Today we have a tasty scoop and a delightful preview: Oni Press will publish Dracula’s Brunch Club: The Future Looks Bite!, a followup to the last year’s Dracula’s Brunch Club graphic novel, which was a 2026 Maverick Graphic Novel List pick. The new spooky/funny graphic novel by Brian Gonsar and Keenan Gaybba returns to the world of vampires and bakeries once more. Here’s the publisher’s description:

Years after uniting humans and vampires through his beloved brunch club, everything’s going well for Count Dracula—his famous brunch club is thriving, and he is the new father to a bouncing baby half-human, half-vampire boy! But when his teething baby sinks his fangs into something he shouldn’t and vampire hunters kidnap baby Drago, peace in Transylvania is threatened . . . Now Count Dracula must set out on an epic search to save his son and stop vampire hunters once and for all. Full of heart, hijinks, hilarity and, of course, delicious donuts, the future looks bite in this delightful sequel to Dracula’s Brunch Club—perfect for fans of humor, suspense, and just the right amount of spookiness.

“After seeing the excitement from kids, teachers, and librarians for the first book, I was eager to get back in and create a new, slightly absurd, adventure for these donut-loving characters,” said Gonsar said in a statement accompanying the announcement. “Keenan and I introduced a few new faces to keep it fresh, like Drago, Dracula and Elena’s teething baby; a very suspicious Nanny; a paranoid doctor; and a donut-craving bear. This sequel keeps the comedy-in-a-spooky-wrapper vibe from the first book and is great for kids who want a scary feeling book without the nightmares.”

“With a good portion of the story taking place during the daytime, our vampires and color palette will be seen in a new light (literally),” added Gaybba. “More silliness, funny expressions, and Saturday Morning cartoon vibes. It’s been a lot of fun drawing Dracula and the gang again, as well as a cast of new characters I’m sure readers will love as much as we do.”

The book is slated for release on August 17, 2027, but you can pull up a chair to the brunch table right now with our exclusive preview. Enjoy!

Front Desk: The Graphic Novel from Graphix tops this week’s list of new comics, manga, and graphic novels for readers 12 and under, along with a new graphic novel from Papercutz. Other highlights include new volumes 3 and 4 of Captain Tsubasa from DK Flip. Keenspot Entertainment continues their release of Pooh Bear Adventures with Owl’s New House #1, while Storytide releases the next installment of Emmie and Friends with Seriously Celia.

The List:

DK FLIP
Captain Tsubasa Volume 3 Goal Chaser GN, $12.99
Captain Tsubasa Volume 4 Counter Attack GN, $12.99
LEGO Nikolas Nurdblok And The Lost Brick HC, $14.99

GRAPHIX
Front Desk: The Graphic Novel Volume 1 GN, $14.99 **Weekly Pick**
Shang Chi-And The Quest For Immortality GN, $12.99

IDW PUBLISHING
Hello Kitty And Friends Hello World #3 , $4.99
Sonic The Hedgehog #91, $4.99

KEENSPOT ENTERTAINMENT
Pooh Bear Adventures Owl’s New House #1 (One Shot), $5.99

MARVEL COMICS
Godzilla Conquers The Multiverse #4 (Of 5), $4.99

PAPERCUTZ
Disney Atlantis The Lost Empire Volume 1 The Curse Of Kurok GN, $9.99
Disney Graphic Tales Zootopia 2 HC, $19.99
Smurfs Tales Volume 17 Gargamel Friend Of The Smurfs And Other Stories TP, $14.99
Solar Sisters GN, $12.99 **Weekly Pick**
Three Bee Honey Volume 1 GN, $14.99

STORYTIDE
Emmie And Friends: Seriously Celia GN, $15.99

The Picks:

Front Desk The Graphic Novel Volume 1 GN – Graphix releases a new adaptation of a New York Times best-selling book. Ten-year-old Mia Tang is a Chinese immigrant living in California in 1993. Her parents came to the US for a better life. They get a job as live-in managers of the Calivista Motel in Anaheim, while Mia is enrolled at the local junior high school. Wanting to help, Mia takes on the front desk duties while her parents clean the rooms. But she has a secret she needs to keep for them; her parents hide immigrants. They let them stay in the empty rooms for free, but the motel owner Mr. Yao can never know, otherwise the Tangs will be in a lot of trouble. Throughout all this, Mia dreams of becoming a writer, but her mother wants her to stick to math because English is not her first language. In order to hold on to her job, help the immigrants and guests, escape Mr. Yao, and realize her dreams, Mia will have to use all her courage, kindness and hard work to get through the year. This title is a must have for any graphic novel collection.

