Abrams ComicArts has announced its Fall 2026 season of graphic novels. The season brings together political history, civil rights nonfiction, pop culture, classic adaptations, literary fiction, and manga, reflecting the full scope of the publisher’s comics program and the range of what the medium can do.
Among the season’s most timely books is The Dissidents, a new graphic novel by Derf Backderf. Set in the United States during World War I, the book follows cartoonists, journalists, and activists targeted by the federal government under the Espionage Act as dissent is criminalized and fear is used as a political weapon. As the story unfolds, the parallels to the present are stark. Surveillance, propaganda, attacks on the press, and the erosion of civil liberties feel uncomfortably familiar, making The Dissidents a reminder that the fight over free expression in America is not new and far from settled.
That same sense of urgency carries through Framing Emmett Till: Exposing Dark Fear, a nonfiction graphic novel written by Christopher Benson and illustrated by Eric Battle. Examining the murder of Emmett Till through the legacy of his mother, Mamie Till-Mobley, the book focuses on the power of images, testimony, and public memory. Rather than functioning only as history, the book speaks directly to the present moment, as debates over racial violence, historical truth, and whose stories are allowed to be told continue to shape public life.
Leading the season is Marvel Dimensions, an original graphic novel by Alex Ross and the most ambitious and intricate comic he has ever made. Built around the physical design of the book itself, the story moves across multiple realities and reframes familiar Marvel characters in surprising ways. Fully painted by Ross, the graphic novel uses scale, perspective, and structure as narrative tools, creating an experience that is inseparable from its form.
A cornerstone of Abrams ComicArts are exceptional literary adaptation graphic novels. Don Quixote: A Graphic Novel Adaptation, adapted by Paul and Gaëtan Brizzi, brings Miguel de Cervantes’ novel into graphic novel form while preserving both the comedy and the melancholy that have made the story endure. The Brizzi brothers’ artwork gives the novel a fresh visual life without losing the spirit that has carried it across centuries.
Literary graphic novels are another cornerstone of the Fall 2026 season. Diana, a new graphic novel by Nate Powell, is a punk rock period piece set in the 1990s. Centered on queer community, music, and intimacy, the book follows a young woman searching for love and belonging in a world shaped by misfits and DIY culture. Diana shares a universe with Powell’s earlier books Come Again and Fall Through, while standing firmly on its own.
The season also turns to the enduring importance of the daily comic strip with MUTTS: Sunday Funnies Volumes Volumes 1 and 2, by Patrick McDonnell. For more than three decades, McDonnell has followed the lives of Mooch the cat, Earl the dog, and their world to explore kindness, responsibility, and how people treat one another and the animals in their care.
As Dune returns to the screen, Dune Messiah Book 1: A Graphic Novel Adaptation arrives at exactly the right moment. With a new Dune feature film releasing this year and HBO’s Dune: Prophecy continuing on television, the world of Arrakis is once again everywhere. This comic gives readers a way to stay inside that world while the film and series are playing out.
Alongside the Abrams ComicArts releases, the Fall 2026 season features a major slate of manga through the Kana imprint. Before Dawn and the End of the World, a manga anthology by Inio Asano, brings together previously untranslated short comics spanning the early and middle years of his career. Collected in a single volume, the book offers readers a rare look at Asano’s range beyond his longer series.
The manga lineup continues with Jagaaan Volume 1, a manga by Muneyuki Kaneshiro with art by Kensuke Nishida. Graphic, unsettling, and psychologically charged, the book follows a disaffected police officer whose violent fantasies collide with a sudden outbreak of monstrous transformations across the city. The release kicks off a fourteen-volume series long requested by English-language readers.
Fall 2026 Abrams ComicArts and Kana Graphic Novels Include:
Abrams ComicArts | Fall 2026
Kana | Fall 2026
