Tyrese Gibson is ready to change the world. As he finishes up work on his first-ever comic book series, Mayhem, and prepares to bring it to the assembled geeks at Comic Con, he's not settling for just any old debut. "Mayhem is going to change the world," he promised me when we spoke over the phone last week. And he's making sure he can back up that promise-- he's spent the last few weeks meeting with comic world greats like Avi Arad, and essentially picking their brains. "I'm asking a million questions. How can Mayhem be the next comic book that everybody in the world is excited about?"
Though many of the plot details of Mayhem are still top-secret, Tyrese and one of his writing partners, Mike Le, promise a lot of psychological depth, a little darkness, and even some spirituality. "Mayhem is tortured character who is struggling with his own sense of what is good and what is evil," Le explains. "His justice is so brutal that, what makes him different from the bad guys?"
And here's the main thing Tyrese needs you to know about Mayhem right now: pre-sales are happening right now via Los Angeles comic store Meltdown Comics. And Tuesday is the day that the publisher and the stores will be taking stock of pre-sales to see exactly how popular this thing is. Mayhem has already pre-sold 10,000 copies, but Tyrese has even bigger goals-- "I've got 450,000 in mind. 450,000 around the world pre-sold."
Below you can listen to our phone conversation, in which we talk about Tyrese's addiction to Twitter, his willingness to change careers (he started as a model, went into singing, is currently an actor, and is now writing a comic book), and how he identifies with comic book geeks, even though he was never one himself. Oh, and he's got an offer to anyone who pre-orders 50 copies or more of Mayhem-- he'll call you personally to thank you. Trust me, after you hear our phone conversation, you'll realize that's an offer you want to take him up on.
Note: the visuals in the video below aren't really the point, so I'd recommend just listening as you go about your business on the web. Unless you want to just stare at Tyrese's mug the whole time, and hey, I can't really blame you for that.
