Rockstar Games co-founder Dan Houser isn’t just preparing to launch a new book–titled A Better Paradise Volume One: An Aftermath–but also a new comic book series called American Caper. The first issue launches on November 12, and it follows a Mormon hitman, a gambling lawyer, and a Mexican beauty queen as their fates become tangled together after a real estate deal goes wrong. If you’re interested in reading the first issue, Amazon is offering the Kindle version of it for $5.74.
American Caper #1 (Kindle edition)
$5.74
Joined by Grand Theft Auto veteran Lazlow–who will also write additional material for American Caper–the first storyline of this series will run for 12 issues. Bringing it to life will be a veteran team of illustrators, including Eisner Award-winning artist David Lapham (Stray Bullets), colorist Chris Anderson (Lost Angels), Lee Loughridge (GI Joe), and letterer Nate Piekos (The Umbrella Academy). Houser describes the series as a tale of corrupt business, inept politics, bungling crime, leisure wear, and self-righteous justice, and he has teased a cast of colorful characters for American Caper, ranging from a Wall Street billionaire who has become a cowboy to a “maniac” seeking revenge.
“I love doing crime comedy and having done lots of stories about carjackers, or people that have to be tough, living in this moment right now. I wanted to tell a story about some degenerate criminals from a completely different perspective, in a completely different part of the world, that you could never make a GTA game in,” Houser said to IGN during a panel at LA Comic-Con this month. “Men getting confused between reality and the fantasy in their heads is something a lot of stories are about, and is something I find very interesting. America, particularly the rural west, in this moment right now is something I found interesting, and thought was an interesting place to set a dark comedy.”
Houser’s other project, A Better Paradise, will be released on October 14, and the novel will also be available in ebook and audiobook formats. This book is adapted from an audio fiction series that aired in 2024, and it’s set in the near future at a video game company. The story takes place at Daisy’s Ark, an advanced video game world developed by tech startup Tyburn Industria that was eventually shut down following a pattern of “unexpected and disturbing results” that had an impact on everyone involved. A decade later, development on the project resumes.