Bad Idea’s December 2026 Comics Lineup Sends Hank Howard to Tokyo, Collects Odinn’s Eye

Bad Idea’s December 2026 lineup is built around four very different kinds of danger: a troubled pizza expansion in Tokyo, a Norse god’s impossible demand, a cult ritual threatening a kidnapped goat, and alligator hunting gone catastrophically wrong beneath New York. The releases arrive across two dates in December, with the lead debut Hank Howard, Pizza Detective: The Deep Cut #1 and the collected Odinn’s Eye both scheduled for December 2, followed by It Demands Sacrifice #3 and Lancer #3 on December 16.

The clear oddball centerpiece is Hank Howard’s new case, which moves the pizza-crime premise from its established New York setting into an international corporate crisis. It is also the month’s biggest cover showcase, including a “Pizza By” variant from chef Chris Bianco alongside work by comics artists Ryan Sook, Tony Fleecs, Mark Buckingham, Jae Lee and others.

Hank Howard’s next investigation takes Big Caligula’s Pizza to Tokyo

Hank Howard, Pizza Detective: The Deep Cut #1 reunites writer Robert Venditti and artist David Lapham for a 32-page black-and-white issue, priced at $5.99 and scheduled for December 2. The central problem is Big Caligula’s Pizza’s first Japanese location. Corporate sees the Tokyo branch as a major opportunity, but the launch is being hit by vandalism, missing supply shipments and threats against employees.

Big Caligula’s own Eastern Division corporate detective, Makoto, is assigned to the problem. Once Makoto disappears, Hank becomes involved and treats the vanished investigator as evidence that the business troubles are part of a much more serious operation.

The setup matters because it frames the series’ familiar food-industry absurdity through a different kind of pressure: international expansion. A restaurant chain’s Tokyo location is not simply another storefront in the solicitation’s premise. It is portrayed as a high-stakes corporate push, and its failures make pizza the target of an organized campaign rather than an incidental backdrop for a detective story. Hank’s response, as outlined, suggests that discretion will not be the priority.

Lapham supplies the main cover as well as interior art. Additional covers are credited to Ryan Sook, Jesse Lonergan, Tony Fleecs, Mark Buckingham, Declan Shalvey, Jae Lee, chef Chris Bianco and Dan Panosian. The Bianco cover is especially notable because it brings a chef into an otherwise comics-artist-led variant program. Bianco is identified as a James Beard Award-winning chef.

What “variant cover” means here

A variant cover is an alternate front cover for the same comic issue. It does not indicate a separate chapter, a different interior story or an expanded edition on the information available here. For readers chiefly interested in continuing Hank Howard’s story, the important point is the issue number and creative team; cover choice is a presentation decision. For physical-comic buyers, the lengthy cover list creates multiple visual options while keeping the book itself anchored to the same December 2 release.

The “Pizza By” idea fits the title unusually well. Rather than treating a food connection as a one-off gag, the cover program makes pizza part of the release’s identity, matching a plot about a pizza corporation struggling to establish itself in Tokyo.

Odinn’s Eye arrives as a complete 144-page paperback

Odinn’s Eye TPB collects the full story by writer Joshua Dysart and artist Tomás Giorello. The 144-page, full-color trade paperback is listed for December 2 at $19.99, with colors by Diego Rodriguez and a cover by Giorello.

The story follows Solveig, a young farm girl visited by visions from Odinn. The god’s communications are beyond her understanding and contain images too brutal for a child to process, but the assignment is direct: retrieve his lost eye and return it to him. That mission unfolds amid a winter that has lasted for years, bringing crop failures, dying livestock, and mounting fear within Solveig’s community.

Her people interpret Solveig’s visions as a sign that Odinn has selected her, then organize a war party to head north. Solveig travels with warriors and an all-seeing witch, setting out on a quest positioned to reshape both her understanding of the world and her place in it.

