Dark Horse Penguin Picks: October 2025
Above-the-Board Recommendation:
Keep Your Hands Off Eizouken vol. 8
Initially, the main reason I picked this volume for the top spot was because I was glad it was finally coming out after being delayed and re-solicited in previous solicitations. Then I ran a search through my previous write-ups to find out how many times I had written about it. Imagine my surprise when it didn’t come up – nor did a review for vol. 7. I checked my shelf and whaddya know, there was no vol. 7 and it had previously come out back in March. It’s now on order with some newer manga and should have no problem arriving before vol. 8.
If you’re reading this and thinking that it sounds like it was a lot harder than usual to find something for this slot, well, read on…
American Caper #1: The basic premise of this new series, about a Mormon hitman and a gambling-addict lawyer who are entangled in a real-estate deal gone wrong that has ties to the culture wars being waged across our country, is second to who it’s coming from. This is the first comic from Sam Houser and Lazlow, two of the key creative minds behind the modern “Grand Theft Auto” games. While I don’t want to slight their achievements, and all the hours I’ve spent playing games in the series from number three onwards, I can’t say I’m as excited about the series as I used to be. This would’ve been a must-read had it released after “San Andreas,” but now I’m really wondering if Houser and Lazlow’s style of writing, and humor, will really work in a different medium. At least they’ve got “Stray Bullets’” David Lapham illustrating it, and I may just pick this up because seeing whether it works or not will make for something interesting to write about. Provided it’s released in softcover first.
Devil on My Shoulder #1 (of 4): The creative team behind “Where Monsters Lie,” writer Kyle Starks, and artist Piotr Kowalski, return for this decidedly darker miniseries. A woman was tortured for forty days and then left for dead by five men. Now she’s going to exact her revenge on them one by one. Billed as a dark horror series, this has a premise grimmer than anything I’ve seen from Starks yet. While he’s done straight-up horror before – go read “I Hate This Place” if you haven’t already – the premise alone feels like it would rule out any humor here. He and Kowalski have done good work together before, so I’ll likely check this out to see if the writer can still entertain when he’s being deadly serious.
Hellboy and the B.P.R.D.: The Ghost Ships of Labrador #1 (of 2): Investigating a town overrun by ghosts is just another day for Hellboy. Only now it’s complicated by a missing B.P.R.D. member, and that’s before the Ghost Ships get involved. This comes from the “Sword of Hyperborea” team of Mignola, co-writer Rob Williams and artist Laurence Campbell. That was a miniseries I would’ve enjoyed more if it hadn’t been priced at an exorbitant $25 for a collection of four issues. I wouldn’t mind reading more Mignolaverse stories from Williams, but not if the publisher is going to continue pricing them like that.
Space Scouts #1 (of 3): New from the “Ether” creative team of writer Matt Kindt and artist David Rubin. This is a series that starts as a teenage drama as a young girl heads to the center of the universe to take part in the competition to become one of the title characters. Then she finds out that winning leads her into a new life of endless warfare. I’m not going to lie: I’m a bit curious as to how Kindt plans to reconcile these two setups into one story. I’m also curious how the inevitable collection will be priced as this is being published in a magazine-sized format at $8 an issue. No doubt that Rubin’s art will look great at that size, if nothing else.
John Le Carre’s The Circus: Losing Control #1 (of 3): Also debuting from Kindt this month is this new miniseries with artist Ibrahim Moustafa based on the legendary spycraft writer’s works. The Circus is responsible for the protection of Britain’s most heavily-guarded secrets and the mysterious individual known as Control sits at the top of it. At least he did until he disappeared, and only his assistant Maggie knows that he’s gone. Now she’s got to track him down before all hell breaks loose, which might even be part of her boss’ plan. While Kindt has shown in the past that he can do these kinds of stories well, in “Mind MGMT,” that was when he was writing and illustrating and using every part of the comics form that he could. Nothing against Moustafa, but you have to wonder if this will wind up being on the bland side as a good chunk of the writer’s work as just a writer has been at the publisher.
Christmas 365: After a desperate family man acts on the advice given to him by a mall Santa, he decides to give his family the best year ever – with Christmas every day! Co-writer Jon Rivera was responsible for “Cave Carson,” one of the more interesting titles to come out under Gerard Way’s short-lived DC imprint Young Animal. Now he’s teaming with Way’s brother Mikey for this new miniseries with the prolific Piotr Kowalski providing the art. I’ll be picking this up not just to see if Rivera and Way can deliver a series as memorably quirky as “Cave” was, but to see Kowalski illustrate some material that doesn’t have a horrific vibe to it.
Planetes Deluxe Edition Book Two: Collecting the rest of Makoto Yukimura’s classic sci-fi series in the premium format. Absolutely worth picking up if you don’t already own it in softcover. Interestingly, with the publication of this, and the reprinting of “Vinland Saga” in a similar format, Yukimura will soon see his entire output in English available in a deluxe edition. Good thing everything he’s done has been worthy of it.