Death of Comics Bookcase started with a pretty simple question: What if a comics bookcase could tell stories?
Two years after the first volume, Zack Quaintance is back with Death of Comics Bookcase, Vol. 2: Reign of the Comics Bookcases, a 48-page anthology that uses its titular piece of furniture as a framing device for stories that range from superheroics and science fiction to fantasy and comics-industry satire.
Quaintance, a writer and editor at The Beat, brings his own experience as a comics journalist to the project, recruiting artists whose work he’s encountered through his reviewing and reporting. Reign of the Comics Bookcases features stories illustrated by Nick Cagnetti, John P. Golden, Luke Horsman, Ryan Lee, Jeremy Hyler and Jim Lavery.
The second volume is currently up on Kickstarter, following the first book’s successful 2024 campaign. I talked with Quaintance about the secret origin of the Comics Bookcase, finding the right artists for each story and what comes next for the Bookcase.
For people who didn’t read the first Death of Comics Bookcase, what exactly is the secret origin of the Comics Bookcase?
I’ve never revealed this, but in the ’80s The Bookcase was actually an aspiring actor. He did some Off Broadway one-Bookcase shows, before getting his big break as furniture in Pee Wee’s Playhouse. Sadly, his alarm malfunctioned the day of the pilot, and they fired him. So he ended up doing comics, and now he’s my Cryptkeeper, popping up in each volume of this series to share comics with a group of disinterested teens who would rather be doing anything else.
With this volume, Reign of Comics Bookcase, you’ve got fantasy, science fiction, superhero stories and comics-industry satire, although they are all connected by the framing sequence. What makes the Bookcase such a useful vehicle for telling completely different kinds of stories?
Jokey origin aside, The Bookcase is a useful vehicle because he represents the mix of hubris, enthusiasm, and masochism that I think one needs to go into writing comics. He absolutely loves comics — even homaging Reign of the Supermen specifically in this volume — but he also suffers a string of indignities to be in comics, as I think most of us do. He’s a ton of fun to write, and it’s more than a little cathartic for me as I fend off the indignities myself.
You’re working with several different artists on the book, including Nick Cagnetti, John P. Golden, Luke Horsman, Ryan Lee, Jim Lavery and Jeremy Hyler. How did you approach recruiting the artists — did you write stories specifically with them in mind, or did you recruit artists once you knew what the story was about?
As reviews editor at The Beat, I read more than 20 comics every week. So, I knew Nick from his early work on Pink Lemonade, Ryan from his incredible horror comic Mountainhead, Luke from his stories in 2000AD, etc. I also frequently attend the comics-centric convention, Heroes Con in Charlotte, N.C., where I met both John Golden and Jeremy Hyler. And Jim Lavery came to the project by recommendation of PJ Holden, who worked on the first book but was too busy this year to return.
With the exception of Jim, I did write all the stories with the artists in mind. I like to have a vision to share with artists that is (hopefully) full of things they like to draw, and then we can go from there if they like it, with them adding to it or changing it as they see fit.
You’ve spent a lot of time writing about comics as a journalist, and now you’ve got this very deliberately comic-book-about-comic-books kind of project. How did being a comics critic and journalist influence the way you write these stories?
It’s pushed me to articulate why I like the comics I do over and over again. So I have a keen awareness of my comics tastes, and I love comics that start with blatantly silly ideas and turn deeply substantive on a dime. I try to do that in my work, too. I think you see it the most here in the superhero story, Responsibili-Teen, as well as in the second chapter of my ongoing Apes V. Sharks story. I love apes and sharks in comics, and so I wanted them in there … and they ended up central to a story about grief and regret. It’s a deep meditation on the loss of loved ones who you have complicated relationships with, but it also has a character named Shark Twain, who looks exactly as you’d expect.
Also, the wrestling comic in this book, Randy Ryder: Buff Guy Comics Pro, is a super insider-y story that grew directly out of my attending so many comics panels at big cons as a reporter. But I think it’s still accessible to people who aren’t weekly comics sickos, too, with how mainstream things like San Diego Comic-Con have become. That’s the hope, anyway.
You’ve now had two rounds of making this book. What has the Comics Bookcase taught you about making comics that you didn’t know when you started the first volume?
It’s taught me the importance of planning well in advance … but also staying flexible. When I published Death of Comics Bookcase, Vol. 1 in 2024, I had a specific plan and timeline for the sequel. And a lot of thought went into it. Then when it came time to start, I completely zagged and spun off a horror comic last year (Macabre Valley #1). While I couldn’t have anticipated this at the start, I think a willingness to follow your bliss, as they say, is key to making comics. Otherwise you’ll bog down and the fun will go out of it.
At the end of the book, you tease another volume with a name that sounds like it’ll complete the trilogy, Return of Comics Bookcase, which also completes the joke for 1990s comic fans. Will that actually be the end, or is this something you could see going beyond that?
The third volume will for sure conclude the story of the Comics Bookcase himself with — as you point out — another parody for ’90s comics fans. A lot of the stories in the book, however, will continue. One of the shorts in this volume is actually heading to Kickstarter next year as a one-shot (stay tuned for news on that next summer…), and there’s momentum for another character to get a miniseries with a publisher, fingers crossed. So yeah, I won’t say never, but this will likely be the last we see of The Bookcase. The stories he started though? Well, those will continue.
For more information, check out the project’s Kickstarter page.