Gerard Way is most famous as a musician, founding the rock group My Chemical Romance which achieved huge success in the 2000s. Prior to the founding of the band, Way worked as a cartoonist and had interned for both Cartoon Network and DC Comics, but put this career path aside to focus on My Chemical Romance.

Years later, Way stepped back into the world of comics by creating a new superhero team, The Umbrella Academy, with artist Gabriel Bà. The first mini-series published through Dark Horse Comics, The Umbrella Academy: Apocalypse Suite, was extremely well-received and Way won an Eisner Award for his work. This was eventually followed with a sequel, The Umbrella Academy: Dallas.

Way would sporadically work on comics in the following years, writing The True Lives of the Fabulous Killjoys (based on a My Chemical Romance concept album) and a short story in Vertigo Quarterly CMYK #3, as well as drawing the covers of Rex Mundi #15 and Neverboy #1.

In 2016 DC Comics announced that Way would curate a new line of mature readers books called Young Animal. In addition to writing Doom Patrol and co-writing Cave Carson Has A Cybernetic Eye, he also co-created the new character Mother Panic and serves as a creative consultant for all stories published by the imprint.