'Public Enemy'.
Adam Wallenta is an American illustrator and comic book artist, who is also active as a rap artist under the name ILLUS. He has been active in independent publishing since the 1990s and is head of American Mule Entertainment. As a comic artist, he has created a five-issue comic book series about rap group Public Enemy (2006-2007) and the educational comic book 'The Incredible Plate Tectonics Comic' (2014).
Early life and career
Adam Wallenta hails from New Have, Connecticut. He has been recording music and illustrating comics professionally since 1991. Wallenta works as a colorist for Marvel Comics and DC Comics, and as an illustrator for clients like Princeton Review, Scholastic, Last Unicorn Games, Barbour Publishing, America Magazine, SlamJamz Records, 5G Productions and Skyhorse Publishing. He most notably illustrated several satirical self-help and documentary books for Skyhorse Publishing, such as 'The Art of Zombie Warfare: How to Kick Ass Like the Walking Dead' (2010) and 'Zombies vs. Nazis: A Lost History of the Walking Dead' (2011) by Scott Kenemore, 'The Supervillain Handbook: The Ultimate How-to Guide to Destruction and Mayhem' (2012) and 'The Supervillain Field Manual: How to Conquer (Super) Friends and Incinerate People' (2013) by Matt D. Wilson, 'Grandma Rules: Notes on Grandmotherhood, the World's Best Job' (2014) by Jill Milligan, and 'The I in Evil: Accepting and Embracing the Monster You Are' (2015) by Ken W. Hanley. In the late 1990s he illustrated several installments in the 'The American Adventure' series of Barbour Publishing, in which several generations of a fictional family are portrayed against actual historical events.
Through American Mule he has released books like the semi-autobiographical 'The True Adventures of Adam and Bryon' (in cooperation with Bryon Turner, 1998), 'Retributors: Blood and Guts' (2002), as well as the collective book 'Imagine: The Comic of Adventure, Fantasy & Fun' (1999) which had contributions by Wallenta, Rich Koslowski, Art Baltazar, Patrick Baltazar, Derek Rook, and Mike Bianco.
'Zombies vs. Nazis'.
Public Enemy
In 2006 and 2007 American Mule released five issues of the official celebrity comic book series 'Public Enemy', based on the popular and often controversial rap group Public Enemy. The script was co-written by their frontman Chuck D., band member Professor Griff and I. James Bomb, from the S1W's. The comic book centers around the group, but adds a little fantasy by making them secret members of the Underground Railroad, a worldwide organization which helps oppressed people and those in need. The idea to make a comic book about Public Enemy had been around for a while, but only saw fruition in 2006. Apart from the comic book itself Public Enemy also recorded an accompanying CD which suits as a soundtrack companion to the story: 'Public Enemy Comic Book Soundtrack'. Public Enemy had a long association with comics. Chuck D. was once a graphic design student and is a fan of Marvel Comics. In 1994 the band hired comic artist Mark Texeira to illustrate the cover of their album 'Muse Sick-N-Hour Mess Age' (1994).
Comic art by Adam Wallenta.
In 2014 Wallenta illustrated 'The Incredible Plate Tectonics Comic', an educational comics adventure about earth science, starring the characters Geo and his robot dog Rocky. It was written by Dr. Kanani K.M. of the Department of Geology & Geophysics at Yale University, and published by No Starch Press.
Musical career
As ILLUS, Wallenta has sold over 250,000 records (with no airplay or major label deal), and recorded and toured with such legends as Chuck D and Public Enemy, DJ Johnny Juice, R.A. the Rugged Man, Dilated Peoples and Blackalicious. He has released several records through his own label ILLUS Media since 2011, such as 'For Adam' (2011), 'Family First' (2012), 'Behind the Mask' (with ICBM, 2014), 'KaBOOM' (with DJ Johnny Juice, 2015) and 'Perfectly Imperfect Beautiful Naked Creation' (2016).
Album cover art
Wallenta provided illustrations and designs for hip hop records by Craig G ('Ramblings of an Angry Old Man', 2012, 'I Rap and Go Home', 2016), Bumpy Knuckles and DJ Premier ('EmOsHuNaL GrEeD', 'KileXXXion'), KRS-One ('The BDP Album', 2012), Public Enemy ('The Evil Empire of Everything', 2012) and of course his own releases. Together with Lucia Pamela, Urbanus, Schoolly D., Kurt Cobain, Def P, Serge Buyse, Daniel Johnston, Charlie Watts and Dallas Tamaira he is one of the few musicians to have designed his own album covers and make comics-related artwork. Along with Serge Buyse, Def P and Schoolly D he is also one of the few hiphop artists to have done this.
'The Adventures of Geo - Plate Tectonics'.