Month: December 2020

Comixology Sales: $0.99 Marvel Masterworks and Holiday Sales from DC, Dynamite and IDW

Looking for some Comixology sales?  Welcome to the holiday sale season.  All these new sales are running into January, too.  $0.99 Marvel Masterworks are good and Cheap. DC, IDW and Dynamite are also catering to your discount needs.  Many of these sales are “linewide,” which means pretty much everything is on sale from those publishers.  Been waiting for something to go on sale? It’s probably there.

(Disclosure: If you buy something we link to on our site, we may earn commission.)

Marvel gets CHEAP

Do you like classic Marvel?  If so you will LOVE the Marvel Masterworks sale (Amazon link) and might not get any further than this.  Volume 1’s are $0.99 and the rest are $1.99.  The page counts are always good and sometimes GREAT and you can’t beat the price.

The best buy here, and maybe the best buy on all of Comixology, is probably Black Panther Masterworks V. 1. That’s the entire Jungle Action run written by Don McGregor with art by Billy Graham, Rich Buckler and Gil Kane.  A truly excellent run that established a LOT of the character’s cast, especially Killmonger.  330 pages of excellence for $0.99?  If you haven’t tried it, this is the time.

You want a LOT of pages for your 99 cents?  Check out  Killraven (AKA War of the Worlds).  This post-apocalyptic band of freedom fighters throwing off the Martian yoke clocks in at 471 pages.  A lot of creators were involved with this, but it’s fondly remembered as a Don McGregor/P. Craig Russell feature.  And yes, it includes the graphic novel.

For something a little more off the radar, everyone remembers Jim Starlin’s Captain Marvel run. It was the first round with Thanos.  Hardly anyone remembers that Steve Englehart and Al Milgrom had an enjoyable run right after Starlin. That would be Captain Marvel Masterworks V. 4 and can be yours for a lousy $1.99 (V. 3 is the main Starlin run and grab that one if you haven’t read it.)

Black Panther Masterworks   Killraven  Captain Marvel

Head to the main link for an extended browse.  There’s a lot of very cheap classic comics and you don’t need me to tell you about Avengers and X-Men.  I will say that Doctor Strange is pretty solid the whole way through and if you like Golden Age Marvel and Atlas-era Marvel, pay close attention to the final two sections on the page.

Next up, we have the Marvel “Greatest Runs” sale.  Yes, it sounds like they need more fiber, but there are some superior deals here, too.

We’ve always been big fans of the Matt Fraction / Salvador Larroca run of Invincible Iron Man and the whole run is alternating $2.99 and $1.99 per volume.  Great prices.

Mark Waid’s superlative Daredevil run gets the omnibus treatment at $3.99 a pop.  This one starts out with Marcos Martin and Paolo Rivera as the main artists and then settles into Chris Samnee as the lead for the duration. It probably falls into the modern classic category.

Immortal Iron Fist is an incredibly fun series that’s collected in 2 omnibuses.  Volume 1 (482 pages) is primarily written by Ed Brubaker & Matt Fraction and primarily drawn by David Aja. Volume 2 (474 pages) is primarily written by Duane Swierczynski and drawn by the criminally under-rated Travel Foreman. Yes, you’ll want both volumes and you’ll probably want more Fat Cobra, too.

Iron Man  Daredevil  Iron Fist V. 1 Iron Fist V. 2

DC’s Holiday Sales

DC has a couple different sales conveniently located on one page.  And really, this one looks a lot like the Black Friday sale.

First up is a Wonder Woman sale… with 69 items!  <eye roll> Yes, DC… we see what you did there.  </eye roll>

For Wonder Woman, you can  click here and two classic runs begin and end the Omnibus section.  Wonder Woman by George Perez is the post-Crisis rebirth and actually wraps up with the War of the Gods volume.  Towards the end of the Perez run, you get some early Jill Thompson art, too.  That run really set the table for modern Wonder Woman.  At the end of the section is Wonder Woman by Greg Rucka, which is also an absolutely fantastic run.

