There is a veritable flood of new comics every week: new issues, variant covers, new #1s, and fresh-faced miniseries. Fewer – but still bountiful – are the dozens of bookshelf editions landing in your local comic shops (and attainable by your local indie bookshops, as well!). From fresh original graphic novels, long-awaited archive editions, and collections of recent comics for all you trade-waiters, there are plenty of trade paperbacks and hardcovers to fill your shelves.
After reviewing hundreds of these sorts of books for AIPT over the years, I’ve come to appreciate what makes a collection truly special. Here at Tradewatch, I pick five books releasing in the coming week that seem the most exciting to me. Here are my picks for the week of February 11th, 2026.
A Star Called the Sun: A Collection of Short Science Fiction Stories
Image Comics, TPB – $19.99 (Buy Now)
Robotic clergy, posthuman hive-men, immortal cyborgs and ancient alien races all play a part in this anthology of sci-fi adventure tales set in the universe of HABITAT and GRIZ GROBUS.
Originally released via a successful Kickstarter campaign in November of last year, A Star Called the Sun finds a new wider release from Image Comics. A collection of sci-fi shorts, the book looks to utilize some high-concept outerspace stylings that feel fresh and compelling. I wasn’t aware of the book until I was prepping this column, but the brief looks I’ve gotten have me curious not only for this volume, but for the creator’s preceding projects.
DC Finest: Green Arrow – The Trial of Oliver Queen
DC Comics, TPB – $39.99 (Buy Now)
In this era-defining run, Ollie’s past choices catch up with him in stories that pull no punches. With guest appearances by Black Canary, Shado, and the Question, and backup stories spanning street-level noir to geopolitical fallout, this volume delivers raw, uncompromising superhero drama at its finest.
The Mike Grell-era Green Arrow is touted as a high point for the Emerald Archer. Created in the late 1980s — after the industry had been changed by grim reinvention and gritty storytelling — these stories take themselves much more seriously than the Arrow might have been taken in the previous Silver Age. Filled with assassins and noir trappings, the first book in this series (The Longbow Hunters, released last January) had me hooked from its first page, and I’m eager to continue the journey.
One World Under Doom
Marvel Comics, TPB – $29.99 (Buy Now)
Six months ago, Victor Von Doom saved the world from vampires by assuming the mantle of Sorcerer Supreme – then disappeared behind Latveria’s closed borders. But his absence was merely the calm before the storm – a storm that has now arrived. The world wakes up to a new reality: Doom has magically taken over every broadcast medium on Earth and declared himself the ruler of the planet under the flag of a new United Latveria!
One World Under Doom was such a massively sprawling event; it ran through a bulk of last year, with its own tie-in miniseries which had widespread implications of the Marvel Universe at large. The trouble with such a big event is that it’s easy to get overwhelmed and lose track of the main narrative. It’ll be nice to experience the main book as a singular story without all the distractions — and without having forgotten the very beginning by the time you’ve reached the ending.
The Transformers UK Compendium Book One
Image Comics, TPB – $64.99 (Buy Now)
Discover the hard-to-find iconic TRANSFORMERS comics originally published in the UK that redefined the war between the Autobots and Decepticons! The terrifying Decepticon known as Galvatron has arrived on Earth from 20 years in the future. With Optimus Prime nowhere to be found, the Autobots have no choice but to team up with their worst enemy, Megatron! Collected in compendium format for the first time ever, these iconic Transformers UK stories are perfect for fans new and old.
The old Transformers continuities will always be hairy. The US and Japanese cartoons told slightly different stories, with the Japanese story splitting off into its own direction late in the game. The comics, which had a different continuity from the animated series, also had their localization complications, with Marvel UK developing different ideas alongside the main book — ideas that didn’t quite find their way stateside at the time. Finally collecting all of those stories in one accessible medium, this book continues the phonebook-sized compendiums that recently collected all the American comics. They’re insanely big but surprisingly lightweight collections that will have you lost in the 80s in no time.
The Woodchipper
Drawn and Quarterly, TPB – $25.00 (Buy Now)
In The Woodchipper, Joe Ollmann, cartoonist of the groundbreaking Governor General Award finalist Fictional Father, returns with a suite of comic short stories focused on his trademark nervous wreck characters caught in a series of escalating personal disasters. Everybody’s doing their best. Everybody’s just trying to get through the day.
Joe Ollmann’s 2021 graphic novel, Fictional Father, showcased the cartoonist’s ability to capture long-form, humanist drama. The Woodchipper is a collection of short pieces that will almost certainly carry some of that sympathetic understanding of its protagonists. Ollmann’s artwork leans into an indie sensibility: scratchy but expressive, informed by great cartoonists but rooted firmly in his unique voice.
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