This Week in Comics January 7, 2026

My pull list and other thoughts on comics along with life, the universe, and everything.

So next week I will participate in Comic Book in a Day through Noblesville Creates. It should be a blast and as I said in a previous post it is a way to trick me (an obliger) into doing something I want to do for myself (draw more). The rules state that you should not do any pre work. Which I define as designing characters, writing a script, laying out pages. What I don’t think it means is thinking about what you want to create. Every creative person I know has hundreds (if not thousands) of ideas bouncing around in their head. Story pitches that just haven’t found the right place to land or the person just has too many other things to do to be able to invest the time in doing anything about it. Kind of like how I wanted to draw more in 2026 and I’ve only cracked open my sketchbook at the Indy Webcomics Drink and Draw on Monday. The best laid plans of mice.

So as it gets closer to the actual day, I do have a number of ideas bouncing around, Some have more weight than others. Having done 24 hour comic day I understand how much time is used to just figure out an idea. So I’m going to pitch some of my ideas here. Please note that none of them have solidified into anything ready to become a four to six page comic, here goes nothing-

• The story of my sophomore critique in college where I decided that I wasn’t going to be an “artiste.”

• A non-fiction comic book on the basics of Curling. Basically an introduction to Curling in comic form.

• An adaptation of Jabberwocky by Lewis Carroll. One of my favorite poems. It is in the public domain so, like Steamboat Willie, I could use it.

• The beginning or a scene from a science fiction story about planetary colonization that has been in my head for a bit. Dealing with human impact on a new planet. Destroying a virgin ecosystem and how on an alien world it might just fight back.

• A fantasy story about the weird things you see when you take the bus places. When I reached a certain age, I was allowed to take public transit places as long as I could be home by dinner. Yes, I’m Gen-X. so most younger people would not understand that my mom didn’t drive me places all the time or track me using technology- since that tech didn’t exist.

• Something about the joy of living with cats.

Like I said some of these have been bouncing around for a while, other have been bouncing really hard. I have yet to do anything with character design (it’s all in my head) or even scripting things out… Who knows maybe it will be a soundless comic so I don’t have to worry about lettering. I’ve got a week to ponder things, I just know, being lawful good, I will do my best to follow the rules as I interpret them. Don’t worry all of these ideas will at some point be addressed. I’ve had many on my to do list for a while now, but other things have come up.

You’ll get all the gory details (no I ‘m not planning to do anything in the style of Edward Gorey) once it’s all over with. I understand whatever I do will be on display at the Ignite Studio in the Hamilton County Library for a bit too. It will be published in an event compilation comic! Also whatever I don’t use, is still bouncing around my head so it may end up showing up in the future. “We are all interested in the future, for that is where you and I are going to spend the rest of our lives. And remember, my friend: Future events such as these will affect you in the future…” - Criswell in Plan 9 from Outer Space

This Week’s Comics

Doing the pulls at Comic Carnival does give me the opportunity to read the comics before Wednesday’s release. Unfortunately I rarely do because of other things getting in the way, like work. This week’s big release was Absolute Batman Ark M which was surprisingly good. Again- I try to avoid SPOILERS as much as I can hence my reviews aren’t too wordy. If it makes it to my pull list that means I paid for it- I’m not influencer enough to have stuff sent to me early.

• Hank Howard Pizza Detective: The Two Hollywoods #1 Bad Idea W: Venditti A: Lapham A recommendation from Tim the owner of Comic Carnival. Yes, crime noir with pizza.

• Arcadia #2 Ignition Press The Miranda Brothers We were introduced to a future world in which there are people and “ferals.” All our memories are encapsulated into “Pearls” that are on our foreheads. People scavenge around looking for power cells in order to keep technology working. From there it is a story of friendship and young love. As of this issue Weedy (Halu’s friend and mentor) is trying to figure out the mysteries of life the universe and everything, before the Veil finally erases all his memories. Halu is trying to find the energy (uberpills) to help power Weedy’s research. Our narrator has also let us know that Halu and Fix are their parents. So while Halu does do some rather questionable things for the short term we know he’s sorta safe at least until the kid is conceived, or born, or whatever happens in the future.

• Nemesis Forever #5 Dark Horse Comics W: Millar A: Scalera Everything goes wrong! or does it?

• JSA #15 DC Comics W: Lemire A: Guidry We continue with the origin of the Justice Society of America. Everything is starting to align to bring everyone together or hopefully to make everyone realize that together they can do more good than separately.

• Deluge #3 Ignition Press W: Bunn A: Cresta We get introduced to the tale of “sin eaters” as they keep trying to escape the flooded prison. Maybe that’s what’s going on as these monsters keep showing up along with visions of the victims of these prisoners and the guards.

• Spider-Man Noir #4 Marvel Comics W: Larsen A: Broccardo Peter Parker deals with a mysterious villain in a diver’s helmet and ends up losing his powers? Then again there is an evil Spider-Man running around killing criminals. Is Peter safe? More importantly is Gwen safe?

• Batman #5 DC Comics W: Fraction A: Jiménez Bruce Wayne goes out on a “Date” with Dr. Zeller and ends up dealing with a gang go killers trying to… well kill her. Including the mysterious Ōjō. Unfortunately, it looks like Damien needs to work on his observation skills.

• Star Trek Voyager Homecoming #4 W: Bridges & Bridges A: Hernández Just when you thought things were looking up… We find out Species 8472 has other plans.

• Absolute Superman #15 DC Comics W: Aaron A: Ferreyra Now we get to see Superman trying to be a beacon of hope… now that Lazarus Corp has been exposed for what it really is.

• Absolute Green Lantern #10 DC Comics W: Ewing A: Kotian So as Jo Mullein deals with a Golden assassin Hector Hammond is making things more interesting for everyone.

• Absolute Batman Ark M #1 DC Comics W: Snyder & Tieri A: Hixson History Lesson, History Lesson! We learn about the history of Arkham Asylum and the twist at the end. If you’ve read Absolute Evil things are starting to come together in all the Absolute titles and characters that you may not have seen are starting to make themselves known.

• Supergirl - Woman of Tomorrow Compact Edition DC Comics W: Taylor A: Evely With the upcoming Supergirl film and all the talk about how it was inspired by this series I decided since the Compact edition was released this week I would check it out. Wow- it lives up to the hype. I hope the film is just as good. Briefly Supergirl turns 21 and goes out drinking on a planet with a red sun so she can actually get drunk. Leading to an adventure that makes you understand why Krypto was left at home under the care of Kal-El in the Superman movie. Obvious “inspired” since I didn’t see Lobo in the original source material.

I’d also like to add a bit of foreshadowing from 2016- a series I picked up as individual issues but also as a graphic novel by Image Comics- Brian K. Vaughn and Steve Stroke’s We Stand On Guard. The story of Canadian freedom fighters trying to stop the U.S. invasion of Canada. With everything going on in the world right now this is a possibility. To all those who think it could never happen… you are probably the same ones who kept saying “Project 2025 isn’t the actual plan that will be put in place after the election.” According to some sources one year into this administration and 51% of Project 2025 has been completed. I posted at the beginning of this year that my hope for 2026 would be that we would stop trying to make dystopian novels non-fiction. Sadly I don’t see it happening anytime in the near future. We Stand On Guard is a wonderful story about people with nothing to lose. A true David and Goliath story where you hope against hope that there will be a happy ending, but, Like Rogue One, you know that’s probably not going to happen. Read it and wonder if this story, set 100 years in the future, isn’t actually going to happen sooner. Truth is stranger than fiction, especially nowadays.

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