The Many Deaths of Scott Koblish

By Scott Koblish

The comic artist who’s brought Deadpool and Spider-Manto life imagines his death over and over in morbidly funny, four-panel black-and-white comics.

Marvel Comics artist Scott Koblish has been illustrating his own demise for many years. He’s the one person struck by a comet, suddenly overrun by a pack of baboons, resting under the precarious rock tipped by a single bird, or the target of his daughter’s (of course homicidal) teddy bear come to life. Though it’s always Scott on the receiving end, the comics perfectly capture that irrational feeling we all have that everything can go very wrong in one irrevocable instant. Slapstick, surreal, and eerily plausible, with extended scenarios and pops of color throughout, this collection of cosmic reckonings shows that, if the end is nigh, at least you’ll die laughing.

Praise for The Many Deaths of Scott Koblish 

“Death by steamroller. Death by healthy cereal. Death by falling manatee. Cartoonist Scott Koblish has compiled the cheeriest memento morim you’re likely to come across—a series of wordless, mostly one-page comic strips in which Koblish’s bespectacled cartoon avatar dies. And dies. And dies and dies and dies. It should be depressing, this parade of merciless mortality, but Koblish’s style is so charming, his command of body language and facial expression so sure, and his imagination so twisted (watch out for that orange tabby, Scott!) that this funny, breezy collection ends up being one of the year’s most bizarrely life-affirming reads.” —Glen Weldon, NPR’s Book Concierge, Best Books of 2018 

“In this . . . charming humor collection, DC and Marvel artist Koblish (Deadpool) draws himself dying in ways imaginative, mundane, and frequently impossible. . . . His action-comics style is simplified but lifelike, and the unfortunate Cartoon Scott is cute as he naively wanders into one dangerous situation after another like a video game avatar. . . . Fans will pick up this slim collection of cheerfully grim gags as a diversion between Koblick’s bigger projects.” —Publishers Weekly

“This whimsical collection of 4-panel comics will sate everyone’s need for schadenfreude.” —Paul’s Picks

• Language: English
• Publisher: Open Road Integrated Media
• Release date: May 1, 2018
• ISBN: 9781452167183

Book preview

Reviews for The Many Deaths of Scott Koblish

[bigfootmurf · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

‘The Many Deaths Of Scott Koblish’ is a small hardback coffee table book by comic artist Scott Koblish (Spider-Man, Deadpool) in which he contemplates ways he might meet the Grim Reaper. There are fantasy and SF elements to several of these extinctions which, along with his status as a super-hero artist, qualify it for inclusion on this website.

Largely in black and white but with odd splashes of colour, these are mostly one page, four-panel cartoons in which Scott Koblish meets his doom. Some stretch to three pages so I assume he did them for his own amusement in idle moments and eventually had enough to make a book. These are all ‘silent’ strips with no dialogue or captions at all and the material is suitable for children. That’s gotta be a potentially big market and the lack of dialogue makes it good for international distribution.

So, what’s in it? The first page shows Scott leaning against a rock atop which a huge boulder is precariously balanced. A bird lands on one end of the boulder and it falls on our hero. No gore, he’s just obscured from view underneath it.

On page two, he falls off a mountain while skiing. On page three, he’s sat on the ledge of an open window when a cat jumps in his lap and he falls out. Then he’s killed by an earthquake, strangled by his own malevolent hair, wafted into space by helium balloons (a 2 pager) and so on and so on. These bare descriptions don’t convey the humour of the pictorial representation.

Many are far out with Scott being eaten by trees, kidnapped by aliens and starving to death at a comic convention waiting for someone to buy his sketches. Sea monsters also feature quite a lot. My favourite has Scott walking along looking at his phone, run over by a driver who’s looking at her phone and photographed by all the bystanders using their phones.

What else can I say? The hardcover version is a tidy little book printed on quality paper. It’s quite amusing and won’t take up much of your time. The kids will like it. It’s ideal for putting on the coffee table for guests to pick up and peruse while you’re making tea. It’s an odd thing to publish but certainly no worse than the celebrity joke books and memoirs that come out at Christmas time.

