1. TALES OF PARANOIA by Robert Crumb, with contributions by Aline Kominsky-Crumb (published by Fantagraphics):
A curious amount of comic books released in 2025 deal with paranoia, metanoia, hyperawareness, conspiracy theories, High Strangeness, and the breakdown of consensus reality. TALES OF PARANOIA, Robert Crumb’s first comic book in far too many years, is perhaps the most intense and deeply personal examination of these themes. Though one might describe these “tales of paranoia” as unhinged rants, Crumb’s innate talent for cutting through unnecessary artifice lifts these diatribes above the status of mere propaganda. Interwoven with fiery tirades directed against multinational pharmaceutical companies, cradle-to-grave religious indoctrination, the CIA’s MK-ULTRA program, rampant censorship of transgressive ideas, and the potential manipulative power of Artificial Intelligence, we also find profound lamentations about death and dying. On one page Crumb is fulminating over the seemingly insurmountable terror of the Deep State, and in the next he’s hunched over a stove, cooking dinner for one while the memory of his deceased wife hovers over his shoulders inside a ghostly thought balloon. In Crumb’s claustrophobic world, broadsides tackling the predatory nature of the universe exist in uncomfortable harmony with dread-inducing images of an octogenarian Crumb lying awake in the middle of the night, surrounded by nothing except impenetrable darkness as he attempts to wrestle with fears about alienation and the human condition. If they gave out awards for the most powerful existential comic book of the year, Crumb’s TALES OF PARANOIA would take home the trophy.
Jim Rugg’s latest independently published comic book, ALIEN DISCLOSURE, presents a series of questions as statements, eschewing the question mark in each sentence. This simple rhetorical technique successfully lulls the reader into a near-hypnotic trance, almost as if one is being subjected to a series of enigmatic, iconoclastic mantras. It’s a fascinating effect that underscores the central theme of the book: that we can no longer trust our senses when it comes to evaluating objective reality, particularly in regard to phenomena presented to us as wholly numinous in nature. The dividing lines between religious dogma, governmental decrees, popular fiction, and outright propaganda are growing very thin indeed, and Rugg appears to be intensely concerned about the serious implications of these radical paradigm shifts in human consciousness.
3. HOLY LACRIMONY by Michael DeForge (published by Drawn and Quarterly):
In this Vonnegutesque science fiction fable, the saddest man in the world (a popular musician named Jackie) is abducted by aliens and exploited as an indispensable natural resource. Like the extraterrestrial “Strangers” in Alex Proyas’ 1998 film DARK CITY, these supernal beings know nothing about human emotion and therefore need to study it up close and personal. There are hints that these shapeshifting creatures are akin to the otherworldly residents of the Black Lodge in David Lynch and Mark Frost’s TWIN PEAKS, in the sense that they appear to feed off pain and suffering above all else. They’re not interested in Jackie’s music; they’re interested in him as a person only as long as he remains depressed. The uncomfortable dynamic between Jackie and his abductors emerges as a metaphor for the parasitic relationship between audience and artist. At what point does the audience begin to dictate the output of the artist? Do the audience members merely consume what the artist chooses to create or do they have a far greater impact on the artist’s output than one might suspect?
It’s no coincidence that DeForge’s aliens resemble the figure in Edvard Munch’s 1893 oil painting, THE SCREAM. Perhaps the idea for this graphic novel emerged from a realization on DeForge’s part that the image of the “alien Gray” made iconic by the cover of Whitley Strieber’s bestselling memoir COMMUNION eerily resembles Munch’s famous shrieking figure. Or, conversely, did Munch create the spectral image in order to mimic these creatures? Is Art dictated by Reality or the other way around? Like the Möbius strip relationship between artist and audience, it might be impossible to distinguish between the two...
4. RED BOOK by James Tynion IV and Michael Avon Oeming (published by Image):
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This series is a follow-up to Tynion and Oeming’s previous collaboration, BLUE BOOK, in which classic Cold War-era investigations into flying saucer sightings and alleged alien contacts were examined in a docudrama manner from the perspective of the United States. RED BOOK, a thematic sequel, explores the flipside of post-WWII UFO-mania by delving into mysterious phenomena based in the Soviet Union and China, including such perennial enigmas as the infamous Dyatlov Pass incident of 1959 and the Meng Zhaoguo abduction of 1994. The cool, haunting blue tones used by Oeming in the previous series have been replaced by an eye-searing red palette that reminds one of the constructivist Soviet propaganda posters of the 1920s, lending these strange tales a striking visual style unlike any other series now on the stands.