Solar Sisters GN – Papercutz releases a new graphic novel about two sisters and the price of fame. Phoebe Dust was a child star, born and raised on the moon. But those days are over, and she is shocked to discover her mom’s tourist trap, the Lunar Link, is deep in debt. Determined to save it, Phoebe comes up with a plan that accidentally makes her alien sister, Luna, an interstellar superstar. As tourists swarm into the Lunar Link, so do the perils of fame. Nova Starr, the galaxy’s most ruthless influencer, isn’t happy to have lost the spotlight and is plotting to claw it back by any means necessary. As she contends with the forces of fame, fortune, and cutthroat rivals, Phoebe must keep her family’s future from being blown into stardust. Middle grade readers will love this new title, with its sci-fi setting and adventure-filled plot.

GalaXic Baseball League Vol. 1

In our present, baseball is definitely not the most popular sport in the world—that would be what we call soccer, and the rest of the world calls football. But in the far-flung future of Acky Bright’s manga GalaXic Baseball League, the sport that is sometimes called our national pastime has conquered the galaxy, with each alien world fielding their own team that competes for glory and, more importantly, preferential treatment in trade (baseball, we’re told, has taken the place of war in the year 3026).

Now, while the basic rules of the game don’t seem to have changed too much over the course of a thousand years, the abilities of the players certainly have, as is demonstrated in the opening scene, where our point-of-view character Sol takes in a game between the Arcus Tails and the Parvus Robots (the latter of whom are, of course, actual robots piloted by tiny aliens). This makes for a game that is essentially super-baseball, involving enhanced technology, incredible powers and over-the-top moves befitting a shonen fight manga.

Perhaps because of this, Earth’s team—Gaia—has fallen on hard times. So hard, in fact, that, when the book opens, the entire team has just quit. And just as Luna, the brilliant inventor and CEO has been ousted by her company and forced to become the General Manager for Gaia.

Sol, who played the team’s mascot, is the only one who stuck around. Thanks to a chance discovery of an ancient artifact among his vast collection of baseball memorabilia, Luna has come up with a solution to their problem.

All she needs to do is invent a time-travelling ship, go back to the year 2026, abduct the best baseball players on Earth from some sort of all-star game and then bring them back to 3026, where these legendary players will win the GXBL “Survival Tournament,” which pits the lowest-ranking teams (like Gaia) against various unscrupulous teams who have been threatened with expulsion due to their nasty dispositions and dirty tricks.

Now, if you go into this book completely cold, as I did, you will likely be surprised to find out just who the 21st century players are that Luna brings to the 31st century to play against alien teams: Shohei Ohtani, Aaron Judge, Jazz Chisholm Jr., Paul Skenes and on and on. That’s right, GalaXic Baseball League features real baseball players in a crazy, vaguely Space Jam-esque sci-fi sports manga.

I’m extremely curious about how exactly this book came about, as it seems like there would have to be a lot of behind-the-scenes work to create a comic using the likenesses of so many different real people, and making them into characters in the context of the book. I’m not a sports fan, so I certainly can’t judge how well Bright captures their likenesses, their abilities and their personalities (or, at least, their public personas), but the artist certainly seems to make them all look like manga characters who fit in within his particular style and within the world (well, galaxy) that he constructs here.

As for their characterization, I suppose it’s mostly on the shallow side, with all of the athletes exhibiting a degree of incredulity and wonder at their situation, which soon gives way to a competitive spirit and determination to win.

And they will have to win, as doing so is their only ticket home.

Though in peak physical condition for human baseball players in the year 2026, Ohtani, Judge and company are still only human, and so Luna has also invented a sort of super-suit uniform that enhances their abilities and allows each to unlock a special move that gets demonstrated on a double-page splash.

While much of the first volume is devoted to setting up the book’s premise, introducing its cast and a couple of conflicts (beyond that of the tournament itself), by its last chapter the time-lost players of Gaia start their first game. For this they are pitted against the Victima Xenosects, a team of humanoid/insect hybrids who can move faster than the human eye can see, allowing them to rack up 10 points purely on bunts in their first at bat.

