FOC PICKS FOR 8/3/26

 

This week is HEAVY on reprints, and reprints of reprints…whether it be Absolute Batman, the ongoing Batman series, or even Action Comics #1. It’s gotten ridiculous. I’m sure many shops will load up on them, so shouldn’t be hard to find or need to place an FOC order…so I’ll pass on those and jump into other notable books this week.

Use code CHU 2026 at checkout to save 15% at Third Eye Comics

 

COVERS

 

Kicking off this week with some Ito variants.

 

 

Third Eye doesn’t seem to have this variant available for pre-order. Interesting.

 

 

This one is my favorite. I believe Ito’s first marvel work for a comic. Dirty D Cover-of-the-Week.

 

 

This cover also deserves a look. Especially from US buyers. Some of these Muppet variants have done well on the aftermarket. Typically those have been homages, and I don’t recognize this one as an homage…but I think it’s done very well and clever to pair up Sam Eagle with Sam Wilson. Very close runner up for Cover of the Week.

 

NEW ONES

 

Gotham City’s new mayor, Pamela Isley, deserted by her allies both political and arcane, is about to make a last-ditch power play that will leave Gotham decimated by daylight. Having already declared war on the Bat-Family and flooded the streets with his private, paramilitarized police army, Police Commissioner Vandal Savage sees an opportunity to solve two problems at once. Storylines converge in Batman: Bad Seeds, a Gotham City event spanning one long, dark night in Gotham that threatens to turn the entire city into a hostile world of prehistoric plant life unlike anything on Earth for millennia, at a time when its greatest heroes are hunted and in hiding. As the sun goes down and Gotham loses power, Matt Fraction (Batman), G. Willow Wilson (Poison Ivy), Giuseppe Camuncoli (Absolute Evil), and Cliff Rathburn (The Walking Dead) deliver an unforgettable opening chapter that shows the only thing scarier than the night just might be the morning sun…

Not sure where this will go. But if I’m buying a copy it’s going to be the Dan Mora variant as he has a decent track record with his non-A covers.

 

 

Twenty-three-year-old Darren Burroughs out of Audubon, PA, is a gifted rookie sent under the guise of a diplomatic aide to train with Division Nine–an obscure, outdated, and easily dismissed arm of British intelligence that specializes in dealing with paranormal incidents. In the right sort of spy circles, they’re known by a different, more feared name…Black Tower. It’s 2026, and in the age of cyber warfare and drone strikes, someone is plotting to steal the head of a giant-king to break a centuries-old ward that has kept invading forces out of Britain. Magic and espionage collide as the Black Tower’s band of misfits, led by the enigmatic Alistair Romeo, delves into a maelstrom of spells and silencers, working against time and in the shadows to fight the esoteric battles bubbling under the surface of our visible wars.

 

 

The wheels are turning and the heads are rolling! Thirty years ago a tragic car accident left six people dead, leaving the small town of Adamsville scared and giving birth to the legend of Hector Cruz, a spectre who haunts the town, brutally punishing anyone who violates the rules of the road. This couldn’t be worse news for sixteen-year-old Tyler Theting, who’s about to start the first day of Driver’s Ed! Between school crushes, a sick mom, and gruesome murders, does Tyler have what it takes to conquer the road? Or will he crash out? It’s THE TOXIC AVENGER meets RED ASPHALT in the debut issue of DEADSTOP.

No variants or incentives for this issue. Could be interesting.

 

 

In a near-future world drowned by rising oceans, Denver survives as one of the last tightly controlled safe zones on the planet where every resource is rationed and every citizen is monitored. Max Flynn, a veteran border officer struggling to protect his family under these unforgiving rules, is shattered when his wife is suddenly kidnapped. A mysterious enemy forces him to betray Denver from within or lose her forever. As Max assembles a trusted crew and descends into the city’s underbelly, his desperate hunt threatens to expose the cracks in Denver’s rigid order and ignite a reckoning that could end the last safe city on Earth.

