Image Comics Reprinting Classic Superhero Comic by ‘Ben 10’ Co-Creator Joe Casey

Joe Casey and Ashley Wood’s subversive superhero comic Automatic Kafka is returning later this year for a new, all-encompassing edition at Image Comics. 

Publisher Image Comics has just announced that they’re re-printing some classic graphic novels. Firstly, amid a resurgence in extraterrestrial stories, they are bringing back fan-favorite series Ocean by Warren Ellis. Their latest significant pick up is a long-awaited, fully-collected trade paperback edition of the mind-bending, trailblazing comic run Automatic Kafka by Joe Casey (one of the co-creators of Ben 10) and Ashley Wood (Popbot, Ghost Rider 2099, World War Robot).

Joe Casey is on a winning streak right now with comics. Of course, he’s working on the Ben 10 comics at Dynamite Entertainment, which brings back the original story in comic form; the series is currently ongoing. Beyond that, he’s ushering in a new superhero comic book Terminal alongside Invincible and The Walking Dead creator Robert Kirkman. While new stories and comic book forays might be on the forefront of his mind, Image Comics is bringing back his classic run of Automatic Kafla, a comic he himself claims was his “biggest swing in comic books at that time.”

Automatic Kafka is subversive series; it was considered way ahead of its time when it was first released in 2002. The comic was one of the first superhero comics targeting a mature audience, still remembered as one of the most conceptually complex, boundary-pushing comics of the era.

What is Automatic Kafka about?

Automatic Kafka follows the titular washed-up android superhero: once a celebrated member of the now defunct super-team The $tranger$, now spiraling through a hyper-violent, media-soaked America. Seeking relevance, Kafka finds himself a pawn in shadowy government schemes, cult celebrity culture, and weaponized nostalgia. His desperate quest for humanity drags him straight into the wormhole of mankind’s darkest vices… and confronts him with a jaw-dropping existential truth.

“This is a series that meant a lot, both for my career and for me, personally,” said Casey. “It was my biggest swing in comic books at that time, and laid the foundation for a lot of my work that came after. I’m psyched that Image Comics has stepped up to the plate to remind everyone just how gloriously deranged my creative partnership with Ash [Wood] really was. After all these years, maybe the world has finally caught up with Automatic Kafka.”

“We set out match Claremont and Byrne’s awesome X-Men run for it’s superhero greatness, did we make it? who knows? But it was great fun to work with Joe, to discover colour and now we finally get the trade!” Wood added.

The upcoming trade paperback edition, with covers the comic’s run in its entirety, arrives in comic stores on December 22. Will you be picking it up? Tell us in the comments down below.