Humanity Is Gone, but Robot Abraham Lincoln Still Has Questions in If Destruction Be Our Lot, Vol. 1

The Murderbot Diaries meets Fallout in a sharp, hilarious and surprisingly human sci-fi adventure arriving in paperback this fall

Humanity is extinct. The robots inherited the Earth. Everything should be running smoothly now, right? Yeah, good luck with that.

Bestselling co-writers Mark Elijah Rosenberg (Approaching the Unknown, Year Million) and Matthew Rosenberg (We’re Taking Everyone Down With Us, 4 Kids Walk Into a Bank) join artist Andy MacDonald (Doctor Strange, Wonder Woman), colorist Francesco Segala and letterer Hassan Otsmane-Elhaou for If Destruction Be Our Lot, Vol. 1, an action-packed sci-fi graphic novel collecting the first four issues of the ongoing series.

The book mixes the razor-sharp personality of The Murderbot Diaries, the thoughtful soul of A Psalm for the Wild-Built and the massive post-apocalyptic playground of Fallout. Toss all of that into one rusty blender, add a robotic Abraham Lincoln having an existential crisis, and suddenly the end of humanity sounds like the beginning of one wild road trip.

Following our extinction, the robots once built to serve humanity are finally free to work without people constantly interfering. Most of them seem perfectly content with their routines. Abe is a different story.

A robotic replica of Abraham Lincoln, Abe cannot shake the feeling that something exists beyond the edge of the city and the repetitive grind of his assigned existence. He wants purpose. He wants answers. He wants to know whether life can mean more than following instructions until somebody decides to recycle you for parts.

After nearly getting himself destroyed, Abe makes a dangerous decision. He will leave the city, wander what remains of the Earth and keep searching until he discovers whatever is waiting beyond the horizon. Either he finds meaning, or he becomes tomorrow’s spare hardware. No pressure, Honest Abe.

The series uses its ruined world and mechanical cast to dig into some very human territory, including identity, labor, history, freedom and the uncomfortable gap between doing what you were built for and figuring out what you actually want. The apocalypse may have wiped humanity off the map, but apparently our baggage had excellent backup storage.

Comedian and actor Patton Oswalt praised the series as “a bleak, hilarious look at artificial intelligence, real history, and the messed up borderland in between.”

James Tynion IV, acclaimed writer of The Department of Truth and Something Is Killing the Children, added, “Sometimes you need a few robots to tell a great story about being human. This is the can’t miss sci-fi comic of the year.”

Readers who want to hear more about the creation of this strange new world can catch Matthew Rosenberg discussing the series on the Let’s Talk Comics podcast and in an interview with ComicBook.

If Destruction Be Our Lot, Vol. 1 carries ISBN 978-1-5343-3551-6 and arrives at participating comic book shops on Wednesday, October 7, 2026.

The paperback reaches independent bookstores, Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Books-A-Million, Indigo and Waterstones on Tuesday, November 3, 2026.

Digital editions will also be available through Amazon Kindle, Google Play, Apple Books, Barnes & Noble Nook, Everand, Kobo, OverDrive, Hoopla, SWEET, Comics Plus and additional digital platforms.

Humanity had its shot and fumbled the whole planet. Now it is Abe’s turn to walk the wasteland, question the system and prove that sometimes the most human cat left on Earth is made entirely of metal. WEPA!