Gerard Arthur Way (born April 9, 1977) is an
American musician and
comic book writer who has served as
lead vocalist and
co-founder of the band
My Chemical Romance since its formation in 2001. He is also the writer of the
Eisner Award-winning
comic book The Umbrella Academy.
Early life
Gerard Way was born April 9, 1977 in
Summit,
New Jersey[1] to Donna Lee (née Rush) and Donald Way. He has Italian ancestry on his mother's side and Scottish ancestry on his father's. He was raised in
Belleville, New Jersey and first began singing publicly in the fourth grade, when he played the role of
Peter Pan in a school musical production. His maternal grandmother, Elena Lee Rush, was a great creative influence who taught him to sing, paint, and perform from a young age; he has said that "she has taught me everything I know".
[2]
At the age of 15, Way was held at gunpoint, as he said in an April 2008
Rolling Stone interview: "I got held up with a
.357 Magnum, had a gun pointed to my head and put on the floor, execution-style." He went on to say that "no matter how ugly the world gets or how stupid it shows me it is, I always have faith."
[3]
Way attended
Belleville High School until he graduated in 1995. Deciding to pursue a career in the comic-book industry,
[4] he attended the
School of Visual Arts in
New York City, graduating with a
Bachelor of Fine Arts in 1999.
[2][5]
Career
Music
As teenagers Gerard and his brother Mikey Way, who later became the bassist of
My Chemical Romance, were influenced by the bands
Iron Maiden and
The Misfits as well as British artists such as
Pulp,
Blur and
Morrissey and
The Smiths. Way originally wanted to be a guitarist. His grandmother bought him his first guitar at the age of eight and he played in short-lived bands such as Ray Gun Jones and Nancy Drew with future bandmate Ray Toro, but when he was not successful (one band kicking him out due to his lack of skill with the guitar), he chose to concentrate on his art career.
[citation needed]
Way was working as an intern for
Cartoon Network in New York City during the
September 11, 2001 attacks. Seeing the effects of the attacks first-hand prompted Way to change his views on life in the following weeks. He told
Spin magazine, "I literally said to myself, 'Fuck art. I’ve gotta get out of the basement. I’ve gotta see the world. I’ve gotta make a difference.'"
[6] To help deal with the emotional effects the attacks had on him, Way wrote the lyrics to the song "Skylines and Turnstiles", which has since been identified as the first song by
My Chemical Romance.
[7] Soon after,
My Chemical Romance began to assemble as a band.
Way has contributed vocally to bands such as
Every Time I Die's 'Kill The Music',
Head Automatica's 'Graduation Day',
Say Anything's "In Defense Of The Genre", and
The Oval Portrait's "From My Cold Dead Hands" and "Barnabus Collins Has More Skeletons In His Closet Than Vincent Price".
In many interviews Way has stated that music turned out to be an effective outlet to deal with his longtime battles against
depression,
alcoholism and prescription drug use. The use of music as a way to resolve personal battles has caused Way to create deeply personal songs such as "
Helena,"
[8] which was written in memory of his late grandmother.
In early 2009, Way and
Japanese rock singer
Kyosuke Himuro co-produced the new theme song for
Advent Children Complete, the
Blu-Ray director's cut of the movie sequel to the popular video game franchise,
Compilation of Final Fantasy VII. He is also credited with writing the lyrics, and singing alongside Himuro. The song is entitled "Safe and Sound," and according to Himuro's website, will be available on iTunes on April 29, 2009.
[9] "Safe and Sound" is only heard on the Japanese release of the film; the English release uses Himuro's "Calling" (the original ending theme for
Advent Children) in place of it.
Writing
Gerard Way's first attempt at writing a comic was at the age of 16, writing a short-lived comic series called 'On Raven's Wings', which was cancelled after Issue 2 due to losing the art team; he was credited as Garry Way.
[10]
In 2007, Way began writing the comic-book miniseries
The Umbrella Academy. Way wrote the story and illustrated the original version, but cartoonist Gabriel Ba recreated all of Way's original drawings in the final version. A few of Way's first drawings of the characters can be seen in the last few pages of the first book in the series, "The Apocalypse Suite".
The Apocalypse Suite was first released by
Dark Horse Comics in their
Free Comic Book Day issue on May 5, 2007.
[11] Since then, an eight-page story has been published on MySpace, entitled "Safe & Sound".
[12] The first official issue was released on September 19, 2007.
[13] The first issue to sell out and consequently there was a second printing released on October 17, 2007.
[14] The next installment was released on November 26, 2008.
[15]
He and fellow artists Shaun Simon and Becky Cloonan are currently in the process of developing and creating a new comic-book series titled "The True Lives of the Fabulous Killjoys", which Way announced at Comic Con 2009.
Cartoons
In 2001 Way co-created a cartoon with Joe Boyle called
The Breakfast Monkey. They pitched it to
Cartoon Network, but the network declined to pick up the concept on the grounds that it was too similar to the existing property
Aqua Teen Hunger Force.
[16]
Personal life
Way has struggled with
alcoholism and prescription drug addiction for many years and has now been sober since August 2004.
[17] In a recent issue of Spin magazine, he said that, having become a happier person and feeling more in control, he has been able to enjoy the occasional recreational drink.
On September 3, 2007 after a concert in Colorado, Way married LynZ of
Mindless Self Indulgence backstage on the final date of the
Projekt Revolution tour. A member of Live Nation's touring staff that was also an ordained minister performed the low-key ceremony.
[18] He currently lives with his wife in Los Angeles, California.
[19] Their daughter, Bandit Lee Way, was born in California on May 27, 2009.
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