Do our professional baseball players even stand a chance…? Well, I doubt Bright would have gone to the trouble of casting them in a comic like this if they didn’t, but the stakes are so crazy high, and our heroes are presented as such hopeless underdogs, it is thrilling to watch them compete and, one assumes, eventually triumph.

One need not be a baseball fan to have a blast with this rather weird but extremely fun book. I mean, if you are, then it is probably even more fun, but chances are that as long as you like comics, you’ll like GalaXic Baseball League.

The Apothecary Diaries: Xiaolan’s Story, vol. 1
Story by Natsu Hyuuga, Art by Itsuki Nanao, Character Design by Touco Shino
Square Enix Manga & Books, released 10/6/2026
Age rating: Teen

With the popularity of The Apothecary Dairies on the rise, we are in for a treat in the month of October. Season three of the anime series is currently streaming, VIZ has released their own version of the hit series (review to come), and Square Enix has released a spin-off series centering on Maomao’s best friend, Xiaolan.

Xiaolan’s Story is told from her point of view. We witness her experiences of working and living in the palace, as well as glimpses of her life before meeting series lead, Maomao. She works in hopes to continue to care for her poverty-stricken family, making sure they have enough to eat. Knowing that she may never see them again, Xiaolan makes the best of her situation. Using adorable, and sometimes dangerous naivete, the servant girl does her best to survive and make friends, which includes Maomao and the mysterious Yaku (those who have read the series know Yaku’s secret *wink, wink*). Possessing child-like wonder, Xiaolan is a character we want to protect at all costs. 

With Itsuki Nanao providing the art instead of Nekokurage (who provides the art in the original manga series), it helps give us an illusion of that different point of view. It lets us know that is not Maomao’s story, it’s Xiaolan’s. We see the world through her lens, and the dangers she fails to see or is not exposed to. As Maomao is solving mysteries, Xiaolan is living her life and finds out the aftermath along with the others. 

It’s a brilliant take on this beloved series, which covers sequences leading to Maomao leaving the palace for the first time. The cliffhanger for volume one, which shows an unassuming Xiaolan not realizing the dangers Maomao is going to experience, is executed perfectly. 

The Apothecary Diaries: Xiaolan’s Story is a perfect addition for any fan of the series, and volume two looks to be even more exciting.

As Yubooh Slumbers Volume 1 from Tokyopop Kids tops this week’s list of new comics, manga, and graphic novels for readers 12 and under, along with a graphic novel adaptation of a horror favorite from Graphix. Other highlights include the second volume of Hooves of Death from HarperAlley. Marvel Comics releases Amazing Spider-Man Halloween Special #1 while Top Shelf Productions releases volume 3 of You Wish, Crunch Time.

The List:

ABRAMS FANFARE
Fox River Comics Camp HC, $14.99

ARCHIE COMICS PUBLICATIONS
Archie Comics Digest #8 Christmas Stocking, $9.99

DARK HORSE BOOKS
Plants Vs. Zombies Volume 26 Certified Zomboss GN, $12.99

DARK HORSE COMICS
Star Wars The High Republic Adventures Pathfinders #6 (Of 6), $4.99

GRAPHIX
Baby-Sitters Little Sister Volume 13 Karen’s New Year GN, $14.99
Goosebumps The Graphic Novel Volume 3 Stay Out Of The Basement GN, $12.99 **Weekly Pick**

HARPERALLEY
Hooves Of Death Volume 2 GN, $15.99

IDW PUBLISHING
Tales Of The Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles Coastal Chaos #2 (Of 3), $4.99
Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles The Booyakasha Books Volume 2 TP, $24.99

KEENSPOT ENTERTAINMENT
Kid Slapshot Cosmic Horror #1 (One Shot), $5.99
Witchtober #3, $6.99

MAD CAVE STUDIOS
Star Wars The Mandalorian And Grogu Nightmare On Nevarro #1 (One Shot), $6.99

MARVEL COMICS
Amazing Spider-Man Halloween Special #1 (One Shot), $4.99
Jeff The Land Shark Superstar #4 (Of 5), $4.99
Miles Morales Spider-Man #3, $4.99

