Credit: Chrissy NixFollowing Skillet‘s 2019 graphic novel debut Eden, the band has now released its sequel, Eden II: Aftermath.
Speaking to ABC Audio, frontman John Cooper, who co-authored Eden and Eden II, explains that he ended up “having a little more fun” with the second book than he did the first.
“I don’t necessarily mean that therefore it’s a better book or a better project or that I disliked the first one,” Cooper says. “I loved the first one and I loved the process, but there was a certain amount of [feeling] ‘I don’t know how it works.'”
For Cooper, writing the first Eden was as much a learning experience as it was a dream come true. With that knowledge under his belt, Cooper felt he could “enjoy” himself more with Eden II, resulting in a story with “more action,” “more excitement” and “darker characters.”
“We have some big surprises in the book that I think are really cool, great action sequences,” Cooper says.
You can read Eden II while you wait for Skillet’s upcoming drive-in concerts, which begin Friday in Scranton, Pennsylvania. Cooper says he and his band mates expect to be playing essentially the same show they would under normal circumstances, but obviously the set-up will be different.
“You’re in your car, you’re safe, you’re not mixing with other people,” Cooper says.
Cooper also feels the audience will get the full Skillet experience at the concerts.
“You’re just not maybe as close to sing in the microphone,” Cooper says. “I always loved that, you go down front, and you let people sing in your microphone.”
“Nobody will be singing in my microphone…so that’s kind of a weird thing,” he adds. “But I think from an audience perspective, it should be the same concert.”
By Josh Johnson
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