February 17, 2026 – SMASH PAGES

A lonely Abraham Lincoln robot looks for a friend in ‘If Destruction Be Our Lot’

Matthew Rosenberg, Mark Elijah Rosenberg and Andy MacDonald team up for the new science fiction title from Image Comics.

Matthew Rosenberg is teaming up with his brother Mark Elijah Rosenberg and artist Andy MacDonald for a new series from Image Comics, If Destruction Be Our Lot.

The announcement comes via Matthew Rosenberg’s Ashcan Press Substack, where he shared more about the science fiction comic:

Humanity is extinct and all that remains are the robots who once helped us. Despite the computer viruses, electricity addiction, and rampant cannibalism, the robots are happier now doing their jobs in peace. But not an animatronic Abraham Lincoln. He just wants a friend.

DC teases a big debut in ‘Absolute Batman’ #20

‘R’ you seeing this?

DC Comics is teasing the debut of another addition to the Absolute Universe, as they revealed today a redacted version of the cover to Absolute Batman #20 by Nick Dragotta and Frank Martin.

That big giant “R” kind of gives things away, doesn’t it?

Ghost Machine will launch its first crossover event this summer

‘Who Are the Unbelievables?’ rebrands the publisher’s Family Odysseys universe and introduces new characters like The Trillion Dollar Kid.

Ghost Machine, the Image Comics imprint of Geoff Johns and friends, will launch its first summer crossover event, “Who Are the Unbelievables?” The event will also formally rebrand one of Ghost Machine’s four original creator-owned universes, previously known as “Family Odysseys,” as “The Unbelievables.”

Ghost Machine was announced in 2023 by Geoff Johns and several frequent collaborators, built around the idea that creators would co-own all characters and universes developed within the imprint. Its four universes include the horror-themed “Hyde Street,” Johns’ “The Unnamed” universe featuring Geiger and Junkyard Joe, a science fiction universe featuring Johns and Jason Fabok’s Rook, and now “The Unbelievables,” which is anchored by The Rocketfellers by Peter J. Tomasi and Francis Manapul and Hornsby & Halo by Tomasi and Peter Snejbjerg.

The crossover will span four issues and introduce several new characters, chief among them The Trillion Dollar Kid, a 13-year-old secretly tracking individuals with extraordinary abilities whom he dubs “The Unbelievables.” The character was created by Johns, Tomasi and Manapul. Other new characters joining the universe include The Deadtones, described as a rock band of misfit monsters on the run, and Jean Genie, a genie navigating freedom after centuries of servitude.

Here’s a map detailing where they all live:

Fantagraphics will publish ‘Requiem for Gaza’ by Chris Hedges + Joe Sacco

The graphic novel draws on interviews with 29 Palestinian families displaced from Gaza.

Fantagraphics has announced Requiem for Gaza, a new work of investigative graphic journalism by writer Chris Hedges and cartoonist Joe Sacco, that they’ll publish in October.

The two creators previously worked together on Days of Destruction, Days of Revolt, which chronicled what life in poverty in different parts of the United States was like, and was published in 2012.

Requiem for Gaza pulls from the duo’s time talking to families who had recently fled Gaza. In the spring of last year, Hedges, a former Middle East bureau chief for The New York Times, and Sacco, author of Palestine and Footnotes in Gaza, traveled to Cairo where they interviewed 29 Palestinian families. The resulting book chronicles the families’ experiences of displacement, loss and survival, detailing the horrors they faced, like forced evacuations, targeted killings, failed ceasefires, exile and the deprivation of living without adequate food, water or shelter.

DC Comics will mark 40th anniversary of ‘The Dark Knight Returns’ with yearlong celebration

The landmark series by Frank Miller, Klaus Janson and Lynn Varley will be honored with new editions, variant covers, facsimile reprints and more.

DC Comics will honor the 40th anniversary of Batman: The Dark Knight Returns, the landmark four-issue series by writer/artist Frank Miller, inker Klaus Janson and colorist Lynn Varley with a yearlong celebration that includes new editions, reprints, variant covers and more.

