Dark Horse Penguin Picks: December 2025
Above-the-Board Recommendation:
Uri Tupka and the Gods: Another Tale From Lands Unknown
It turns out we didn’t have to wait that long for creator Mike Mignola to return to his newest fictional universe. This second installment of “From Lands Unknown” is set to arrive a little over a year after the first and may be correcting the biggest issue I had with the previous volume. While “Bowling With Corpses” was an enjoyable melange of supernatural and folkloric weirdness, it also felt unfocused without anything to tie its many stories together. That looks like it’ll change with this volume as we’re introduced to wandering theologian Uri Tupka who’s on the lookout for the missing gods of this world. He may not have come from Hell with a big stone hand to punch a lot of demons, but giving these stories a protagonist may provide the focus lacking in the first volume. Even if it doesn’t work out in the way I’m expecting it to, we’re getting over a hundred pages of art and storytelling from Mignola, and that’s still pretty great on its own terms.
Tomb Raider: Sacred Artifacts #1 (of 4): Croft Manor has gone up in flames and Lara Croft finds herself on an international chase to stop an old foe who has gotten their hands on an artifact of incredible power. Sounds “Tomb Raider” enough for me, but I’ve only played the “Survivor” trilogy, so what do I really know. I do know that Dark Horse had previously published a series based on those series of games from the writer of the first two, Rhianna Pratchett, with the first volume being co-written by Gail Simone. It was… alright. This one comes from writer Casey Gilly and artist Antonio Di Caprio, and I can only assume it’s being done to synergize with the upcoming Phoebe Waller-Bridge series coming from Amazon. At least this is getting out far enough ahead of that to properly work.
Cyberpunk 2077: Chrome #1 (of 4): A netrunner, a fire graffiti artist, an aspiring rockerboy, and an autotechie walk into a landfill to do a photoshoot. If that doesn’t do it for you, what if I said that it was a haunted landfill. How about that? Well, what if I also said that this is being written by Doug Wagner, who wrote the “Materials” trilogy of comics about serial killers and the oddball Norse mythology riff “Beware the Eye of Odin?” That gets me a little interested, though my main barrier of interest is that “Cyberpunk 2077” has only been on my To Buy list for a while now. I’ll get around to buying and playing it one day. In the meantime, Wagner’s involvement suggests that this miniseries will turn out perfectly fine, with Tommaso Benato providing the art.
Cyberpunk: Edgerunners – Madness vol. 1: In what is arguably a bigger deal in these solicitations is the first volume of the manga prequel to the Netflix anime series. It’s being written by its writer, Bartosz Sztybor with art from Asano, who is also credited with doing the manga adaptation for Studio Trigger’s “Brand New Animal.” This sounds like what you’d expect: It focuses on Rebecca and Pilar before the events of the anime as they struggle to make it in Night City. That all changes when they meet up with a mysterious individual who provides them with the opportunity to turn themselves into actual netrunners. Sounds fine. While I thought “Edgerunners” was great, it didn’t leave me with a burning need to see its world expanded upon. As it was hugely successful, we’re getting that anyway and it sounds like we could do a lot worse than have one of its primary creatives involved in writing this prequel.
Carmen Red Claw: Belly of the Beast #1 (of 4): The Mignlolaverse has covered a lot of settings and genres over the course of its decades-long existence. However, do you know what setting and genre haven’t been touched upon in that time? A classic Western set in the New Mexico territory of 1870! Meet Carmen Red Claw, a gun-for-hire and shape-shifting descendant of El Bogavante. She’s been hired to investigate a series of cattle murders on supposedly cursed ranch land. Is there an actual curse involved, or is humanity the real culprit? I’m betting the answer is “Yes.” Mike Mignola is listed as a co-writer here, as always, but the primary creative here is co-writer and artist Rae Allen, and while I’m not familiar with her work, she’s got that unique setting working for her in this scenario.
Barb Wire Compendium: Now you can own all of the comics that inspired (and maybe some that didn’t) the infamously terrible Pamela Anderson movie! Because that’s the main reason anybody even remembers Barb Wire these days. To Anderson’s credit, she’s developing a new series based on the character, so good on her for trying to make good on that. Though her recent turn in “The Naked Gun” legacy sequel was very funny and a better showcase for her talents than you’d expect. Go check it out if you haven’t already.
Helen of Wyndhorn Deluxe Edition HC: If you didn’t think that paying $30 to read this miniseries from writer Tom King and artist Bilquis Evely in hardcover was enough, now you’ve got this edition. It’ll get you the miniseries in an oversized hardcover with a slipcase, gilded edges, additional sketchbook material, and bonus art pieces from the likes of Walt Simonson, Greg Smallwood, Clay Mann, and more. None of this sounds like a reason for me to double dip, which is nice since this edition will cost twice as much as the current hardcover one.
The History of Metroidvania: Decade One 1980-1990: If you’re not familiar with it, “Metroidvania” is a portmanteau of the “Metroid” and “Castlevania” franchises which popularized a style of exploration-based gameplay facilitated by item acquisition. This was best seen in “Super Metroid” and “Castlevania: Symphony of the Night” and any attempts to argue otherwise are just plain wrong. Neither of these will be mentioned here as they both arrived in the genre’s second decade, so expect them to be covered in vol. 2.
This is an odd item to see in these solicitations since while Dark Horse publishes gaming artbooks and actual books, books that are about games are rarely featured here. I’m glad to see it for two reasons. The first is that I love the genre and am always on the lookout for a new entry I can just hook directly into my veins. The second is that this comes from the man who coined the word “Metroidvania” and has provided the genre’s most detailed analysis online for a while now, Jeremy Parish. I’ve been reading his work for a good long while and picking this up is an easy choice even if it’s a 240-page softcover that’s going to cost… $55 *sounds of heart seizing up* Nope… I’m okay… I can take this…
Gunsmith Cats: Burst Omnibus vol. 1: Now you can own the first half of the series that showed mangaka Kenichi Sonoda had completely run out of gas in omnibus form!