One of the great yearly weekend music festivals these past few years takes place in Belgium – the EDM (Electronic Dance Music) Festival known as Tomorrowland. Now dance fans and comic book aficionados come together in this genre mixing story Tomorrowland from writer Paul Jenkins (Wolverine: Orgin). Originally printed as a 4-issue mini-series this past summer 2013 by Titan Comics, now we get the whole saga in one volume in this hardbound trade – Tomorrowland. It’s like Glastonbury getting its own graphic novel! Tomorrowland follows DJs Dimitri Vegas and Like Mike on their DJ gigs as they battle evil from other dimensions on this cosmic/portal opening/spiritual/metaphysical journey to save Earth! It’s kind of like the anime The Super Dimension Fortress Macross and Macross Frontier (or Macross Plus, or just whatever Macross incarnation/reboot you prefer) as the heroine uses her singing prowess to stop war and save the universe.
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Tracklist 1 – Epic Stadium-Masher: 1. Armin van Buuren feat. Trevor Guthrie – This Is What If Feels Like [Audien Remix], 2. Zedd feat. Hayley Williams – Stay The Night [Extended Mix], 3. Adventure Club – Do I See Color [Dubstep Mix], 4. NERVO – You’re Gonna Love Again [Extended Version], 5. Coldplay – Every Tear Drop Is A Waterfall [Swedish House Mafia Remix], 6. Calvin Harris feat. Florence Welch – Sweet Nothing [Extended Mix], 7. ATB feat. Ramona Nerra – Never Give Up [Club Mix], 8. Filo & Peri feat. Eric Lumiere – The Anthem [John O’Callaghan Remix, 9. David Guetta feat. Usher – Without You, 10. Armin van Buuren & DJ Shah feat. Chris Jones – Going Wrong, 11. Alice Deejay – The Lonely One [Hit Radio Mix], 12. Ian Van Dahl – Will I [UK Radio Edit], 13. Benny Benassi feat. Kelis, apl.de.ap & Jean-Baptiste – Spaceship, 14. Kaskade feat. Rebecca & Fiona – Turn It Down, 15. Avicii – Levels [Extended Version] and 16. Swedish House Mafia feat. John Martin – Don’t You Worry Child [Extended Version].
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Tomorrowland isn’t just an EDM festival as we find out from DJ Dimitri Vegas and Like Mike as they wake-up from the same nightmarish dream in their hotel room, like in the now-sci-fi classic Battlestar Galatica where Baltar, the President Roslin, Starbuck and almost everybody else has vision quest dreams to find earth. As we learn from “The Elders” who are pop culture icons that travel through different dimensions to protect us the evil “Nameless One.” Each year as Tomorrowland is held, dimensional portals are opened up and each year a “Keeper” is named to be the guardian of Tomorrowland and in 2013 it’s up brothers DJ Dimitri Vegas and Like Mike. And even DJ Steve Aoki drops by a couple of comic panels.
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Tracklist 2 – DiscoHouse Bash: 1. Daft Punk feat. Pharrell Williams – Get Lucky, 2. Glen Check! – Pacific, 3. Modjo – Lady (Hear Me Tonight), 4. Marco Denmark feat. Casey Barnes – Tiny Dancer [Moto Blanco Club Mix], 5. Jamiroquai – (Don’t) Give Hate A Chance [Freemasons Remix], 6. Daniel Merriweather – Red [Moto Blanco Club Mix], 7. Modjo – Chillin’, 8. Deepest Blue – Deepest Blue, 9. Bag Raiders – Shooting Stars, 10. M83 – Midnight City, 11. Deepest Blue – Give It Away, 12. Goldfrapp – Rocket [Grum Remix], 13. Cause & Effect – You Think You Know Her [Unfaithful Mix], 14. Abigail – You Set Me Free [Andy & The Lamboy Radio Edit #2], 15. Calvin Harris feat. Ayah Marar – Thinking About You [Extended Version], and 16. DJ Feel & DJ Rich-Art – This Feeling [Pop Edit].
