Steve Aoki has toured the world as one of the most in demand musicians for years. He's now merging his love for music and his love of storytelling into a graphic novel series and teaming up with a comic book legend to do it. Abc's Melissa Dunn has more on the creation of Hero Quest.

Okay, we got a book signing for Hero Quest.

Steve Aoki is on an adventure to save the world, a journey depicted in his new graphic novel, Hero Quest. It's the first part of this incredible story that's going to be ongoing. Aoki's passion for his new journey is painted all over him. When we met up with him, he was wearing his new characters on his sleeve, literally.

This is the new Collection Edition box.

How would you best describe Hero Quest?

The best way for me to describe Hero Quest is this incredible story of this young boy that eventually has a chance to save the world by obtaining these 10 rings. And then you see him going through and battling or working with these different worlds to get these rings to save the world. So that's the story. But it is the very first story that I am aware of that mixes in so much science fiction, fantasy, anime, comic book culture with music. It's a long undertaking. It's one of the biggest I've done in a while. It's different than writing an album because there's so much complexity and storytelling. And that's why working with Jim on this was imperative.

The two-time Grammy nominated music producer, artist, fashion designer, and entrepreneur, teamed up with Jim Kruger, a former creative director at Marvel comics and best-selling author. How would you best describe how things intertwine?

Well, Steve is an amazing world builder, and I'm a pretty good world destroyer. So it's been very yin and yang from the beginning.

Absolutely. Yeah, Yeah, because it's so important in fantasy and sci-fi and manga, anime, you need conflict. You need destruction. And this is what Jim's incredible at. So when we When we got together and I told them that I'm building this HeroQuest world, and it started with the album, and I was like, I have this vision of what I want to do with this book.

Aoki's jams, like Save Me, were crafted into the graphic novel, helping tell the tale of his main character's Rise and Falls. His latest album was created for this New World. Each chapter is titled after his singles which feature collaborations with artists of all kinds, like his single, Ultimate, featuring Santa Fe, Klan, and Snow the Product. That is really cool and It's fascinating to know that basically you built the story first of Hero Quest and then your music. Yeah. How important was that for you? Yeah.

So when I'm in the studio with these artists working on music, I'm not thinking so much as the Hero Quest themed story. I just want to make a great song. We came with a track, Ultimate, as a team, and then I brought that into the world. And then we took snippets of the lyrics, and then I bring it to Jim, and I'm like, Okay, we're We're going to use this in a way where it helps write the narrative, but we need the lyrics involved in the narrative progression. So it's like the music is integral as far as building the story.

Personally, though, I feel like you're reading it. I was so involved thinking about Hero's relationship with his parents. It got me thinking how much of an influence that is to you.

Yeah, I think with all books and when writers, they can't help but write a tidbit about their life. So it is very similar. Hero, as in Hero Quest, like H-I-R-O, is actually my middle name. So my name is Steve Hero Yuki Aoki. There is these small linkages is a real storytelling for my life. And Jim helped spell that out.

And I even remember conversations we had where you were like, oh, here's something that happened to me as a kid. I want this in here. Can you work it in?

Was your dad really a mechanic?

No, I know, but mine was.

We had to ask, would we be seeing any inspiration from his well-known concert tradition, cake throwing?

We're going to find a way to find a symbolism for the cakes. I knew it. It's got to happen. There's a lot of different parallels with my life, but we really focused on me as a child And that's where there's a lot of synergy that you can read. It's like a Japanese boy growing up in Florida. I was born in Florida. And dealing with that and finding a way out to become the superhero. And for me, it's like, I needed to be a superhero to even get to this position in my career. And that's something that you have to find within yourself.

So inspiring.

Are you inspired by him? So much so. But now I'm thinking about Cake World, and it's all turning into a game of Candyland to get the ring of Cake World. It's very like Mardi Gras with the plastic babies inside. It's on grand, for sure.

It's on grand. Brainstorm is happening as we speak while we're talking. Jim is going to definitely come and call me tomorrow and be like, Okay, I got the idea of how we can-Oh, no, I have the cake figured out.

Just now. Thank you. Thank you for asking that question. I figured it out. It'll be fun.

While they're still figuring out the cakes, what you can already find in Hero Quest is a lot of personal reflection.

I've had a very successful career, but along the way, I've had issues or hardships or anything that really challenged me. And it's like in those moments are where I have... We all have a superhero inside of us that are fighting in a way, and those are the moments that really matter.

We all have a superhero inside of us. Our thanks to Melissa Adan for that Hero Quest. Book 1 is available wherever books are sold.