Kings in Disguise

Kings in Disguise
Cover of Kings in Disguise #1 (Mar. 1988). Art by Steve Rude.
Publication information
Publisher	Kitchen Sink Press
Genre	fiction
Publication date	March–August 1988
No. of issues	6
Main character(s)	Freddie Bloch Sam (the "King of Spain")
Creative team
Created by	Jim Vance
Written by	Jim Vance
Artist(s)	Dan Burr
Collected editions
Kings in Disguise	ISBN

Kings in Disguise is a six-issue comic book limited series, published in 1988 by Kitchen Sink Press. It was created by writer Jim Vance and artist Dan Burr. Kings in Disguise is a multiple Harvey and Eisner awards winner, and is considered one of the hundred best comic book stories of all time. It has been hailed by Alan Moore, Will Eisner, Harvey Kurtzman and Art Spiegelman.

Set during the Great Depression, the story follows 13-year-old Freddie Bloch, a Jewish boy from the fictional town of Marian, California. When his father and brother are taken from him, Freddie takes to the rails as a hobo. He soon meets Sammy ("the King of Spain"), a sickly older hobo who takes Freddie under his wing. Together, they travel through scarred-riddled America, searching for Freddie's father. Among other places, their travels take them through Detroit during a period of labor revolt.

Kings in Disguise started out as James Vance's idea for a play called On the Ropes. After reworking it as a comic book script, he teamed up with artist Dan Burr to create the six-issue limited series published by Kitchen Sink.

Kings in Disguise was issued in trade paperback by Kitchen Sink in 1990; and re-issued by W. W. Norton with an introduction by Alan Moore in 2006. It was translated into Italian in 1991 by Granata Press, and again in 2006 by Saldapress. The French publisher Vertige Graphic released a French edition in 2003. Swedish and Spanish translations are in the works.