Wonder Woman by George Perez Wonder Woman by Greg Rucka

For the general graphic novel sale — and this is linewide, so while almost everything is there, here are a some ideas of things that might not immediately jump out:

Y: The Last Man by Brian K. Vaughan and Pia Guerra is getting a TV show pretty soon and it’s a great series.  Make sure you scroll to the Omnibus section — they’re same price as the “regular” collections, so double up the page count!

Swamp Thing: The Bronze Age Vol. 1 is the original Len Wein/Bernie Wrightson run.  There’s a reason it’s a classic and it’s well worth your time.

We were always fans of Paul Levitz’s Doctor Fate and it sure didn’t hurt our feelings that Sonny Liew drew most of it.  Killer creators and an interesting way to get back to Fate’s Egyptian roots.

Y the Last Man   Swamp Thing  Doctor Fate

DC’s sales are running through Monday, 1/4.

Dynamite’s Holiday Sale

The Dynamite Linewide Sale comes in three parts: Graphic Novels and then single issues broken up into A-P, P-W and W-Z.  (Amazon link) It pretty much is the entire line.  When you’re looking at the graphic novels, remember that the majority of single issues are $0.99, so 6 single issues = $5.94. Be pure, be vigilant, be cheap!

As for what we’d draw your eye to, three things come to mind as we flip through the pages.  Howard Chaykin’s American Flagg! is a hugely influential science fiction series with liberal does of satire.

The Shadow Masters Series is the absurdist and subversive take on The Shadow from the late ’80s by Andy Helfer, Bill Sienkiewicz and Kyle Baker (with a an extra special appearance by Marshall Rogers that almost defies description… old vendettas, children acting out and a nurse who used to be a professional wrestler.  It’s really something else.

Here at the Tower of Cheap, we’ve been waiting… and waiting… on the collected edition of the Christopher Priest/Ergün Gündüz Vampirella run and it keeps getting pushed back.  We keep hearing good things and the ever-reliable Priest on Vampi is so counter-intuitive, it’s probably worth it.  Guess what?  The single issues are (mostly) $0.99 if you want to get a jump on the collections.

This sale runs through Monday 1/4.

American Flagg!    The Shadow   Vampirella

IDW Holiday Sale

The IDW Linewide Sale is broken into SIX parts: Graphic Novels I, Graphic Novels II and then single issues I, II, III and IV.  (Amazon link) Which is to say, a whole lot o’ stuff.  What might we point you at the might otherwise slip your mind?

Bloom County: The Complete Library – A classic comic strip by a classic cartoonist.  Essentially, the whole archive is on sale.

Like Walt Simonson’s Thor? Then you need to check out Ragnarok. Valhalla has fallen and the survivors of the realm are picking up the pieces.  Although not everyone who survived is necessarily alive. Walt returns to the Norse mythos and it’s some of his best work.  Possibly the best thing IDW’s published.

Richard Stark’s Parker is another contender for the best thing IDW’s published. Darwyn Cooke adapts the crime novels about a professional thief who takes double-crosses extra personal. You might know the source material from the films like Point Blank and Payback.

This sale runs until Tuesday, 1/5.

Bloom County   Ragnarok Richard Stark's Parker

Still on sale

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Comixology Sales: Immortal Hulk, Billionaire Island, Avengers: The Initiative, Pat Mills has a new anthology, Lady Mechanika

The Comixology sales this week include the wonder that is The Immortal Hulk, a stroll through Event tie-ins past with Avengers Academy and a deep dive into the big Small Press Sale.

(Disclosure: If you buy something we link to on our site, we may earn commission.)

