March and April have been busy months for ST8MNT, and also for Adrian Younge with two new releases: “Adrian Younge Presents The Delfonics” (a great listen, give it a try) and “Twelve Reasons To Die.”

“Twelve Reasons To Die” is a concept album collaboration between rapper Ghostface Killah, composer Adrian Younge, and Adrian Younge’s band Venice Dawn.

On the drive home one night I listened to Adrian Young explain the wonderfully ridiculous concept of 12 Reasons on Fresh Air with Terry Gross.

The record tells the story of Tony Starks, a gangster raised in the Delucca Crime Family. Starks runs away with the boss’s daughter and starts his own prosperous narcotics enterprise. The Delucca crew seeks vengeance, killing Starks and discarding his body in pool of acetate salts. Starks’ allies press his remains into 12 vinyl records, which when played summon the revengeful spirit of the Ghostface Killah bound to get revenge on the Deluccas.

The album’s conception and execution started with writing the story of the Ghostface Killah, Younge and Venice Dawn putting down the instrumentation, and lastly Ghostface Killah contributing his delightfully lethal rhymes.

Younge known for his film scores, furnishes a record that operates as a Tarantino-esque soundtrack to the cinematic rise of the Ghostface Killah.

Here’s a clip of Ghostface Killah performing “I Declar War” on Jimmy Fallon.

As beautifully composed as the album is, we’re here to talk about the album cover and accompanying comic book.

Younge, obsessed with anything late 1960’s and early 1970’s, expressed his interest for the cover to feel like a B-movie horror poster.

The cover uses B-movie-reminiscent typography — raunchy fonts that find the perfect home on a grotesque movie poster depicting the Ghostface Killah in a fencing mask with Krueger claws.

There is also a limited edition LP pressing shown below, I’d love to get a copy of it.

The album is  being released with a comic book series from Black Mask Studios (publisher of outsider/transgressive/non-traditional comics) written by Matthew Rosenberg and Partrick Kindlon (Trip City’s Menu), and illustrated by an interchanging team of artists including Tim Seeley (Revival, Hack/Slash), Paolo Rivera (Daredevil), Francesco Francavilla (Black Beetle, Detective Comics), Ramon Perez (Tale of Sand), Ben Templesmith (30 Days Of Night), Riley Rossmo (Bedlam), Garry Brown (The Massive), Jim Mahfood (Tank Girl), Kyle Strahm (Haunt), Toby Cypress (Blue Estate), Tyler Crook (B.P.R.D.), Joe Infurnari (Mush!), Breno Tamura (Pigs), Nate Powell (Swallow Me Whole), Gus Storms (Space Creep), Chris Mitten (30 Days of Night), and Ron Wimberly (Prince of Cats).

Below is a preview trailer for the comic book series:

Cover by Ronald Wimberly

Cover by Christopher Mitten

Here’s are some spreads from XXL Magazine’s post of the comic:

The album drops April 16th and the comic books will be on shelves May 29th. Get your copy!