5. ABSOLUTE MARTIAN MANHUNTER by Deniz Camp and Javier Rodriguez (published by DC Comics):
Deniz Camp and Javier Rodriguez’s ABSOLUTE MARTIAN MANHUNTER is the most innovative comic book DC Comics has released since Tom King and Mitch Gerads’ MISTER MIRACLE in 2017. Rather than subvert or upend classic comic book tropes like many revisionist superhero extravaganzas, Camp’s sophisticated script instead embraces these timeworn clichés for the express purpose of pushing them outward to such distorted extremes that overly familiar archetypes seem to morph into brand new forms while the cerebral plot unravels and explodes beyond the borders of the panels. Inspired by darkly comic postmodern novelists such as Thomas Pynchon, Philip K. Dick, and Don DeLillo, Camp and Rodriguez have created a case study in mass paranoia, holding up a dark mirror to the chaos of our current socio-political environment in which average human beings are so often maneuvered into working against their own best interests due to the influence of highly paid persuasion engineers in the deep pockets of politicians, militarists, businessmen, and theocrats (sociopaths all). In Camp and Rodriguez’s world, such rampant psychic manipulation is symbolized by an invisible extraterrestrial (or interdimensional) (or ultraterrestrial) being known only as “the White Martian,” which is intent on infecting the collective unconscious of the human race with negative emotions amped up to eleven. Reminiscent of Golden Age science fiction novels such as Hal Clement’s NEEDLE (1950), as well as later reinterpretations of Clement’s highly influential plot such as Nathan Juran’s THE BRAIN FROM PLANET AROUS (1957) and Jack Sholder’s THE HIDDEN (1987), an opposing—and empathic—otherworldly force soon emerges on Earth to combat the nefarious “White Martian,” but it can only manifest in the material world by binding itself to a human being, in this case FBI agent John Jones.
The epic battle between these two entities plays out wholly on the psychic plane, a la Harlan Ellison’s 1956 short story “The Silver Corridor” and numerous issues of Steve Ditko’s DR. STRANGE, and yet this well-trod science fiction scenario of mental combat is reimagined by Rodriguez’s artwork in such a stunningly imaginative way that the images almost seem to be on the verge of spilling off the page and taking up residence in the real world. Though this duel is invisible to the human eye, nonetheless it’s rendered with revelatory clarity by Rodriguez’s masterful use of vibrant colors that appear to emanate from another dimension somewhere next door to our own. Rodriguez’s unique art style merges the fluidity of 1920s surrealist posters from France, the psychedelic incandescence of 1960s rock ‘n roll flyers from San Francisco, and the hyperkineticism of Kirbyesque superheroics. If one described this alien-themed police procedural as “day-glo noir,” one wouldn’t be far off the mark.
6. TRUE-MAN: THE MAXIMORTAL COMICS #2 by Rick Veitch (published by King Hell Press/Sun Comics):
In what might very well be the sine qua non of post-postmodern superhero tales, a living idea known as The Maximortal is weaponized by the military-industrial-entertainment-complex during the early 1970s for the purpose of winning the Cold War on behalf of the Richard Nixon administration, establishing the global supremacy of the United States once and for all. According to industrialist Preston Panache, the head of a mysterious intelligence operation called Project Truman, this living idea is “a higher dimensional creature with god-like powers” that he and his subordinates plan to brainwash by subjecting it to the techniques of notorious MK-ULTRA scientist Dr. Sidney Gottlieb. Gottlieb is exploiting ideas established by Golden Age American comic books to reshape the creature into a being that perceives itself as a superhero who fights only for American values. Ironically, it soon becomes necessary for Project Truman to hire a premier advertising executive named Don Draker (who looks suspiciously like Jon Hamm) to adjust Gottlieb’s programming, for it soon becomes quite clear that the patriotic values being programmed into this creature will, if left unchecked, inevitably bring it into conflict with the polices of the United States.
As Mr. Draker says, this particular hero must be “more in sync with the strategic needs of the government and the capitalist system.” Rather than bringing “politicians and arms manufacturers to justice,” this superhero will instead “eradicate the scourge of communism and ensure the primacy of American power” by using its powers to dominate supervillains that don’t even exist.
Veitch’s narrative is as much a commentary on the degradation of the “living idea” of the American experiment as it is about the devolution of the comic book medium itself. TRUE-MAN: THE MAXIMORTAL is without a doubt one of the most intelligent and literate superhero comic books being published today.
