It all begins with a generation of artists who view their life’s work as dismal failures and a waste of that life…in service to a medium that refuses to die, grinding its way through generation after generation…until it collides with creatives who can’t even begin to imagine why anyone would ever want to do anything else. This is the history of comic books, alongside the misbegotten midwife whose growth, whose refusal to truly grow, serves as its decades-long and distorted mirror… Fandom. Collects HEY KIDS! COMICS!, VOL. 3: THE SCHLOCK OF THE NEW #1-6

Comics is long overdue for a revolution, and it gets one—new stars, new talent, and new fans who can’t get enough of both. And every new success story starts the same way: by killing someone else’s.

MINISERIES PREMIERE A generation of artists ashamed of their careers has come to this, scratching out a living entertaining children who wonder why anyone would want to do anything else. With the birth of the comics industry comes the afterbirth, a shadow twin that will sustain and occasionally sabotage it for generations to come… Fandom.

With the soon-to-be self-styled greatest generation grudgingly called to war, it’s high time for those back on the home front to step up and fill in for the fighting men overseas. But when the work needs writers and artists, and the only bodies available are unambitious halfwit hacks and talentless, overeager fans…will this be what kills the comic book cash cow?

The 1980s births a completely unanticipated commercial and artistic renaissance… …but Editorial has notes. And fans who only yesterday were sneaking time on the school office mimeograph become today’s commercial comic book darlings. WTF?

Digging deeper into the sordid, seedy, and always-entertaining lives of the men and women who built the comic book business, volume two of HOWARD CHAYKIN’s acclaimed comic à clef tells the story of those who pushed the boundaries of the lowest common denominator—at their own peril—and those happy enough to ride the waves others created. Along the way there’s exploitation, Blaxploitation, custom toilet paper, death at the dinner table, and plenty more, as fans turn pro and pros turn bitter. Collects HEY KIDS! COMICS!, VOL. II: PROPHETS & LOSS #1-6

The Chinatown noir keeps flipping the genre on its head, as Edison Hark comes face to face with a killer—and more suffering, lust, and soul than he’d ever imagine in Chinatown. “A smart, classic noir drenched in style and history." – JAMES TYNION IV (Batman)

They’ve known for years it’s the beginning of the end...so why won’t the damn business just die already? Hopes and dreams are floated and crushed, and crushed again…but new blood, with new eyes, can see a new path emerging from the mist, a fog that veterans thought just hid one more cliff.

New blood makes waves on and off the page, as acknowledged giants learn just how worthless that acknowledgment is. And don't worry about management. They've still got plenty of screwing over talent to keep them busy.

For decades, every new generation has just been younger players taking over dead men's jobs. But now, a new breed genuinely innovates and renders the old guys useless while they're still walking.