The use of TPB in the title means “trade paperback”: a bound collection rather than a single standard comic issue. In practical terms, this is the December selection for readers who want the entire Odinn’s Eye narrative in one 144-page volume instead of following separate installments. The solicitation describes it as a complete epic, so there is no indication in the provided material that this book is only a partial collection.

Its premise is markedly different from the month’s monster and crime material. The threat is not merely physical survival in a harsh landscape; it is the burden placed on a child whose community is desperate for an explanation and a solution. The god’s request, the tribe’s expectations and the prolonged winter all bear down on Solveig before the journey north even begins.

It Demands Sacrifice #3 heads toward its penultimate chapter

It Demands Sacrifice #3 is scheduled for December 16. The 32-page full-color issue costs $5.99 and is written by Philip Gelatt and David Yarovesky, with art by Adam Pollina and colors by Dean White. Covers are credited to Pollina, Ryan Quackenbush and Flops.

This installment is described as the penultimate chapter, meaning it is the second-to-last part of its current story. A portal has been opened, and cult leader Magus is pursuing a final sacrifice intended to bring the demon Asmodeus into the world. The ritual has already killed Bronson’s mother, and Bronson—the kidnapped young goat at the center of the plot—is now the intended next victim.

The immediate stakes are clear: Bronson is trapped among cultists and must make it through the gates of Hell if he is to have a chance to rescue his family and avert the larger catastrophe. The solicitation leans into extreme horror imagery, but it also frames its goat protagonist as the potential hero of the crisis.

That contrast is a defining part of the issue’s pitch. The book places an unusually vulnerable lead character against a ritual with world-level consequences. December’s third chapter should therefore be read as a late-stage escalation rather than a fresh jumping-on point: the sacrifice is already underway, the portal already exists, and the villain is approaching the final step of the plan.

Lancer #3 turns an easy score into a sewer survival story

Lancer #3 also arrives December 16 as a 32-page full-color $5.99 release. Mike Costa writes, Jake Baker handles the art, and Lee Loughridge provides colors. Don Aguillo, Baker, Manix Abrera and Paul Pope are credited for covers.

The issue follows Pete Sanborn after a seemingly simple, profitable job has gone wrong. Pete’s crew had the equipment, skills and combat experience needed to capture alligators, but the operation has instead left him trying to escape New York’s sewers alive. The wording leaves no doubt about the tone: this is survival-focused action horror, and the prospect of escaping intact is far from guaranteed.

In contrast with the occult danger of It Demands Sacrifice, Lancer begins with a job that sounds practical: go in, capture gators, get paid, get out. The collapse of that plan is the hook. The series turns competence and preparation into no guarantee of safety once its characters enter the sewers.

For readers watching December’s broader slate, Lancer #3 and It Demands Sacrifice #3 share a release date and price but offer sharply different horror lanes. One centers on a demonic ritual and a cult; the other puts a crew in a hostile underground environment with dangerous animals and a desperate escape attempt.

December 2026 release checklist

• December 2: Hank Howard, Pizza Detective: The Deep Cut #1 — Robert Venditti and David Lapham; 32 pages; black and white; $5.99.
• December 2: Odinn’s Eye TPB — Joshua Dysart, Tomás Giorello and Diego Rodriguez; 144 pages; full color; $19.99.
• December 16: It Demands Sacrifice #3 — Philip Gelatt, David Yarovesky, Adam Pollina and Dean White; 32 pages; full color; $5.99.
• December 16: Lancer #3 — Mike Costa, Jake Baker and Lee Loughridge; 32 pages; full color; $5.99.

The lineup offers a fairly clean divide for comic readers: the complete mythic journey in Odinn’s Eye; the international, black-and-white pizza procedural of Hank Howard; and two ongoing horror series each reaching a more dangerous phase. Readers tracking other forthcoming superhero comics can also see how a very different Gotham conflict is being positioned in Absolute Batman #24.