PORTLAND, Ore. 08/05/2026 — The beloved, surrealist, post-superhero story—Automatic Kafka—by bestselling writer Joe Casey (Terminal, BEN 10) and critically-acclaimed artist Ashley Wood (Popbot, Ghost Rider 2099, World War Robot) will be collected in its entirety into trade paperback for the first time ever and brought to shelves this November from Image Comics.
This subversive series was ahead of its time when it was first released in 2002 and 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.
“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.”
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.
Wood added: “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!”
Automatic Kafka is a gritty, post-modern take on superheroes, but presented as a surreal, razor-sharp takedown of fame, power, and the machinery that manufactures both. The Boys and Doom Patrol meets Mr. Robot in this must-read cult-classic.
More than that, Automatic Kafka is primed for rediscovery by a new generation of comics readers. Fans of unconventional, character-driven works such as Black Science, The Invisibles, and The Department of Truth will enjoy digging into this backlist gem.
Automatic Kafka (ISBN: 9781534332621) will be available at local comic book shops on Wednesday, November 25 and independent bookstores, Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Books-a-Million, Indigo, and Waterstones on Tuesday, December 22.
Automatic Kafka will also be available across many digital platforms, including Amazon Kindle, Google Play, Apple’s iBooks, Barnes & Noble’s Nook, Scribd’s Everand, Kobo, Overdrive, Hoopla, Sweet app, Comic Plus, and more.