All You Need Is Hulk

Probably the best sale currently going on is Marvel’s Immortal Hulk Sale which runs through Thursday (12/17).  Simply put, this comic would be our pick for Marvel’s best comic of the last couple years. Al Ewing writes and Joe Bennett is the primary artist on this horror take on ‘ole Jade Jaws.  Psychological horror, body horror, resurrections and that green doorway to <spoilers>.  It’s a great comic and $2.99/tpb is cheap!
Immortal Hulk

The Marvel Avengers Academy Sale is, at its core, a series of Event spin-offs about teen superheroes.  Avengers: The Initiative spun out of Civil War and continued through Secret Invasion, then morphed into Avengers Academy with the Dark Reign era of Marvel. This will come as no shock to folks who’ve been watching the Marvel documentaries on Disney+, but Avengers: The Initiative started out as a Dan Slott written title that transitioned over to Christos Gage taking it over.  Yes, that trend really does go back to 2008.
Avengers: The Initiative

Sifting Through the Small Press

The “Best of Small Press Sale” is running through 1/7 and comes in two flavors: Graphic Novels and Single Issues.  That’s a lot to plough through, so let’s take a bit of time and take a look at some of the more interesting bits.

Over at The Tower of Cheap, we’ve been suitably impressed with what we’ve seen out of Ahoy, an indie publisher with bent towards satire and fun.  The majority of their material is on sale right now, so as a shortcut, here’s their Publisher Page. The Ahoy single issues are $0.99, so keep in mind you’re going to be saving money if you get those instead of the collected editions.   We will personally vouch for The Wrong Earth and Edgar Allan Poe’s Snifter of Terror.  Billionaire Island is currently in our reading queue.

The Wrong Earth by Tom Peyer, Jamal Igle and Juan Castro fits the elevator pitch of “what happens when Adam West’s campy TV Batman and Frank Miller’s Dark Knight Batman end up in each other’s universe?”  It’s funny _and_ satisfying.

Edgar Allan Poe’s Snifter of Terror is a sort of funhouse mirror of a horror anthology. A blind drunk Edgar Allan Poe stands in for the Crypt Keeper: our host guiding us through snarky horror stories.  It’s well worth your time.

Billionaire Island by Mark Russell and Steve Pugh – the sublime team behind The Flintstones at DC a few years ago – has the Billionaires escaping the ravages of climate change to their own artificially made island… a tax-free domicile, naturally…


The Wrong Earth   Edgar Allan Poe's Snifter of Terror   Billionaire Island

You remember Pat Mills?  One of the original architects of Judge Dredd. Famed for things like Nemesis the Warlock, Charley’s War (which is excellent and almost totally unknown in the US) and Marshall Law.  It seems he has his own “Millsverse” publishing imprint at Comixology.  Of particular interest may be the Requiem Vampire Knight  series with art by Olivier Ledroit. I’m given to understand this is a particularly dark one, not for kids, and was originally written for the French market.

And then there’s his current project – Spacewarp, which has Mills creating a new 2000 AD-esque science fiction anthology.  Something he’s well qualified to be doing.  From the description:

“Featuring Special Forces One at war with Giant Viruses! Jurassic Punks versus Dinosaurs! Xecutioners: authorized to terminate Aliens! Slayer – one Robot in a Galactic war against a million Space Knights. Hellbreaker escapes from Hell to punish the Living. Fu-tant – a terrifying school for Mutants! Space Cops! Mutant secret agents! Killer robots! Virus armies! Alien invasions! Interacting in a unique Spacewarp Universe! Inventive, action-packed, heartfelt, heroic, humorous, fast-paced and fantastic value for money – as only the Brits know how. Aimed at ordinary readers of all ages. ”

Requiem Vampire Knight   Spacewarp

Speaking of folks doing their own publishing, if you follow the Diamond sales charts for the US Direct Market, very few people are having much luck being their own publisher.  One of the two exceptions that come to mind is Joe Benitez, who steampunk cyborg adventure/SF/F series Lady Mechanika has outsold a lot of comics from larger publishers.
Lady Mechanika

Still on sale

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Comixology Sales: Archie Vs. Predator! Deadpool! Spawn! and DC’s Crisis of Events on Sale!

This week’s Comixology Sales include Deadpool, DC’s Events over the years, Spawn and Dark Horse put the Aliens and Predator lines on sale ahead of Marvel’s versions.

