Faith Erin Hicks Announces New (Non-Graphic) Novel, ‘Comics Will Break Your Heart’ [Exclusive]

Ever since she burst onto the comics scene in 2007 with the debut of her first original graphic novel, Zombies Calling --- and heck, even before that with her webcomic, Demonology 101 --- Faith Erin Hicks has been one of the most exciting and entertaining creators in comics. There's a personality to her work, a depth of character that comes through in spite of, and often because of, the strange situations in which her characters find themselves. As a result, any new project of hers is worth talking about, but her latest is even more interesting than usual.

In Comics Will Break Your Heart, HIcks is branching out from the comic book format with an original prose novel from Roaring Books, focused on two teenagers who find themselves on the opposite sides of a legal battle over the creation of a superhero team that's about to be turned into a big-budget Hollywood movie.

Here's what Hicks has to say about Comics Will Break Your Heart:

Comics Will Break Your Heart was written mostly on airplanes, as I traveled to and from various comic conventions. I write and draw comic books for a living, and a story about two teenagers caught up in the weird pulp history of comics got stuck in my brain, and the only way I could get rid of it was to write it all down. And now this story that I wrote as a love letter to small Canadian towns and the comic book industry will actually be published! I'm ridiculously excited to put my very first novel on a shelf beside all the comics I've made. I hope they'll be friends.

It’s a book about comics (of course), and two teenagers with a really complicated family history. And about growing up in a small town and trying to leave that small town, and falling in love, and growing out of your friends and screwing up and working crappy summer jobs and San Diego Comic-con and creator rights and comics comics comics comics because OF COURSE I wrote a 200 page novel and it’s all about comics.

As of this announcement, no release date has been set for the YA novel, beyond 2018, after the completion of Hicks' Nameless City trilogy. We'll certainly provide more information as it becomes available.