Pop Rocks: Timespell
By Rich Henn.

So what would happen if you took a comic book, extrapolated the ideas and feelings behind it, put it all to music, and whacked it on a CD? Pop Rocks, that's what!

Each month, we talk to a different creator about their book, and the music that would comprise its soundtrack. This month, we caught up with Rich Henn, who writes, illustrates, and publishes TIMESPELL, from Club 408 Graphics.

I've always pictured TIMESPELL as having a very eighties music soundtrack, perhaps some seventies too.

SMASHMOUTH | WALKING ON THE SUN
WALKING ON THE SUN by Smashmouth is something I hear in my head when I picture the opening credits of what may be a TIMESPELL movie. The logo is coming into view, only ever so slowly. It starts off big and fiery, and rotates from left to right. As the camera pulls back, the full image of the TIMESPELL logo comes to light. But I've been picturing this image now for over a year, and the Smashmouth song at first was appropriate. Now maybe something more like DUEL OF THE FATES by John Williams.

MR. MISTER | KYRIE
KYRIE by Mr. Mister is short for KYRIELIASE. I always thought this would be the song playing when we first see Alex McMurphy, our bartender enigma man. However, I wasn't sure if he'd be seen from a birds eye view, driving his car over the George Washington Bridge, and the camera would zoom down over and around him. Now I wonder if perhaps his first appearance would be in the bar that he owns, pouring shots for a bunch of college punks. Perhaps a Styx or Supertramp song would be in the background. Or maybe even THUNDER ISLAND by Jay Ferguson.

EARTH, WIND AND FIRE | BOOGIE WONDERLAND
BOOGIE WONDERLAND by Earth Wind and Fire is something I imagined when thinking of a scene which is still yet to be seen by the comic public. It involves a new character coming up in TIMESPELL #5, a bounty hunter pit demon named Ochre.

THE ALARM | RESCUE ME
RESCUE ME by The Alarm plays on the car radio as McMurphy races through the city streets in issue #2, believing beyond a shadow of a doubt that Gillespie is laying in wait for him.

ADAM KONTRAS | SCREW YOU
One other song, one that most readers will not be aware of, can be found at http://www.4tvs.com by Adam Kontras. Adam is the first "real" person to appear in TIMESPELL, and makes his debut in TIMESPELL #5. He's a fellow from Columbus, OH who has a fantastic one-man show. He plays piano and sings to four TV pre-recorded videos of himself! The cool thing is, it's all perfectly synched to his routine, and looks as if he's actually interacting with the characters in the TV! The name of the song is SCREW YOU, and he performs it at the end of issue #5 (TIMESPELL: EVEN IN THE QUIETEST MOMENTS #1).

PATRICK HERNANDEZ | BORN TO BE ALIVE
BORN TO BE ALIVE by Patrick Hernandez plays at the end credits of the TIMESPELL movie. It is both appropriate and bitter sweet, but only makes sense if you know the finale of the story, as I do.

When I was drawing issues zero and one, I was listening to a lot of Moody Blues. I'm a big Moodies fan, and probably ran the gambit of their whole library while doing those books. I remember listening to Aqua when I was doing issue two, as well as a lot of Queen and Billy Joel. When I was drawing issue three, I pretty much listened to nothing but Supertramp: LIVE FROM PARIS, Supertramp: SOME THINGS REMAIN THE SAME, Blondie, Pat Benatar: BEST SHOTS and The Pretenders GREATEST HITS. When I did issue four, it was pretty much Queen, Journey, Styx and Roger Hodgson tunes. Oh, yeah... and THE PHANTOM MENACE Soundtrack.

Rich Henn, 32, lives in sunny Maryland. You can visit Rich and TIMESPELL on the web at http://www.timespell.com, and you can read his biweekly column in CBEM (Comic Book Electronic Magazine) at http://members.aol.com/comicbknet.

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