Reading the graphic novel Jimi Hendrix: Purple Haze (Titan), is like experiencing Jimi Hendrix's music in its original setting. The art evokes the psychedelic style of the 1960s—especially the posters, comics, and science fiction novels of the time—and the story carries through the themes of Hendrix's music, with a musician traveling through intergalactic space to secure the talisman that will free the music and bring it back to the people.

The book is a collaboration between American Gods screenwriters Mellow Brown and DJ Ben Ha Meen, Marvel artist Tom Mandrake, and Hendrix's stepsister, Janie Hendrix, who was six when her mother married Hendrix's father, and who now manages his estate. PW spoke to the creators at Comic-Con International in San Diego about the concept of the book and how it reflects the multifaceted musician, who died in 1970.

Why did you decide to tell this story as a graphic novel?

Janie Hendrix: Before Jimi decided to pick up the guitar, he wanted to be an artist, and he used to draw cartoons and fun little doodles. He would even draw things on my hand. My dad saved everything, and that's what Mellow and DJ Ben had a chance to look at, because we have it all archived—a lot of his drawings from childhood and adulthood and his handwritten lyrics. He was very much into art, and also sci-fi and comic books.

Why did you choose to set the story in this futuristic science fiction world?

JH: When Jimi was younger, he and my dad had this conversation: "What would you do if the spaceship came and landed right now?" Jimi said, "I'd get in because I want to see what's on the other side," and my dad said, "Well, I'd be right there with you." When I'm looking at the pages, it reminds me of that conversation, of getting in a spaceship and going to this other land.

Mellow Brown: Jimi was a bit of a nerd when it came to pulp science fiction. A lot of his art is actually within this book as well; Tom Mandrake has emulated it in different ways. So it's all based on what he may have been reading and what actually interested him within the science fiction space.

Janie, how close were you with Jimi?

JH: I was nine when he passed away, so I feel like I know what I know from a child's eyes, and also from working on documentaries and the posthumous releases, talking to people that hung out [with him] and listening to a lot of [outtakes], with Jimi talking and laughing and joking. I loved Batman growing up, and Jimi had this big cape, and he would chase me around singing the Batman theme song. We have tapes where he actually starts playing a little bit of the Batman theme song.

In the graphic novel, we see him struggling with the demands of the mass audience and his desire to go back to his musical roots. How close was that to the real Jimi?

JH: Jimi wasn't accepted in the Black community because he played rock and roll, and nobody then looked at that as an extension of blues and gospel. But he made a pathway for people like Lenny Kravitz and Prince and Gary Clark Jr. He wasn't able to play in places where a lot of black folks would come and watch—it was more like big stadiums—and he would say it made him sad. That's why he recorded the live album Band of Gypsys with Buddy Miles and Billy Cox—so our own people could understand and accept him. I feel like this novel, in a lot of different ways, touches on that—just trying to help people open their minds and hearts and see that there's a whole other world out there other than what we just see in front of us.

What do you hope this book will add to his legacy?

DJ Ben Ha Meen: We wanted to make sure that we represented Jimi as a Black man. We talk in this book about the river of black music and show that he is such an integral part of it. Rock is black music. We wanted to show how the river went from gospel to blues to jazz down the line to rock to R&B to funk to disco to hip hop to where it is now, and really make sure that he was part of that pantheon.

MB: Ben and I, being Black writers within a very corporate industry, understood a lot of where Jimi was coming from at that time. We often feel like the things that we want to say have been distorted, in a way, and publishers end up publishing our work in ways that don't necessarily reflect all the nuances in we were trying to say. Sometimes, that means taking that brave step of asking, "What if I did it in a way that was speaking specifically to the people that I want to reach?"

In this book, when we start going into parts where we see exactly who Jimi's performing for, it's no longer just the audience at the beginning yelling, "We want you to smash the guitar!" There are actually people who want to hear what he has to say with it. That was a very controversial thing at the time, but there are people like Questlove who are inspired today by what he did after the Jimi Hendrix Experience, because he was experimenting and changing. Having the ability to tell that story as something that's relatable to all artists, who want to independently explore themselves and release those explorations to the world, is an honor and a pleasure.

This interview has been lightly edited for clarity