 

 

When superfan Taylor Van Owens wins a contest to stay in the legendary Mallard house, the most iconic filming location for the hit vampire book turned movie Blood Mountain, she and her best friend Karrah arrive in Vail expecting to sink their fangs into a weekend straight from a fangirls dream. The cast has reunited for a tenth-anniversary celebration, devotees have descended on the small town, and nostalgia hangs thick in the air. But shortly before their arrival, a young woman is found dead inside the Mallard house. The death is quickly brushed off as an unstable fan taking her fantasies too far, but rumors swirl as the police quietly open a murder investigation. With cameras rolling and ravenous Blood Mountain buffs to appease, production works overtime to keep the story from leaking, insisting the fandom is one big family, but unease spreads through the town. Resentful locals, jealous superfans, sensitive actors, and desperate producers overwhelm Taylor as she moves in a haze through meet-and-greets, vigils, and book signings. Every interaction feels loaded. Every corner holds a potential threat. Every vampire has a taste for blood. And the killer isn’t finished. They’ll stain the town red to ensure they go down in Blood Mountain history. This isn’t just a random act of violence it’s, a crime of passion a decade in the making. Blending true-crime tension with razor-sharp commentary on fandom and toxic addictions, Fixation is a chilling mystery in which everyone has a motive and the least threatening person in the room may actually be the most dangerous of all.

 

 

Deep in the Ozark Mountains lies the village of Dooney Hollow, hidden away from modern society for over a century. Its existence is only spoken of around campfires, in hushed tones, by people who don’t necessarily believe. Those who stumble upon Dooney Hollow never return to prove that it’s real, because dark forces lurk in the woods just outside the town gate. Kerri is a young graduate student who goes to the Ozarks to get a feel for the land and its people – and its local legends. Little does she know how close to these legends she will get, as a chance encounter in the forest leads her to ceremonial grounds and the terrifying monster that keeps the citizens of Dooney Hollow living in fear.

 

 

Prepare to challenge the limits of time, technology, and human endurance itself as one family’s refuge from the end of the world becomes a mind-bending nightmare reaching far beyond the future. Inside: Time stands still. But outside: Something even worse than the apocalypse awaits . . .Famed scientist Henry Dmour tried to save the world. He failed. But, in a desperate bid to save himself, his wife, and their two children, he constructed THE FOREVER HOME: an ark of luxury and ultramodern convenience insulated from the agony of the planet’s death throes outside its walls . . . and even time itself. Inside THE FOREVER HOME, only 20 minutes pass for every year on the outside . . . allowing the D’mour family to slowly enact their plans for a new world as their automated environment and robotic companions keep them safe. Safe on the inside. Always inside. Until a childish misstep accidentally breaks THE FOREVER HOMEs barrier. . . and what’s outside decides it wants back in . . .

Sounds pretty creepy. Small Press Pick-of-the-Week.

 

 

Meet MIKE DENTON: a dirtbag hitman, junkie, and absentee father who’s spent his life chasing the easy fix—drugs, cheap sex, and murder for money—while failing the one person who still believes he can be better: his daughter. Now, on the eve of BLACK NOON—an ancient darkness that erases the light in all things—Mike has to drag himself out of the gutter, awaken a supernatural weapon powered only by love, and fight his way through the living embodiment of evil to save her. Reservoir Dogs collides with Evil Dead in a filthy crime story that mutates into a savage splatter-horror nightmare about an unredeemable killer forced to do the one thing he’s avoided his entire life: stand for something other than himself.

 

 

It’s a race against time! When a disgraced member of a cryptid hunting squadron vanishes with a time-traveling apparatus, Slug Stephens must sober up from a decade-long bender to track down an all-too-familiar friend turned foe. With a legendary lineup of cover artists, featuring Esad Ribíc, Brett Bean, Pete Carroll, Jorge Corona, and more, Jack Mulqueen (Nightlife Noir) and Edison Neo (TMNT, Godzilla) bring readers a stylish and hilarious adventure across treacherous jungles, frozen oceans, and deadly dive bars.

 

 

Chapter 1: “The Thing about me Dying.” Six actors built America’s favorite sitcom. Millions tuned in. Billboards lit the skyline. Then one of them died . . . A beloved cast member of a hit ensemble sitcom dies under mysterious circumstances, sending shockwaves through Hollywood and revealing the secrets, betrayals, and desires lurking beneath the glittering facade. As the surviving cast members confront their past; old rivalries and hidden truths emerge and the line between life and performance begins to blur. A brutal Hollywood noir: a story about grief, ambition, and the lies we tell to keep the show alive.

Kind of a spin on a popular sitcom back in the day…

 

Parting Thoughts…?

Have a great week everyone.