Scissor Sisters’ Scott ‘Babydaddy’ Hoffman Unveils ‘Wag’ On ComiXology Originals

Scott Hoffman, higher referred to as Babydaddy, the guitarist and instrumental engine of platinum best-selling 00’s-era pop band Scissor Sisters, has lately been discovering his voice in a brand new medium: comics. On September 5, his newest work, Wag, billed as a neurodivergent science fiction sequence, drops on Amazon’s
AMZN
comiXology Originals platform for digital buy. Superbly drawn by Juan Bobillo, the story affords an edgy, suspenseful take a look at a dystopian future by way of the eyes of a protagonist who can’t determine if the voices in his head are signs of a psychological dysfunction or cryptic messages from the previous.

Wag follows Hoffman’s debut, Nostalgia, one other high-concept science fiction sequence that dropped on comiXology earlier this summer time, however was truly written earlier, through the pandemic. The artistic outburst suggests the musical wunderkind has discovered a brand new platform and a brand new viewers for his imaginative and prescient. Hoffman introduced the venture at a panel at San Diego Comedian-Con in July, moderated by his good friend Phil Jiminez, a longtime comedian artist for DC, Vertigo, and Marvel.

“I used to be all the time a giant reader of style fiction, horror and science fiction,” mentioned Hoffman after we spoke simply earlier than his panel final month. “Jake [Shears, Scissor Sisters vocalist] and I initially bonded over studying, after we had been in a fiction writing program simply after we bought out of college. On the time, I couldn’t determine my writing voice and was extra occupied with performing, and now I’ve ended up doing this. It’s like a bizarre dream lastly fulfilled.”

Hoffman says that even within the band, he and Shears had been world-building by way of their songs and sound, and that followers of their musical method may see one thing acquainted in his voice and elegance of storytelling within the comics. “I believe I’m seen because the extra overly critical aspect of the band as mirrored within the sorts of musical environment and manufacturing,” mentioned Hoffman. In Nostaglia, and to some extent in Wag, he mentioned he wished to indicate somewhat little bit of the way forward for the trade, reflecting his ideas from going by way of the expertise firsthand.

He sees his newest forays into graphic storytelling as an extension of the identical sort of artistic venture, together with the facet of collaborating – on this case with a visible artist – to convey the work to life. “It’s a distinct sort of collaboration, however very related in that we might simply kick concepts forwards and backwards and let one another run with it,” he mentioned.

“Wag is definitely the primary venture that I wrote,” Hoffman mentioned. “I used to be mentored by Phil Jimenez, who talked me into giving my writing a strive. He requested me to affix a weekly writing group with him and one other good friend of ours when the pandemic began. It was nice, and I spotted there have been 1,000,000 issues I wished to speak about.”

Hoffman says the story took form over time as a manner of working by way of anxieties concerning the pandemic. “It’s a mixture of a number of confusion about what was occurring on the earth and my curiosity in know-how. We find yourself in a dystopian world, which is a tried and true trope that I used to be conscious of as I used to be doing it. I wished to show it on its head, and in addition get into some applied sciences I used to be occupied with like neural implants and synthetic intelligence. That wasn’t a lot of a dialog after I wrote Wag three years in the past and it’s very fascinating to see it in right now’s context.”

Hoffman’s foray into comics was well-received as followers packed one of many bigger rooms at this yr’s Comedian-Con. Whereas the group was smaller than those that Scissor Sisters performed for of their heyday, he mentioned he appreciates the depth of comedian followers and the sense of neighborhood.

As as to whether the band may get again collectively sometime, Hoffman says “we by no means say by no means, and I’d love for some sort of reunion to occur in some unspecified time in the future, hopefully earlier than later.”

Within the meantime, Hoffman hopes his outdated followers and a bunch of stories ones will observe him from the stage to the web page.