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 15th, 2026.
DC Finest: Batman – Blind Justice
DC Comics, TPB – $39.99 (Buy Now)
Written by Sam Hamm, Christopher Priest, Alan Grant and Others Art by Denys Cowan, Jim Aparo, Eduardo Barreto and Others Escape into the cerebral Batman thriller that uncovered Bruce Wayne’s buried past, crafted by the screenwriter of the 1989 Batman film. Also featuring the story of a serial killer murdering those who dare dress up like Batman, along with the origins of Poison Ivy and Man-Bat!
In a post-Frank Miller world, a lot of creators came aboard Batman and Detective Comics for their turn at making the Dark Knight darker. This book has all the hallmarks of a book taking itself too seriously: abducted children, serial murders, and a story where Batman takes on the Klan. It’s also got some reimagining of characters via a couple of Secret Origins stories that brought characters like Poison Ivy up to date with the more mature take on the Batman mythology.
Hellboy and the B.P.R.D.: 1955-1957
Dark Horse Comics, TPB – $29.99 (Buy Now)
Join Hellboy and his fellow agents on globe-trotting horrifying mystery adventures from a fire ghost in a forgotten dinosaur theme park to vengeful demons in Hong Kong, Cold War weapons tests that lead to mutilated monsters in the South Pacific to a forgotten ghost in a NYC potter’s field and more, plus the true story of Hellboy’s turn on the silver screen in Mexican luchador films!
Any new collection of Hellboy is a reason to break out your wallet and diligently shovel over cash, and that’s because there is a certain baseline quality to Hellboy stories that you’re guaranteed. These stories, while not exactly critical to understand the character, the BPRD, or any of the massive, overarching structure of the narrative, stand in as perfect encapsulations of the series’ brilliant vibes. I’ve written before that any Hellboy story can be your first Hellboy story; they’re built to be rock solid without all the trappings of continuity. Let this book be your first entry.
Infamous Iron Man: The Rise of Doom
Marvel Comics, TPB – $19.99 (Buy Now)
The Marvel Universe’s greatest villain is no stranger to armor, but now he’s trying something new on for size: heroism. And where Tony Stark failed, Doom will succeed. But what is Victor’s master plan? That’s what a great number of folks want to know — including Ben Grimm, Pepper Potts and the other Iron Man: Riri Williams! In his heroic quest, Doom faces a cosmic-level adversary — and his most mortal enemy, whom he thought he would never see again! But what is the shocking truth behind Victor’s reincarnated mother? With enemies on all sides, how can Victor continue to carry on the legacy of Iron Man when the legacy of Doom haunts him at every turn?
One of the finest pairings in modern comics is Brian Michael Bendis and Alex Maleev, whose incredible run on Daredevil remains a highlight for that character. Infamous Iron Man might not reach the highs of their DD run, but it nonetheless illustrates how incredible it is when a writer knows how to write for a specific artist — and an artist knows how to deliver on a script from a specific writer. The two honed their working relationship to a perfect pitch, and that chemistry is reason enough to revisit this strange, momentary lapse in Doctor Doom’s judgement.
John Constantine, Hellblazer by Paul Jenkins and Sean Phillips Omnibus
DC Comics, HC – $150 (Buy Now)
A father’s soul damned to Hell. The First of the Fallen’s return. A succubus’s betrayal. John Constantine wants out—of the horror, the drinking, the smoking, the demon blood within him. Desperate to change, he seeks the magics necessary to cast out his worst self and start anew. But magic always has a price, and although the future is not set in stone, the past never stays buried.
As a whole, Hellblazer can be viewed as an experiement in major comics experimentation. Over the course of 300 issues, spanning thirty years, we saw a truly vile nightmare of a man age in real-ish time in an ever-deepening labyrinth of moral and mythological narrative contrivances. That sounds like it could get real messy real quick, and it really did; that doesn’t mean that the handful of creative teams didn’t work their asses off making it incredibly cool and interesting. It’s been too long since I’ve read the Paul Jenkins/Sean Phillips run — truly, since I’ve read any run — but the vague memory of it still fills me with a dreadful sort of warmth.
Parasyte Paperback Collection Vol. 8
Kodansha, TPB – $14.99 (Buy Now)
The final showdown takes more out of him and Migi than either expected. Away from everything Shinichi’s known and loved, recovering in the home of a stranger, Shinichi is forced to reckon with the moral balance of humanity’s impact on the Earth. But for better or for worse, it’s hard to make sure a parasite stays dead… Will Shinichi and Migi ever be able to lead a normal life?
Since tenatively dipping my toes into the manga pool recently, few books have been recommended to me as frequently and persistently as Parasyte, a horror/scifi classic from the 1980s and 90s. Luckily, it’s one book that seems to rarely suffer the indignity of going out of print: on top of a series of full-color hardcovers still on retailer shelves, this line of traditional paperbacks wraps up with this volume. It feels like an embarassment of riches, when so many other books of the era are scarcely available even on the secondary market. I’m eager to see exactly how bizarre and nightmarish this series can be.
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