SHQ Holiday Recommendations 2025: Chris' Picks

December 11, 2025 Secret Headquarters

SHQ crew back with more recs!

Cornelius by Marc Torices

Drawn & Quarterly, $40

This book is pure cartooning elegance, weaving disparate art styles into a fever dream, dark-as-a-bottomless-pit comedy. Cornelius is "spoiled and immature, unable to deal with life as an adult. Someone feverishly feigning emotional stability while actually being driven by pure and simple desperation." Cornelius is an asshole. Cornelius is a coward. Cornelius is pathetic and pitiable. Cornelius is also a dog. Cornelius for president, or at least a nomination for a Nobel Prize.

Saga De Xam by Nicolas Devil & Jean Rollin

Anthology Editions, $60

In Jean Rollin's 1979 film Fascination, the maids call their chateau a "universe of madness and death", an apt description of his own decade earlier book Saga de Xam. In its first English translation ever, heroine Saga escapes her war-riddled planet like a Kal-El with boobs, and proceeds to hop time through some of the most brutal (trigger warnings galore) and horny moments of Planet Earth. Equal parts Belladonna of Sadness, Barbarella and Ottinger's Madame X, Rollin forges his fantastique, feminist, sapphic priorities, but the true star is Nicolas Devil's art, a cannonball of psychedelic expression which feels as if Sun Ra's cosmic music is pouring through Devil's pen.

Them Shaped Clouds by Max Huffman

Cram Books, $20

Max Huffman's Dogtangle is terrific but three cheers for this riso mini-masterpiece from Cram Books. Collecting a handful of shorties, this banger combines Huffman's slacker wit with his angular-Hirschfeld, cubist naughty aughties Cartoon Network on acid style. This all with colors that would make the Las Vegas Boneyard blush.

Buff Soul by Moa Romanova

Fantagraphics, $30

If JD Pinkus is the wise sage in your tale of youthful folly, you've already succeeded. Taking the EP (On Tour, published by Peow) and expanding it into a full length album, Buff Soul stirs all the feelings of wild salad days, ignoring your bodily well-being and balancing the teetering scale of new adulthood, where none of it matters and at the same time, all of it matters. It made me exclaim aloud "oh to be young again!", followed by the sobering realization that I was never punk, and have lived an uneventful, nerdy, little life.

Miss Ruki by Fumiko Takano

New York Review Comics, $20

Illuminating, light-hearted, slice of life comics of a working girl in late 80s consumer culture Japan. Miss Ruki brought me cozy comfort on the same level of Taniguchi's Walking Man with a touch of the tangible realness of Matsumoto's Tokyo These Days. Basically Cathy except less nervous sweating and acks.

Spy Seal: The Corten Steel Phoenix by Rich Tommaso

Floating World Comics, $20/$30

God bless Rich Tommaso and those Dawn of the Dead Mall weirdos at Floating World for reprinting one of the most criminally underrated comics of the last decade. Perfect for Tintin fans if you hate cultural appropriation. Perfect for Bond fans if you hate sexism and racism. Perfect for Usagi fans if you hate rabbits. Plainly, a perfect book.

SHQ Holiday Recommendations 2025: Patrick’s Picks

December 6, 2025 Secret Headquarters

Tongues by Anders Nilsen

Pantheon, $35, hardcover

Tongues winds its way through my life in a way that almost feels like something cosmic. Having read the gorgeous, self-published volumes, I was prepared to take the journey again, even though it's heavier now. It's hard to describe how much this book feels alive, from the paneling to the lore, no detail too small. The interior of the book may not change with each reading but walking the path will forge us anew.

Also check out the Tongues Process Zine we published with Anders. Perfect for the Nilsen super fan!

Baby Blue by Bim Eriksson

Fantagraphics, $30, Softcover

“Now I realize you're at least as crazy as me.” As someone who has cried in public and plans to continue that trend, I must recommend Baby Blue. Sometimes even therapy can be used as a bludgeon to make us feel better and return to being a good consumer instead of looking at the root causes of our depression, the unjust world. This is taken to the extreme when Betty gets picked up by the pigs for crying in public and daring to ask the internet what's wrong. Well, there's nothing wrong with your anxiety, except the way of the world, so let's change it together.