(Disclosure: If you buy something we link to on our site, we may earn commission.)

Crisis on Infinite Sales

The DC Event & Mini Series Sale  runs through Monday (12/14).  It’s a little heavier on Events.  For a somewhat recent title, Event Leviathan has made its to the discount zone. The Brian Bendis/Alex Maleev  tale of a mysterious criminal conspiracy moving on DC’s spy organizations in preparation for a takeover was supposed to have a sequel, Event Leviathan: Checkmate that hasn’t been rescheduled yet.

DC’s best event in recent(ish) memory is probably Multiversity.  Grant Morrison went about exploring the multiverse with Frank Quitely and a posse of A-list artists in tow.  Not that the multiverse might suddenly be relevant at DC again or anything… This is a nice thick 450 page package, too.

Going back a hair further to the Before New 52 Times, Sinestro Corps War is probably the pinnacle of the celebrated Geoff Johns era on Green Lantern. This first GL event kept it tightly in the family with just Green Lantern, Green Lantern Corps and an Event special.

Event Leviathan   Multiversity   Green Lantern - Sinestro Corps War

The Merc with the Discount

The Deadpool Vs.  The Marvel Universe Sale (Amazon link) runs through Sunday (11/13). The first thing you’re thinking when you read that sale name is probably Deadpool Kills the Marvel Universe  by Cullen Bunn and Dalibor Talajic. And you’d be right to think that. It’s the first thing listed on sale.  There are several volumes of Cullen Bunn’s various Deadpool titles, as it happens.

The sale is made up of several of the “side” series Deadpool has had over the years… and that’s a fairly long list.  For a couple alternate ideas, Deadpool Vs. X-Force is written by Duane Swierczynski with some relatively early Marvel art by Pepe Larraz, who’s certainly on the A-list today.

And if you’d like a bit of high concept snark, Deadpool’s Art of War by Peter David and Scott Koblish has the Merc with the Mouth in a get rich quick scheme involving translating Sun Tzü’ venerable tome and… things don’t go quite as planned.

Deadpool Kills the Marvel Universe   Deadpool vs. X-Force   Deadpool's Art of War

Lots of Marvel still on sale in the bottom section.

Spawn

Image lines up with a Spawn sale (Amazon link) through Thursday, 12/17. This is one very long series.  The 20 volumes of Spawn Origins takes you through #122, then the titled volumes pick up a bit later in the series. Spawn#312 shipped a couple weeks ago, so Spawn has outlasted Cerebus.

Spawn

Aliens and Predators on the Way Out the Door

Running until 12/31, Dark Horse has an Aliens Predator Sale (Amazon link). Since Marvel already has their first Aliens comic scheduled, its possible some of this material is going to be out of circulation for awhile.  If you want bang for your buck, go with the Aliens Omnibus and Predator Omnibus lines. If you want something different… Archie vs. Predator by Alex de Campi and Fernando Ruiz. Yes, that’s real.

Aliens Omnibus   Predator   Archie Vs. Predator

Still on sale

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Comixology Sales: Marvel has Buy One Get One Free and drops another 3 sales, plus Batman, Star Wars Adventures and Red Sonja

Comixology sales this week include Marvel dropping 3 new sales (including some prime Silver Surfer comics), Batman/Catwoman’s still running at DC, Red Sonja takes a digital discount at IDW and Star Wars Adventures visits the bargain zone.

(Disclosure: If you buy something we link to on our site, we may earn commission.)

Marvel’s Dropping Lots of Sales and BOGO

Marvel just started a Buy One Get One Free Sale through Monday (12/7) at 11pm ET.  Here’s what you do: go to this Comixology page and grab the Code, enter it in the cart and every other book is free (well, the lower priced of the two is free… but you know the drill).  And yes, that stacks on top of the sale books, so those get very cheap, very fast!

Let’s start the Marvel parade with the Silver Surfer Sale. Strangely, the Stan Lee / John Buscema series you automatically think of is not on sale.  An Epic Collection of the early Fantastic Four appearances is, however.

