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 October 6th, 2025.
Astral Panic
Flying Eye Books, TPB – $21.99 (Buy Now)
Gale’s trying to master his anxiety, and he’s hoping the latest wonder-cure “Simply Pear” can help. Not turning up to his art classes and feeling like everyone is a lot cooler and more in control than he is, he chugs his Simply Pear products and takes advice from its demanding app. Oh, it’s definitely not working…
A quick look at artist Katie Hicks’ Instagram spells out all the reasons for Astral Panic‘s inclusion to this week’s column. Her work is highly stylized, expressive, and delightful — a very ‘feast-for-the-eyes’ style of cartooning. The book promises to be quirky and will likely bridge the line between zany and heartfelt; whatever the end result, it will assuredly be a stunning book to look at.
Bug Wars Book One: Lost in the Yard
Image Comics, TPB – $16.99 (Buy Now)
. . . Slade finds himself shrunk to the size of his diminutive subjects and thrust into the middle of a brutal Bug War, an earth-shattering struggle that will decide the fate of his family and, perhaps, uncover the secrets behind his father’s gruesome demise.
I’ve heard nothing but good things about Bug Wars, Jason Aaron and Mahmud Asrar’s Honey, I Shrunk the Kids by way of Sectaurs fantasy book. I’ve only read the first issue, which was gory, shocking, and incredibly cool. It seems to celebrate a certain 1980s Saturday Morning Cartoon vibe that I find appealing: unique fantasy epics quite literally played out in the backyard. I’ll never tire of Asrar’s moody and expressive artwork, which is as much a draw to the book as the concept.
Disney Masters Vol. 27: Super Goof and the Strange Case of Dr. Syclocks
Fantagraphics, HC – $39.99 – (Buy Now)
With his ear-splitting cry of “Tuh-duh!” Super Goof battles bad guys across the globe―including sinister Dr. Syclocks, the Tower of Pisa-stealing Super Thief, a freeze-dried Dr. Tempo, and the Beagle Boys, all out to kidnap and resell an entire zoo (super-scoop: it’s harder than it looks!).
Goofy gained his powers through various means back in the 1960s, and this book has twenty-five stories in which he bumbles around, obsesses over peanuts, and manages to be both heroic and foolish. The Fantagraphics/Disney hardcovers are a real joy — they feel both archival and like they could stand a heavy reading from your favorite ten-year-old. They’re a delight to pick up and page through, and they look wonderful together on the shelf.
Phantom Road Vol. 3
Image Comics, TPB – $14.99 – (Buy Now)
In 1997, Theresa Weaver’s father, Agent Donald Weaver, was called out to Wisconsin to investigate a case connected to Project Jackknife. Partnered with the unconventional Agent Jimmy Harold, Weaver discovers a trail of clues that uncover the connections between the mysterious leylines, the Billy Bear truck stops, and the hideous roadside murders. Answers are out there… but the truth is gruesome.
While I’m unbearably behind on the series, the eerie emptiness of Phantom Road enthralled me, and I’m glad to see it come back after a long hiatus. Walta’s artwork and Bellaire’s colors make this such a visually impactful powerhouse of a book — all that open air, all those weird and gruesome ghouls. I’m going to have to go back to the beginning so I remember what the hell is going on, but I know that it will be a wonder to do so.
Transformers Compendium 2
Image Comics, TPB – $64.99 (Buy Now)
The looming threat of Unicron is ever present as both Decepticons and Autobots spread their forces across the galaxy in search of their last hope, the Creation Matrix. But when that hope grows dimmer, Optimus Prime makes the greatest sacrifice of all…
I’m currently about halfway through the first compendium of the original Marvel Comics run of Transformers, and it’s a massive artifact of a physical presence. The thickness of two or three phonebooks strapped together, it should almost certainly weigh ten to fourteen pounds, which would make it an impossible paperback. The trick is that the wiz kids over at Image/Skybound decided to print the book on the same newsprint paperstock the original 1980s and 1990s issues would have been printed on. The result is something both new and old. This second volume only collects forty-nine issues to the first volume’s fifty-two, but I expect it to be as wonderful a shelf presence and as much a delight to handle and read. A perfect way to read the back half of a full decade of robot comics.
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