Griffin's Picks for the week of 10/7/2026
Much like a beautiful monarch butterfly, I have emerged from my chrysalis in a new form!
Griffin’s Picks are back, albeit in a new form. I took a break for a few months for a variety of reasons, in part because it was getting difficult to not recycle the same titles over and over again. There’s only so many hours in a day and as much as I love comics and appreciate everyone who’s read one of these, I don’t want my entire existence to be consumed by funny books. With that being said, I’m gonna be mixing it up a bit as far as what I’m writing about. Some weeks I might do a dive into back issues, some weeks might be a long form review of a single new issue and some weeks might be three quick write ups, the same way that I was doing it before. I guess what I’m saying is, variety is the spice of life. But! Every time I post I will still be selecting my top three books, I just might not be doing a review on them every time.
So I hope everyone had a great summer, I know it’s cliche but I can’t believe it’s October already. Here’s some movies, books and comics that I’ve particularly enjoyed over the past few months:
Movies:
Resident Evil (2026)
Before the Devil Knows You’re Dead (2007)
Mad God (2021)
Primetime (2026)
Tony (2026)
Bride of Frankenstein (1935)
Hundreds of Beavers (2022)
Obsession (2025)
Hokum (2026)
Books:
A Confederacy of Dunces (1980) by John Kennedy Toole
The Myth of Sisyphus (1942) by Albert Camus
Heartsick (2007) by Chelsea Cain
A Pirate Looks at Fifty (1998) by Jimmy Buffett
Pet Sematary (1983) by Stephen King
Cat’s Cradle (1963) by Kurt Vonnegut
Bagombo Snuff Box (1999) by Kurt Vonnegut
Sirens of Titan (1959) by Kurt Vonnegut
Comics:
2000 ADHD by Harry Deane Willmott
Subscribe by Harry Deane Willmott
Pleasure Beach by Josh Pettinger
Tales From Qyleoth by M. Yaxam
Batman: Madness – A Legends of the Dark Knight Halloween Special #1 (1994) by Jeph Loeb and Tim Sale
Okay so you may notice that the comics part of it all is pretty short, but that’s by design. I didn’t want to talk about some other things unless I’m giving them the full spotlight and that’ll come at a later date. Also, all of the aforementioned comics are not available for purchase at Time Warp but are certainly worth tracking down in their own right.
Picks:
1: The Demon #1 - DC
James Harren, writer and artist of Ultramega (2021) is taking over Etrigan, so your Demon fix is no longer barren! Alright, well that was my attempt at themed rhyming for this book and will probably be my last. Dave Stewart does the colors on this one and since this book was announced, it’s probably been one of my most anticipated new DC titles even though I’ve never actually read anything by Harren previously (Kaiju books just aren’t my thing, sorry). Oh! And It’s also a limited series, so not a huge commitment.
Jason Blood is a broken man who's been alive so long that he’s not even sure if his mind is capable of telling him the truth anymore. Blood uses a bag of ancient tools in order to fight back against creatures attacking our world, including a pair of spectacles that allow him to see these primordial evils that are unseen to everyone else. Allthewhile, Etrigan begs him to say the ancient rhyme that’ll release him into the world.
The way that I would pitch this book to people would be if John Carpenter’s They Live (1988) had a baby with Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde (1886). The combination of Jason Blood hunting down creatures that only he can see with Etrigan antagonistically begging Jason to let him free and do the fighting himself is a really fun juxtaposition. It’s also not a bad place to start reading The Demon, as they retread his origin a bit for new readers but you should go read the Jack Kirby stuff regardless and if you’re a fan of Lobo, it’s worth tracking down the issues of the 1991 series where they crossover (it’s #13-15 if you’re interested). James Harren was a perfect choice for this book though, stylistically it’s very similar to Ultramega, which is the best part for me. The Demon is the perfect character to experiment artistically and work outside the box considering the lack of a consistent title and the expectations that surround a flagship character. That’s where DC has been hitting the mark with books like Doom Patrol (2026) and The Deadman (2026).
2: Jonah Hex and the Shadow of Death #1 - DC
I wasn’t planning on reading this until, I read the preview at the end of The Demon #1 (2026) and that was enough to get me hooked. If you’re on the fence, do the same and pick up The Demon and see if the preview hooks you too .
3: Forming - Fantagraphics
I haven’t read this book yet, but Fantagraphics rarely steers me wrong. We only have one copy of this in store and the art/synopsis of the story looks weird enough to draw me in, it’s worth flipping through at the very least but don’t be surprised if I do a full review on this once I get around to it. That’s a threat by the way.