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Oct 14, 2025
Year Zero #1
A Chapo Trap House Anthology
Summary
I had so much fun chatting with Chris Wade and Will Menaker of the podcast Chapo Trap House about Year Zero #1, published by Bad Egg in 2025 which is billed as “5 scintillating tales of madness” which promise to cross “time, genres, and good taste”. This comic anthology blends historical research, social commentary, and flights of fancy from several genres, all in keeping with their Dirtbag Left sensibility. The book features stories from Amber A'Lee Frost, Chris Wade, Will Menaker, Felix Beiderman, and Matt Christman, with art from comics superstars Simon Roy, Justin Greenwood, David Cousens, Ken Knudtsen, and Dean Kotz. Year Zero #1 is the first of three oversized books.
Chris Wade is a podcast producer for Chapo Trap House, Hell on Earth and Hell of Presidents, And Introducing, and Infinite Cast. He's also produced and directed short films, music festivals, and many years ago written for Slate.com. He co-hosted both Hell on Earth (a series on the 30 Years War) and Hell of Presidents (a series on POTUSes) with Matt Christman. Check the New Books back catalog for our conversation about Hell on Earth, one of the three times I had the honor of interviewing the great Matt Christman. Will Menaker is Host Number One of Chapo Trap House, a political commentary and comedy podcast which debuted in March 2016. Along with his fellow Chapos he wrote The Chapo Guide to Revolution, which I talked to Matt Christman amount in a past episode here.
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Michael Vann
Michael G. Vann is a professor of world history at California State University, Sacramento. He is Jacobin's Southeast Asia columnist. A specialist in imperialism and the Cold War in Southeast Asia, he is the author of The Great Hanoi Rat Hunt: Empires, Disease, and Modernity in French Colonial Vietnam (Oxford University Press, 2018). When he’s not reading or talking about new books with smart people, Mike can be found surfing in Santa Cruz, California.
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