IDW Publishing announced plans to release a retrospective art book commemorating the animated music video for Pearl Jam’s "Do the Evolution." Directed by Spawn creator Todd McFarlane and animator Kevin Altieri in McFarlane’s signature style, "Do the Evolution" was one of the late 90s’ most iconic videos, bringing together MTV watchers, Pearl Jam fans, and comic book readers alike.
The book, titled Pearl Jam: The Art of Do the Evolution, features 200 pages of art and information about the production of the video in a hardcover format. It also includes an introduction by McFarlane himself.
In the introduction, McFarlane describes the events depicted in the video as "the history of mankind in as condensed a version as you will ever see. In this book, you’ll see and read about some of the process of how we pulled off such a Herculean task... It’s filled with so many wonderful examples of how dozens of creative people come together to put together what would soon become a Grammy-nominated video."
"Being able to produce this seminal animated video at my studio for Pearl Jam and to work with super talents like Eddie Vedder, Todd McFarlane, and Kevin Altieri was a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity,” said the video’s storyboard artist Joe Pearson, who helped compile the book, in the announcement. “And then to see the positive and continuing worldwide reaction of millions of fans to our group effort was the icing on this dense cake of edgy music and animation."
"Pearl Jam’s Do The Evolution brings the threat of man’s quest for domination into stark, relatable terms, a theme that remains at the forefront of current conversation," added Justin Eisinger, IDW’s editorial director of graphic novels and collections. "Filled with bold imagery and layered visual storytelling that accentuates the already searing lyrics, McFarlane and Altieri created a video that spans the history of mankind. And now their groundbreaking work can be fully appreciated in this in-depth, behind-the-scenes book that explores how it all came together."
Pearl Jam: The Art of Do the Evolution is due out on October 6.
Pearl Jam: Art of Do The Evolution
by Joe Pearson, Terry Fitzgerald, Brad Coombs, Jim Mitchell, and Lisa Pearson
ISBN 978-1-63140-741-3
$39.99 US / $53.99 CAN
200-page, full-color hardcover, 12” x 9″
October 6, 2020
