February Comics Look Ahead

Nick Nazar 26 Jan 26, 2026

What better way to start out the new year than with new comics! The first month of the year is almost over with already, which means it’s time to look ahead to the books arriving on our shelves this February. Our team has combed the catalogs to find you new series that we’re excited to bring to your attention. What did we find? Only one way to know for sure - read on and find out!

Upcoming Comic Catalogs

Wondering where we find all of these books? We go through a number of upcoming comic book catalogs, which you can find below. If you want to do some digging for something we might have missed, please have a look! If you find anything you want, just head over to our subscription page to place a preorder or update your subscription.

(Quick word of caution - the Next Phase catalogs are very large and may take a while to download!)

December Comic Catalogs (February Releases)

January Comic Catalogs (March Releases)

February Comic Catalogs (April Releases)

Reviews and Recommendations

February is a big DC month, with the premier of their new Vertigo lineup courtesy of Deniz Camp and Kyle Starks! Not to be outdone, Marvel is relaunching a number of their X-Line with a new story arc, Shadows of Tomorrow, that spins out of their winter Age of Revelation crossover event. And of course, it wouldn’t be a look ahead without some weirdly amazing looking books coming out of Image and Massive.

Bleeding Hearts

Vertigo Comics

By Deniz Camp (writer) and Stepan Morian (artist)

DC’s Vertigo line is finally back and their first book (assuming you don’t count Nice House by the Lake, which DC retroactively decided was Vertigo) is coming out swinging with a superstar creative team. Deniz Camp has been on fire lately, with books like Absolute Martian Manhunter, Assorted Crisis Events, and The Ultimates making him one of the biggest names in comics last year. He’s teamed back up with Stipan Morian (who he worked with on 20th Century Men) to bring us a book that deconstructs the played out tropes of zombie fiction to bring us a fresh take on the genre.

Between the art style and the subject matter, Bleeding Hearts feels like a book that could have come out fifteen years ago. The preview pages we’ve gotten so far have an almost throwback art style that reminds me of early Jamie Hewlett or the kind of thing you’d see at a Hot Topic. But Camp says that he’s committed to doing something different with Bleeding Hearts, and is “taking the archetypes, themes, and visual language of zombie fiction and trying to do something new with it.”

Basically, the zombie apocalypse has happened and there are only a handful of living humans left. An honestly slightly goofy society of zombies has developed in the bones of the old world, hunting the last vestiges of mankind. One day a zombie named Poke discovers that his heart has begun to beat again, and he begins to wonder if there’s more to life than just. Eating people.

It’s a slightly off-beat premise, but if anyone can pull it off it’s Deniz Camp. According to him, this book has been brewing for several years now, and I’m excited for him, Stepan Morian, and Vertigo to finally get to share it with the world.

- Sloane

End of Life

Vertigo Comics

By Kyle Starks (writer) and Steve Pugh (artist)

After Peacemaker Tries Hard (also with Steve Pugh) jettisoned me into the sun in 2023 I started tearing through Kyle Starks’ back catalog and it was such a gonzo hilarious journey I now just trust him implicitly. He’s done really goofy assassins before in Assassin Nation (R.I.P. the volume 2 that never was) and I can’t wait to see what he gets up to this time working with Steve Pugh again. This book is a part of the first wave of books DC is putting out as part of their planned Vertigo re-launch for this year. I love DC’s Black Label so getting more books in that vein without being superhero books is very exciting for me.

This book is like if John Wick 2 was zoo themed and also John Wick was an idiot. I know an animal themed cabal of uber assassins sounds like an insane place to start but this is Kyle Starks, he’s done weirder. The main character of this series, Eddie Stallion, has accidentally messed with a Big Boss in the assassin organization he works for and everyone is gunning for him. Its going to be a grizzly fight for his life and a helluva fun ride for those reading along.

- Elise

Sirens Love Hurts

DC Comics

By Tini Howard (writer) and Babs Tarr (artist)

What if DC’s favourite female villains and vigilantes reach across the aisle to work together to protect the women of Gotham? Black Canary is teaming up with Harley, Ivy, and Catwoman to defend their fellow women from the crime and ineptitude that affects them disproportionately. They are the girls girls the working girls of Gotham need when Calendar Man starts killing women and the police brush it off suicide or an occupational hazzard instead of the calculated attack that it is.

This book keeps the lighter tone we expect of the sirens while specifically focusing on them as defenders of women willing to put aside their differences to work with a hero if necessary. It stays colorful and funny and sexy and fashionable in a very 2014 way this is a breath of fresh fun air for 2026. I’m excited to see where this goes and I’m very excited to see Tini Howard and Babs Tarr coming together for this. I've been a fan of Tarr for years and loved the aesthetic of her Batgirl run so getting to see her working on a bigger project again is exciting. I’m definitely looking forward to this and it will surely be a hit with fans of DCs female heroes and villains alike.

- Elise

Florida Hippopotamus Cocaine Massacre

Mad Cave Studios

By Fred Kennedy (writer) and James Edward Clark (artist)

Please for the love of god I am begging you: go look at the preview pages for this then come back. I assumed (like you may have) from the name this was going to be lazy, random, garbage meant to sell comics purely based on a name with no effort or care put into it whatsoever. They may be banking on the name but they certainly are not phoning it in. I cannot believe how good this looks?? Sloane and I have been screaming to anyone who will listen for the last couple weeks to please please trust us because this looks like an absolute delight.

