My Chemical Romance's Gerard Way had superheroes on the brain at Warped. The singer took advantage of some downtime on the tour's recent Long Beach stop by working on his comic book, which he's dubbing The Umbrella Brigade. "I've been doing a lot of drawing," he said backstage. As for his favorite comic book scribe, Way naturally named a fellow goth master: "Grant Morrison [of X-Men fame], because he's so abstract" . . .
Way and Co. plan to hook up with Warped mates Thrice for a mean game of, well, Dungeons and Dragons. "It's about the nerdiest thing you can do," Thrice frontman Dustin Kensrue said. "So we're gonna dive in" . . .
Others prefer more mature entertainment: The Matches host wine-tasting parties on Thursdays. "We're really intent on being connoisseurs," said frontman Shawn Harris. "But we don't do the spit-it-out thing, and we make sure to get some four-dollar bottles to subsidize the party after the tasting is done" . . .
Fall Out Boy singer Patrick Stump is a Thursday regular. "Whatever Shawn puts me up to I will do," he says. He admits, however, that another band hosts his favorite shindig. "It's called Trailer Trash, and it's always behind Matchbook Romance's bus. You go as trashy as possible, and end up as trashed as possible" . . .
Spotted hanging out on the Transplants' bus was a famed Warped alumnus: Mark Hoppus popped by to see his former Blink-182 mate Travis Barker . . .
When Warped wraps, the All-American Rejects and Dropkick Murphys will head to England to play the Reading and Leeds festivals, and the band members have two words on their minds: Iron Maiden. "Maiden would be a dream," said Reject guitarist Nick Wheeler. Added Murphys frontman Al Barr, "Our drummer, Matt Kelly -- and I will stake my life on this -- is the biggest Iron Maiden fan out there. They're doing the first four records only. We can't wait" . . .
Elsewhere around L.A., ex-Destiny's Child member LeToya Luckett was feeling a little worse for the wear after reveling with a couple of high-profile friends after the BET Awards. "I partied with Jermaine Dupri and Nelly," she said. "Good Lord, they don't stop" . . .
At the Hullabaloo show in Silver Lake, former Afghan Whigs frontman Greg Dulli gave up the goods on his upcoming collaboration with former Screaming Trees singer Mark Lanegan. The Gutter Twins, as the Nineties rock stalwarts are calling themselves, have almost wrapped the tentatively titled Saturnalia. "My favorite track is 'All Misery,'" said Dulli. "I think it's some of the best vocals Mark's ever done. He's one of my favorite singers of all time, so that's going pretty deep." And the album as a whole? "It will challenge your emotions like few things have since Berlin. And I'm not talking about Terri Nunn's Berlin? . . .
One of Dulli's good friends, music supervisor Amanda Scheer-Demme, recently found out the pros and the cons of running L.A.'s hottest new spot, the Hollywood Roosevelt Hotel's Tropicana Bar, where Maroon 5's Adam Levine and Roc-a-Fella rocker Samantha Ronson serve as co-hosts on Tuesday nights. On the downside, Demme was arrested for noise violations this past week. On the upside though, she got to have lunch with Alfie combo Dave Stewart and Mick Jagger, who joined her poolside on a recent Sunday. Demme said that if Jagger would play the Tropicana, she'd risk it. "I'd probably spend a week in jail for the noise, but it'd be worth every hour" . . .