PAPERCUTZ
Geronimo Stilton Reporter 4-In-1 Volume 7 TP, $17.99

TOKYOPOP KIDS
As Yubooh Slumbers Volume 1 GN, $15.99 **Weekly Pick**
Nightmare Library Book 1 Welcome to the Nightmare Library GN, $16.99

TOP SHELF PRODUCTIONS
You Wish Volume 3 Crunch Time GN, $14.99

The Picks:

As Yubooh Slumbers Volume 1 GN – Tokyopop Kids debuts a new magical manga series. Yubooh Rowell has always believed in magic, and that the prestigious boarding school Saturn Academy is really a school for witches! Having been accepted, she’s excited to join her best friend Salvia, who denies there is any magic there, and childhood friend Esteban, who is oddly anxious when he learns she is his new classmate. But when night comes and Yubooh falls asleep, the academy comes alive with magic, where nightmares and shadows reign supreme, and anyone without magic is in great danger. So, until they can establish whether or not Yubooh possesses magic, the school must sound their “Code Fish” alarm, and its up to all the students of Saturn Academy to protect Yubooh as she slumbers. Middle grade readers will love the mix of friendship, mystery and humor this series has to offer.

Goosebumps The Graphic Novel Volume 3 Stay Out Of The Basement GN – Graphix continues the graphic adaptation of best selling middle grade horror series. For Margaret and Casey Brewer, the basement of their home is strictly off limits. Their scientist dad is running a secret experiment with plants, and doesn’t want them upsetting the delicate ecosystem he’s created. But with their dad behaving very strangely, they decide a quick peek wouldn’t hurt. They have to know what’s going on down there. What they find is stranger than they could have imagined: These plants might just have minds of their own! Middle grade horror fans won’t be able to resist this new graphic adaptation.

Film Nerds

Starting middle school brings big changes to Ami’s life, and all of them seem to be pretty bad ones. For the first time since kindergarten, she’s separated from her best friend Ivy and all of the other friends they share. Suddenly isolated, she realizes how hard it is to make new friends, she’s suddenly aware of the social hierarchy in which some classmates are cool and others are not, and she’s started blushing uncontrollably, earning the unwelcome nickname “Tomato.”

Ami is the protagonist of cartoonist Sofia Warren’s first graphic novel for kids, Film Nerds. Ami is, of course, one of the nerds of the title, and Ivy is the other. The pair spend much of their free time together working on a science-fiction epic, Rovers of Time and Space, and now that they never see one another during the school day, working on their movie is pretty much the only time they get to see each other.

They love making the movie for different reasons, but doing so gives both of them the opportunity to relax and be their true selves, completely free of the judgement they fear from their classmates (and, whether they realize it or not, subject themselves to). After school starts, Ami particularly likes it because it gives her a chance to hang out with Ivy without having to talk about how school is going. That’s because it’s going so badly, that she fears if Ivy ever finds out how unpopular Ami actually is, she will stop wanting to be her friend at all.

Much of the book follows Ami’s attempts to grapple with her new social reality, her challenges made all the more difficult because she refuses to tell anyone else how it’s actually going and how she really feels. The movie eventually plays a big role in the conflict when a sixth-grade talent show is announced.

Ami wants to enter the movie, which she thinks will show the whole school that there’s so much more to her than a quiet teacher’s pet who is always turning red. Ivy refuses though, as she’s too embarrassed to be seen by the whole school—and her crush—acting the way she does when it’s only her and Ami.

The book, broken into a dozen chapters, frequently shares bits of Rovers with the readers. After the main action in each chapter, several pages are devoted to showing scenes from the movie, each two-page spread broken into four tiers of panels, the art appearing on strips of film (although the kids are actually recording their movie on a smartphone, rather than film) and the dialogue appearing just below each panel/film still in the format of a movie script.

The story of the movie, which involves the last survivors of Earth stranded on a spaceship and planning to try to go back in time to save the world, reflects the events of Ami and Ivy’s lives, but not so directly as to be obvious. Among the jokes and homemade special effects, their movie deals with issues of trust and honesty among friends.

Warren’s background in cartooning is obvious in her art here. For the most part, she works in a medium shot, as if her characters were on the set of a TV show, and though their designs are all quite distinct, they are quite loosely rendered, each seeming to be half doodle.

