WIPS and Words about Lana Del Rey from the BAROQUE POP contributors

As of this writing, the Kickstarter for the newest book from Red Stylo Press, BAROQUE POP, a comic collection inspired by the music of Lana Del Rey is 88% funded! We’re so close, thanks to our incredible group of backers (with a leeetle help from mentions in CBR, Newsarama, BreatheHeavy.com, PopCrush and Bleeding Cool!)

Following is sample art from the collection, as well as quick notes from some of our contributors about the Lana Del Rey songs that inspired their stories.

Cover by Jim Towe

Writer/editor, Mario Candelaria:
Salvatore has a very distinct sound on the very low key Honeymoon album. The strings mixed with Lana’s melodies really paint a picture of unrequited love painted a pretty specific picture in my mind and I knew Katarzyna Witerscheim would knock the story out the park if she was available. I fell in love with her 1995Regi instaComic and had been trying to come up with a story to work with her on, so when the chance to make “Cacciatore” came up I knew it would be a match made in heaven.

Writer, Dan Charles:
“I was thrilled to get the chance to work on a story inspired by Lana Del Rey’s Summertime Sadness. It’s a relationship song, a party song, a song that makes me think of endings, of burning down the highway one last time. So of course I thought a Bond style interlude would fit perfectly(?). Luckily I was paired with Ashley St. Lawrence who knocked it out of the park! She, with Scott Ewen on letters, took the story and made it jump right off the page. I’m really proud of it and we hope you enjoy it as well!”

Writer, Jennie Wood:
“The song that inspired the story I worked on with artist Chris Goodwin is LDR’s Religion. I wasn’t drawn to a specific image or lyric, but the overall idea of the song – of another person being someone’s religion, of love being someone’s religion. As soon as I heard “Lana Del Rey-inspired anthology,” I knew I wanted to do a story for it in collaboration with Chris. Just weeks before, Chris had told me how he listened to LDR while working on Flutter, Volume Two. I loved his work on that book and was looking for a new project to work on with him. This was it.”

Writer, Michael Lynch:
“It was late nite and I was driving home listening to LDR’s music on random. I love her music in general, but when God Knows I Tried began to play something came over me. I kept replaying it over and over again. The lyrics painted a picture of someone who had played by the rules but kept failing. So in a moment of defiance at the rules of the game, they made a drastic decision. Would one prefer to potentially regret their actions or their inaction? It’s a very human question. It’s hard to predict which will be worst at the end of the day. That’s what I love about LDR’s music. Her ability to present these scenarios that are not only relatable,but also speak to the core of our everyday experiences.”

Writer, Eric Palicki:
“I chose Body Electric because it’s a great song and I can relate specifically to being the product of one’s influences. That said, the story I’m telling with Daniel is more broadly influenced by themes from LDR’s catalog as a whole — the things that draw me to her music — themes of defiance, addiction and individuality.”

Writer, Enrica Jang:
“Gods and Monsters is my favorite LDR song, but the inspiration for the story actually started with the Jessica Lange cover from American Horror Story: Freak Show. The LDR recording is of course haunting and beautiful, but I guess the sexy/pretty of it obscured how the song (to me) is about how completely you can ruin yourself in the pursuit of pretty lies, i.e. money, beauty, fame. The cover was so raw and stripped, I went back and put the original song on repeat for days. A couple months later Mario proposed the anthology and I had to do this one. Jan Velazquez gave the story life and breath.”