COMIC BOOK IMPLOSION is the book that earned me and John Wells an Eisner Award nomination. (For those who don't know, the Eisner Awards are essentially the "Oscars" for the comic book industry.)  The book focuses on one of the most infamous events in comic book history: the 1978 "DC Implosion" during which DC Comics cancelled nearly half its line of comic book titles.

COMIC BOOK IMPLOSION emerged from my work on the 1970s volume of AMERICAN COMIC BOOK CHRONICLES. In 2013, as I was writing the "DC Implosion" section for the 1978 chapter, I realized that this topic could be expanded into its own book. I knew my buddy John Wells had already performed A LOT of research into the DC Implosion, so I approached him about pitching a book to TwoMorrows Publishing.  It took some arm-twisting on my part, but John finally acquiesced, and we decided on an "oral history" format so readers could see for themselves what comic book creators, executives, and even fans said about the topic.  (Truth be told, John and I were "burned out" on the full-length prose format, given our work on AMERICAN COMIC BOOK CHRONICLES.)

Compared to AMERICAN COMIC BOOK CHRONICLES (which takes YEARS to complete each volume), COMIC BOOK IMPLOSION was put together over the course of several months and published in 2018, just in time for the 30th anniversary of the DC Implosion.  John and I mainly took the approach of composing a book that HE AND I would enjoy reading. We were half convinced that no one else would be interested.  Imagine our surprise, then, when John Morrow informed us that the book was nominated for an Eisner!