The celebration kicks off later this week at the ComicsPro meeting, where Miller and Janson will appear together for a panel for comics retailers. Then in February, DC will release monthly Facsimile Editions of The Dark Knight Returns #1–4, reproducing the single issues complete with their covers, original advertisements and back matter. A DC Compact Comics Edition will arrives April 7.

Skybound + Act 4 will release ‘DC Silver Age Covers and Stories Artist’s Edition’ in November

The oversized collection will include more than 75 classic covers and stories by Jack Kirby, Joe Kubert, Carmine Infantino and more.

Skybound and Scott Dunbier’s Act 4 Publishing have announced that they will release DC Silver Age Covers and Stories Artist’s Edition, an oversized art collection spotlighting some of the most influential work from DC Comics’ Silver Age era, in the fall.

Like the other Artist’s Editions, the collection will measure 15 by 22 inches, and it’ll feature more than 75 covers and interior pages drawn at the original “twice-up” size. Highlights include the complete interior pages from the 1960s Green Lantern #1, full stories from The Flash by Carmine Infantino, Action Comics #282 by Al Plastino and a Sugar and Spike story by Sheldon Mayer. Iconic covers include Flash #123, the first appearance of Earth-Two, and the debut of the Silver Age Hawkman in Brave and the Bold #34 by Joe Kubert.

Writer and historian Mark Waid contributes an introduction to the volume.

Gail Simone + Ig Guara team up on ‘She-Spawn’

The award-winning comics writer brings her voice to the Spawn Universe this May with a five-issue series centered on Jessica Priest.

Image Comics announced today that Uncanny X-Men writer Gail Simone will helm She-Spawn, a new five-issue miniseries set in the Spawn Universe, working with Blue Beetle and All-New Wolverine artist Ig Guara. The first issue will debut in May.

The series will follow Jessica Priest, a former soldier, assassin, superhero and mother, as she battles an angelic cult determined to sacrifice a child.

“It’s a thrill to be chosen specifically by one of the iconic founders of Image to create in his playground,” Simone said. “Apparently, he’d read a DC book I’d done and was impressed by the dialogue, which was incredibly gratifying. The next thing I know, I was having hour-long conversations with Todd McFarlane–not just about She-Spawn, but about his passion for storytelling and character. Each one felt like a masterclass. He asked a lot about my process, with genuine and heartfelt curiosity, and it was one of the nicest and most collaborative introductions I’ve ever had with a publisher. I’m proud to get to write part of the Spawn Universe, and grateful to Todd and his team for making this connection happen.”

The ‘Horror of Godzilla’ arrives in July

IDW is taking the King of the Monsters back to where it all began.

IDW Publishing will unleash The Horror of Godzilla this summer, a new series set in 1954 Japan that revisits humanity’s first catastrophic encounter with the King of the Monsters.

The less spectacle, more dread monster story comes from co-writers Ethan S. Parker and Griffin Sheridan, who have worked on Marvel Zombies: Red Band and Godzilla: Escape the Deadzone, along with Tristan Jones, the acclaimed artist of Alien: Defiance and other horror titles. They’re diving deep into the terror behind Godzilla’s initial onslaught and the consequences of exposure to the creature’s mysterious “Kai-Sei” energy.

“Godzilla’s been such a huge part of my life as far back as I can remember, and as someone that had Godzilla 1985 on near permanent loan from our local video store, and hounding my local bootlegger every day on the walk home from high school for the original Japanese cut, I’m genuinely hard-pressed to think of anything I’ve been this excited about in my career,” Jones said. “As a storyteller that’s become something of a fixture in the horror genre, it’s a genuine honor and a thrill to work with Griffin and Ethan (and our incredible editor Jake) on a Godzilla story that leans so hard into my favorite visuals and even harder into things I always wished the films would. It’s a huge departure from what I’ve been known for so far and everyone’s given me incredible space to both try new things, and bring visuals to comics I’d never had a proper chance to before.”

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