There’s also a lot to love with the 1987 Silver Surfer series. At that main link, the “Freedom” Epic Collection is built around some specials (including a Stan Lee/John Byrne issue) and the first 14 issues of the Steve Englehart / Marshall Rogers run that we just love. There’s a missing Epic Collection that hasn’t been issued yet that would contain the end of the Englehart run and the beginning of the Starlin run, but the “Thanos Quest” Epic Collection collects the back end of the Jim Starlin/Ron Lim run, plus the Thanos Quest mini-series and the beginning of Ron Marz’s long run.  There are more Marz volumes, we’d start with Englehart/Starlin since that establishes the ongoing arc, but you’ll get a lot of Infinity Gauntlet-related material if you continue with the Epic Collections for this run.

Strangely, Comixology and Marvel have filed the first part of the Starlin/Lim run away from the rest of that Silver Surfer title as “Silver Surfer: Rebirth of Thanos” and added Thanos Quest here, too.  Not exactly a unified publishing program, but good comics and a big part of what they’d call “The Road to Infinity Gauntlet” if this were being published today.

The more recent Silver Surfer are also on sale, as well as some more Stan Lee material, but those are some foundational works well worth your time. The sale runs through Thursday (12/10).

Silver Surfer by Lee/Kirby    Silver Surfer - Englehart   Rebirth of Thanos

Next up, running through Sunday (12/6) is the Spider-Girl Sale.  This series, across a few different titles (Marvel relaunching a comic?  *gasp*) ran from ’98-’10 and it’s about Mayday Parker, Spidey’s daughter from the future. Worth noting, especially for such a long run, almost everything in the sale is by a combination of at least 2 of Tom DeFalco, Ron Frenz and Pat Olliffe.  You don’t see creators that consistent on such long runs very often.

Spider-Girl

Marvel’s “Stormbreakers” Sale  has nothing to do with the Alex Rider novel of the same name and isn’t a political movement (though we’ll admit it kinda sounds like one), it’s just the new name they’re using to promote their new favored artists they way they used to call them “Young Guns.”

We’ve enjoyed Friendly Neighborhood Spider-Man by Tom (“you keep mentioning that guy”) Taylor and Stormbreaker Juann Cabal, among other artists and the first volume is $2.99 for 6 issues.

You also really can’t go wrong with House of X/Powers of X by Jonathan Hickman, Pepe Larraz and Stormbreaker R.B. Silva. (And honestly, you shouldn’t need a promotion to know who Silva is.  Silva’s been working at DC and Marvel for over 10 years!)

This sale runs through Thursday (12/17).

Friendly Neighborhood Spider-Man   House of X / Powers of X

And let’s not forget the Vision & the Scarlet Witch Sale (Wanda/Vision, if you prefer) is still running through Sunday (12/13).

Vision and the Scarlet Witch

The Bat and The Cat

DC’s “Batman Catwoman Sale” is still running through Monday (12/7).  We talked about this one last time, but we’d still like to point out Legends of the Dark Knight: Norm Breyfogle. It’s a little pricier than what we normally point out here (63% off is still $12.99), but it’s 522 pages of the Alan Grant / John Wagner / Norm Breyfogle Batman run that’s definitely an era unto itself.

Batman by Breyfogle

The She-Devil with a Sword

Also running through Monday (12/7) is the Red Sonja Sale. If you’d like some sword with your sorcery, we’d recommend going back to the very beginning of Dynamite’s run with the first omnibus. Mel Rubi is the lead artist. You start out Mike (M.R.) Carey writing, followed by Michael Avon Oeming and it’s a fun comic. If memory serves, that Omnibus ends with the return of Kulan Gath, who you might remember from some non-Robert E. Howard Marvel comics.

Red Sonja

The Force Happens

The IDW Star Wars Adventures Sale features the all-ages version of Star Wars and runs through Monday (12/14).  A place to start?  Vol. 1… or maybe take a trip to the Dark Side with Vader’s Castle?

