Dark Horse Penguin Picks: August 2026
Above-the-Board Recommendation:
H.P. Lovecraft’s The Dunwich Horror Deluxe Edition
First off, don’t ever be a researcher into ancient cultures or lore in a Lovecraft story. If you do happen to be one, just do your research from the safe and hallowed halls of academia. Don’t do any fieldwork. If you do go out into the field, DON’T do it because you’ve been corresponding with a ten-year-old prodigy who’s also the descendant of a Puritan family that founded a once-bustling town that has now found its way into ruin and is now the site of unspeakable rituals about forgotten horrors. I mean, it’s just common sense, y’know.
Gou Tanabe is back with another Lovecraft adaptation that I’ll be judging on its own merits as opposed to how it relates to the original text (nope, still haven’t gotten around to reading those…). What’s notable about this edition is that Dark Horse is skipping a softcover edition and going straight to hardcover. The $50 cover price might seem hefty, but so is the page count at 650 which makes it the longest of Tanabe’s adaptations yet. While the quality of these has varied a bit, I’m feeling optimistic about this one – particularly after how good the last story about an unfortunate soul who wandered into a town he had no business being in turned out.
Masters of the Universe: Genesis #1 (of 12): Why do one miniseries about the origins of these characters when you can do a whole maxiseries about them! First up is Skeletor from writer Rich Doueck and artist Gavin Smith… and that does nothing for me. I’m not familiar with the creators, and we’ll see if the new live-action movie does anything to rekindle my long (long) dormant appreciation of this franchise. Still, I’ll be keeping an eye on this title as its rotating creative teams are sure to reveal some surprises (I would hope).
The Foundry #1 (of 4): Another new Mignolaverse miniseries from the established team of writer Chris Roberson and artist Christopher Mitten. Investigators of the unnatural from the pages of “Witchfinder” and “The British Paranormal Society” team up to explore the ruins of old civilizations and the strange technologies that powered them before they came to ruin. It’s not a bad setup and the cover of this issue is striking in its bleak epicness. However, Roberson and Mitten’s work in this universe has ranged from decent to unspectacular, so I can’t say I’m all that thrilled at the idea of paying $25 for the inevitable hardcover collection to find out.
The Smart Division #1 (of 4): Another round of Dark Horse solicitations, another new miniseries from prolific writer Zack Kaplan. This time around he and artist John J. Pearson are giving us the story of an A.I. program that has helped someone to create the perfect murder. Which leads an oddball Gen-Z savant and a veteran FBI agent to start the Bureau’s first A.I. crimes division. Sure, why not. It sounds timely if nothing else.
Powers 25 #12 (of 12): The conclusion of the maxiseries, natch. But that’s not why I’m talking about it here. I’m bringing it up because it also promises a look at Bendis and Michael Avon Oeming’s next project, “The Futurist.” I’ll admit to being a little disappointed we’re not getting another volume of “The United States of Murder, Inc.” but it’s probably for the best that’s ending where it is for now. As for what this new series is about, I’m going to guess Tony Stark/Iron Man with the serial numbers filed off. If you’ve got any other guesses, place your bets now.
The EC Archives: The Complete Piracy: Wait, I thought Dark Horse had the license to publish reprints of old EC comics. Why’ve they suddenly gone rogue after all these years? Oh, wait, “Piracy” is the name of the comic book series being collected here, and it’s all about pirates! Don’t I feel silly. Still, most of what Dark Horse has reprinted from EC’s archives has been too expensive for my tastes. This 240-page collection for $20 seems like a much more appreciable entry point for my money.
Hellboy Universe: The Secret Histories, vol. 2: When I said that most of what Roberson and Mitten have done in the Mignolaverse ranged from “decent to unspectacular” earlier, I was talking about most of the stories collected here. “Rise of the Black Flame,” “House of Lost Horizons,” and “The British Paranormal Society: Time Out of Mind,” were all decidedly mid and only worth reading if you’re a completist. The exception here being “The Silver Lantern Club,” which was a very enjoyable anthology of weirdness. Whether or not you think that’s worth the price of admission on its own, is up to you.
John Le Carre’s The Circus: Losing Control: The Circus is the network of intelligence agents who work in the shadows to keep Britain safe. They’re overseen by the mysterious Control, who has suddenly gone missing and now it’s down to his secretary to find out what has happened to them. Unlike most of Matt Kind’s recent output through Dark Horse, this appears to be coming out in a format and price point that’s actually somewhat reasonable: A 120-page softcover collection for $20. This means that after a while of not bothering with new projects from Kindt at Dark Horse, I’ll likely be picking this up. We’ll see if that remains true when his new work starts being collected at Oni Press.
FML & Minor Threats vol. 3: Both of these have been re-solicited for release in September! Which is still better than not coming out at all. We’ll get that sixth omnibus of “The Kurosagi Corpse Delivery Service” at some point, I swear!