Mars Revolts

By Naperville Magazine
March 2026 View more Books

By Jeff Banowetz

Jake Korell’s first book didn’t start out as a book. The Naperville native—a comedy writer now based in Los Angeles—came up with the idea for his novel as the premise for an adult animated series, something you might find on Comedy Central. “I really love adult animation, shows like BoJack Horseman and Rick and Morty,” he says. “That’s sort of where my television writing led me. So I made this really, really bad pilot for an adult animation show that takes place on Mars.”

After dozens of rewrites, he eventually came up with a version that he thought worked. Hollywood being what it is, it never got made. He then worked on turning it into an audio series and later envisioned it as a possible podcast. At each step, he continued to add to the story and develop characters, but it ultimately wasn’t produced.

“I finally thought, I think there’s enough here to turn this into a book,” he says. The result is The Second World, a novel released late last month that’s an interesting mix of comedy, political satire, and generational conflict. It imagines the colonies on Mars declaring independence from Earth and mixes science fiction with humor.

The Neuqua Valley grad is also happy that this mission to Mars will be seen by the public at last. “You do so much work in Hollywood that nobody ever sees,” he says. “I enjoyed spending time with these characters…I’m glad to finally share them.”

Photos: Jake Korell