‘Black Heart Billy’ Returns With A 25th Anniversary Collection From Image Comics

Created by writer Rick Remender (Grommets, The Scumbag) and artist Kieron Dwyer (Sea of Red, Captain America), 25 years ago this year, Black Heart Billy returns with a 25th anniversary black and white hardcover edition this December from Image Comics. As well as the original series, this new collection will include never-before-seen bonus content and a new afterword written by Remender.

As a reminder of the original skater-punk series, here’s the synopsis:

 “In Black Heart Billy, readers meet the titular Billy Black — a skate-punk misfit with a robotic head, a bottomless supply of sarcastic societal contempt, and terrible impulse control. His life is a never-ending quest for fun, punk rock debauchery, and skating abandoned pools — up until a deranged Nazi scientist decides to bring Adolf Hitler back to life through the reanimated corpse of Jerry Garcia. Now, San Francisco is rapidly descending into a fascist hippie nightmare and only Billy—armed with snide disdain, a baseball bat, and reckless disregard for personal safety — can defeat this self-righteous, patchouli reeking, moral authority.”

“Rick was an integral part of my raunchy adult humor comic LCD: Lowest Comic Denominator, so when he showed me his drawing of Black Heart Billy and asked me to work with him on developing the character into a full blown comic series, it seemed like the natural (d)evolution of my comics career, and a perfect vehicle for our mutual love of absurd, balls-to-the-wall, black humor,” said Dwyer. “Like the strips we both did in LCD, there were no sacred cows and no red lines not to be crossed in BHB. We never really knew how anyone else would receive what we did, but we made each other laugh out loud any time we concocted new (mis)adventures for young Billy Black. Those were the golden days. Enjoy!”

Remender added:

“No character holds as much personal weight for me as Black Heart Billy. In 1999, I was a broke kid who’d just moved to San Francisco chasing a stupid dream to make independent comics. Skateboarding and punk rock had shaped my life and I wanted to create a book that lived in that world. Something absurd and unhinged and true to the scene that gave me a home. While sharing an office with Kieron Dwyer, I showed him a sketch I did of BHB. We immediately started riffing and cooking up a story that made us laugh so hard we couldn’t not make it. My longtime collaborator Harper Jaten jumped in, and we were set for a ton of free work! We never made a single dime off it, but that didn’t matter. What we got was unfiltered, ridiculous, joy. The kind you only get when you’re going nuts trying to make your friends laugh. Even 25 years later, Black Heart Billy lives close to my heart. Bringing him to life remains one of the purest, best times of my life.”

Black Heart Billy 25th Anniversary deluxe hardcover is out in comic book stores on Wednesday, December 17th and in bookstores on Tuesday, December 30th from Imag Comics.