We all love the big-name superheroes, but sometimes the mainstream stuff feels like it’s stuck in a loop. However, if you’re looking to fall in love with comics again, the indie scene is where the actual magic is currently happening.
2025 was a massive year for creator-owned stories. We saw everything from brutal, high-octane robot adventures to these small, gorgeous stories that make ordinary life feel like high art. It’s the kind of storytelling you only get when you let artists actually take a swing at something new without a corporate safety net. If you’re ready to see what the medium is actually capable of when the gloves come off, these five books are essential reading.
KPB Comics Presents: 5 Best Indie Graphic Novels You Must Read in 2026
1. We’re Taking Everyone Down With Us by Matthew Rosenberg, Stefano Landini, and Jason Wordie)
Who knew a teenager and her robotic guardian embarking on a revenge quest against shadowy assassins and government organizations could be this compelling?
We’re Taking Everyone Down With Us is a recently completed miniseries from Image Comics and stands as one of the biggest surprises of 2025. Action-heavy, irreverent, and surprisingly touching, the series follows Annalise—a young girl whose father was entangled in a dangerous underworld. His passing triggers a violent, bizarre, and emotional quest for vengeance.
While the “revenge” premise might not be entirely new, the execution is. The setting, the characters, and the sheer, wild craziness of the narrative feel truly fresh. Writer Matthew Rosenberg accomplishes in just six issues what many creators struggle to do in twenty: he builds an intriguing world populated by characters whose quirks make them feel alive rather than like background wallpaper.
The visuals are equally sharp. Stefano Landini’s art is looser than his work at Marvel or DC, but it’s all the better for it, as it stands out with a style that draws the eye and ensures the visual storytelling remains clear and easy to follow. Jason Wordie’s colors (with occasional assists from Roman Titov) add a vibrant, violent edge to the madness.
We’re Taking Everyone Down With Us is now available as a six-issue trade paperback, and it is absolutely worth the read.
2. Hobtown Mystery Stories (Volumes 1-3) by Kris Bertin, Alexander Forbes, and Jason Fischer-Kouhi
A labor of love from the imaginations of Kris Bertin and Alexander Forbes, their partnership has yielded one of the most surprising graphic novel series in years. It is a series that is eerie, unnerving, and full of mystery, yet one that never sickens or repulses the reader with the morbid secrets at its heart.
Hobtown Mystery Stories are set in the titular location of Hobtown: a dull and cloying little town in Canada where quaint charm gives way to an underbelly much more eerie than it initially seems. The trilogy is something of a hidden gem; touted by those in Canadian artistic circles as the triumph that it is, but less known among the broader, “Big Two” comic-reading public. And that’s a shame, because there is a lot here to like.
With leading characters akin to the Hardy Boys and the Stranger Things youths, Hobtown has an infectiously intriguing energy. This is courtesy of Kris Bertin’s excellent dialogue and embrace of strange surrealism, paired with Alexander Forbes’ singular and unique art, which suits the charming but unnerving setting perfectly. Available as three separate stories, Hobtown Mystery Stories would make for an excellent read for anyone who is a fan of mysteries and horror.
3. The Power Fantasy by Kieron Gillen & Caspar Wijngaard)
The Power Fantasy is a comic that will one day be a hit TV or movie series; I can state that with absolute confidence.
Brought to life by the powerhouse duo of Kieron Gillen and Caspar Wijngaard, the series manages to be both high-concept and incredibly accessible. It balances the profound with the relatable in a way few comics this ambitious ever manage–which is exactly why I’m certain it will eventually make the leap from the page to the screen.
In many ways, The Power Fantasy is the best X-Men comic of 2025, despite not being an X-Men comic at all. Gillen’s ability to mine deep emotion and meaning from what could have been a tired premise is remarkable. From the very first issue, the narrative innovation and constant twists create a truly spellbinding reading experience.
It is all anchored by Wijngaard’s stunning art. His colors are beautiful, perfectly capturing the grandeur, surrealism, and aesthetic beauty the story demands. A true superstar among independent titles, The Power Fantasy is currently available in both single issues and trade paperback.
4. Drome by Jesse Longergan)
What is there to say about Drome that hasn’t already been said?
A graphic novel sensation, Drome is Jesse Lonergan’s most recent passion project and certainly his most ambitious work to date. It is an artistic showpiece that few other comics in 2025 could match.
What is most striking is Lonergan’s use of panels to tell the story. Often carving up the page into box panels, Lonergan uses them to draw attention to the finer points of his art and to provide a unique experience in sequential storytelling.
The book is beautifully drawn, utilizing larger panels and full-page spreads at just the right moments to guide the eye and punctuate the narrative. It’s beautifully colored, too, and Drome becomes a reading experience one can spend hours on.
5. Life Drawing: A Love and Rockets Collection by Jamie Hernandez)
While one might appreciate Life Drawing more with some prior experience with Jaime Hernandez’s Love and Rockets (the strip he has written and drawn since 1982), it stands perfectly well on its own. In fact, it excels as a story regardless of your history with the series.
There are few graphic novels from the past year as profoundly moving, natural, and funny as this. What makes it so engaging is how small in scope it feels. There are no superheroes, murder mysteries, giant monsters, or grand powers here. Life Drawing focuses on the mundane, the ordinary, and makes a case for how beautiful, engrossing, funny, ridiculous, and tragic the ordinary can be.
Hernandez is a master of comics, able to draw anatomically correct, well-rendered figures alongside cartoonish, zany characters in a way that’s seamless and additive. It rewards readers familiar with his world but also welcomes new readers with a rich series of stories, dynamics, and relatable characters. It’s a rare achievement these days to have someone of Hernandez’s caliber still producing work of this level, and it’s a treat to be enjoyed and cherished.
