Month: August 2021

Comixology Sales – DC Resumes “Real Discounts” (73-77% off across the board)… of course we have suggestions

It’s a Labor Day Miracle! After months of mostly subpar discounts, DC’s got very large selection their graphic novels at 73%-77% off. (Mostly 77%.)  Let’s have a look at what’s on sale, shall we?

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

The DC Labor Day Sale runs through Monday, 9/6 and is in two parts – Part 1 (100 – Bullets to John Constantine, Hellblazer) and Part 2 (John Constantine, Hellblazer to Zero Hour).

We were wondering if we were going to see these kind of discounts again before Black Friday, so it’s a Labor Day surprise and it gets it’s own post.  77% off beats a BOGO, so let’s take a little closer look at the catalog.

100 Bullets by Brian Azzarello and Eduardo Risso.  The classic crime/revenge series about untraceable guns and ammos that eventually turns into a conspiracy thriller.  Take the link, scroll down to the Omnibuses section and you can get the whole thing in 5 volumes for $3.99 a pop. An exceptional value.

100 Bullets

You say you like James Tynion IV’s Batman?  Were you around for his Detective Comics run? Tynion writes V. 1-7.  $2.99/volume.  Similar deals for the Snyder and King Batman runs, too.

Detective Comics by Tynion

Remember when Bendis showed up at DC and you wanted him to write Batman?  Well he did write Batman… for the Walmart editions. The Direct Market version never really took off, but you know what?  Batman: Universe with Nick Derington on the art was a ton of fun and we’d be up for more. Again, a lousy $2.99.

Batman Universe

The DC Universe by Len Wein is a retrospective that might have flown under your radar.  Yes, Wein did more than just create Swamp Thing and Wolverine.  (Although that would be enough for most people.) Of particular note is a section of his *excellent* Phantom Stranger run with Jim Aparo that has never gotten the appropriate respect.  The original Mongul story arc from DC Comics Presents with Jim Starlin is in there, as is the more often reprinted JLA/JSA team-up that reintroduced the Seven Soldiers of Victory.

DC Universe by Len Wein

If you like the Flash, check out the  Ominbuses section of the ’87-09 series.  Here you will find The Flash by Mark Waid, which was then followed by The Flash by Geoff Johns.  Two great runs at good discounts.

The Flash

The 90s JLA series is most famous for the Grant Morrison / Howard Porter run.  While that was a classic run, there’s more that followed… including a Mark Waid/Bryan Hitch run, Chris Claremont and John Byrne reuniting and Kurt Busiek/Ron Garney.

JLA

We’ll be back at our regularly scheduled time at the end of the week to look at the back half of the sale and the rest of the week’s deals, but we thought we’d give you a head start on your browsing to celebrate DC offering decent discounts this week.

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Comixology Sales: Spider-Man, Guardians of the Galaxy, Shang-Chi, SHIELD, Kingdom Come, Red Son and Matt Kindt

This week’s Comixology sales include a bunch of Marvel with Spidey, Guardians of the Galaxy, Shang-Chi and SHIELD getting discounts. DC has a “Top 100” Sale and Matt Kindt’s Dark Horse work gets slashed.

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

Why Not “Fabulous Spider-Man?”

The  Marvel Spectacular Spider-Man Sale runs through Thursday, 9/2.

This sale is so small and organized, we don’t have to link to the individual series, you can just look at the sale page, no sweat.

We’re looking at 4 things here. In order of presentation:

  1. The more recent Spectacular Spider-Man, mostly by Chip “I have a Substack now” Zdarsky and Adam Kubert.  You should already know if that sounds good.
  2. Masterworks editions of Peter Parker, The Spectacular Spider-Man. Masterwork editions tend to be good value and we’d point out that V.2 has Frank Miller’s first Daredevil work and the Carrion storyline would turn out to be an important one, if controversial.
  3. The ’03-’05 Spectacular Spider-Man. We’ve always found Paul Jenkin’s Spidey to be under-appreciated. He writes the first 4 volumes with Humberto Ramos as the primary artist… with some early Paolo Rivera in V. 3. Feel free to skip the Sins Remembered tie-in in V. 5 and then Jenkins is back for V.6
  4. And the last thing listed is a collection of the 1968 magazine version of Spectacular Spider-Man by Stan Lee and John Romita, Sr.

If you like Spidey, it’s a decent menu.

Peter Parker, the Spectacular Spider-Man

Who Guards the Guardians?

The Marvel Guardians of the Galaxy Sale runs through Sunday, 8/29.

The Guardians have been around quite a while and were originally based in the future. We always recommend going back to the original Steve Gerber/Roger Stern/Al Milgrom run.  Guardians of the Galaxy: Tomorrow’s Avengers covers that.  Vol. 1 is the first appearance through the primary solo run in Marvel Presents. Vol. 2 covers the rest of their guest appearances, notably including the Korvac Saga in Avengers.

