Andrea’s Paradise of Picks for 10.14.2026
Welcome Comic Shop Friends! We’ve got some good spooky reads this week, along with some other delights, but first some shop updates!
We’ll be set up at the Best of Cleveland party at the Great Lakes Science Center on Thursday October 15th! We won Best Comics/Collectibles Shop in Scene’s Best of Cleveland!
That means no Late Nite Comics this week, but…
Late Nite Comics will be the FOURTH Thursday this month, the 22nd! We’ll have dollar stock galore, and back issues will be 50% off! 8pm to 11pm! Plus, we’ll be doing raffles for Marvel omnibuses!
On October 31st it’s Halloween at the shop! Trick or Treat! Free comics! Candy! 50% off back issues all day! Come out for family friendly Halloween fun!
MARVEL COMICS
Another chapter in Doctor Doom’s battle for the freedom of his mother’s soul is presented in fifty widescreen battle splash pages! Al Ewing and Alessandro Cappuccio present Doom All-On-One! Doom has made his annual visit to Hell to challenge Mephisto in order to free his mother, but this time he has to face the heroes of the Marvel Universe! It’s a Hell of a brawl as Doom takes on the X-Men, the Fantastic Four, Spider-Man, Captain America, and more. He has five minutes to make his way to his mother; can he take down all of them in time? He has some tricks up his armored sleeves to defeat them, and you’ll see them all in this oversized landscape read as Doom faces his greatest challenge! An excellent Doctor Doom story to get you in the mood for Doomsday.
Wolverine has quit the X-Men and is heading to Miami. He’s not looking for trouble, but trouble has a way of showing up. Logan finds himself pulled into the city’s criminal underworld when Dazzler asks him for help, because what else is he going to do? Sell ice cream? Paradise isn’t exactly what it seems, and those hot days are only going to get hotter in the Dan Panosian written and drawn series! There’s guest star Dazzler, a notorious mobster, an old man that says he knew Logan, and they’re all mixed into this mystery!
The World Central Kitchen and Chef Jose Andres return to the Marvel Universe with more Meals to Astonish! Three stories to titillate your tastebuds! First, Chef Andres and Tony Stark announce their new Auto-Kitchens that are able to go anywhere in the world in minutes to combat hunger! But Ultron crashes the event and is set on destroying Chef Andres’ work. It’s time for the Avengers to assemble, and that means it’s time for the “Iron” Chef to make his debut! It’s “Main Course: Mayhem!” in Steve Orlando and Roi Mercado’s main story!
Make a stop at “Jeff’s Table”, and watch Jeff the Land Shark and Chef Lee Anne Wong go up against Kraven the Hunter in Jason Loo and Rafael Perez Granados’ short! Jeff’s not happy with Kraven going shark hunting, but he has a plan. Adorable!
Next, meet “Venomnom”! Venom wants to eat brains, but all these delicious food trucks will have to do! Super fun short from Jacob Chabot!
The newest installment of “T.E.S.T. Kitchen” sends Chef Anna on an Avenger emergency! Thor demands succotash! For Asgard! Anna shares her skills with the Asgardian chefs to create a meal fit for royalty! Written by Paul Eschbach, with art by E.J. Su.
Plus, this one-shot is peppered with Daily Bugle food articles! A list of favorite Barcelona restaurants! The best chili dogs in America! New York pizza versus New Haven pizza! The hottest new Marvel Universe restaurants! An interview with Matt Murdock about his New York favorites!
Hungering for more Meals to Astonish? Don’t worry, we have copies of the first Spider-Man: Meals to Astonish issue to quench your appetite!
DC COMICS
Follow the citizens of Gotham City in six stories of survival written by Matt Fraction and Mariko Tamaki! As Poison Ivy’s superbloom spreads across the Streets of Gotham, the everyday people are left to deal with the chaos on their own. Featuring artists Bruno Abdias, Rossi Gifford, Gretel Lusky, Jorge Fornes, Brian Ching, and Steve Lieber, the street level stories show the heroism, and sometimes villainy, of the people of Gotham.
A petty thief is welcomed to “The Party” when an apartment building throws a blackout barbecue, and a kind neighbor invites him along.
A woman helps a kid make his way home across the city. They come across those trying to take advantage of the blackout, and have a chat with Signal, in “The Long Walk Home”.
