Mutants, mayhem and turduckens: An exclusive look at ‘Toxic Crusaders’ #4

AHOY Comics’ mutant misfits return on Feb. 18 with a new issue packed with grotesque origins and mayhem.

AHOY Comics is keeping the slime flowing with Toxic Crusaders #4, the penultimate chapter in its revival of Troma’s infamous eco-heroes. Written by The Nib founder and two-time Pulitzer Prize finalist Matt Bors with art by Tristan Wright, the series reunites the Toxic Avenger with No-Zone, Junkyard, Major Disaster and more for a gleefully grotesque spin on super heroics.

This issue leans hard into backstory, delivering the origins of Headbanger and a mutated counter-Crusaders force that sounds as appalling as you’d hope. Cultists merged with animals and objects into living “turduckens” collide with the team in what promises to be an epic fight.

Toxic Crusaders #4 hits shops Feb. 18 and retails for $4.99. Many thanks to AHOY Comics for sharing this exclusive preview:

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Abrams will publish Derf Backderf’s ‘The Dissidents’ this fall

The new graphic novel from the creator of ‘Kent State’ is about a group of cartoonist who stood up to a president.

Abrams ComicArts will publish Derf Backderf’s next graphic novel, The Dissidents, in September. The creator of My Friend Dahmer and Kent State said the new project is “a story about autocrats, vigilantes, communists…. and cartoonists.”

Set in the early 1900s, the graphic novel features an America that’s teetering on the edge of chaos under President Woodrow Wilson. Amid rising racism, economic inequality, labor unrest, political extremism and looming war, a group of real-life political cartoonists at The Masses, including Art Young, Boardman Robinson and Cornelia Barns, use their art to challenge corruption and defend free speech. When the government charges the artists with sedition for daring to document the truth, they face prison, exile and execution.

“It’s the era when modern comics are born,” Backderf said on BlueSky. “The daily comics page has just been invented, as have animated cartoons. Comics are suddenly everywhere and quickly become a national obsession. Renowned cartoonists are celebrities, on par with the first generation of film stars.”

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Can’t Wait for Wednesday | Love is in the air

Get caught up in the love for comics, with new stuff arriving this week from Deniz Camp, Stipan Morian, Sophie Campbell, Joe Quinones, Tini Howard, Babs Tarr, Mike and Todd Mignola, Warwick Johnson-Cadwell, Larry Hama, Mark Bright, Kelly Thompson, Jed MacKay, Campbell Whyte and more.

Welcome to Can’t Wait for Wednesday, your guide to what’s coming to your local comic shop this week. With Valentine’s Day coming up on Saturday, several publishers are releasing specials to coincide with the day of love. For the record, it’s never the wrong day to love comics.

I’ve pulled out some of the highlights for this week below, but for the complete list of everything you might find at your local comic shop and on digital this week, you’ll want to check out one or more of the following:

As a reminder, things can change and what you find on the above lists may differ from what’s actually arriving in your local shop. So check with your retailer to see what’s arriving at their shop this week.

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Chef José Andrés + Mike Mignola join the ‘Meals to Astonish’ line-up

The founder of World Central Kitchen teams up with Spider-Man in a new story by Steve Orlando and Roi Mercado.

Spider-Man is in for a delicious time as he teams up with José Andrés, founder of World Central Kitchen, to battle Electro in next month’s Spider-Man: Meals to Astonish.

Steve Orlando and Roi Mercado will bring the two together in the one-shot, which will feature a cover by Hellboy creator Mike Mignola.

“With my own secret origin, working in the wine and spirits world before comics stepped in as my main gig, Spider-Man: Meals to Astonish feels like a perfect moment of kismet,” Orlando said. “The chance to write a Spider-Man adventure set in the food scene is one I could never pass up—the two arts, the two worlds I love the most are finally colliding in a delicious and exciting way! This is the kind of story I’ve been waiting for—and I can’t wait for folks to dig in!”

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Slugfest | ‘Head Lopper’ returns in Image’s April solicitations

Plus: ‘Lost Fantasy’ and ‘Final Boss’ both get spinoffs, ‘Royals’ and ‘In Your Skin’ debut, and Cobra heads out on some “Sssilent Missions’ of their own.

Slugfest is a roundup of cool announcements about projects coming to a shelf near you. This edition focuses on Image Comics’ April 2026 titles. Hit the links for more info, and for more Image Comics news, check out our posts on Corpse Knight and Ghost Machine: The Official Guidebook.

Head Lopper returns this April with an all-new story arc that marks roughly 10 years since Andrew MacLean’s cult-favorite fantasy series first debuted at Image in 2015. Launching with an extra-length issue, Head Lopper #1 drops readers back into the savage, monster-haunted world of Norgal the Relentless and his endlessly talkative, severed-witch-head companion, Agatha.

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Abrams ComicArts announces ‘Marvel Dimensions’ by Alex Ross

The graphic novel by the ‘Fantastic Four: Full Circle’ creator will arrive this September.

Abrams ComicsArts and Marvel have announced another edition to their Marvel Arts line of graphic novels — Marvel Dimensions, a new project by writer/artist Alex Ross.

The projects follows Fantastic Four: Full Circle, also by Ross, which Abrams published back in 2022. It’ll start with the origins of several Marvel characters, then go somewhere “darker and far more unpredictable.”

“This is my longest work to date that I have written and drawn myself,” Ross said. “Dimensions is like a combination of my most famous works, Marvels and Kingdom Come, where my love of comics history and ambitious world-building collide.”

