Melissa Auf Der Mauer's Got the Whole Package - New Album, Comic and Short Film in the Works!

Being the sci-fi dork that I am, the fact that former Hole and Smashing Pumpkins bassist Melissa Auf Der Maur networked at Comic Con to get her new musical project going makes me automatically like her.

But the project the Canadian musician was pitching sounds so cool, I can’t imagine those nerds not wanting in. Well, I should so it sounds cool if you’re into Vikings and time-travel. But who isn’t?

Melissa has recorded her sophomore solo album, called Out of Our Minds, but wants to present it as part of a multi-disciplinary project which includes a short film and a comic book. Today’s marketing is all about multiple platforms, after all.

More on MADM's new too-artsy-for-you package...after the jump!

I don't know either.

After parting with Hole and the SPs, Melissa formed her band (naming it after her super-cool last name), and they released their self-titled LP in 2004. Singles "Followed the Waves," "Real A Lie" and "Taste You" did well in the rock crowd.

But now Melissa has left Capitol Records and needs a partner to handle the business end of her new project - hence Comic Con.

Among her fellow sci-fi fans, Melissa pitched her concept album, along with the project as a whole, which she, a tad obnoxiously, says will probably be over people’s heads. But I guess she’s right; I have no idea what “a place where reverse ecowarriors of the 19th century shed their valley of ancient trees” is.

On the music end, Melissa’s new, self-produced record has less of a rock and more of an atmospheric sound. Guests on the CD include Ryan Adams, Vince Nudo from Priestess and former-Tinker member Steve Durand.

The short, dialog-less film, a "time-travel fantasy" which Melissa stars in, has a separate, trance-y soundtrack. You can watch the trailer here, which involves trees bleeding as they’re cut down and a wandering Viking.

And finally, as far as the comic, it's a collaboration with Kevin McCleod, who, as Melissa says, is a “wild forward thinker gamer and Web maniac.” Melissa’s Web site has only revealed a few pictures, but you can check them out here...the atmospheric music is cool, but get ready to be a little weirded out.