In fact, the Christmas season would have been the right time to release it as it makes a decent little stocking filler for almost anyone, even if they can’t read. It’s nice.

Eamonn Murphy

[norabelle414 · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

Veteran comic book artist Scott Koblish likes to doodle about all the ways he might die, so he compiled a few dozen of them into one wordless collection. They range from the realistic - texting while crossing the street and getting hit by a bus driven by another texter - to the bizarre - falling off a boat and getting grabbed by mermaids who stuff him in "Davy Jones' Locker" where he drowns.I really enjoyed the art style, which is very minimal greyscale except for a few pops of color. Many of the deaths are very imaginative and fantastical, but I also enjoyed the inclusion of the more mundane ones as a reminder that we could actually die in a million different ways every day. My favorite deaths were the ones involving a recurring orange cat, for obvious reasons.My only gripe is that this collection is very short. The art is minimalistic and there are no words of any kind (maybe a few labels), and the collection is fewer comics than a Sunday newspaper. Taking my time, I read the whole thing in less than 10 minutes. Unless you're a collector or really into Koblish, I'd recommend reading it from the library.

[jugglingpaynes · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

The Many Deaths of Scott Koblish by Scott Koblish is exactly what the title says--a collection of comics depicting the author's untimely death. As someone who tends to think of all the worst case scenarios in a given situation, I appreciated the dark humor of these comics and the panels are drawn well, so you can clearly understand what's happening. The last comic does a good job of tying everything together, which is a nice extra. Totally recommend for anyone who likes black comedy and/or grew up reading Mad magazine.

[bukwurm2 · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

I received "The Many Deaths of Scott Koblish" as an advance reader's copy, but even if I had paid full price for this fun hardcover book, it would have been well worth the price of admission. I was not familiar with Scott Koblish before reading "Many Deaths", in spite of the fact he is an illustrator for Marvel Comics, and has been for several years. Currently Koblish is working on the popular Deadpool comic book. In "The Many Deaths of Scott Koblish", Koblish presents a collection of four panel comic strips concerning his death in some of the most bizarre manners. Whether hit by a meteor, murdered by an adorable Teddy Bear, or electrocuted via a fork in a toaster (with the help of death himself), Koblish has managed to make the topic of his death, one of the funniest comic collections of the year. There's not much to say about this book. It's short, well illustrated and a lot of laughs to read. I recommend this to anyone who enjoys comics, reading, humor...pretty much anyone!!

[readaholic12_1 · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

The Many Deaths of Scott Koblish is entertaining, funny and twisted. I enjoyed his illustrations, running jokes and sick sense of humor throughout the entire book. I laughed out loud many times and have enjoyed sharing my favorites with friends.

[gothamajp · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

Cartoonist Scott Koblish presents an entertaining collection of four panel musings on his own mortality and the many implausible scenarios of his own passing. I don’t think I’ve ever smiled so much reading a book about death before.

[smcgurr · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

I dug this book of Scott Koblish illustrating his various fantastical deaths. The illustrations (generally four panels, but not always) are higher quality than you might expect from something like this. The stories have a feel of a Mad Magazine feature (Spy vs. Spy) or something like that.While some of the deaths were expected, some took weird twists and surreal turns. It also seems like Koblish has a fear of an orange cat pushing him out a window.A quick but fun read.

[victoriabrodersen · Rating: 2 out of 5 stars]

A delighltful look into the mind of a well-known comic artist with a clear distain for felines. Koblish pokes fun at many utterly nonsensicalevery day phrases many of us fail to stop and consider. While not appealing to a particularly cast audience, this collection is well suited to comic fans and those oddballs in your own life that have repeatedly told you exercise and/or vegetables will be the death of you. How delighted they will be to see their own beliefs echoed back to them in charmingly condesed and surprising little book.

[supermanboidy · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

Scott Koblish has clearly thought about his own death A LOT. In this compilation of those thoughts we see a number of pop culture nods, dark and twisted humor, and some small insights into Scott’s life. This could easily be a weekly comic strip somewhere, but it’s just as enjoyable all at once.