Hey Kids, Comics! #166 - The Breakaways

Welcome again to the comic book wonderland that is Hey Kids, Comics!

This week Andrew Farmer and Cole Houston are breaking away from the norm with a show all about breaking away unexpectedly.  That is to say, comic book characters that became far more popular than their creators might have imagined.  From bit part characters that captured the imagination of readers to those that shone brighter than just a simple player in a one-off story, the history of the comic is full of such characters.

In the decidedly marketable-character driven modern comic publishing dynamic it is becoming increasingly difficult to find, or at least pinpoint, the breakaway characters as nearly every character seems to be built with at least an attempt at mass appeal in mind.  Though largely a thing of the past, the breakaways continue to occur, but are fewer and farther between.

This issue explores and even celebrates the characters that became more than anyone would have imagined or hoped.