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 April 15th, 2026.
Batman: Gotham by Gaslight – The Kryptonian Age
DC Comics, TPB – $19.99 (Buy Now)
The new era of Elseworlds kicks off with the return of the crown jewel, the gothic world originated by Brian Augustyn and Mike Mignola. Superstar duo Andy Diggle ( Action Comics , Poison Ivy ) and Leandro Fernández ( Batman , Birds of Prey ) breathe new life into the legend of Gotham City and its dark guardian.
The return to the world of Gotham by Gaslight has been a wild one; it takes a break from the original’s grim, slow burn action and dives headfirst into metahuman madness. This book sees the beginning of the tale, introducing a wider world of turn-of-the-century Justice Leaguers (though the League isn’t the first thing on anyone’s mind). It features a remarkable commitment to world-building, and it’s incredible to see how it holds onto the flavor of the original while being its own invention.
Black Widow Modern Era Epic Collection: Widowmaker
Marvel Comics, TPB – $49.99 (Buy Now)
Natasha Romanoff’s shadowy past once again threatens all she holds dear in a globe-hopping thriller! As the Black Widow’s house of cards comes crashing down around her, what will she do to keep her deepest secret buried? When a senator is seduced and assassinated, why does the trail followed by his journalist son lead back to Natasha? Meanwhile, a new Ronin is assassinating espionage agents around the world! The next two targets: Black Widow and Mockingbird! But Hawkeye is determined to unmask the killer! Let the spy games begin!
Black Widow spent a lot of the early 2000s jumping from miniseries to miniseries, supporting role to supporting role. This book sees an earnest swing at an ongoing (it lasted eight issues), as well as a couple of those miniseries. This is the early 2010s era: Winter Soldier, events like Fear Itself, and the larger ongoing mega-narrative of the Marvel Universe are in place; Widow is never left out to dry in terms of her relationship to that wider narrative.
The Complete 2000 AD by Alan Moore Vol. 1: Future Shocks & Other Stories
Rebellion, HC – $53.99 (Buy Now)
Alan Moore is a legendary comics writer credited with transforming the medium and how it was seen through his seminal works such as V For Vendetta, From Hell and, of course, Watchmen. But, before any of that, he cut his teeth at 2000 AD, the “galaxy’s greatest comic”. It was there that Moore honed his craft in preparation for the accolades that would follow.
This is guaranteed to be weird. Before the iconic works that epitomize his career, Alan Moore worked for 2000 AD, which is already a weird conglomeration of ideas. It will be interesting to catch a glimpse of the master before he became such. I’ve got contentious opinions about some of his ‘masterworks’ (mostly I have contentious opinions about other people’s opinions on those books), but then I look at both Captain Britain and Miracleman, and I can’t deny what a gift to the medium and the genre he has been. Collecting this early work is a boon to those of us who like to read too deeply into a creator’s development.
DC Finest: Western – The Hangman Never Loses
DC Comics, TPB – $39.99 (Buy Now)
Journey back to the Old West—where fast wits and a fast draw were the only way to survive—and follow heroes like Hawk, Firehair, El Diablo, and more as they try to bring some semblance of justice to the lawless frontier.
One of the foundational genres of comic books, the Western might be a lost world that largely died out in the 1970s, after the rebirth of the superhero but before deconstructionalist work revitalized the medium. This DC Finest book will likely showcase Westerns as they were at their conclusion, a sort of bastard child of the classics and of the superhero books that surrounded them. Maybe someday the genre will be revitalized itself.
Run
Abrams Books, TPB – $19.99 (Buy Now)
This follow-up to the #1 New York Times bestselling graphic novel series March is the continuation of the life story of John Lewis and the struggles seen across the United States after the Selma voting rights campaign. To many, the civil rights movement was capped with the signing of the Voting Rights Act in 1965. All too often, the depiction of history ends with a great victory. But John Lewis knew that victories are just the beginning.
We recently got a complete trilogy collection of March, the book that details Senator John Lewis’s early Civil Rights involvement. This book deals with the deadly backlash of that Civil Rights work. The hard scrabble of social justice is never without its dramatic repercussions, and this series looks to illustrate them with a memoiristic quality.
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