45 years after The Blues Brothers debuted in theaters, Jake and Elwood are back with their first sequel in decades.
This one isn’t a movie; it’s a new graphic novel titled The Blues Brothers: The Escape of Joliet Jake. Set 10 years after the events of the Blues Brothers movie, it follows a search for the band’s lead singer Jake, the character played in the film by the late John Belushi.
According to the press release about the comic, in the new book, “Joliet Jake has disappeared from prison … but has he committed the unthinkable jailbreak, or was he kidnapped? A new cast of characters are now on their own mission to find Jake and the mythical Briefcase Full of Blues. Along the way, they’ll be helped by familiar faces, as well as thwarted by enemies (Illinois Nazis will forever be a struggle it seems), as they careen through Chicago leaving chaos and laughter in their wake.”
The other central member of the Blues Brothers, Dan Aykroyd (AKA Elwood Blues), provided “editorial oversight” and a new foreword for the book, which was written by Stella Aykroyd, Luke Pisano, and James Werner, with art by Felipe Sobriero.
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Belushi and Aykroyd first conceived the Blues Brothers characters when both were cast members in the early years of Saturday Night Live. The two bonded over their mutual love of music, and after singing with blues bands off the show, they eventually formed their own blues band filled with great musicians like Donald “Duck” Dunn and Matt “Guitar” Murphy to back them on SNL.
The Blues Brothers performed on Saturday Night Live for the first time in 1978, and then opened for comedian Steve Martin. They recorded their performances and turned them into the live album Briefcase Full of Blues, which become a platinum best-seller. The Blues Brothers film, directed by John Landis, and written by Landis and Aykroyd, followed in 1980. In it, Belushi’s Jake Blues is released from prison and reunites with his brother Elwood, and then the duo undertake a “mission from God” to save the orphanage that raised them as children by reuniting their old band and performing a charity gig to pay off the home’s back taxes.
Here was Dan Aykroyd’s statement on the new book:
In this wonderful form of printed artistic expression we get to continue the legend of Jake and Elwood and pass it forward in ways that film can’t. This graphic novel keeps the spirit of The Blues Brothers alive; mischievous recidivists, musical outlaws who above everything, care about the Blues. The quest for the Briefcase, full of unearthed lyrics and music from the greats, is an honorable Grail. The Blues Brothers: The Escape of Joliet Jake is a passing of the legacy to the next generation, echoing the true heart of our original story – keeping alive what should not be forgotten.
The Blues Brothers: The Escape of Joliet Jake is available below.