Tales from Vader's Castle

Still On Sale

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Comixology Sales: Batman/Catwoman, Vision and the Scarlet Witch, Frank Miller, John Allison and more

With Cyber Monday over, it’s time to see what Comixology sales are percolating in between the start of buying season and the start of unwrapping season. A bit of Batman, the source material for a Marvel / Disney+ show, Dark Horse’s noir offerings and we dig through the small press sale for you.

(Disclosure: If you buy something we link to on our site, we may earn commission.)

Batman / Catwoman

DC leads off our post-Cyber Monday parade with the “Batman Catwoman Sale.”  (Hint: there’s a whole lot more Batman than Catwoman in this sale.)

If you’re looking for actual Batman/Catwoman comics, we can recommend Prey, which collects two Doug Moench/Paul Gulacy (yes, the Master of Kung Fu creative team) arcs from Legends of the Dark Knight. These are Hugo Strange arcs, but Catwoman figures prominently in them.

If you’re looking for solo Batman, here’s something off the beaten path: Batman: Haunted Knight collects the Jeph Loeb/Tim Sale Batman Halloween specials that led to The Long Halloween being commissioned. These came completely out of nowhere when they dropped, but are now less famous than the follow up series.

If you’re looking for solo Catwoman, you could a lot worse than the Ed Brubaker run, which starts out with Darwyn Cooke providing the art.

This sale runs until Monday (12/7).

Batman - Prey   Batman - Haunted Knight   Catwoman

Vision and the Scarlet Witch

Marvel follows up Black Friday with a Vison and the Scarlet Witch Sale, which runs through Sunday, 12/13.

This might have the single best comic on sale this week in it: the Tom King / Gabriel Hernandez Walta Vision series. If it’s not the best thing Tom King’s written, then it’s #2. It’s a masterclass in descent into madness as The Vision builds a family and moves to the suburbs, only to have his perfect Norman Rockwell life slowly fall to pieces.  Get both volumes and bunker down for a ride.

Vision and the Scarlet Witch by Steve Englehart and Richard Howell was launched in parallel with Englehart’s West Coast Avengers run and starts with a crossover. This is the series where Wanda conjures herself into a pregnancy, which has so many repercussions down the road.

The Vision   Vision and the Scarlet Witch

AKA Comixology Submit’s Hidden Gems

Running through Thursday (12/3) is the Small Press Mystery and Suspense Sale. This is a fairly large sale that’s not particularly organized, so we’ll give it the once over for you!

Watson & Holmes: A Study in Black by Karl Bollers, Rick Leonardi and Larry Stroman might be more popular in libraries than the Direct Market, where it never got its footing. Which is too bad, as this reimagining of Sherlock Holmes and Dr. Watson in present day Harlem is a solid comic and worth your discounted $4.49.

John Allison’s pre-Giant Days series Scary Go Round: The Continuing Adventures clocks in at 99 cents/volumes.  Also, both issues of Scary Go Round: Expecting to Fly are $0.99.

We have mentioned before that Kyle Baker is a genius.  Two of his works on in this sale and both of them even won an Eisner.  What more do you really want from the man? You Are Here also one a Harvey Award. I Die at Midnight was merely on the 2000 Eisner slate.

Watson and Holmes   Scary Go Round   You Are Here

Dark Horse Crime Comics

The Dark Horse Noir Sale runs through Monday (12/7).

Frank Miller is sort of the grandfather of Dark Horse Noir with Sin City. It’s a hugely influential series beyond the films, winning multiple Eisners and Harveys.

Grandville by Bryan Talbot is an anthropomorphic steampunk detective thriller.  Yes, it checks an awful lot of boxes and the third installment has a Hugo nomination to it’s credit.  And yes, that’s the same Talbot from Alice in Sunderland and Luther Arkwright. Highly recommended.

It’s also hard to go wrong with EC’s Crime SuspenStories.

Sin City   Grandville   EC Crime SuspenStories

Still on Sale

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