Brian Truitt

USA TODAY

Cheer up, Li'l Depressed Boy fanatics: Your favorite rag-doll dude is coming back soon for more fashionable, music-loving, dramatic adventures.

The Image Comics series has been on hiatus since the last issue, The Li'l Depressed Boy No. 16, was released April of 2013. Come Oct. 1, though, writer Shaun Steven Struble and artist Sina Grace return with the first issue of Li'l Depressed Boy: Supposed to Be There, Too.

"I'm so happy to be living with these characters again," Struble says.

"It honestly feels like my best friend moved back home after leaving town for a few months," Grace adds.

The new issue picks up the next morning after the last series ended, with LDB in bed with his supervisor — and secret girlfriend — Spike.

The new couple continues to foster a blossoming relationship, but they run into LDB's punky ex Jazz, and there are some strong feelings still involved there.

And Spike knows it.

"LDB is conflicted about Jazz. She broke his heart, but he doesn't think she did it on purpose," Struble says. "He now knows to not let himself get too close to her, but she has a habit of appearing when least expected."

Exes generally complicate and inform one's current relationship, Grace says. "Expect the same from Jazz showing up, and being accidentally awful to our hero."

The artist adds that the stories they have to tell moving forward are about LDB actively working on not being the sad young man he was in the first series. "Readers new and returning can get excited for more character drama, heartfelt friendship, romance and an ever-growing playlist of music that works as a soundtrack to the series."

Struble also recently had a bout with depression, something he's suffered from all his life. As a child, he admits that it led to him acting out a lot, and later in his teen years, fights occurred almost on a daily basis.

The writer recently moved from his adoptive hometown of Amarillo, Texas, to Dallas. And while it's a great city, he had to leave his entire support base behind.

"Honestly, it's a daily struggle. We've been gone so long because the depression can get in the way of the work," Struble says.

"But part of the reason I do Li'l Depressed Boy is to tell myself that I'm not alone in this. It's thinly veiled autobiography. I use the book to work out the feelings. I am lucky enough to have readers that know what I'm going through and empathize."

LDB's been off comic pages for more than a year, yet his fandom has increased in his absence. The first collection has gone to multiple prints, the character has a following in France and Russia, and Grace says there's been an outpouring of homemade dolls, cosplay, art and fan-made home videos. (For those who follow the real bands that make appearances, the indie punk group Lemuria shows up in the next arc.)

Grace can't get enough of designing Spike and Jazz's fashion, but he also has a sense of obligation to these characters to tell their story.

"I was in college dreaming of 'making it' when I drew my first LDB page," he says. "He was with us when we were promoting the web series using handmade 'zines.

"Image Comics gave us a chance in the midst of their renaissance. We are several hundred pages into this guy's journey, and collectively we've been through so much together. I feel like I owe it to Shaun, Image, the readers and LDB to get this series to its endgame."