It’s a trade waiting heavy week in The Pull, but there are still some gems throughout. So let’s explore all that in another edition of The Pull, where I share my buys, recommendations, and curiosities from the week of comics.

Comic of the Week: Ultimate Spider-Man #16

Jonathan Hickman, Marco Checchetto, and Matthew Wilson have stayed hot, as Ultimate Spider-Man has just proven to be a sustainably rock solid superhero comic that’s just a blast to read. I’m really impressed how they’ve managed to play within the familiar parts of the larger Spider-Man world while delivering it all in an original way. That’s a tough line to walk, but one they’ve done quite well.

Trade/Graphic Novel of the Week: Ginseng Roots: A Memoir HC

I already wrote about this in Comics Disassembled, but Craig Thompson’s latest graphic novel — which builds off his 12-issue series at Uncivilized Books, adding a whole bunch of new material — about the world’s relationship with ginseng, and how it has affected so many lives, from his own, the farmers in his hometown of Marathon, Wisconsin, and well beyond. This book goes to places you’d never expect, and it’s a deeply personal and well-reported journey into its subject, but the constant is Thompson’s astonishing art. It takes a lot to say this, but this is his best looking book yet. It’s a heck of a thing.