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 December 03rd, 2025.
All the Living
Fantagraphics, TPB – $29.99 (Buy Now)
Waking up in Purgatory, a young woman is forced to take part in a lottery, which she wins. Unfortunately for her, since she has had enough of life, the prize is to return to the living world and continue her life from where she had left it, with one significant difference: this time, she can see and communicate with ghosts—her own included.
Artist Roman Muradov has a lovely, scratchy style of illustration layered over with muted, almost monochromatic colors, which makes his work feel as if it came from a particular era somewhere in the mid-1970s. All the Living seems to be a quiet ghost story of sorts — a young woman essentially comes to haunt herself, through some sort of abstracted afterlife shenanigans. The preview pages look fantastic, and I’m very excited to experience the full work.
Batman: The Demon Trilogy
DC Comics, HC – $49.99 (Buy Now)
Follow along as Batman lives through and tries to unravel the mystery behind the mind of Ra’s al Ghul! This collection of the three Demon tales contains the stories that explore the connection between Batman and the notorious villain Ra’s al Ghul.
If you’ve ever been curious about classic Batman villain Ra’s al Ghul, then The Demon Trilogy might just be for you. Created during a period wherein graphic novels were experimental, novel publishing oddities, the book collects some late 1980s and early 1990s-era work that feels both dated and timeless — stories so of their period that they appear sort of classic. The book is heavy on Talia and Ra’s, exploring their relationship with Batman as well as Ra’s centuries-long history.
Creepy Presents: Alex Toth
Dark Horse Comics, TPB – $24.99 (Buy Now)
A brilliant creator who wielded a dynamic, minimalist style, Alex Toth is considered a master in the fields of comic book storytelling, animation, and design.
Alex Toth is one of those comic book and cartoon luminaries whose work you’ve seen, whether you actively followed his work or not; he designed Space Ghost, for god’s sake. Originally released in hardcover ten years ago, this volume collects Toth’s work on the Warren Magazine books Creepy and Eerie in trade paperback, returning some black and white horror classics to print in a more cost-effective package. Every bit of Toth’s iconic style is on display here, with stories packed with ghouls, spacemen, and general dread.
Darkwing Duck Omnibus, Vol 1: Darkly Dawns the Duck
Dynamite, HC – $69.99 (Buy Now)
Reprinted here for the first time in a single volume are all of the Guardian of St. Canard’s comic book adventures from the original Darkwing Duck miniseries and The Disney Afternoon #1-10. This comprehensive hardcover collection also features a complete cover gallery from the original publications!
The recent dedication to preserving classic, 1990s-era Disney comics has been admirable and impeccable. You can pick up collections of stories from Disney Adventures magazine, explore old DuckTales stories, and, with this sizeable omnibus, dip your toes into the original run of Darkwing Duck comics. These are the sorts of comics that feel very much for a younger audience, but never let that dissuade you from enjoying some great cartooning and lovely nostalgia. Besides, how else are you going to get children in your life into the brief era of animated excellence that was the early 90s?
Solomon Kane: The Original Comics Omnibus, Vol 1
Titan Comics, HC – $125.00 (Buy Now)
Solomon Kane first appeared in the legendary magazine Weird Tales back in 1928, and was described by his creator, the legendary Robert E. Howard as “A man born out of time, a strange blending of Puritan and Cavalier, with a touch of the ancient philosopher and a touch of the pagan. A knight errant in the sombre clothes of a fanatic. A hunger in his soul drove him on and on, an urge to right all wrongs, protect all weaker things, avenge all crimes against right and justice.”
Classic weird fiction writer Robert E Howard is best known for creating the sword and sorcery progenitor, Conan the Barbarian. Several years before the first Conan story in 1932, however, Howard introduced the world to Solomon Kane in a 1928 issue of Weird Tales. After Marvel snatched up the rights to publish Conan comics they quietly raided the rest of Howard’s work, resulting in a lesser-known Solomon Kane stories that ran alongside their Conan series — stories that were published as Conan backup stories and in Solomon’s own series, from 1973 to 1994. This book collects the first 30-odd of those stories, and it should be interesting to get a feel for the character (for those of us who haven’t cracked Howard’s short stories in years).
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