A funny, subversive look at the television comedy business and a bittersweet portrayal of a Golden Boy on the skids. Warren Brace, an increasingly desperate TV writer/producer, grapples with a crazy partner, a fraying marriage, teenage kids, erotic temptation, a dinosaur, back-breaking debt, his conscience, a terrifying pressure to be funny, and a stubborn desire to accomplish something enduring.

To create a cover design that overflowed with a mixture of comedy and tragedy, our cover cooks blended a 3D model of a collapsed man with a photograph of a retro TV. This technique allowed our cover cooks to perfectly adjust the character’s pose and provide the illustration with a realistic look. While the man in his underwear crushed by the TV appears amusing, the test pattern on the screen reveals the seriousness of the situation. The offbeat font and CMYK color palette desperately seek a revival of 1980s Hollywood sitcom graphics.