New Comics Day: Joe Kubert Sgt. Rock Deluxe, DC Special and Covers Collection; Penguin Classics Thor; Carl Barks

Items of note this week.

Sgt. Rock by Joe Kubert Deluxe Edition

In recognition of what would have been Kubert’s centennial, several of his most beloved wartime stories, featuring what is arguably his most popular character, are presented here in fully restored color to showcase the detail, dynamics, and emotional weight of Kubert’s incomparable style. Whether he was drawing characters in the heat of battle or having quiet moments before the storm, Kubert was a master storyteller whose legacy lives on at The Kubert School.

This deluxe hardcover features stories from G.I. Combat #68; Our Army at War #83, #91, #117, #135, #141, #158, #165, #196, #233, and #238; Sgt. Rock #302-304 and #368; Sgt. Rock Special #1; Joe Kubert Presents #5; and Showcase #45. Plus, never-before-seen original Sgt. Rock artwork and brand-new forewords by artist Andy Kubert (Flashpoint, Superman: Up in the Sky) and writer Brian Azzarello (100 Bullets, Sgt. Rock: Between Hell and a Hard Place).

Hardcover, 328 pages. Order via Bookshop.org

Joe Kubert: 100 Years – A Life in Covers

In honor of what would have been his 100th birthday, DC Comics proudly presents a centennial celebration of the cover art of Joe Kubert. Take a journey through some of the most iconic DC covers from a career that spanned multiple eras, including covers from The Brave and the Bold, House of Mystery, Sgt. Rock, Ragman, and more! 40 pages.

DC Special #5 Facsimile Edition 2026

A reprint of the 1968 issue featuring Batman, Flash, Viking Prince and other stories illustrated by the great Joe Kubert. 40 pages. 

Penguin Classics Marvel Collection: The Mighty Thor

Collects Journey into Mystery #83, 85, and 114-116, and Thor #128-133, 154-157, and 159-161. It is impossible to imagine American popular culture without Marvel Comics. For decades, Marvel has published groundbreaking visual narratives that sustain attention on multiple levels: as metaphors for the experience of difference and otherness; as meditations on the fluid nature of identity; and as high-water marks in the artistic tradition of American cartooning, to name a few.

During the 1960s, under the hands of the inimitable creative team of Jack Kirby, Stan Lee, and Larry Lieber, Marvel’s Thor combined the raw material of ancient Norse mythology with the nonstop action of super-heroic adventure comics and the speculative reach of classic science fiction. The result was a heady brew: epic, operatic, melodramatic, even psychedelic. This collection gathers some of the most important story arcs from the foundational years of the series and includes seminal early appearances of such characters as Hercules and Ego, the Living Planet, as well as Thor’s first encounter with Galactus.

A foreword by Rick Riordan and scholarly introductions and apparatus by Charles Hatfield and Ben Saunders offer further insight into the enduring significance of The Mighty Thor and classic Marvel comics.

Paperback, 464 pages. Order via Bookshop.org

Carl Barks Pencils and Storyboards: King Scrooge the First and Other Stories – The Fantagraphics Studio Edition

Carl Barks: The Fantagraphics Studio Edition collects Barks' preliminary pencil pages --or storyboards--of comics he wrote after he retired from penciling and inking, serving as a perfectly legible graphic storytelling map the finishing artist could follow. These are fully written and designed stories --which include Barks' hand lettering-- and can be read as easily as the rendered final versions. The advantage to these original art renditions is that the reader can not only appreciate but positively savor Barks' gorgeous, nuanced penciling. These pages display the architecture beneath Barks' final inked pages, revealing how fluid, vital, and effortless his finished panel-to-panel storytelling was, and how the subtlety of his character's facial expressions were baked into the pencil work. Writing the story and breaking down the page graphically is the cartoonist's first step to creating a comic, and here is an opportunity to see one of the 20th century's greatest cartoonists thinking as drawing.

This book includes "King Scrooge the First," the last Uncle Scrooge story Barks wrote and one of his best, as well as "Pawns of the Loup Garou" and many others. The pages are reproduced from high resolution color scans and printed at the actual size they were drawn. The fidelity to the original art is so uncannily realized that a page framed under glass would be indistinguishable from the original. Every page convincingly conveys the quality and expressivity of Barks' pencil linework.

Also included are several cover sketches and finished pencil drawings that were never published, and covers that were bought, finished, and submitted but never published. An introduction by Barks expert and editor Kim Weston provides background information and aesthetic commentary on the stories.

Hardcover, 160 pages. Order via Bookshop.org