7. SWITCHBLADE SHORTIES by Ed Piskor (published by Zoop):
A strange mixture of Jack Hill’s 1970s cult classic exploitation film SWITCHBLADE SISTERS, Jack Kirby’s various and sundry comic books about kid gangs (e.g. THE NEWSBOY LEGION, THE BOY COMMANDOS, THE DINGBATS OF DANGER STREET, etc.), and Charles Schulz’s PEANUTS, Ed Piskor’s SWITCHBLADE SHORTIES stars a crew of five latchkey kids—Pinky, Charlene, Sheena, Sodapop, and Foster—who are forced to abandon their aimless pastimes involving sleepovers and videogames to solve a local mystery. Like such television shows as TWIN PEAKS and STRANGER THINGS, the main conflict is set into motion due to the sudden disappearance of a child, in this case a neighborhood boy named Petey Wheatcakes. At first the gang’s main motivation to solve this mystery is to collect the $5,000 reward money, but as the narrative unfolds the Switchblade Shorties find themselves risking life and limb to save an alien that’s been kidnapped by one of their initial suspects, a Vietnam vet living in a trashy trailer park. Though the five friends must contend with increasingly absurd obstacles such as the aforementioned psychokinetic Gray alien, wild lycanthropes, and murderous sasquatches, very often the worst threats they face are human in nature: violent hillbillies, relentless FBI agents, and hired assassins.
The world of SWITCHBLADE SHORTIES is outlandish in nature, and yet its many gritty details anchor the narrative firmly in a very human world. When the kids while away the hours by watching a FACES OF DEATH marathon, encounter a fellow classmate who habitually smokes weed given to him by his own mother, flip through random issues of HUSTLER, or nab free rides with pads of bus transfers pilfered from the Port Authority, one feels as if the protagonists are actual delinquents of the mid-1990s thrust into a fantastical situation, not an idealized version of children dreamed up by clueless adults (which describes most of the kids who inhabit mainstream comic strips and comic books).
8. DIMWOOD by Richard Corben, with contributions by Beth Corben Reed (published by Dark Horse Books):
Though Richard Corben’s final graphic novel does not concern itself with extraterrestrial beings or insidious conspiracies per se, it certainly evokes a similar sense of enigmatic dread one encounters in several other comic books on this list (particularly TALES OF PARANOIA and HOLY LACRIMONY). Corben’s most important influences are on full display in this posthumously released gothic horror tale. Indeed, the ghosts of Edgar Allan Poe, William Hope Hodgson, and H.P. Lovecraft hover over the narrative like omnipresent shadows. At the story’s outset, we see a young woman named Xera returning to her ancestral home, Dimwood Mansion, to attend the funeral of her mother, which soon leads to the painful exhumation of a wide variety of ghosts, literal and otherwise. By and by, Xera’s journey from innocence to awareness brings her face to face with certain agonizing truths involving her faintly remembered childhood at Dimwood.
As in Carl Jung’s psychoanalytic theories, Corben seems to believe that refusing to acknowledge one’s shadow self can only lead to repression, insanity, and self-destruction. In the dark world of DIMWOOD, the consequences of decades-long mysteries, subjugated memories, and spore-based madness all collide inside the confining, twisted corridors of a deteriorating haunted house only Corben could draw, creating a grotesque and arabesque metaphor for familial guilt and genetic trauma that’s heavy on foreboding and atmosphere. Many families harbor deep secrets and uncomfortable truths they’re urged to ignore at a very early age; however, even families who seem to revel in such dysfunction would have a hard time dealing with the horrors of cannibalistic patriarchs and mutant mycologists. That Corben is able to bring such wild improbabilities to life with his uncanny artistic renderings is a testament to his unique style. Without a doubt, DIMWOOD is an important farewell gift offered up by an absolute master of the form.
9. THE CABBIE: DEFINITIVE EDITION by Martí (published by Fantagraphics):
Since 2025 marks the first time that the concluding volumes of Martí’s classic Spanish graphic novel THE CABBIE have been translated into English, I think it definitely deserves a place on this list. Created as a direct response to Franco’s fascist dictatorship in Spain, THE CABBIE melds the existential grittiness of Martin Scorcese’s TAXI DRIVER (1976) with the quasi-surreal expressionism of Chester Gould’s decades-spanning comic strip DICK TRACY to create a stark, black-and-white, crime-ridden world filled with ultra-violence, unfettered greed, and political conspiracies galore. THE CABBIE Volume Two focuses on a plot by organized crime that involves trafficking underage females to wealthy businessmen who are videotaped having sex with the kidnapped girls and subsequently blackmailed. The titular character, a rightwing vigilante who tools around town in an armored Panzer-86 taxi cab, soon uncovers this “diabolical scheme,” is overcome with moral revulsion, and attempts to hunt down the perpetrators. The fact that we’ve seen our “hero” receiving fellatio from the very same underage female (whom the Cabbie deemed to be a “depraved devil-child”) in the previous volume only underscores the Cabbie’s extreme self-blindness and utter hypocrisy. In Martí’s near-dystopian world, nobody—even the characters being victimized—are seen to be wholly innocent. And the less innocent the characters, the more righteous they behave.
