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 February 18th, 2026!
The Ghost in the Shell Legacy Edition Box Set
Kodansha, HC – $139.99 (Buy Now)
For decades, the English and Japanese editions of this masterpiece have never quite matched each other. That finally changes with the Legacy Edition, which restores the pages that had been edited in the original The Ghost in the Shell manga. The set also includes the acclaimed Deluxe Edition localization of The Ghost in the Shell 1.5: Human Error Processor and The Ghost in the Shell 2.0: Man-Machine Interface. All three are reproduced in a high-quality hardcover, right-to-left manga format, with all the pages included in the latest version currently in print in Japan.
A massive collection in a pretty box, this new Ghost in the Shell set promises to be the complete package. For fans of the anime (or even fans of the questionable 2017 live-action film), having all the source material in one place will be a godsend. For Westerners, finding the right place to start with manga or anime can sometimes feel like a mystery; looking to collections like this really solves it.
Gunsmith Cats: Burst Omnibus Vol. 1
Dark Horse, TPB – $29.99 (Buy Now)
In Gunsmith Cats Burst Omnibus Volume 1, Rally and ace transporter Bean Bandit find themselves well outside city limits—and deep in the heart of Texas! After Bean’s own vehicle is swiped, Rally hires Bean to get her and her bounty back all the way back to Chicago in a rental car…except it turns out it only had half a tank, and pretty soon Bean’s got to push! The desperate situation turns still more dire when they seek sanctuary at a remote motel far off the interstate, and some Mob hitmen on their trail check in…but this is the Wild West, and the Monroe Inn is run by an old-fashioned grandma who packs a Winchester rifle!
Gunsmith Cats might very well have been my first manga; I discovered it as a teen when Dark Horse were localizing it in single-issue format back in the 90s. That was too young an age to get into the book — there are very occasional sudden, shocking (and morally questionable) sex scenes that crop up here and there, but that all just made the book seem more sophisticated to my young, developing brain. It isn’t exactly all that sophisticated: cute, toothless humor overlays a sort of bright gun violence. Dark Horse has been reprinting the series in these short-but-thick omnibuses, and they’re a delightful form factor for such charming gunplay.
Lost Marvels No. 3: Savage Tales of the 1980s
Fantagraphics, HC – $65.00 (Buy Now)
For 13 months in the mid-1980s, Marvel assembled some of its strongest artists and writers to tell gritty, harrowing, and blackly humorous adventure stories ranging from gangster noir to historical battlefields to the deadly old West to post-apocalyptic futures. Unseen for nearly 40 years, here is some of the most shocking work of artists John Severin, John Buscema, Sam Glanzman, Val Mayerik, Ron Wagner, Grey Morrow, Wayne Vansant, Herb Trimpe, Michael Golden, Joe Jusko, Mary Wilshire, Arthur Suydam, Will Jungkuntz, Vincent Waller, and Ken Steacy, and writers Chuck Dixon, Bill Wray, Don Kraar, Robert Kanigher, Denny O’Neil, Doug Murray, and Archie Goodwin.
The old black and white Marvel mags don’t often get enough attention these days. Sure, you can find a Man-Thing or a Tomb of Dracula reprint here or there in an omnibus or Complete Collection, but there was a lot of unique content begging to be reprinted. Savage Tales is just one such oddity, there on the stands and then gone. High octane, muscle-bound, and over-masculine, the book had war tales and post-apocalyptica in one place. This book offers a look into the very strange possibilities of those magazines, where Marvel let loose.
Mickey Mouse Versus the Mouseton Society of Evil
Fantagraphics, HC – $24.99 (Buy Now)
The year: 2128! New Mouseton is a bustling space metropolis. But the Phantom Blot’s latest trillion-dollar heist has thrown the future city on its ear! And when Mickey Mouse, Space Ranger, sends the Blot to the hi-tech slammer, the Blot reveals his master plan to break right out again… along with a state-of-the-art team of the galaxy’s worst marauders!
After falling head over heels in love with Mickey Mouse and the Amazing Lost Ocean, I’m super eager to dive into another of these sci-fi gems. Large-trim (like a slightly oversized storybook), these books are quick but exciting adventures that put Mickey and his pals in a novel, sometimes bizarre setting and let them play hero. This one has some real old-school sci-fi vibes — think Flash Gordon meets cyberpunk — and promises to be a wild time.
Shade, the Changing Man by Peter Milligan and Chris Bachalo Omnibus Vol. 2
DC Comics, HC – $125.00 (Buy Now)
Shade’s body changes. His love fractures. His mind burns. From the alien absurdity of The Changing Woman to warping time alongside John Constantine, Shade’s latest incarnation tests the boundaries of identity, perception, and sanity.
Shade the Changing Man is one of those books from DC’s experimental, post-modern Vertigo golden age; everyone recommends it even if they can’t quite describe it. I’m here for the sheer absurdity of it all, but I’m especially here for the beautiful and strange Chris Bachalo artwork, which has never disappointed me in the decades that I’ve obsessed over it.
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