PRESS RELEASE
Following his incendiary journey into sequential art with The Twisted Tales of the Ritalin Club and Weird Times at Quarry Bank University, Yungblud and Z2 Comics return with the third volume in the musician’s ballistic tales of super-powered outcasts rebelling against sinister boarding schools and beyond. Yungblud Presents Twisted Tales of the Ritalin Club 3: The Funeral is co-written by Ryan O’Sullivan (RZA Presents: Bobby Digital and The Pit of Snakes) featuring interior art courtesy Annapaola Martello (Kiss/Vampirella) and Vasilis Lolos (RZA Presents: Bobby Digital and The Pit of Snakes), with covers from Martello and Butch Mapa (Chuck D Presents Apocalypse 91). This graphic novel serves as a cross-media experience alongside Yungblud’s single, “The Funeral,” released in March.
This new chapter builds off the gleefully irreverent, bitingly profane adventures of Yungblud and his super-powered coterie—the titular Ritalin Club—of Harmony, Scout, Zombie Joshua, Em, and Encore. After breaking free from the repressive constraints of Blackheart’s High School and navigating the horrors of Quarry Bank University, Yungblud will face his greatest foe: mortality.
Two years after saving the world from the Mangaverse, Yungblud died. No one knows how, only that it was enough to cause The Ritalin Club to disband and stop talking to each other. But as their old foe, The Spreading Darkness, has returned, more powerful than ever, it falls to Zombie Joshua to get the band back together. Every member. Living or dead.
“These powerful graphic novels serve as a mirror to my own journey as an artist through a medium I absolutely adore” Yungblud explains. “The previous volumes chronicled my battles with authority, identity and self expression. The Funeral, like its musical counterpart, grapples with the idea of self acceptance, belonging, and finding peace with your own insecurities.”
“Yungblud continues to be one of the most singular, confrontational voices in the pop culture landscape,” Z2 Comics Publisher Joshua Frankel continues. “As soon as we launched Twisted Tales, I knew that his story couldn’t be contained in one volume. This is a glorious middle finger of genre fiction. We’ll continue to publish them as long as there’s a story to tell.”
Yungblud’s debut graphic novel, The Twisted Tales of the Ritalin Club, took the pop culture world by storm when it was published in 2019, selling out within days of its initial release. The artist’s impact over the past few years—not only as a musician, but as a cultural icon—is undeniable. Sticking a middle finger up to senseless oppression, the tongue-in-cheek, genre-bending British rocker has been a driving force in a worldwide movement that encourages people to be distinctively themselves, and proud of it.
Z2 Comics and Yungblud present Twisted Tales of the Ritalin Club 3: The Funeral in both softcover and deluxe clamshell formats, including a hand-signed edition of the book, four prints, and CD. Annapaola Martello and Butch Mapa provide cover art.