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The style is very much reminiscent of Joe Madureira’s art in Uncanny X-men, a mix of East meets West in these comic book pages by artist(s) Alti Firmansyah and Beny Maulana. Their part of hip art studio Stellar Labs located in Jakarta.
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Tracklist 3 – Killer Bang Mix: 1. Saints of Valory – Neon Eyes [Matisse & Sadko Remix], 2. Calvin Harris & Alesso feat. Hurts – Under Control, 3. Lana Del Rey – Young & Beautiful [Kaskade Remix], 4. The Killers – Smile You Like Mean It [DeadHouse Remix], 5. U2 – Even Better Than The Real Thing [Perfecto Mix], 6. Fenech Soler – Stop & Stare, 7. Kings of Leon – Use Somebody [Chew Fu Festival Remix], 8. The Killers – Mr. Brightside [Jacques Lu Cont’s T.W. Duke Remix], 9. Garbage – Special, 10. Republica – Ready To Go, 11. Yeah Yeah Yeahs – Heads Will Roll [A-Trak Remix], 12. Snow Patrol – In The End [Whateverman Remix], 13. The Killers – Human [Armin van Buuren Remix], 14. The Killers – When You Were Young [Calvin Harris Remix], 15. Alesso vs OneRepublic – If I Lose Myself [Alesso Remix], and 16. Maroon 5 – Love Somebody [Panic City Remix].
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Within the pages of the graphic novel we get a profile of the real-life DJs Dimitri Vegas and Like Mike. We also get a brief narrative description of how Tomorrowland came about in Belgium along with a photo gallery. Tomorrowland just started out as a one-day Sunday event on Schorre rec park in Boom on August 14th, 2005 and now it’s the biggest EDM festival in the world spanning 3-days and over 180,000 people from around the globe attend. And this past September 2013, Tomorrowland landed on US-soil with TomorrowWorld located near ATL, in the small town of Chattahoochee Hills.
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Tracklist 4 – Bubblegum Mix: 1. Alphabeat – Fascination [Bimbo Jones Remix], 2. The Saturdays – Higher [7th Heaven Radio Edit], 3. Conor Maynard feat. Ne-Yo – Turn Around, 4. Katharine McPhee – Touch Me, 5. Ryan Cabrera – True [Ford Mix], 6. JLS feat. Tinie Tempah – Eyes Wide Shut [Liam Keegan Remix], 7. Jordin Sparks – Tattoo [Jason Nevins Remix], 8. Daniel Bedingfield – If You’re Not The One [Metro Mix], 9. N*Sync – I Need Love, 10. The Saturdays – All Fired Up [Cutmore Killa Club Remix], 11. Lemar – That’s The Way Love Goes [Cahill Club Mix], 12. Mini Viva – I Wish [Cahill Remix], 13. Cheryl Cole – Fight For This Love [Moto Blanco Club Mix], 14. Rebecca Ferguson – I Hope [Moto Blanco Club Mix], 15. Joe McElderry – Ambitions [Cahill Club Mix], and 16. Kylie Minogue – Put Your Hands Up (If You Feel Love) [NERVO Hands Up Extended Club Mix].
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Kids today, like my younger cousins who attend these dance/rave festivals should get a kick out of this Tomorrowland graphic novel. Once you have Tomorrowland in your hands, you will need headphones, Red Bull energy drinks, MP3 player (or if you’re ancient like me, a CD player that will play my collection of 90’s NRG/Eurobeat CDs – LoL) and a nice dance/EDM set list to go along with the reading and looking at the cool artwork. So get your hands up and feel the bass!
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Hardbound Graphic Novel: Tomorrowland
Writer: Paul Jenkins
Artist(s): Alti Firmansyah & Beny Maulana (Stellar Labs) & Patrick Moerland
Publisher: Titan Comics
MSRP: $19.99USD
Available: December 31, 2013
Johnny Moreno
Edward Ballar
GuestContributor
Ramon Angel
Al Woo
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