Four kids should be staying inside, but two of them want to be Batman and help out their neighbors, leading to a fight with a gigantic plant when they take “The Stand”!
A member of a TUCO squad finally gets to go face to face with one of the “Primaries”, but the squad doesn’t care about the citizens trapped by plants in between them. He’ll get what he deserves…
A group of “Balladeers” spread the evacuation orders through their neighborhood when the power goes out, and as they gather, find themselves in the middle of a ninja fight!
Gotham tourism is going to need a rebranding after this event, if the city survives that is. Trapped in the office, a meeting is going to go all night until their bosses approve of “The Pitch”.
This is a great collection of stories looking at how a huge event impacts the daily lives of those just trying to survive in Gotham. I’d say these street level Bad Seeds tie-ins are worth reading even if you’re not reading the main storyline in Batman and Poison Ivy.
Get ready for the Clayface film with this one-shot presenting a selection of Clayface stories! Learn the origin of Clayface with the first appearance of Matt Hagen by Bill Finger and Sheldon Moldoff, in “The Challenge of Clayface” from Detective Comics #298! From Batman Villains Secret Files and Origins 2005 #1, “If a Man Be Clay”, is a retelling of that origin from Steve Purcell and Mike Mignola! Plus, a three-page preview of the current Clayface: Celebrity Dirt series from Jude Ellison S. Doyle and Fran Galan! Not featured in this special, but well worth reading is the One Bad Day: Clayface hardcover written by Collin Kelly and Jackson Lanzing, with art by Xermanico! Read it all before Clayface hits theaters on October 23rd!
Plus, DC has the next batch of Start Here $1 titles! Check out Dceased and DC Vs Vampires for great horror reads, and read the first issues of the ever-popular Dark Knights of Steel and Dark Nights Metal!
SMALL PRESS COMICS
Lola has just moved to town, and the 12-year-old goth hasn’t made any friends. She’s looking forward to another year of trick or treating with her older brother, but when he doesn’t show, she has to go with her neighbor Jimmy. Jimmy is a bullied kid battling cancer, who loves horror, and this year his mother surprised him with the ultimate Halloween decoration: a 12-Foot Skeleton! But, when the bullies destroy it, something awakens inside the plastic bones, set on revenge. Outcasts with unspoken trauma in their pasts, Jimmy and Lola may have more in common than they think, and now they’ll have to survive Halloween night! Lola could have a connection with the force inhabiting the giant skeleton, and it’s up to Jimmy to inspire them to face the danger! Writers Aaron Campbell and Time Seeley, and artist Ben Templesmith create a dreadful delight for Halloween and Dia de Muertos, and who doesn’t love a killer Halloween decoration come to life?!
Hammer Head has returned! Twenty years after the massacre and destruction of the town of Spences Bridge, the sledgehammer wielding slasher killer is back. The only survivor, Jules, has spent the last two decades trying to keep the trauma of her experience at bay. Drugs are the only thing that helps dull the memories of seeing everyone she knew murdered. When a drug buy leads to arrest, she’s forced into withdrawal in jail. And something isn’t right about this jail. Jules is only one of seven inmates, all in for violent crimes, and none of them have had any contact with lawyers or the outside world. But that’s not even the worst thing that’s going to happen to them. Ed Brisson and Damian Couceiro mix a classic slasher story with a little of Cabin in the Woods, to put the inmates in a manufactured situation that forces them to face off with Hammer Head! Forced to confront her past, Jules may be the only one who can face off with the masked killer again, but why is she being forced to? A perfect read for when you’ve rewatched all your favorite slasher films and need a new favorite!
Archie versus The Terminator! Max has just moved to Riverdale and enrolled at Riverdale High. But he has a secret. Betty and Veronica are smitten by the mysterious new boy, but Archie isn’t happy about him taking their attention. When he learns that “Max” is really John Conner, and reveals John’s true identity, he puts the town right in the crosshairs of the Terminator! Written by Rory McConvilla, with art by Steven Butler and Lily Butler, this four-issue mini-series is the perfect mix of Archie goof ups and pre-apocalyptic dread! Archie has no idea what he’s gotten himself into this time, and it’s probably going to be up to John and Sarah Conner to save everyone!
