trans-media projects that marry music with sequential art (outside Paste’s own Songs Illustrated series). Matt Fraction and Albert Monteys crafted an original (and excellent) graphic novel to complement Jonathan Coulton’s recent Solid State LP and Black Keys frontman Dan Auerbach joined forces with Robert Finley on the musical component of Murder Ballads, a gritty descent into desperation and minor intervals written by Gabe Soria and illustrated by Paul Reinwand and Chris Hunt.

Colorado psychobilly trio The Yawpers join that tradition with Boy in a Well, their foreboding new album that releases on August 18th. Lead singer Nate Cook recruited illustrator and Legendary Shack Shakers founder J.D. Wilkes to illustrate the story behind the concept album. And that story is…intense.

Set to the Yawper’s silvertone guitars and chugging bluegrass rhythms, the narrative begins in France with a young woman inviting a returning WWI soldier into her graces on Armistice Day. The resulting child is unceremoniously tossed into a well after the girl’s mother chides her that “haughtiness is the signature of Satan.” And the plot only pivots to darker extremes from there.

The tale diagrams the evil, depraved outcomes that stem from altruistic organized religion, and no party leaves their best intentions unscathed. Wilkes’ artwork veers from the dark, monochrome hatching of Charles Burns to more exaggerated moments à la Robert Crumb. It’s unique and very, very NSFW. Check out an exclusive preview of the comic below, which will be included with the album upon release.

Boy in a Well Interior Art by J.D. Wilkes