As new comic day quickly approaches it can be sometimes difficult to decide which of the new comics hitting the shelves at your local comic shop to grab. Do not worry, we are here to help. This week we preview four titles that standout from the crowd including Smile: For the Camera #1, End of Life #1, and more!
While we are not the official voice of your decision, we want to help guide you in the right direction for comics releasing February 18, 2026.
Smile: For the Camera #1
Writer: Hannah Rose May
Artist: Miriana Puglia
Publisher: IDW Dark / IDW Publishing
Pose. Vogue. Couture. Gore.
It’s Fashion Month 2005. Five young international models have just landed in New York City, ready to tackle four grueling weeks of runways, press, and cameras as they try to make it big. The girls become fast friends…until one seems to crack under the pressure. Little does everyone know that she is afflicted by the entity, a being bent on destruction and pain as it seeks to destroy lives through its horrific visions.
Dive into this never-before-seen story of betrayal and reality bending, based on the critically-acclaimed SMILE film franchise from Parker Finn, brought to you by horror star Hannah Rose May (The Exorcism at 1600 Penn, The Guy in the Chair) and Miriana Puglia (Disney Villains: Cruella de Vil, Disney Villains: Maleficent) as we follow these models’ glamorous, gory descent into insanity.
Get ready to smile like you mean it.
Writer Hannah Rose May and artist Miriana Puglia bring the Smile: For the Camera mythos to the world of comics with style. The premiere issue might be filled with more tension than jump scares, but still gives off similar vibes to the feature films created by Parker Finn while carving its own path. A horrifying and compelling expansion to the Smile films.
End of Life #1
Writer: Kyle Starks
Artist: Steve Pugh
Publisher: Vertigo / DC Comics
Professional hitman Eddie Stallion has messed up. He’s accidentally robbed the Raven, a high-ranking boss of the international cabal of assassins the Menagerie, of which Eddie is a member… or he was. Now with a price on his head, Eddie chooses to hide in the one place everyone knows he’d never go… the small midwestern town of Pluto, home of his estranged father and known hard-ass George Stallion. Looking for safe harbor, Eddie instead finds his resentful father dying of cancer, old friends looking to collect that bounty, Menagerie assassins who have wandered into town, a cancelled newspaper comic-strip creator turned local crime lord, and oh yeah, his childhood first love, too.
Kyle Starks and Steve Pugh, the team behind Peacemaker Tries Hard!, present the story of a man-child assassin with some very grown-up problems. As Eddie grows more attached to the people of Pluto, he’ll have to step in to solve those problems the only way a hitman knows how!
End of Life by Eisner-nominated writer Kyle Starks and illustrator Steve Pugh is an action-packed hitman thriller with just the right about of dark humor. The premiere issue lays a sweet foundation with so many unanswered questions that has me eagerly awaiting the next issue. Another must-read comic from Starks and Pugh.
The Florida Hippopotamus Cocaine Massacre #1
Writer: Fred Kennedy
Artist: James Edward Clark
Publisher: Mad Cave Studios
Disco Hippo Wonderland is the number one amusement park in Flamingo City. But few realize its corpulent owner, Jans M’jor Discau, is about to release the most potent drug ever created: Coke45! Fortunately for humanity, Agent Clarke Nebraska is on the case! She’ll bring down Discau come heck or high water!
That was the plan, until her undercover agent, Tico Senecoza, was captured! And before she can rescue him, Miquel—Tico’s sexy loose cannon of an older brother beats her to the punch, storming into the park with bullets flying. Discau panics, dumping the Coke45 into the hippo enclosure and letting them loose on the park, before fleeing into Wonderland’s tunnel network! Nebraska’s plans are totally off the rails, and things get worse when a marijuana smoke fueled hurricane drowns the park in torrential rain!
Now it’s up to Nebraska and Miquel to create an uncomfortable truce to bring Discau down before he escapes!
The Florida Hippopotamus Cocaine Massacre will go down as on of the most fun comics of 2026, a 1980s comedy action thriller style story with unique artwork that pairs so well. Fearless Fred Kennedy and James Edward Clark team up to give us a unique comic series that will stand apart from the crowd.
Star Wars: Hidden Empire Omnibus HC
Writer: Charles Soule, Alyssa Wong, Greg Pak, Ethan Sacks
Artist: Minkyu Jung, Paolo Villanelli
Publisher: Marvel Comics
The epic trilogy begun in Star Wars: War of the Bounty Hunters and Star Wars: Crimson Reign concludes!
Qi’ra’s final plot to take down the Empire! The mysterious criminal syndicate Crimson Dawn and its leader, Lady Qi’ra, have become the galaxy’s most wanted now that Emperor Palpatine has realized the scope of their plans against him and moves to destroy her. But Qi’ra still has tricks up her sleeve — and with the help of the Knights of Ren and her many other allies, she will not go down without a fight! But as her bid to use an ancient Dark Side weapon known as the Fermata Cage to destroy the Sith falls apart and Darth Vader draws ever nearer, can Qi’ra still salvage victory from certain defeat?
The full saga of the Hidden Empire impacts your favorite rebels, the rogue archaeologist Doctor Aphra and the notorious Bounty Hunters!
Collecting: Star Wars: Hidden Empire (2022) #1-5, Star Wars: Revelations (2022) #1, Star Wars (2020) #26-36, Star Wars: Bounty Hunters (2020) #27-36, Star Wars: Darth Vader (2020) #28-36, Star Wars: Doctor Aphra (2020) #22-34.
