Fiction Reviews
FEBRUARY 2, 2026 PUBLISHERS WEEKLY 95
and Dagger, Daredevil races against the clock to stop his old enemy Bullseye as his powers begin to fade again. Soule’s narrative is peppered with guest appearances by former Marvel heroes including Elektra and Punisher, and the stark, swift story suits Murdock’s acutely painful and personal crusade. McNiven’s art recalls Frank Miller’s notable run on the series, blending the energetic stunts of Miller’s 1980s comics with his scratchy inks in The Dark Knight Strikes Again . Marvel has produced several specula- tive “last story” tales for its heroes; this proves one of the best yet. (Feb.) The Woodchipper Joe Ollmann. Drawn & Quarterly, $25 trade paper (216p) ISBN 978-1-77046-823-8 ★ ❘ Nothing comes easy for the denizens of Hamilton, Ontario, in these wry, bruising, and mordantly funny stories from Ollmann ( Fictional Father ). In “Nestled All Snug,” a toppled pile of boxes traps a bookstore employee in a dingy staff bathroom. In “Meat,” a security guard at a meat-packing facility falls in with a band of animal rights activists. Elsewhere, a hapless landlord’s short-term rental catches the attention of a murder podcast in “The Late Checkout,” and a husband gets caught in an anxious interior monologue while washing dishes as his partner’s faculty party drags on past midnight in “The Thought That Counts.” The title story finds a city maintenance worker paralyzed by PTSD after a close brush with a woodchipper. In these close-call episodes, catastrophe is averted but exposes the precariousness of everyday life. Captured in blunt, agitated lines that nod to Lynda Barry, Ollmann’s mostly blue-collar figures wear their strain openly—all sweaty brows,
exhausted eyes, and frayed nerves. Ollmann doesn’t trade in schaden- freude, however. His characters narrate their ordeals with self-deprecating frankness, steering out of occasional skids into misanthropy to marvel at the absurdity of predicaments that should, by rights, flatten them. These unsentimental stories withhold tidy resolution, leaving their protagonists upright if not unscathed as the world carries on unfazed. Fans of Peter Bagge or Ed Brubaker’s A Complete Lowlife will get it—as will anyone who’s ever felt the floor drop out from under them. (Feb.) Chicken Heart Morgan Boecher. Street Noise, $23.99 trade paper (260p) ISBN 978-1-9514-9144-4 Boecher’s tenderhearted graphic novel debut follows a stand-up comedian to his aunt’s funeral at Chicken Heart Love, the commune she founded. Jackie Locklear hasn’t spoken to his trans aunt Sheila in over a decade, ever since their family “disowned her after this one Thanksgiving,” but he unex- pectedly gets an invitation from her found family, “the Chicken Hearters,” to speak at her memorial (she died by suicide). Jackie has also been consid- ering a gender transition, and jokes about it in his stand-up set, quipping that he doesn’t want to “fight raccoons” while dumpster-diving “for a whole new wardrobe.” Secretly, however, Jackie admits that he’s a trans man: “I wince in pain every time someone calls me a ‘she.’ ” At Chicken Heart, “a place for misfits,” Jackie faces the commune’s complicated grief, his regrets around his estrangement from Sheila, and his “crushing loneliness”—particularly after he hooks up with the commune’s bard, Will (“Oh, stupid heart,” Jackie says to himself). Blending bubbly
dialogue and moments of introspec- tion, Boecher depicts how an interde- pendent community must carry on in the wake of its founder’s suicide. The thick, simple linework and three-color palette ground the proceedings, with a few whimsical flourishes, and emotions hold the spotlight. By turns sad and joyous, this is a moving treatise on the many meanings of love and loss. (Feb.)
Flavors of Ash (Ghost Pepper #1) Ludo Lullabi and Adriano Lucas. Image,
$16.99 trade paper (160p) ISBN 978-1-5343-3562-2
Set in a future wasteland of deserts, warlords, and manga-styled robot throwdowns, this inventive series launch from Lullabi (the Transformers series) and Lucas (the Destro series) finds an entrepreneurial spirit starting a food truck. Between lanes of Fury- Road chaos, chef Loloi peddles noodles spiced with an impossibly hot pepper only she can make palatable. Lullabi’s storytelling bridges the everyday busi- ness of food service—sourcing peppers; getting hauled into town for repairs; competing with a rival purveyor of provisions—and an epic backstory of a godlike hero turned ruler punching a world-threatening monster into the moon. Mysterious warrior Ash returns from parts unknown to contest that legend, stirring alarm from the powers that be. In a classic samurai story turn, Ash just wants to slurp a bowl of Loloi’s soup but instead must stomp enemy after enemy in a succession of strikingly composed battles. The art is influenced equally by anime and bande desinée , and an episodic stolen- valor plot involving Ash’s old warrior cohort ends up feeling generic. It’s the food-truck thread that steals the show, and serves to humanize Ash. Fans of cozy postapocalyptic fare will want to sample this first course. (Feb.)
Our Reviewers Brittany K. Allen Elina Alter Allen Appel
Jennifer Bryant Christopher Burkhalter Tobias Carroll Beth Cato Leigh Chandler Emily Colucci
Judy Downer Zachary Fletcher Lauren Fries AJ Frost Shaenon Garrity Elizabeth Glass Juliana Goodman Patricia Guy
Todd Hafer Erika Hardison Tim Hennessy Katrina Niidas Holm Zachary Houle Marc Igler
Jasmina Kelemen Cheryl Klein Pam Lambert Nicholas Litchfield
Libby Morse Dai Newman Christina Nifong Karen Odden Samuel Partal Leonard Picker Jim Piechota Samantha Puc
Kaye Rains Lorraine Savage Alan Scherstuhl Martha Schulman Kira Sexton Suzanne Shablovsky Erica Wetter Cady Zeng
Allen Appel IV Cassie Arvay Vicki Borah Bloom William Boisvert Lillian Boyd
Linda Lowen Cecilia Lynne Sheri Melnick Robert Mixner
Dan D’Arpe John DiBello
Brandi Kalicki Hilary S. Kayle
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