Jonathan Coulton‘s work has defined a generation of geek music and tormented a generation of Portal players. If we were him we really would be making a note here, huge success.

Now, Coulton is back with a new album and graphic novel both called Solid State. BoingBoing have pages from the graphic novel, written by Matt Fraction and drawn by Albert Monteys. They describe it as:

“… a trippy epic, a psychedelic, futuristic narrative about two men whose fates are linked over time (and who are both, as it happens, named Bob) and the God-like artificial intelligence that both protects and abandons them. It’s a Neal Stephenson/Ray Kurzweil/Kevin Kelly-inflected fable that is located at the end of the world, much of it deep inside a city that has been sedated by what Coulton calls “nicey-nice fascism” — locked-in, medicated, machine-run-and which is ringed by a raw, ruined apocalyptic landscape.”

That sounds like the exact funny/arch/tragic/hopeful ground that Coulton does his very best work in. The first single from the album is out too and io9 have both that and the very cool details of how the video was made. The video will make ’80s text adventure fans weep tears of recognition and joyous frustration while everyone else just weeps. Robots, folks. Programmed to head directly for your feels.

Solid State, both the album and graphic novel, are released 28 April