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 13th, 2025.
Cat Mask Boy
Mad Cave, TPB – $10.99 (Buy Now)
Tiger is a seven year old boy, growing up in 1970’s Hong Kong. He prefers being clever to working hard, gets terrible grades in school, and dreams of being a superhero. One day, his world is turned upside down when his report card somehow ends up in one of the most dangerous areas of Hong Kong: Kowloon City! Armed only with his homemade cat mask and determination in his heart, Tiger must dive into the twisting chaos and shadowy streetcorners of the Walled City to recover the document.
A coming-of-age story about a superhero-obsessed boy in 1970s Hong Kong, Cat Mask Boy looks to be a goofy, colorful adventure story for all ages. The summary explains that our protagonist has lost his report card. . . in the lawless region of the Kowloon Walled City, a densely populated and heavily criminal region of the city. Now demolished, Kowloon was once the densest city in the world and is remembered as equal part dystopian urban nightmare and vibrant, beautiful cultural hotspot. The book will likely lean more into the child’s adventure story than a cultural exploratory document, but I’m curious to experience it either way.
DC Finest – Supergirl – Body & Soul
DC Comics, TPB – $39.99 (Buy Now)
DC Finest: Supergirl: Body & Soul marks the beginning of acclaimed writer Peter David’s (The Incredible Hulk, Aquaman) astonishing reinvention of Supergirl with artists Gary Frank and Cam Smith, featuring stories published between September 1996 and February 1998.
Supergirl might be one of the most difficult characters to get a handle on in the decades of DC continuity because there have been several Last Girls of Krypton (some of whom weren’t from Krypton at all). After a period in the 1980s and 1990s during which Supergirl was an alternate universe-born shape-changer named Matrix, legendary writer Peter David (re)introduced Linda Danvers, a new teenage take on the Girl of Steel. I couldn’t tell you exactly what the foundations of the run are, only that I’m excited to finally begin the long journey to understanding them, thanks to this new DC Finest volume. Sidenote: for those curious about the many, many faces and escapades of Supergirl, check out Casually Comics’ ever-growing playlist.
The Complete Carl Barks Disney Library Vol. 29 – Donald Duck: The Lonely Lighthouse on Cape Quack
Fantagraphics, HC – $39.99 (Buy Now)
In the title story, it’s a cold and lonely night at the lighthouse on remote Cape Quack when the storm of the century suddenly pounds and pummels the tiny outpost. Donald and the boys are trying to help light the light to warn off all the ships at sea, but a sneaky crook who wants to claim the land for himself has wrecked the controls. With every passing minute, the storm grows fiercer, the waves crash higher, and the ships draw nearer to the deadly reef.
The ongoing march to collect all of Carl Barks’ beautiful, indelible Duck comics continues with volume twenty-nine. While Fantagraphics last Duck collection, Donald Duck Finds Pirate Gold, explored the very beginning of his Duck career, this book sees Barks at full swing; Duckburg, Magica De Spell, Junior Woodchucks, the whole shebang. Expect some high adventure (though those stories are generally relegated to Scrooge stories), laughs, and a generally incredible class of cartooning.
The Once and Future Riot
Metropolitan Books, HC – $27.99 (Buy Now)
In The Once and Future Riot, Joe Sacco immerses himself in Uttar Pradesh, speaking to government officials, political leaders, village chiefs, and especially the victims, who were mostly landless peasants, in a quest to understand this riot as an archetype of political violence. In the process, he probes the role of savagery in a democracy; the power of crowds, rather than leaders, to influence the course of events; the collision of competing narratives; and the accounts that perpetrators construct to explain away their participation in bloodshed.
Cartoonist Joe Sacco is an impossibly talented and important force in what I guess we have to call Graphic Journalism. Deeply researched and immaculately well constructed, Sacco’s books look at some very important and grueling subject matter. This book has a ‘reporter at the scene’ level of commitment behind it; Sacco isn’t reporting from found texts, he’s reporting from his own experience, his own interviews, and his own understanding.
X-Men Epic Collection: Wounded Wolf
Marvel Comics, TPB – $54.99 (Buy Now)
Rachel Summers lays claim to the Phoenix Force, Magneto stands trial and joins the team, Professor X departs for outer space and Cyclops becomes a father — and that’s just the start of the X-Men’s adventures! The Beyonder erases the New Mutants from history, the futuristic Nimrod Sentinel attacks and Mojo regresses the team to childhood! Plus: In a pair of bona-fide X-Men classics, Storm duels with Cyclops for team leadership, and Lady Deathstrike hunts Wolverine. A fan-favorite X-Men saga unfolds in Asgard as Storm and the New Mutants fall under the enchantment of Loki, and the rest of the team faces a legendary struggle to rescue them!
I feel it’s a sacred duty to try to explain how important Claremont’s run on Uncanny X-Men is to any and all readers who have not committed to reading all 14 years of it. It’s an impossible feat that just so happened to define the intervening thirty years of X-Men comics (and even large portions of the wider Marvel Universe). That this volume sees such a luminary lineup of artists working on that legendary run — Romita Jr, Arthur Adams, Barry Windsor-Smith, and June Brigman — only strengthens my case for why new readers should run out and buy it. This sees Rachel Summers arriving on the scene, Magneto’s trial, and a comic adventure with the New Mutants saving baby-ified X-Men. It’s a delight.
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