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The Once and Future Doom: Ryan North + Francesco Mobili launch ‘Doomquest’ in May

It’s Doctor Doom vs. Reed Richards, with all of history at stake, in a 10-issue series.

If you thought Ryan North was done with Doom, think again — the One World Under Doom writer is teaming up with artist Francesco Mobili for Doomquest, a 10-issue miniseries debuting from Marvel in May.

While the recently ended One World Under Doom took the former sorcerer supreme off the proverbial Marvel chessboard, this new series has nothing to do with that. It’s actually an “evergreen” story set before the crossover story, with a less magical but no less dangerous version of the character.

“I thought we’d left Doom in a really interesting place with the events of One World Under Doom, and I was looking forward to seeing what others do with him now – and I still am,” North said. “But when the chance came up to do an evergreen Doom story – meaning one set not in the immediate present but instead in the not-too-distant past, unshackled from his current status quo – it was really alluring, especially when I was told I could go as big and as crazy as I wanted.”

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Preliminary ballot announced for this year’s Bram Stoker Awards

The award winners will be announced in June.

The Horror Writers Association has announced the preliminary ballot for the 2025 Bram Stoker Awards, which includes a graphic novel category. Dark Horse Comics, Mad Cave Studios, Cullen Bunn and James Tynion’s Tiny Onion all appeare multiple times on the ballot.

The annual awards recognize “superior achievement” in horror and dark fiction. Previous winners in the graphic novel category include Kolchak: The Night Stalker: 50th Anniversary Graphic Novel, Amy Chu and Soo Lee’s graphic novel Carmilla: The First Vampire and H. P. Lovecraft’s The Call of Cthulhu by Gou Tanabe, which won in the category last year.

The preliminary ballot for the “Superior Achievement in a Graphic Novel” category includes:

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Marvel reveals more stories + covers for ‘Spider-Man/Superman’

Their half of the crossover with DC will now include contributions from Stephanie Phillips, Phil Noto, Jeph Loeb, Jim Cheung and more.

Following their announcement last month of the preliminary line-up for the upcoming Spider-Man/Superman crossover, Marvel has announced two additional stories and several new variant covers for the one-shot.

Marvel announced a star-studded creative line-up for the anthology in January, including new stories by Brian Michael Bendis, Sara Pichelli, Dan Slott, Brad Meltzer, Pepe Larraz and, in his forst work for Marvel in quite awhile, Geoff Johns — among many others.

Joining them will be Stephanie Phillips and Phil Noto, whose story will feature Spider-Gwen: Ghost-Spider and Supergirl.

“Spider-Gwen and Supergirl both represent different kinds of strengths and powers, but they’re united by their compassion and resilience,” Phillips said. “I really loved the chance to let these heroes save the day together and have fun doing it. And Phil Noto on art just takes it to another level. Kara, Gwen and I are lucky to have him!”

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‘Fantastic Four’ #11 will feature the Future Foundation, Stan Sakai and Crimeasaurus Rex

Ryan North and Patrick Boutin will bring back concepts introduced by Jonathan Hickman and Evan Dorkin this May.

The group of young geniuses known as the Future Foundation will make their return in Fantastic Four #11 this May, along with an obscure villain who hasn’t appeared in decades.

Writer Ryan North will be joined by Ultimate Universe: Two Years In artist Patrick Boutin for a story that sounds like it could be crazy, in a really fun “Ryan North” kind of way. Not only will it feature the group of young scientists anchored by Franklin and Valeria Richards, but it also features the return of a villain from the 1990s — Crimeasaurus Rex, who was created by Evan Dorkin and appeared in the Fight Man #1 one-shot. He would go on to appear in a random issue of Agent X and … well, not really anywhere else. But he does seem poised for a comeback, because who doesn’t like dinosaurs? We know North is a fan.

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Oni Press moves to Penguin Random House for comics, book distribution

The new deal will kick off in August.

Oni Press and Penguin Random House have announced that Oni will move all of their comics and book distribution to Penguin Random House beginning in August.

This includes Oni’s frontlist and backlist trade books, as well as single issue comics “across all sales channels worldwide,’ including the direct market. Oni Press is currently using Lunar Distribution for comics distribution, who they began working with back in 2021.

“There is simply no better partner than Penguin Random House in maintaining and growing Oni’s longstanding relationship with retailers and readers,” said David Steward II, Chairman of the Oni-Lion Forge Publishing Group. “As the gold standard for both book market and direct market distribution, we’re proud to partner with PRHPS to increase the reach for Oni’s distinguished, award-winning library and hit the ground running in support of what is sure to be the company’s most formidable line-up of new releases across our long history.”

The deal also includes their sister publisher, Magnetic Press, whose graphic novels they began distributing last year and is now an imprint of Oni Press.

Can’t Wait for Wednesday | DC K.O. enters a ‘Boss Battle’

Check out comics and graphic novels coming this week by Jeremy Adams, Brett Bean, Greg Weisman, Tad Stones, Matt Kindt, David Lapham, Jaosn Aaron, Kewber Baal, Cullen Bunn, Christopher Mitten, Ashley Allen, German Peralta, Leah Williams, Judd Winnick and more.

Welcome to Can’t Wait for Wednesday, your guide to what’s coming to your local comic shop this week. The card this week is packed, so let’s get to it.

I’ve pulled out some of the highlights for this week below, but for the complete list of everything you might find at your local comic shop and on digital this week, you’ll want to check out one or more of the following:

As a reminder, things can change and what you find on the above lists may differ from what’s actually arriving in your local shop. So check with your retailer to see what’s arriving at their shop this week.

Continue reading “Can’t Wait for Wednesday | DC K.O. enters a ‘Boss Battle’”