Warning: Reading This Comic May Cause Sudden Urges to Crash Through a Mall
The Blues Brothers are back — and this time, they’re in panels. A new graphic novel, The Blues Brothers: The Escape of Joliet Jake, will hit shelves as the first release in a bold revival of the iconic IP that spans TV, film, music, live shows, and more.
Written by Stella Aykroyd, Luke Pisano, and James Werner, with art by Felipe Sobreiro, the graphic novel is described as both a sequel and a love letter to the original 1980 film. With Dan Aykroyd providing editorial oversight, the project honors the legacy shaped by Judy Belushi Pisano — the late widow of John Belushi — who helped conceive the project before her passing.
“The Blues Brothers weren’t just a SNL act or movie, they were real musicians,” says Luke Pisano. “This book is dedicated to my mother… she didn’t just preserve the story —she expanded it.”
Synopsis: The Blues Brothers – The Escape of Joliet Jake: It’s 1997, almost two decades after the events in THE BLUES BROTHERS film, and Chicago law enforcement is once again in pursuit of the notorious musical criminal, Jake Blues, after a mysterious jailbreak. On the case is Robert, an up-and-coming detective, whose world is turned upside down… While investigating, Robert receives a little help from Elwood Blues, and an unlikely partnership forms between Robert and Wolfie, an orphan from the Blues Brother’s alma-mater, St. Helen’s of the Blessed Shroud. Together, they unravel a web of mysteries tied to Blues Brothers adventures with Jake and Elwood that we’ve never seen before! Get back to the heart of recidivist mischief, soul and bombastic chases. Sink your teeth into a new Blues Brothers adventure.
“Elwood and Jake are precious to me, in fact, one of them is actually my Dad,” says Stella Aykroyd. “I’ve helped him sharpie ELWOOD onto his knuckles before Blues Brothers shows with ‘Brother Zee’, I’ve walked behind him as he’s made his way through a sea of fans dressed as Elwood and Jake all over the world and I’ve been his co-pilot on the road, where he’s explained to me the proper way to T-bone a car. Now, with Elwood and the one and only ‘Sister Zee’, Judy Belushi’s blessing, Luke, James, and I take the wheel and swerve into the endless possibilities that Z2, Felipe Sobreiro, and the comic book world provide for Jake and Elwood. In many ways, the antics we’ve seen from the Blues Brothers have always been perfectly suited for the comic strip; flying cars, supernatural nuns, dusting an entire apartment building’s worth of bricks off your shoulders, and now Felipe Sobreiro’s illustrations bring them to life once again. Our development process was guided and inspired by the stories and real life occurrences from the lives of Judy, John, and Dan and their process of conception of the Blues Brothers and using it not only for easter eggs but for plot points. I am so excited to share this whole new story with all our music loving anarchists.”
Werner calls the comic “a world where the possibilities for destroying police cars is infinite.” But can they bring Dixie Square Mall back from the dead?
Z2 Comics President Josh Bernstein sums it up: “The Blues Brothers are comedy, pop-culture and musical royalty… We apologize in advance to the fine men and women of the Chicago Police Department.”
The Escape of Joliet Jake is available for pre-order now via Amazon and other retailers.
Disco pants and haircuts. This mall has everything.
