Comic relief for Coldplay

Mylo Xyloto, the cartoon character who formed the backdrop for Coldplay’s fifth album, has got his very own comic book.

The six-part comic, debuting today at a Comic Con event in the US, is a collaboration between the band and writer/director Mark Osbourne, who previously worked on ‘Kung Fu Panda’.

“I have always wanted to create a new kind of ‘Yellow Submarine’ and when I saw a story on ‘60 Minutes’ about Chris [Martin] and the band’s creative process I thought it might be something they’d be open to,” says Osbourne on how the character was born.

He ‘cold called’ Coldplay and the futuristic character of Mylo was forged. After the Mylo Xyloto album was in the can though, Osbourne says the desire to flesh out the story would not go away.

“Creating a companion comic book series became the best way to further explore the story and express the visual side of the equation.”

So who is Mylo and what sort of world does he inhabit? “[He’s a] young ‘Silencer’ on the front lines of a war against sound and colour in the world of Silencia,” says Osbourne. “Mylo discovers that the enemy he’s been trained to hate his whole life might not be the enemy after all.”

Osbourne hopes that the creation of the comic will also see music fans revisit the lyrics and melodies of the album. After all, Chris Martin and the band’s manager, Phil Harvey, played a huge part in shaping the young Silencer’s story.

“There will hopefully be many, many connections with the music for fans, including lots we didn’t even intend I’m sure,” Osbourne adds.

“I’m excited to see how people link the two and what develops after this.

“I always conceived of this story as being directly connected to the music, so it is strange to express the story in such a silent form. Once all six issues are released it will be interesting to see if fans try to line up the whole series with the album, maybe in a ‘Dark Side of the Moon/Wizard of Oz’ kind of way.

“I’m not saying this will work, but you never know...