AUTOMATIC KAFKA IS BACK: IMAGE COMICS REVIVES JOE CASEY AND ASHLEY WOOD’S CULT SUPERHERO MIND TRIP THIS NOVEMBER

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The groundbreaking post-superhero series returns in its first complete trade paperback collection, bringing its twisted take on fame, power, and manufactured heroes to a new generation.

The world may finally be ready for Automatic Kafka.

The surreal, subversive superhero series from bestselling writer Joe Casey (Terminal, BEN 10) and critically acclaimed artist Ashley Wood (Popbot, Ghost Rider 2099, World War Robot) is returning to print this November through Image Comics. For the first time, the complete series will be collected in a single trade paperback edition.

Originally released in 2002, Automatic Kafka arrived years before deconstructed superheroes, celebrity obsession, and corporate-controlled nostalgia became standard comic book territory. The series pushed mature superhero storytelling into strange, uncomfortable, and wildly imaginative places, earning a reputation as one of the era’s most ambitious cult classics.

“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.”

The story follows Kafka, a washed-up android superhero who once fought alongside the now-defunct super-team known as The $tranger$. With the glory days behind him, Kafka spirals through a hyper-violent, media-saturated America where relevance is currency and nostalgia can be weaponized.

His search for meaning places him at the center of shadowy government operations, manufactured celebrity culture, public exploitation, and mankind’s ugliest appetites. What begins as one fallen hero’s desperate attempt to reclaim his humanity soon crashes into an existential revelation capable of rewriting everything he believes about himself.

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!”

Equal parts superhero nightmare, cultural satire, and philosophical fever dream, Automatic Kafka tears into the machinery that manufactures fame, power, heroes, and public obsession. Picture The Boys colliding with Doom Patrol and Mr. Robot, then getting tossed through a blender filled with celebrity excess, government paranoia, and pure comic book madness.

This ain’t your standard capes-and-punching joint, fam. Casey and Wood built something gloriously strange, brutally sharp, and way ahead of the curve. More than two decades later, the culture has finally caught up to the chaos.

Readers of unconventional, character-driven series such as Black Science, The Invisibles, and The Department of Truth should have Automatic Kafka locked firmly on their radar.

Automatic Kafka carries the ISBN 9781534332621 and will arrive at local comic book shops on Wednesday, November 25, 2026. The collection will reach independent bookstores, Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Books-A-Million, Indigo, and Waterstones on Tuesday, December 22, 2026.

The book will also be available digitally through Amazon Kindle, Google Play, Apple Books, Barnes & Noble Nook, Everand, Kobo, OverDrive, Hoopla, Sweet, Comics Plus, and additional platforms.

Automatic Kafka is back in print, back in the conversation, and ready to melt a whole new generation of minds.