As comics critic Hagai Palevsky recently wrote in THE COMICS JOURNAL:
Martí’s protagonist is a perfect conservative in a catch-all city — he is a God-fearing man, and a staunch believer in law and order. A rare splash page, early on in the first arc, demonstrates his worldview: “With his squad car (the taxi) he helps clean up the trash that gathers [in the city’s ‘shantytown’]… to dump it [in the city prison]… or [in the cemetery].” Though an obvious comment on Gould’s own simplistic moralities, with the righteous arm of the law replaced by a vigilante backing the boys in blue, I cannot help but think of Fletcher Hanks’ fire-and-brimstone paranoia as well: the unwavering belief that cruelty and conspiracy lurk behind every corner, and that a messiah-figure is not only desired but necessary (this is underscored several times over by the sequences where Cabbie receives religious visions courtesy of St. Christopher, the patron saint of motorists) […] [Cabbie] experiences religious delusion, to be sure, but in truth he has no lofty ideals besides those handed down to him by the system, nor do his actions help maintain any grand order […] More than anything, the reader sees the fatal pointlessness of his actions at every moment. And what does he do with that knowledge? Absolutely nothing, because it never dawns on him.
In the unfinished (and previously untranslated) third volume of the series, we see the Cabbie driving around in the twenty-first century in his brand new vehicle, which is equipped with “an onboard internet-connected computer, a satellite GPS system, and permanent access to forty channels” with which he can perpetually view rightwing television news broadcasts. We see the Cabbie encounter an ex-president who’s on the lam after having been charged with “high treason and graft,” a secret society known as “Totus Tuus” that’s described as “a network of cardinals, businessmen, politicians, military leaders, and journalists who are bent on controlling the Vatican’s vast indoctrination operation and economic resources” (obviously a stand-in for Opus Dei), a crotchety old blind cardinal (the “future pope”) who appears to spend his free time performing mysterious electrical experiments on fetuses pickled in glass jars, and a gang of gay pride parade revelers dressed like devils who hijack the ex-president, stuff him into a diplomatic pouch shaped like a cross, and toss him into a garbage dump… and that’s all in eleven pages. I thought for sure this aborted third volume had been created during the last few years in response to the post-Trump political landscape, but it turns out that Martí actually released this “preview” way back in the early 2000s! Though it’s a shame this third part of THE CABBIE trilogy was never completed, the first two volumes stand as a testament to Martí’s skills as a masterful and darkly humorous countercultural satirist.
10. MY GORILLA FAMILY by Iijima Ichiro (published by Living the Line):
Never before published in English, the manic tales in Iijima Ichiro’s collection, MY GORILLA FAMILY AND OTHER STORIES OF HUMAN HORROR, read as if they were conjured up by a deranged but precocious thirteen-year-old boy suffering from intense fever dreams: pissed-off spiders lay eggs in a young woman’s uterus; indestructible carnivorous fish from outer space multiply like tribbles (with far more disastrous results); a working class woman is pressured by her boss into marrying a gorilla for the health of the corporation; an embittered woman who hungers for a better life asks Satan to regress her into a voyeuristic, sex-starved, cigar-smoking adolescent with money to burn; an idyllic summer resort reduces its visitors into skeletons; a housewife inadvertently kills her husband with a rolled-up newspaper; an insurrectionist goes on a murder spree after being condemned to solitary confinement by the Supreme Ruler of the C+Q Planet Empire; a slew of dead babies begin popping up in the middle of a forest for no apparent reason; a science fiction writer is tasked with photographing a reptilian astral form as it sheds itself from a man’s physical body; a “pain in the ass” named Umeda begins slaughtering women merely because his mother ditched him when he was a child; a horde of “ugly women” are “driven to murderous hysteria caused by sexual frustration after being repeatedly spurned by men,” and that’s not even all of the stories included in this volume! If the word “bizarro” didn’t already exist, it would have to be invented to describe Iijima’s lunatic imagination.
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