Ami narrates, and in that narration explains some of the most difficult aspects of the book—like an emotional “static” that descends on her during her lowest point, which Warren draws as a cloud of dots obscuring Ami’s head—but the majority of the story unfolds via the dialogue, this in obviously hand-drawn balloons with handwriting-like lettering. The art therefore has a warm, intimate feeling to it, being clearly the work of human hands, rather than something machine assisted.

Though often quite sad, the types of problems Ami faces in Film Nerds are familiar, even common ones for kids her age, and there is something rewarding in watching her face and ultimately overcoming them. Warren’s book also makes a strong argument for not just being yourself, but also being honest about your needs and feelings, which is no doubt an important lesson for middle-schoolers to learn…and us older readers to get the occasional reminder of.

Disney’s The Haunted Mansion Stray Spirits #1 from Tokyopop tops this week’s list of new comics, manga, and graphic novels for readers 12 and under, along with a new graphic novel series from Papercutz. Other highlights include a new Junior High Horrors one shot, Run and Hide. Penguin Workshop releases the third volume of their Sports Superheros, featuring Jackie Robinson, while Viz Originals releases the new title GalaXic Baseball League Volume 1.

The List:

ARCHIE COMICS PUBLICATIONS
Archie’s Christmas Spectacular #1 (2026)(One Shot), $7.99

IDW PUBLISHING
Sonic The Hedgehog x Godzilla #3 (Of 5), $4.99

KEENSPOT ENTERTAINMENT
Junior High Horrors Run And Hide #1 (One Shot), $5.99
Robot + Girl #13, $5.99

MARVEL COMICS
X-Men ’97 Season Two #5 (Of 5), $4.99

PAPERCUTZ
Bat Pat Volume 3 Monster In Distress GN, $9.99
Disney Pixar Toy Story Classic Comics Collection Volume 1 TP, $9.99
Disney’s Mickey And Friends Donald Duck And The Goalkeeper Glory GN, $14.99
Ever Trip Volume 1 GN, $9.99 **Weekly Pick**
Miraculous Ladybug Chibi Volume 7 Everything’s Coming Up Roses And Other Tales HC, $14.99

PENGUIN WORKSHOP
Sports Superheroes Volume 3 Jackie Robinson The Graphic Novel GN, $10.99

TOKYOPOP
Disney The Haunted Mansion Stray Spirits #1, $4.99 **Weekly Pick**
Disney Tim Burton’s The Nightmare Before Christmas All Hail The Pumpkin King #4, $4.99

VIZ MEDIA
Beyblade X Volume 7 GN, $11.99
Pokemon Scarlet And Violet Volume 6 GN, $5.99
Splatoon 3 Splatlands Volume 7 GN, $11.99

VIZ ORIGINALS
GalaXic Baseball League Volume 1 GN, $14.99

The Picks:

Disney The Haunted Mansion Stray Spirits #1 – Tokyopop releases the first issue of a comic series based on one of Disneyland’s most popular rides. Feeling neglected by her dad at home and causing trouble at school, 12-year-old Adrienne goes to visit her only friend, a stray one-eyed cat. On this day, the cat seems more troubled than usual, and he disappears into the mysterious mansion at the end of the neighborhood. Adrienne chases after him, but she doesn’t expect what she finds inside. The mansion is filled with ghosts, and the mischievous cat is wreaking havoc on the ghoulish residents. Following in the cat’s wake, Adrienne has to fix his messes and enlist the happy haunts for help if she wants to find a way out. Readers of all ages will enjoy this hauntingly fun series.

Ever Trip Volume 1 GN – Papercutz takes readers on an adventure of a lifetime. Nedd and Karter are two brothers who have dreamt their whole lives of going on their own Ever Trip, a journey to find the seven pieces of the Ever Star and be granted their one true wish. With their van loaded up, they start their adventures, creating a band of friends along the way: Macha the rollerblading bear, Mo the mechanical monk and martial artist, Lex.e the formless artificial being and Crys the child of Mt. Colossus-a literal mountain! Traveling the digital streets of Network City, they garner the attention of Princess Roma, whose kingdom floats above the world in the AstroNova Constellation watching as they discover vibrant worlds, equip new friends and encounter (and defeat) random enemies. Middle grade readers will love this new series that’s like a real wish come true.

