Jack Mangan is a good friend of mine. Many MANY moons ago, we both put out podiobooks. His is still available in ebook format and if you enjoy cyberpunk, go get yourself a copy of Spherical Tomi. You’ll thank me.

Last year he launched a KickStarter campaign for Am I Evil, a graphic novel he’d gotten permission to create while interviewing Diamondhead on his show Metal Asylum. Perhaps I should back up a little bit.

Diamondhead released the song Am I Evil in 1980. Most people discovered this song when Metallica (Maybe you’ve heard of them) covered the song in 1984. The song, if you’ve never heard it, is quite the epic tune. Much like the titular character of the song, my mother was a witch. This song meant a lot to me.

So Jack did a KickStarter Campaign that, for reasons, didn’t get traction and failed. But, it saw life when he ran an Indiegogo campaign and it was a success!

The graphic novel is going to happen. It’s coming. I can’t wait. In the interim, Jack produced a novella of the story. Many Metallica and Diamondhead lyrics are sprinkled throughout as well as lyrics from the song that gave the story its name.

To be honest, there’s lots to work with in the song and Jack could have taken it in many different directions. He gave characters names, motivations, more than just revenge and destruction. I have moments where I thought the lyric dropping might get too much, but all in all Jack made it work. I wish I could like to this story for you to pick up a copy. It’s so much fun and Jack even left a little open to go back and add more stories later.

Honestly, I think Jack should do an anthology and invite other authors to write in this world he created (nudge nudge hint hint know what I mean).

Should this novella become publicly available or the graphic novel, I will make sure to bring it to your attention.