Life House

My thanks to both NetGalley and Image Comics for this graphic novel adaptation of a lost work by one of the most visionary and loudest musicians of the twentieth century.

Most artists have works that are unfinished, a half page of scribbled lines that just didn't seem to go anywhere. Sometimes these are used to build other works. Some are just sent out unfinished. The poem Kublai Khan by Samuel Taylor Coleridge was interrupted while Coleridge was writing it. Getting back to it later, Coleridge was at a loss to where he was going with it. Brian Wilson of The Beach Boys had the infamous Smile album, a work that broke him for years. Pete Townshend of the Who had Life House a multi-media planned follow-up to Tommy, that would work on film, stage, album and in the mind. Ideas keep being added, songs changed, plans made, but one day Townshend knew it was all for naught. Townshend just didn't have it in him. Many of the songs were adapted for the Who's Next album, with themes used later on solo albums. In celebration of this lost project Townshend has released a large music package and worked with new creators to make a graphic novel of the story. Pete Townshend's Life House is based on the screen plays by Pete Townshend adapted by writers James Harvey and David Hine, with artist Max Prentis inker Mick Grey and lettered by Micah Myers, and comes in a 12.25 x 12.25 just like a vinyl album size.

The story begins in a future, of maybe even a dream. Almost 200 years after the pollution and he climate begin to poison the Earth, and humans began to battle over the same things human battle over all the time England is under totalitarian rulership with no freedom, responsibilities and more importantly no music. Instruments and music have destroyed, and the only release that people get is spending their days on the Grid, a social system that uses dreams to power the nation state. Some people still roam free, and to this is added a young woman, who is older than she looks, with a gift for music and knowledge that all she knows is wrong. Following the sounds of the world the river, the polluted streams she finds a duo on the way to a show. A concert, held by a guru who walked away from the government, built a force field and with his followers is putting on an underground show, headlined by the recently defrosted Who, with the band getting some cybernetic additions to help them play. And then the story really gets weird.

A wild story with a strong European and Heavy Metal art feel, though done by an Australian that asks a lot of questions, with a lot of philosophical thought and well hippie ideas. Sort of if Rush's 2112 was influenced more by Michael Moorcock books and not Ayn Rand. There are a lot of questions on the role of music, the importance of art, and the power of playing in front of people, questions that Townshend seems to have struggled with most of his career. Actually much of what the band was going through is reflected in the story. Once one gets the feel the story is quite interesting, a little trippy and a bit again hippy, but good. The artwork is extraordinary, the larger format giving the pages a lot of room to fill, with huge trucks, a nice Rolls-Royce, creatures and lots of biomechanics and wires. Familiarity with the works of the Who will be helpful, knowing ideas, and when songs are being quoted will help readers understand the plot better. However the book does stand well on its own, and the pages are really gorgeous.

Recommended for fans of the Who, or fans of European comics, and 1970's science fiction. Townshend was right on many things when he wrote this, The Grid seems very much like social media, the Earth is dying and people seem comfortable having leaders tell them what to listen too, and how to act. Humans seem real easy to fool again.

Pete Townshend's Lifehouse Project has been around for over fifty years. Some of its music became Who's Next in 1971, and sporadic tracks appeared on later albums, singles and solo projects. Around twenty years ago Pete revisited Lifehouse, delivering a box set of related material including a radio play which went part of the way to explaining the narrative at its core.
In 2023 a huge and expensive box set arrived which gathered everything related to Lifehouse, including all the band recordings, Townshend's demos and comprehensive sleeve notes. It also included a graphic novel which finally depicted the storyline and ideas that the writer was attempting to convey. This graphic novel is now released separately.
It is an impressive work of art delivering disturbing visions of a dystopian future where music has been outlawed and it brings the complex thoughts that Townshend tried to express to life in vivid colours and images, with a cast of powerful characters helping to explain his cultural and moral ethos. Finally the world may appreciate the depth of the writer's visionary genius - in 1970/71 he foresaw the internet, music streaming, corrupt capitalism, and the commodification and manipulation of human emotions. The depth of its ambition is startling. Ideally the book should be read in conjunction with the music to appreciate Lifehouse's full impact but it is an amazing journey on many levels and well worth the effort needed to fully appreciate its worth.

An eco post-apocalyptic dystopian 200 years into Britain’s fascist regime who has banned all music. Citizens of London are tethered day in day out to the government’s dreamy technology. This story follows fight of the underground resistance group and the Londoners’ plight under the fever dream of the regime. Life House has a classic vintage sci-fi feel, quintessentially British characters and, of course, jam packed with Who Easter eggs. The art is wonderful and this would make a fantastical animation. There’s a lot of fascinating parallels to today’s world and I cannot wait to see what the vinyl sized printing of this comic looks like when it releases!