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The book is an extended illustrated essay about 20th-century Czech author Franz Kafka. The essay text is by David Zane Mairowitz. The text sections feature single-image illustrations, panel cartoons, and short strips related to the essay narrative. The artwork is all by Robert Crumb. The essay also incorporates comics adaptations by Crumb of Kafka's fiction.

The book's copyright page states the publication year was 1993. The 1994 on-sale date is from the U. S. copyright registration. The reason for the discrepancy is unknown.

The copyright registration was not filed by Totem Books. It was instead filed by Kitchen Sink Press (in 1996) on behalf of David Zane Mairowitz and Robert Crumb. Kitchen Sink does not appear to have been involved in the publication of the book in any way. Their only connection seems to be their long-time business relationship with Crumb. (Kitchen Sink published multiple Crumb titles during its lifetime, and company founder Denis Kitchen is Crumb's media agent.) It is unknown whether Kitchen Sink had access to Totem's records when the registration was filed.

There is also a British edition titled "Kafka for Beginners" from Icon Books' For Beginners (1992 ? series), which is copyrighted 1993 and has the same ISBN as this Totem Books edition.