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 July 8th, 2026.
Dark Moon Rising: Batman and the Monster Men
DC Comics, TPB – $17.99 (Buy Now)
Matt Wagner takes the Dark Knight through his sophomore season in this new trade paperback collecting the 6-issue miniseries! Batman has spent his first year fighting organized crime? but nothing thus far in his early career as the Caped Crusader has prepared him for the new menace facing Gotham: super-powered villains!
A massive overhaul of an early Hugo Strange appearance, Matt Wagner’s Monster Men is one of many retellings of Batman’s early career — it slots in to the classic chronology just after Batman: Year One. The era is sort of rife with possibilities for reinvention: Batman before he fully becomes the Caped Crusader we all know an love. Wagner (and colorist Dave Stewart) are at the top of their games on the book: the artwork is moody, expressive, and atmospheric, speaking to the gloom of Gotham in those early days of Batman’s career. A somewhat neglected masterpiece of the early-2000s.
Heaven
Fantagraphics, HC – $19.99 (Buy Now)
Katie Skelly’s first graphic novel since her acclaimed Maids in 2020, Heaven finds out what happens when the artist’s quintessential cool girl characters let their guards down and let the world in. With a supernatural strip club backdrop and an eye-popping sense of color that would make Dario Argento proud, Heaven reinforces Skelly’s place as one of the most distinctive voices working in contemporary comics today.
Katie Skelly is a rare talent, one with a truly unique style that feels almost impulsive in its craftsmanship. At first glance, her artwork feels almost clumsy or amateurish, but the more time you spend with it you realize how controlled her shapes are, how reactive and human her characters. Her last graphic novel, 2020’s Maids, was a wonderful and quiet little book; Heaven seems, from my limited, pre-release exposure to it, to be a more boisterous, kinetic experience.
Smoking Behind the Supermarket with You Vol. 7
Square Enix, TPB – $12.99 (Buy Now)
Sasaki’s rivalry with Kawakami over Tayama stirs up an unexpected realization as well as doubt for the overworked office drone. As he tries to get to know both Tayama and Yamada better, his suspicions grow… Meanwhile, a problem customer unsettles Yamada. Sasaki then reels in shock to hear Yamada is missing. He’s forced to face his past and decide whether to step in during the store employees’ crisis.
After a surprise drop of ‘mini-episodes’ on Crunchyroll ahead of its first season this month (those mini-episodes were just the first handful of episodes, recut into chunks), Smoking Behind the Supermarket With You generated a lot of buzz in the American anime fan community. The story of a man’s burgeoning friendship with two girls (who happen to be the same girl) at his local supermarket is a slice-of-life comedy with hints of romance (though I’d rather things stay platonic; it seems like a more interesting story that way). The seventh tankōbon volume of the manga conveniently drops in time to coincide with the full release of the anime, which might prompt new readers to pick up the whole series.
Spider-Men: Worlds Collide – Marvel Premier Collection
Marvel Comics, TPB – $14.99 (Buy Now)
It’s the first-ever union of the Marvel and Ultimate Universes! But can the wall-crawlers of two worlds defeat Mysterio, the Master of Illusions? What will happen when Miles encounters an older, wiser version of his inspiration, Peter Parker? Or when Peter meets different versions of Aunt May and Gwen Stacy? Then, following the events of SECRET WARS, Miles has a new home in the Marvel Universe — but where is the version of Miles Morales who was in the MU to begin with?! As the mystery deepens, our heroes find themselves targeted by the Taskmaster! Both of Brian Michael Bendis and Sara Pichelli’s amazing, ultimate Spidey sagas are collected in one book!
The first meeting of Peter Parker and Miles Morales, Spider-Men is one of those rare action books with heavy emotional baggage. In Miles’s original universe, Peter was dead; here, the Peter of 616 provides some deep, cathartic release for that Peter’s grieving family and legacy Spider. That it’s also a sort of bombastic, dimension-hopping action comic (in a pre-Spider-Verse world) makes it all the more compelling of a read.
ThunderCats / The Powerpuff Girls
Dynamite, TPB – $17.99 (Buy Now)
SWORD OF OMENS, GIVE US CUTENESS BEYOND CUTE! In the greatest crossover since peanut butter met jelly, The Powerpuff Girls travel from Townsville to Third Earth and discover the world of the ThunderCats! After being trapped in a runaway rocket by Mojo Jojo, the Townsville Trio find themselves on a strange planet where their super-powers don’t work. Luckily, someone named Snarf is there to provide a situation report — and wouldn’t you know it, there’s evil that needs defeating! But without their Chemical X-enhanced abilities, what can Bubbles, Blossom, and Buttercup do against a foe like Mumm-Ra? Find out as writer PAULINA GANUCHEAU and artist COLEMAN ENGLE open up the Treasures of Thundera in ThunderCats/The Powerpuff Girls!
There’s not much I can say about this aside from the fact that we live in a world where people are allowed to smash to beloved but disparate cartoons like Thundercats and The Powerpuff Girls together into one rip-roaring adventure. Sure, this is the juggling of two fiscally-considered IPs, calculatedly maneuvered by corporate overlords, but actual artists were tasked to deliver that cold transaction with heart and care. That’s a beautiful outcome.
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