The Weeknd has announced STARBOY, a new comic book collaboration with Marvel. The singer, real name Abel Tesfaye shared the cover of the first issue on Twitter today.
As teased last week, Tesfaye will be participating in a Marvel event today celebrating the announcement. The singer will be signing autographs at New York Comic Con starting at 2:30.
STARBOY is also the title of The Weeknd's 2016 album. It is unclear when the first issue of the comic will arrive, but judging by the year printed on the cover of the first issue, which features an illustration of Abel, it will not be until 2018. In March, he was one of a few R&B and hip-hop artists featured in a series of Marvel variant covers.
The Weeknd has participated in a number of collaborations this year, including tracks with Lana Del Rey, NAV, Lil Uzi Vert, Future, and most recently, Gucci Mane on his new single "Curve." The singer also released a new version of "Reminder" with Young Thug and ASAP Rocky, as well as a cover of R. Kelly's "Down Low (Nobody Has To Know).
In advance of the STARBOY album's release, Abel shared the short film M A N I A.
The Weeknd and Drake recently sparked rumors of a collaboration through an interaction on Instagram. Last year, Abel spoke of his relationship with Drake. "He came in as my big bro and showed the world what I could do," he said. "From then on, he’s always been supporting me and I’ve always been supporting him. Behind the scenes, we’re still very close but it’s cool that the world can see us doing our own thing. OVOXO will always be there. It’s cool to have both monsters work together as opposed to one monster and one little guy coming in. It’s dope, like Kanye and Jay Z, when [Watch the Throne] happened."
