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 25th, 2026.
All the Living
Fantagraphics, TPB – $29.99 (Buy Now)
Waking up in Purgatory, a young woman is forced to take part in a lottery, which she wins. Unfortunately for her, since she has had enough of life, the prize is to return to the living world and continue her life from where she had left it, with one significant difference: this time, she can see and communicate with ghosts—her own included.
Promising a quiet, nearly wordless experience, All the Living looks to be a wonderfully artistic adventure, more visual showcase than narrative adventure. The book simply looks great, with Muradov’s quasi-surreal illustration setting an ephemeral, dreamlike tone. These are the sorts of books that push the boundaries of comics, allowing for a bit of high art to peek through the gutters of the medium.
Daredevil Modern Era Epic Collection: The Murdock Papers
Marvel Comics, TPB – $49.99 (Buy Now)
Follow Matt Murdock through a story that literally spans the entire history of the Marvel Universe! Who was the Kingpin before the Kingpin, and what was his relationship to Matt? Then prepare to find out exactly what happened during Daredevil’s year-long reign as the new Kingpin! His historic cleaning of Hell’s Kitchen is revealed in all its bloody detail! Framed around the Ten Commandments, this epic story is like nothing you’ve seen before!
Concluding Brian Michael Bendis and Alex Maleev’s groundbreaking run on the character, The Murdock Papers collapses Matt’s status quo before passing the character along to the next team (Ed Brubaker and company in The Devil in Cell Block D, the Epic Collection that came out last summer). As is often the case, this collection arrives out of order — we’re still waiting on the preceding volume to truly complete the Bendis/Maleev years; regardless, it’ll be nice to have another chunk on the shelf.
DC Finest: The Demon – Birth of the Demon
DC Comics, TPB – $39.99 (Buy Now)
Jason Blood may seem to be a modern-day man with an unusual interest in demonology and the occult. But the truth is that Jason is in fact centuries old, and during the fall of Camelot, the wizard Merlin bound a powerful demon to Jason’s soul. Now, whenever evil steps forth from the shadows, he need only say: “Gone! Gone! The form of man! Rise the demon, Etrigan!”
It’s hard to label one of Jack Kirby’s late-career collections as ‘weirder’ than any of the others — he concluded his time at the drawing board with incredibly strange projects (including Destroyer Duck, for godssakes), but the Demon certainly stands shoulder to shoulder with his other weirdos. The concept is impossible to deny: an actual Demon from Hell, forced to play a sometimes heroic role as his human host tries to come to terms with the insanity of his life. Big, bold, and bizarre.
Green Lantern: Dark
DC Comics, HC – $34.99 (Buy Now)
The Earth is dying, devoured by monsters and darkness. The last embers of hope lie with a lone girl who holds the green flame once carried by heroes long forgotten. Her name is Rina Mori — and she might be the only thing standing between the world and oblivion.
We love Elseworlds here at Tradewatch; dipping into a new universe of slightly twisted icons and figuring out the conceptual oddities is a true joy. After being abandoned (even if in name alone) some years ago, the recent Gotham by Gaslight minis have primed the pump for the legendary imprint to further impress, and Green Lantern Dark is the next step on that journey. It does look dark indeed, and I can’t wait to explore who this new Lantern is and how their universe differs from ours.
Micronauts Epic Collection: The Original Marvel Years – The Long and Winding Road
Marvel Comics, TPB – $42.99 (Buy Now)
The final issues of the Micronauts’ original series are collected in this Epic Collection, book that features the Micronauts at war with Baron Karza in final battle for the fate of Homeworld. Led by Commander Rann and Marionette, the Micronauts have lost dearly in their battle against the wicked Karza. With those closest to them among the casualties, can our heroes summon what it takes to win? With new teammates Fireflyte and Devil by their side, they might have a fighting chance.
Concluding the original Micronauts series, this isn’t the final of the Micronauts Epic Collections — when the main series wrapped, the team immediately set off on The New Voyages, all of which will be collected later this year. Unlike the Daredevil books discussed above, Micronauts got a chronological release, which means you can sit down and read the entire series from front to back as soon as this book hits stands. That’s a daunting task, but one I’m very much ready to undertake.
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