It was serialized in Shogakukan's seinen manga magazine Weekly Big Comic Spirits from April 2009 to February 2017, with its chapters collected in 22 tankōbon volumes.

In North America the manga has been licensed for English language release by Dark Horse Comics.

The story begins with Hideo Suzuki, a 35-year-old manga artist assistant, whose life seems to be stuck around his exhausting but low-paying job, unfulfilled dreams, strange hallucinations and unsatisfying relationships.

One day, the world as Hideo knows it is shattered by the presence of a disease (nicknamed ZQN) that turns people into homicidal zombie-like mutants whose first instinct is to attack and devour the nearest human.

This manga is centered around a part-time manager named Tatsuo with a love for motorcycles and his gasoline-fueled journey to rescue his girlfriend Kozue, stranded on an airplane at Kansai International Airport, as well as Kozue's fight for survival in an increasingly hostile environment.

The focus of this story is about an isolated high-school student and his dog struggling to survive, not only against the ZQN, but also that of his infected family and childhood friends.

I Am a Hero, written and illustrated by Kengo Hanazawa, was serialized in Shōgakukan's seinen manga magazine Weekly Big Comic Spirits from April 27, 2009,[4] to February 27, 2017.

[53] An anthology series by various manga artists, containing 8 short stories, titled I Am a Hero Official Anthology: 8 Tales of the ZQN (アイアムアヒーロー　公式アンソロジーコミック８　ＴＡＬＥＳ　ＯＦ　ＴＨＥ　ＺＱＮ, Ai Amu A Hīrō Kōshiki Ansorojī 8 TALES OF THE ZQN), was serialized in Big Comic Spirits from February 15 to April 4, 2016.

[54][55] The stories were written by Etsuko Mizusawa,[56] Junji Ito,[57][58] Masakazu Ishiguro,[59] Tarō Nogizaka,[60] Makoto Ojiro,[61] Mengo Yokoyari,[62] Akane Torikai,[63] and Kōji Yoshimoto.