Gerard Way

Long before he formed My Chemical Romance, Gerard Way seemed destined for a career in rock-or at least a uniquely creative life. A New Jersey native, he first hit the stage in fourth grade, playing the lead role in "Peter Pan." Yet Way's first love wasn't music or theater, but comic-book art, and his grandmother Elena Lee Rush encouraged his creative pursuits. He began drawing and painting seriously in his teens, and after high school attended the School of Visual Arts in New York, also interning at DC Comics. He worked in animation afterward and unsuccessfully pitched a cartoon pilot, "The Breakfast Monkey," to the Cartoon Network, where he also interned. Though he played guitar and grew up on Van Halen, Way gravitated away from music until he got shaken by the events of 9/11, putting his reactions into the song "Skylines and Turnstiles." A drummer friend, Matt Pelissier had also witnessed the attacks on the towers, and was equally in need of a catharsis. Pulling in Ray Toro on guitar and Way's brother Mikey on bass, they became My Chemical Romance's original lineup and started laying down demos. The sound reflected the tension of the time, with "Skylines" becoming an urgent cross of pop and punk (The group also got tagged emo, a term Way particularly hated). After a few personnel changes, the group's most-praised and best-selling album, 2006's The Black Parade, was a rock opera based on a dying cancer patient's transition to the afterlife. The album evinced Way's flair for vivid imagery, along with his acknowledged struggles with depression. The group next released a cover of one of Bob Dylan's most doom-saying songs, "Desolation Row" (which they sped up and cut down from eleven minutes to three). They released one more album, 2010's Danger Days: The True Lives of the Fabulous Killjoys, which like its predecessor hit the BillboardTop Ten, but they imploded during sessions for the follow-up. Way took the group's breakup as a cue to branch out creatively, continuing his longstanding love for animation: Twelve years after his first script got rejected, he made his writing/directing debut with "The Aquabats! Super Show!" (Hub 2012-14), which won a Daytime Emmy. He also continued work on his four-part comic series, The Umbrella Academy, launched in 2007. He made his Marvel Comics debut in 2017, creating an "alternate universe" episode in the series. His first solo album, 2014's Hesitant Alien was steeped in his love for Bowie's glitter period, and proved more emotionally upbeat than much of his former band's work.