The woman who defined the Golden Age of comics. Ruth Roche: The Phantom Hand of Comics
This fall, Mad Cave Studios brings long-overdue focus to Ruth Roche, a defining voice of the Golden Age who helped shape comics from behind the scenes. Ruth Roche: The Phantom Hand of Comics, a graphic biography written by Eisner-nominated editor Joe Corallo and artist Meghan Hetrick, with colors by Dee Cunniffe, and letters by Morgan Martinez, brings a long-overlooked figure in comics history into view, told in the medium she helped shape.
Finally, a book that highlights the pioneering, yet too often overlooked, comics career of Ruth Roche using the medium she most closely worked in as a writer, editor, and business partner to the legendary Jerry Iger. Following Ruth’s journey from a young woman with a penchant for storytelling, through the Golden Age of comics, where Ruth worked in the midst of the action–until the fateful Wertham Trials brought all of it to an end.
A biography with historical reconstruction, Ruth Roche: The Phantom Hand of Comics restores a key creative force to the broader history of comics, aligning with titles like Tell Me a Story Where the Bad Girl Wins: The Life and Art of Barbara Shermund by Caitlin McGurk and the influential historical work of Trina Robbins, underscoring a growing interest in biographical and archival comics scholarship.
Ruth Roche: The Phantom Hand of Comics goes on sale October 13, 2026, in paperback (ISBN: 9781545812624 | $19.99) and hardcover (ISBN: 9781545827376 | $29.99) formats. Final order cut-off is September 21, and it is now available for preorder at your favorite bookstore, comics shop, and directly from Mad Cave.
