Science Fiction related #1 issues, OGNs and one-shots I’m buying this month
Each month a new set of comics previews and solicits arrive with hundreds of pages of new comic book awesomeness. I love science fiction, but not all new sci-fi appeals to my somewhat specific tastes. I have tired of the nihilism of dystopian futures, I’ve given up on keeping up on the various licensed properties that are being endlessly recycled, and for the most part I am looking for stories that are told within the currently accepted limits of physics and human potential. That is not to say that there is not a lot of great licensed, nihilistic stuff out there. It just isn’t necessarily my thing anymore.
So with those restrictions in mind, is there anything out there worth buying these days? Oh, hell yes. We are living in the golden-est of golden ages in terms of new comics options, and every month fantastic writers and artists are offering up thoughtful visions of the future. Plus, I am not exactly demanding utopian visions. I just want to read about futures where humanity still has a chance, and where we are still coming up with new and interesting ideas.
Below are my picks for this month. Note that in most cases I don’t have any more info to go on than the cover images and the solicit text presented here, and this list is not so much my recommendations as it is my personal selections/best guesses. I can’t guarantee they are going to be great, but I am betting my own hard earned cash on anything I highlight here, and giving you my reasons for taking a chance on them. If you think I have missed something, I would love to hear from you. Email me at dnewland@historian.us with recommendations, complaints, etc.
All of these should be available for preorder from your local comic shop during the August, 2026 ordering window or will be in stores sometime around October.
THE DETECTIVE – Bad Idea
2 issues, $5.99, on sale 10/21/2026
(W) David and Maria Lapham (A/CA) David Lapham
Deftly combining the master worldbuilding of both Ridley Scott’s BLADE RUNNER and the Wachowski’s THE MATRIX with the intricate storytelling of Roman Polanski’s CHINATOWN, and the groundbreaking visuals of Jack Kirby’s FOURTH WORLD, the Laphams deliver a seminal neo-noir sci-fi epic. It’s a cold morning in The City when Valencia Vallez wakes up in an unfamiliar bed with a revolver in her hand and a dead body at her side. She doesn’t remember how she got there. She doesn’t remember much of anything. Just the long list of names buzzing around her head–suspects in the brutal gangland execution of her husband. Lucky for her, Val’s a homicide detective. The only trouble? In the City, so is everyone else. Val’s hunt for answers has painted a target on her back. Caught between the crooked cops hot on her tail and the towering mechanical Judges looming over the City’s rain-soaked streets, every lead Val runs down only raises more questions. What secrets lie hidden in Val’s missing memories? Who is the Mastermind? In The City, the truth doesn’t come easy. And when it does, you’ll wish it hadn’t.
Why I’m Buying: I am buying because it is a DAVID LAPHAM NEO-NOIR SCI-FI EPIC!! Every part of that sounds awesome. Plus it reminds me of an insanely frustrating game I had back on Commodore 64 called Amnesia that was written by Thomas M. Disch and was damn near impossible to complete. In any case, this should be fantastic, and I am looking forward to seeing what the Laphams have in store for us.
DIANA – Abrams
OGN, $29.99, on sale 10/6/2026
(W/A/CA) Nate Powell
From the National Book Award–winning, bestselling author Nate Powell comes an intense time-tripping graphic novel capturing the transitional 1990s and the weird kids who fall through the cracks—perfect for fans of Everything Everywhere All At Once, Killing Eve, and Laura Dean Keeps Breaking Up With MeThe year is 1992. Diana Bogue is a personality too big for her small Arkansas town—a runaway who dyes her hair platinum, studies the occult, sings like an angel, and dominates the local punk scene through the force of her personality.Even when being in the “cult of Diana” is too much for them, her friends Jody, Steff, Napoleon, and Todd can’t help but be pulled into her vortex.But under the surface, Diana struggles to outrun damage from a repressive religious past. She only shares these struggles with her dearest long-distance pen pal—who she keeps hidden from her other friends.Until one day, he’s never heard from again.Untethered and fiercely protective of what she considers hers, Diana turns even more inward, blending music and homegrown sorcery in hopes of outrunning reality. But even she can’t turn back time . . . or can she?
Why I’m Buying: Anything new from Nate Powell is a “shut up and take my money” event, and his long-awaited DIANA is no exception. I am including it as science fiction because of the term “time tripping” in the solicit text, although I don’t particularly know what that implies. NOR DO I CARE. Whatever Powell is doing, it is going to be brilliant, and I need to have this comic.
Circuits Seduction Revenge – Massive
Ongoing, $5.55, on sale 10/14/2026
(W) Josh Blaylock, Mark Powers (A) Jethro Morales (CA) Joel H Herrera
An all-new quarterly ongoing series! In 2050 A.D., Earth has survived the AI singularity and settled into a strange new equilibrium: futuristic metropolises under mandatory logdowns, cities reserved for sentient survivors of a deactivated AI consciousness, and breakaway communities living like it’s still 1985. This new cyberpunk saga merges the worlds of the previous Circuits: Seduction-Revenge one-shot and The Encoded, as a mysterious rogue pleasure android wreaks havoc on the trillionaire class, forcing them to turn to an equally dangerous artificial life-form to stop her.
