This was one of the upcoming comics that Oni Press announced at San Diego Comic-Con last month. As I recall, the Hobtown Mystery series is a surprising success story about an author and artist living in Canada. They self-published the first two volumes. And they were so good, and did so well, that Oni Press is picking up the third one. Congratulations to the creators on their success!
Here's all the info on this new volume:
HOBTOWN MYSTERY STORIES: THE SECRET OF THE SAUCER SC
WRITTEN BY KRIS BERTIN
ART/COVER BY ALEXANDER FORBES
ON SALE NOVEMBER 26th, 2025 | $24.99 | 264 PGS. | FC
FOC: 11/3/2025
THE HOBTOWN JUNIOR DETECTIVE CLUB RETURNS FOR THE SECRET OF THE SAUCER! With the acclaimed Hobtown Mystery Stories, childhood friends writer Kris Bertin and artist Alexander Forbes have created a graphic novel series that is equal parts captivating, creepy, charming, and compulsively readable. Teaming with colorist Jason Fischer-Kouhi, Bertin and Forbes create an electric story about an eccentric small town (Hobtown, population: 2,006) that has been plagued for centuries by a litany of unexplained phenomena: missing men, pagan secret societies, strange rituals, conspiracies, curses, and crimes. At the heart of it all is a group of teenagers who come together to save their town and uncover the truths their parents kept from them.
“Imagine if A24 re-made Stranger Things and you begin to understand the ambition of the strange and surreal story that Kris Bertin and artist Alexander Forbes have undertaken,” said Oni Press Editor-in-Chief Sierra Hahn. “There’s a multi-generational mystery, a supernatural mini-man, and a ragtag group of teen detectives. I genuinely love this series. Hobtown Mystery Stories just might be the best-kept secret in comics. These graphic novels are a personal obsession for me and soon they will be for you, too.”
“What’s delightful about Hobtown Mystery Stories is the way each volume reinforces and deepens the series’ larger mythology, while also working as a standalone reading experience that will burrow into your brain,” said Oni Press Senior Editor Bess Pallares. “You have a missing person’s case in volume one, boarding school horror in volume two, and a flying saucer in volume three–the first all-new Hobtown book published by Oni Press. Kris and Alex have created an astonishingly rich world of quaint, small-town intrigue–exactly the books my young, library-card toting self hoped I could read as an adult. You can start the series with any volume you like, because I guarantee you’ll be back for the rest.”
In Hobtown Mystery Stories: The Secret of the Saucer, the lines between conspiracy and reality become intertwined like never before during the town’s highly contested mayoral election. The arrival of an unexplained, unidentified flying object, a chaotic and unhinged Ape Lord, and an outbreak of literal backward thinking–the high school Teen Detective Club should be at the forefront of the case, but is rife with conflict and its own crisis of leadership as the sleuths become increasingly paranoid. Is there anyone they can trust?
Hobtown Mystery Stories: The Secret of the Saucer includes a tribute to the visionary filmmaker and painter David Lynch, whose storytelling informs so much of the story that Bertin and Forbes are creating. Hobtown is, after all, "like every town you've ever seen. And no place you've ever known."
Here’s what critics are saying about Hobtown Mystery Stories…
“Forceful and haunting." — NEW YORK TIMES
“Think the Hardy Boys and Nancy Drew, but directed by David Lynch. We shouldn't have to write anymore. You're sold already.… If you've read Ed Brubaker and Marcos Martín's Friday series and want more and weirder, creators Kris Bertin and Alexander Forbes deliver.”
— COMIC BOOK CLUB COUNSELING
“Both wholesome and weird.” — LA DAILY NEWS
“If, like me, you grew up reading The Hardy Boys (or Nancy Drew) and The Boxcar Children, and you also have a soft spot for Twin Peaks and other comforting yet disturbing Lynchian dreamscapes, then you should find a lot to enjoy within the quaint and creepy pages of Kris Bertin and Alexander Forbes' Hobtown Mystery Stories….Eclectic” — DAILY DEAD
“Gritty.” — BOOKRIOT
“Kris Bertin and Alexander Forbes have remixed the vibe of Twin Peaks, The X-Files, The Hardy Boys, with a dash of Wes Anderson and distilled it into something perfectly unique. It’s a phenomenal reading experience and I cannot wait for the next four volumes of the series.”
— BIFF BAM POP
“Unique and captivating.” — CONSKIPPER
“A weirdly warm-hearted nightmare.” — Booklist (Starred Review)
“An exceptional, odd mystery.” — Publisher’s Weekly (starred review)
Hobtown Mystery Stories: The Secret of the Saucer will be available on November 25, 2025.
Now, let's take a look inside:
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About the Creators
Kris Bertin and Alexander Forbes are childhood friends who studied separate disciplines in order to reunite and make comics as adults. They grew up in Lincoln, New Brunswick, and live in Halifax, Nova Scotia.
About Oni Press
Founded in 1997, Oni Press has a 25-year history as one of the industry’s most respected and acclaimed publishers of award-winning comic books and graphic novels with titles including Bryan Lee O'Malley's Scott Pilgrim, K. O’Neill’s Tea Dragon Society, Cullen Bunn & Brian Hurtt's The Sixth Gun, Maia Kobabe's Gender Queer, Ezra Clayton Daniels' Upgrade Soul, Brenna Thummler’s Sheets trilogy, and many hundreds more. In 2019, Oni Press merged with Lion Forge Comics – the Eisner Award-winning independent comic book publisher founded by Academy Award-winning producer and entrepreneur David Steward II – to create one of the largest, independent libraries of comics content anywhere in media. The Oni-Lion Forge Publishing Group now exists as a publishing subsidiary of Steward’s diversified global media company, Polarity.
The Oni-Lion Forge Publishing Group publishes more than 60 original and licensed graphic novels annually, in addition to an extensive list of periodical comics.
Thanks to Oni Press for sharing this preview with us.
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