Brian "Box" Brown brings history and culture to life through his comics. In his next graphic novel, he unravels how marketing that targeted children in the 1980s has shaped adults in the present. Powered by the advent of television and super-charged by the deregulation era of the 1980s, media companies and toy manufacturers joined forces to dominate the psyches of American children. But what are the consequences when a developing brain is saturated with the same kind of marketing bombardment found in Red Scare propaganda? In The He-Man Effect, Brown shows us how corporate manipulation brought muscular, accessory-stuffed action figures to dizzying heights, bringing beloved brands like He-Man, Transformers, My Little Pony, and even Mickey Mouse himself into the spotlight.

In the West's collective imagination, Vladimir Putin is a devious cartoon villain, constantly plotting and scheming to destroy his enemies around the globe. But how did an undistinguished mid-level KGB officer become one of the most powerful leaders in Russian history? And how much of Putin's tough-guy persona is a calculated performance? In Accidental Czar, Andrew S. Weiss, a former White House Russia expert, and Brian "Box" Brown show how Putin has successfully cast himself as a cunning, larger-than-life political mastermind-and how the rest of the world has played into the Kremlin's hands by treating him as one.

It is, perhaps, the perfect video game. Simple yet addictive, Tetris delivers an irresistible, unending puzzle that has players hooked. Play it long enough and you'll see those brightly colored geometric shapes everywhere. Alexey Pajitnov had big ideas about games. In 1984, he created Tetris in his spare time while developing software for the Soviet government. Once Tetris emerged from behind the Iron Curtain, it was an instant hit. New York Times-bestselling author Box Brown untangles this complex history and delves deep into the role games play in art, culture, and commerce. For the first time and in unparalleled detail, Tetris: The Games People Play tells the true story of the world's most popular video game.