Why I’m Buying: “Wreaking havoc on the trillionaire class” sounds sublime, and at a more basic level I have been a sucker for sexy-killer-robot stories pretty much my whole life. So I’m thinking this is going to be pretty fantastic. The only thing that concerns me is that none of the covers appear to be by the interior penciller. That always is a red flag for me. Morales seems to be a fine artist, and I am relatively confident the interiors will be well done. But it is unfortunate that we don’t get any preview of his take on the characters or world at all, and instead just get three (admittedly very cool) cover options by other artists.
Consciousness A Neo-Decadent Manifesto – Church Ghost
One-Shot, $9.00
(W/A/CA) Siobhan M La Grippe
Siobhan M La Grippe A Neo-Decadent manifesto outlining techniques for consciousness in the 21st century and beyond. Fully illustrated with informational graphics by the author. Neo-Decadence is an international art movement built around redefining art, ideas, and everyday life in anti-utilitarian terms. The Neo-Decadent excavates all aspects of life, creating new sites for the potentiation of frightening beauty. Neo-Decadence rejects aesthetic limitations, which exist only to facilitate Neo-Passéist commercial art and Capitalist Realism. It is better to be obscure than to be boring.
Why I’m Buying: First off, I understand that this is not, strictly speaking, either science or fiction. But it sort of hits that same nerve that the best sci-fi books do, promising to expand our horizons and let us see the world in new ways. Yes, it fairly reeks of pretention and naval-gazing. But as an art history geek who has about had it with the bland efficiencies of the modern world, I find myself very interested in finding out more about what La Grippe has to say.
THE LAST WATCHTOWER – Massive
OGN, $29.99, on-sale 10/14/2026
(W/A/CA) Karl Slominski
A thoughtful graphic novel in which a solitary man on the moon embraces his past. — Foreword Reviews Every major violent event—natural or man-made—is observed and logged: tornadoes, wars, hurricanes, earthquakes, volcanoes, riots, and floods. All are ranked and cataloged by the lone occupant of a remote lunar observation station: Cal Ferris. After 5,840 identical days, the arrival of a mysterious stranger sends the isolated astronaut hurtling into a cosmic exploration of loss, love, and empathy—a rediscovery of his own humanity in humanity’s final hour.
Why I’m Buying: I am, to be honest, a bit unsure about how well I will connect with this. Slominski’s art is gorgeous and unique, but I have heard rumbles that this one may be a bit depressing for my tastes. That said, the cover has a hopeful vibe and the solicit gives me thoughts of Spaceboy from Umbrella Academy crossed with one of Marvel’s Watchers. We shall see…
SOULHIDER: A Novel – Harper Collins
Novel, $30.00, on-sale 10/27/2026
(W) Dan Aykroyd
Doug Beeston is just an ordinary insurance consultant in his mid-thirties, living an unremarkable life in central New York. He enjoys time with his wife and kids, his waistline is expanding perhaps from a bit too much revelry and not enough moving, but that’s pretty normal for a guy his age—until one day, out of the clear blue sky, Doug’s tapped by alien lifeforms to take on an extraordinary mission. The assignment? Hide the human souls they’ve harvested in various locations across Earth—use his prowess as a risk assessor to assure their precious commodity will not go missing.Doug embraces his responsibility with pride, believing he’s playing a crucial role in something far bigger than himself. But as he soon discovers, he’s not just a courier—he’s a pawn. Multiple alien species are locked in a silent, intergalactic war, using Doug as an unwitting middleman in their cosmic chess game. The more he understands his role, the more Doug realizes that the fate of Earth itself may hang in the balance. Channeling Dan Aykroyd’s signature hilarious wit and deep fascination with the supernatural, Soulhider is a high-stakes, wildly thrilling sci-fi ride that only he could write, exploring identity, power, and the unseen forces shaping our world—both terrestrial and otherwise.
Why I’m Buying: So first off, a format note: I did not actually get this through my LCS. I preordered the audiobook instead, because our man Elwood Blues is narrating the audio version himself. The premise sounds pretty interesting, and I like the occasional Scalzi-ish comedic sci-fi story. So will this actually be any good? I am cautiously optimistic that it will be, but I have been burned before by celebrity authors (Shatner’s TekWar??) so I am not getting my hopes up too high.
A note on credits: Rather than trying to track down all the people involved with these books, I am just crediting the names mentioned in the solicits that I use to make my preorder selections. I realize that in many cases this is woefully inadequate, and if by chance you are one of the many overworked and underappreciated inkers, letterers or colorists working in comics these days, I apologize for neglecting your craft. MAYBE YOUR PUBLISHERS SHOULD MENTION YOU IN THEIR ADS!