And Then There Were None Volume 1
adapted by Aya Nikaido from Agatha Christie’s novel
Viz Media, $14.99 paperback
Publisher’s Rating: Teen Plus (for older teens and adults)

And Then There Were None is a classic mystery. It’s the story of ten people summoned anonymously to a deserted island. There, terrible things are revealed, both about their histories and their fates.

The manga adaptation does an excellent job capturing the suspense of the original. The characters are nicely distinguished (particularly the various old men), and seeing their expressions really brings home the different personalities and their motivations.

We’re introduced to the ten temporary inhabitants of Soldier Island, then to their situation, including the prophetic rhyme about what happens to the ten little soldier boys, disappearing one by one. The characters discover that no one knows their hosts, and all contact with the world outside the island has been cut off. Then people start dying.

Whether or not you know the story already, this is a terrific read. It’s a great introduction to the story in a way that’s easier to keep everyone recognizable. For Christie fans, it’s a faithful portrayal of a classic murder mystery that provides a fresh spin on an old favorite.

This is the first of three volumes, ending with the seriousness of the situation sinking in for some of the characters; the second comes out in January 2027.

The Villainess Who Came to Marry Into the Frontier Noble’s Household is an Exceptionally Capable Wife, Isn’t She?, vol. 1

Original story by tera
Manga by Hayate Asakura
Character Design by Tetta
One Peace Books, released 9/15/26
Age rating: Teen 13+

Of all the isekai/otome manga I have read, I think this is officially the longest title I have seen so far.

But I digress. 

In this latest isekai, Ragna is a frontier noble awaiting to meet his fiancee for the first time. As he was reborn into a dating sim game he played in his former life (typical trope for isekai stories), his fiancee is the villainess of the game. However when Ragna’s betrothed arrives, she is not what he expected. Alicia is kind, humble, and respectful to everyone around her. Alicia’s face is scared, which makes her guarded from others’ reactions, but Ragna sees her beauty and grace and accepts her as his betrothed. As Alicia becomes acquainted with her new life with Ragna and his household, Ragna notices curses placed on Alicia that threaten her life. Now Ragna wonders if his fiancee is actually the true villainess or a scapegoat to a horrific plot.

I’m usually not a fan of isekai stories, but this one had my attention. For starters the character development of our main leads wasn’t generic. There’s an aura of mystery around Alicia that was displayed extremely well. As the supposed villainess in Ragna’s story, Alicia appears to be far from that reputation, which even shocks Ragna. He’s suspicious, especially with her kind deposition. She’s kind to his servants, going as far as to help them with their household chores. She wants to fit in, and it erodes Ragna’s guard. He goes as far as to defend her when enemies try to attack her. So when the manga ends on a really good cliffhanger, the reader is left wondering if Alicia is really who she says she is. 

It’s gripping storytelling and I want more. The artwork, especially when involving action is not overdone and is crafted with exquisite detail. I’m invested and I think isekai and shojo fans will be as well.

Draw This, Then Die! Volume 1
by Minoru Toyoda
Seven Seas Entertainment, $13.99 paperback
Publisher’s Rating: Teen/Ages 13+

New high schooler Yasumi Ai lives on a small island and loves a particular one-volume manga series. It’s about a robot learning how to handle emotion, and she’s found the advice of the cute comic mascot useful in her own life. She even envisions it as her imaginary friend.

The creator of this manga hasn’t drawn anything in years, until a random internet search reveals that she will be appearing at an upcoming Comiket (huge Tokyo manga show). Ai is determined to see her, even though she’s never been to the big city, and events spiral out from there.

The art style is simplified and cartoony, which suits the wacky adventures and gives every action a certain energy. As the volume continues, Ai makes real-life friends, starts a manga club, and tries creating manga of her own, under the oversight of an unexpected (and grumpy) mentor.

Draw This, Then Die! is a wonderful exploration of manga fandom and how a beloved series can change one’s life. It’s also encouraging about making art, no matter the level of skill or experience.

The book also includes a few pages by the author about the inspiration for the series and a flashback story about a young woman breaking into manga publishing. There are already 10 volumes in the series in Japan, with the second coming out in English in November, plus an anime adaptation. Minoru Toyoda’s previous work Love Roma was published in English by Del Rey Manga from 2005-2007.