Drome by Jesse Lonergan

23rd St, $30, Hardcover

Phenomenal art with unique paneling. Can we end the cycle of violence or are we doomed to repeat the mistakes of the past? To meet the gods, you simply walk until you can walk no more. If you are into Lonergan’s style also check out his work on Man’s Best with shop favorite writer Pornsak Pichetshote, we have copies!

Out of Alcatraz by Christopher Cantwell and Tyler Crook

Oni Press, $30, Hardcover

This one is a bit different than my usual style, but I’ve loved Christopher Cantwell since Halt and Catch Fire and I can’t get enough. Combining True Crime with speculative fiction, Out of Alcatraz shows what possibly could have happened to the real life escapees from their infamous island incarceration. Great action and rising tension, plus it’s so fun to see 1960s California in Tyler Crook’s style. Can we truly find freedom or are we just trading one prison cell for another of our own making?

The Ultimates Vol 1: Fix The World

Marvel, $25, Paperback

With the way things are going recently, it’s surprising to see Disney put out some of the most anti-fascist mass media since Andor. If you haven’t checked out Deniz Camp’s other comics (why haven’t you read Assorted Crisis Events yet?!) then The Ultimates is a great place to start. The Maker is up to some shit (when is he not?) and the Ultimates are here to save the day, but can they? This book hits more like the X-Men than the Avengers, challenging the status quo in a universe stacked against them. fuck the status quo!

Goes Like This by Jordan Crane

Fantagraphics, $40, Paperback

Many of you know Keeping Two is my all time favorite graphic novel, but the Goes Like This collection cements Jordan Crane as my favorite artist. Spanning genres, the way he crafts quiet moments between characters that are exploding with emotional intimacy is unparalleled. I've long admired the “At Night One Day” print and reading the full story of “One Day” feels like a missing piece of me has been returned. Such a simple story with such big feelings, but I guess that's life captured the way only Jordan can do it.

This collection also comes with a risograph print signed by Jordan while they last!

The Magic Is Back

May 31, 2025 Secret Headquarters

Jay Howell is back in the game, Magic The Gathering specifically. A new collection of 5 new cards (and a Bone Miser, classic) is now available through Secret Headquarters. Foil variants randomized in each order, at least one included. The backs of the cards are all blank and sketched by Jay.

Each envelope contains:
1x Agent of Treachery
1x Priest of Forgotten Gods
1x Treasonous Ogre
1x Uncivil Unrest
1x Marchesa, the Black Rose
1 x Bone Miser

Stop by Secret Headquarters to snag your Magic today! If you can’t make it, we have the cards up on our site for purchase.

While you are there, we only have a few sizes left of Jay’s Ghost In the Shell tee left. And don’t forget your copy of Black & White Drawings which we published with Jay, it’s on sale!

Close up of design on the Ghost in the Shell tee.

Mega Art Sale - Final Weekend!

May 29, 2025 Secret Headquarters

If you’ve stopped by recently you know we are in the middle of a Flat file clean out! Secret Headquarters has a massive collection of art on display right now. Dave has a good eye for art, but there isn’t always a good way to share that art with the world. Well, now you can see the copious collection with your own eyes. Old SHQ art, cool stuff you might have missed, rare photographs, new shit you haven’t seen.

If you have not been by the shop recently then you might have missed out on some good art, but never fear there are a ton of amazing options still for sale. We’ll keep the art up through Sunday the 1st, so please stop by to get your fix!

A Farewell From Jules

February 27, 2025 Secret Headquarters

tl;dr: So long and thanks for all the fish!

I started working at SHQ as a 24 year old girl, and I'm leaving a 38 year old dude. Life is wild.

This job has been my dream come true. I've met incredible people and lifelong friends in customers, creators, and coworkers alike. I've watched toddlers who came in with their parents every weekend go off to college and become artists in their own right. I've gotten to raise funds and gather supplies for groups near and dear to my heart like Access Reproductive Justice, Trans Defense Fund LA, Mutual Aid LA, 826LA, LAUSD Homeless Education Office, and more. I've read so, so many amazing comics.

My last day working at SHQ is March 21. Swing by, say hi, I'd love to see you. Catch me thereafter picking up my pull list on Wednesdays (and grabbing a chocolate chip cookie at Proof.)

Be brave, be kind, support your local shop.