I don’t really feel like I need to pitch the plot of this book to you, you know what you need to know: Florida, hippopotamus conservation, amusement parks, a D.A.R.E. P.S.A. gone wrong, its got it all. I’ve never read anything from either of these creators before but my trust in Mad Cave as a publisher has been skyrocketing in the last six months thanks to books like Orla! and Hotblood! American Promise (lots of exclamation points in these names). They seem to be growing and publishing more and more of the weird indie books I like to see. This book is irreverent, funny, and bat shit crazy with beautiful retro-inspired flat wash colors that are so much fun to look at. I am as surprised as you are that I stand before you recommending Florida Hippopotamus Cocaine Massacre in the year of our lord 2026 but here I am absolutely dying to get my hands on it.

- Elise

Storm: Earth’s Mightiest Mutant

Marvel Comics

By Murewa Ayodele (writer) and Federica Mancin (artist)

For those of you who took your eyes off the X-line during it’s little foray into the Age of Revelation timeline, I don’t blame you. A complete line-wide reboot for just three months is hard on everyone, and I do wish Marvel wouldn’t do it so much. BUT for those of you following Storm’s exploits prior to the AoR - guess what! You’ve got a tiny bit of homework to do. You’ve got to subscribe to Storm: Earth’s Mightiest Mutant, which picks up where Murewa left off, albeit with a focus pivot away space and down to a more Earth-focused story arc, but with all the cosmic stuff the first series worked with coming home to roost on our little pale blue dot.

Again - this is Marvel doing Marvel things and using the excuse of a new story arc to swap out Lucas Werneck for Federica Mancin on art and ‘reboot’ the series back to issue 1. If you were already reading Storm and want to keep doing so, this is the new series to get. Same kickass goddess-turned-super-hero, same writing team and story.

- Nick

D’Orc

Image Comics

By Brett Bean (artist), Jean-Francis Beaulieu (colorist) and Nate Piekos (letterer)

Look at this guy! Half orc and half dwarf, D’Orc is the protagonist of this new kind of adorable fantasy romp from a good chunk of the art team that brought you I Hate Fairyland. Our just a little guy protagonist is the subject of a very unfortunate doomsday prophecy that pits him and his need for friendship against everybody else. Yall his shield has a little eyeball on it. AND IT TALKS and picks fights for him like it should be voiced by the late great Alan Rickman. What’s not to love about this little guy?

This is a book that looks like what if Calvin and Hobbes but with fantasy murder vibes instead. That’s the level this book aspires too and from the preview pages I’ve read that feels exactly about where it’s gonna land. So if you’re a big fan of fantasy, some dry humor mixed with violence, and little-guys, check this book out.

- Nick

One-Shots & Graphic Novels

Five Gears in Reverse: A Criminal Book

Image Comics

By Ed Brubaker (writer) and Sean Philips (artist)

Since I started working at the shop, Criminal has been my number one recommendation for anyone looking to read crime comics. The stories are bleak and gritty in a way that really captures the essence of the noir genre without leaning into the outlandish or the over-the-top in the way that something like Sin City would. They follow messy, real feeling characters, and back up their amazing character work with moody, expressive art. Since the announcement of the upcoming Criminal TV series on Amazon Prime, there’s been a resurgence of interest in the classic crime comics series. Brubaker and Philips published a short one-shot last year, The Knives, which was super popular, and now they’re back with a new graphic novel set in the series’ universe.

Returning fan-favorite Ricky Lawless is back in Five Gears in Reverse, which follows the story of how Ricky and his partner Mallory fall in love during a wild crime spree, while things go from bad to worse as Ricky tries to pay back his debt to the mob. Returning fans of the series will appreciate getting to see more of these classic Criminal characters, and as every Criminal story is self-contained, this is also a great starting point for new readers.

- Sloane

[Quick editorial note: this book actually releases in May! It was solicited super-early, so get your orders in now if you want it! - Nick]

DC K.O.: Boss Battle

DC Comics

By Jeremy Adams (writer) and Carmine Di Giandomenico (artist)

Much to the chagrin of people like me who usually can’t stand reading big comics crossover events, DC’s recent DC K.O. crossover has been, uh. Really, really good. Against my better judgement I’ve found myself reading issues of both the main DC K.O. series, and some of its accompanying one-shots, and really enjoying it. It’s obviously a little goofy, but that’s kinda the point – It’s an unserious interlude to many of the main-universe DC titles that has the vibe of an eight-year-old taking all of their action figures out and smashing them together to make them fight each other. It’s not that deep, but a lot of fun.

No issue feels like that more than this one-shot, which will be of interest even to folks who aren’t following the main event (which is why it gets a special mention here in the look-aheads). DC managed to license a handful of non-DC characters to participate in the tournament arc this issue, many of which feel completely out of left field. Your DC comics favorites are pitted against the likes of Homelander from The Boys, Sub-Zero from Mortal Combat, and Vampirella – but also characters like Sabrina the Teenage Witch, and Samantha Strong, the anthropomorphic bear serial killer from indie comics smash-hit Beneath the Trees Where Nobody Sees.

I’ve read an advance copy of this issue and it’s every bit as gonzo and out-of-pocket as you’d hope it would be. Like most of the rest of the event it’s something you can’t think about too hard, but trust me, this one is worth turning your brain off for.

- Sloane

And that's it for our February look aheads! We'll be back in just a couple of weeks with a look ahead towards March. As always, if you saw something you wanted please reach out to us and ask us about ordering it or setting it aside for you, or head over to our subscription page and add it to your pull!