Every week there is a true flood of new cartoons: new issues, variant covers, new #1, fresh miniseries. There are plenty of dozens of bookshelves to land in local comic shops, but it can also be achieved at local indie bookstores! ). From fresh original graphic novels, the much-anticipated archive editions and recent collections of cartoons, from collections for all traders, there are plenty of trade paperbacks and hardcovers to fill the shelves.
After reviewing these types of books for AIPT over the years, I have come to appreciate what makes the collection really special. Here at TradeWatch, I picked five books next week and it seems like the most exciting to me. This is my recommendation for the week of September 15th, 2025.
shout out loud
Penguin Random House, HC/TPB – $24.99/$17.99 (Buy Now)
In this spine-splitting YA horror graphic novel, the rebellious Irish teen visits a distant relative. Now she must confront her ancestors and break the violent cycle to save herself.
Cartoonist Tara O’Connor creates incredibly lovely and emotional works. All of her characters feel real and live. The book promises to be a kind of YA folk horror story set in Ireland. It’s exciting to see exactly how horrifying O’Connor is on the YA banner. No matter how intense the book gets, it almost certainly feels serious and earning money.
DC Finest: The Specter – The Wrath of the Yokai
DC Comics, TPB – $39.99 (Buy Now)
When police officer Jim Corrigan was murdered, he was denied entry into the afterlife and was given the opportunity to return to Earth on a mission to destroy all evil. As a specter, Corrigan had close relative powers. This volume covers stories released between 1966 and 1988.
Who doesn’t love the harsh spirit of vengeance? Specter is an interesting tortured character with a very long and diverse career. I fell in love with him reading that the kingdom is coming and my curiosity has run deep ever since. This volume covers a considerable portion of the 1960s story featuring characters, both in his own title and books such as adventure comics, showcases, and ghosts. It’s a bit crazy that the Silver Age provided us with characters.
Death at Trieste
fantagraphics, hc – $24.99 (buy now)
The cartoonist known as Jason connects with absurd threads and returns with a collection of three short graphic stories that showcase his singular cultural obsession, clear line style and deadpan humor.
Jason is not only because of his square anthropomorphic animal (its own) but also because of his literary and artistic influences that permeate his storytelling. The death at Trieste begins with the story of a surreal criminal/naughty man who follows the painter Rene Magritte. It’s hilarious. The book pairs well with Jason’s The Left Bank Gang, where a group of writers from a lost generation, including Fitzgerald and Hemingway, decides to take the bank away to compensate for a small literary salary.
Generation X Epic Collection – Family Management
Marvel Comics, TPB – $54.99 (Buy Now)
Banshee and Emma Frost continue to shape the next generation of mutantkinds, but what happens when Emma’s sister Adrian becomes the new principal? Emotions get high as Jubilee challenges M to a showdown in the Dangerous Room, and the team joins the new X-Man Maggot and faces massacre by a deadly enemy! As Frost attempts to reach the age of apocalypse refugee, Nate Gray, aka X-Man – another age sets an ominous sight for Generation X.
It always surprises me that a small number of my peers were obsessed with Generation X with their youth – I certainly did. Replacing the new mutants as a premiere teen mutant book, Gen X was brimming with wonderful, strange and fun melodrama. The book collects both highs and lows. None of these stories are conclusive, with some labor moving forward with dissatisfaction. But this is also part of the short period Terry and Rachel Dodson were in the art (they do all the covers in the collection, even if they don’t have interiors if I’m not wrong). It looks great, even if you don’t read it as great.
Howard the Duck by Zdarsky & Quinones
Marvel Comics, TPB – $44.99 (Buy Now)
The furious chicken takes over the strange case as the newest and most feathered private detective in Marvel’s universe, and his new job will take him from the savage lands across the universe! Howie shares quirky adventures with Rocket Raccoon, Squirrel Girl, Gwenpool, She Hulk and more, but his oddest case may be the disappearance of Lee Thompson in Hollywood! Plus: What do 10 realms do when they go to War… sorry, war?
The sad truth is that people will have to accept about this column. That’s because Howard is the destructive and singular joy of Marvel’s universe and should celebrate every opportunity given to her. The run at Howard doesn’t change the game from what’s as eye-opening as Steve Gerber’s original run in the 1970s, but this run (by the constantly unfolding Chipzdrski and super talent Joe Quinones) is the second best take the character has acquired over 50 years. This book is hilarious. It plays with the strangeness of the comics and the specific weirdness surrounding Howard, and is surprisingly moving. Enter this book about the duck that many emotions speak, and it makes it a high water mark of the era.
