Sandstorm Comics is back at New York Comic Con this week, and the Abu Dhabi studio is arriving with nearly double the shelf space it had a year ago. The show runs from 8 to 11 October at the Javits Center, and Sandstorm is sponsoring Artist Alley for the third year running. It now has 20 titles across comics, manga and children’s books, up from the 11 it brought to New York in 2025.
That growth is the main story here. Billed as the emirate’s first dedicated comic book studio, Sandstorm has spent three years building original IP from Yas Creative Hub. That is a slow, unglamorous business in an industry where a few long-established publishers still control most of the shelf space. Nearly doubling its catalogue in twelve months suggests the studio is producing at a steadier pace. Whether that output is finding readers beyond convention floors is harder to judge. Sandstorm says its books are now stocked online and in stores through several retail partners, but it has not shared sales figures.
The most revealing detail is about format. Sandstorm says its new A5 manga-style books outsold its traditional American comic-book format at this year’s Middle East Film & Comic Con. That matches a pattern the wider market has shown for years: younger readers increasingly favour the smaller, cheaper manga format over Western single issues. New York will be one of the first international tests of whether that preference holds outside the Gulf.
Sandstorm is also pushing its children’s imprint, Little Storm, which focuses on Emirati culture and heritage. Its titles include Tamtoom, about a curious cat exploring local traditions, and Sultan’s Time Travel Adventure, written by an eight-year-old Emirati author. Emirati writer Noora Al Awadi, whose Sandstorm credits include Mato and Tamtoom, makes her Comic Con debut at the show.
The rest of the roster is international. It includes Wrath of the Feral creator Soroush Barazesh, Nigerian manga artist Odunze Oguguo, whose WhytManga YouTube channel has more than 500,000 subscribers, and Annie Award-winning character designer Justine King. Recent releases Space Scavengers and Primal Showdown will sit alongside established series such as Solarblader at booth HB905.
The studio is also launching its first merchandise: the Eebat blind box. Each box holds one of five plush versions of a character from All Upon A Time. Blind boxes reliably sell at conventions, though they say little about whether the underlying comics are connecting with readers.
The panel takes place on Saturday 10 October at 1:30pm EDT in Room 1B02, moderated by Khail Anonymous, and attendees get an exclusive preview comic. The bigger question is what happens after the convention. Sandstorm has shown it can publish steadily; the next test is whether readers who are not standing at its booth will go looking for its books.