The Guardians popped up again in ’90 in a very popular (and very fun) series by Jim Valentino. Yes, we know everyone reading this is old school enough to associate Valentino more with Normalman, but GoG was the direct line leading him to co-found Image comics. This version of GoG spends quite a bit of time exploring the legacy of the Marvel universe… and some of the less mortal characters who are still floating around far in the future. Guardians of the Galaxy by Jim Valentino collects his run.

The current run start with Guardians of the Galaxy by Al Ewing with Juan Cabal on art, which finds the Guardians at war with the gods… and, as you might expect with Ewing, setting up a longer game.

Guardians of the Galaxy: Tomorrow's Avengers   Guardians of the Galaxy by Jim Valentino   Guardians of the Galaxy by Al Ewing

SHIELD’s Up

The Marvel S.H.I.E.L.D. sale runs through Sunday, 8/29.

Many would still sale the best SHIELD is Jim Steranko’s SHIELD, which is conveniently collected in… can you guess the name?  Yes, S.H.I.E.L.D. by Steranko – the Complete Collection.  There’s nothing wrong with the Lee/Kirby material, and if you go the Masterworks route, there’s some Archie Goodwin to be read, but Steranko is still the bar for many.

Nick Fury Vs. SHIELD by Bob Harras and Paul Neary was the late 80s reappraisal and still the “SHIELD has been infiltrated compromised” arc that everyone apes. (This led to the ’89-’92 series.)

SHIELD by Steranko   Nick Fury vs. SHIELD

The Deadly Hands of Reboot

The Marvel Shang-Chi Sale runs through Sunday, 9/12.

Gosh, you’d think there was a movie coming out or something?

Shang-Chi is kind of an odd character in the world of Marvel. He essentially has had three lives:

First was the Master of Kung Fu era. This was originally a licensed comic and the license was Fu Manchu. Shang, an original creation (thus, owned by Marvel) was Fu Manchu’s virtuous, rebellious son who worked with MI-5 against his father. It was blend of espionage, pulp and Hong Kong cinema. Doug Moench was the writer for the bulk of the period. Paul Gulacy is the artist most associated with the feature, but Jim Craig, Mike Zeck and Gene Day had their runs.  This was considered one of Marvel’s finest comics of the 70s, but… let’s put it mildly and say Fu Manchu is a little out of favor.

The second life was when Marvel tried to revive the character, mostly intact, and just not mention who his father is. Or assign a different father.  This never went very far.

Right now, we’ve entered the third life where Shang-Chi is now more of a fantasy comic with a more mystical evil father, weapons/caste-based secret societies and the undead. Oh, there’s still some MI-5 around the edges, but it’s a very different comic than where it started.  Gene Yang, Dike Ruan and Philip Tan.  You can feel the influence from Jimmie Robinson’s Five Weapons, too!

Master of Kung Fu   Shang-Chi

We Thought The 100 Were Villains?

The DC Top 100 eBooks Sale runs through Monday, 8/30

DC’s back at the sub-50% discount game again.  You have been warned.  Items of interest include:

Kingdom Come is the 90s classic by Mark Waid and Alex Ross that defined the dystopian future sub-genre for a spell (and we still think it’s the true inspiration for the Injustice video game).

Superman: Red Son by Mark Millar, Dave Johnson and Killian Plunkett is the tale of infant Kal-El’s spacecraft landing in the Soviet Union instead of Kansas. It’s on the short list for Millar’s best work.

We’ve mentioned before how pleasantly surprised we were with DCeased, Tom Taylor’s and Trevor Hairsine’s Anti-Life Equation zombie(ish) epic. We’re not recanting.

Kingdom Come   Superman: Red Son   DCeased

Sale MGMT

The Dark Horse Matt Kindt Sale runs through Monday, 8/30.

Matt Kindt has done a fair amount of work for Dark Horse, but his opus there will likely always be the psychic espionage series, Mind MGMT.

Mind MGMT

Still On Sale

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Comixology Sales: Dawn of X, Neil Gaiman’s Sandman, Jim Starlin’s Dreadstar

This week’s Comixology sales include: Dawn of X from Marvel, DC loosing The Sandman (and Sandman Mystery Theater), Horror from Dark Horse and Omnibus editions from Dynamite.

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

Mutated Reading

The Marvel Dawn of X Sale runs through Thursday, 8/26.

Dawn of X is a different type of Marvel collected edition. This collects the titles of the Hickman X-Men line into a book format, but bounces between the various series in a manner similar to how one would read the issues as they came out. We’ve always felt that reading the  entire line was an additive experience and this is probably the best way to experience that in the collected edition format.  The 16 volumes of Dawn of X take you right up to the edge of X of Swords.

Dawn of X

The Stuff Dreams Are Made Of

The DC Spotlight: Sandman and the Sandman Universe Sales runs through Monday, 8/23.

We’re assuming you’re already heard of the  Neil Gaiman Sandman series. (Note: sub-50% discounts again)

So let’s talk a bit about the very loosely connect pulp spin-off Sandman Mystery Theater. It’s a pulp detective feature with a bit of subtext that’s primarily written by Matt Wagner and/or Steven T. Seagal. Guy Davis is the primary artist. It’s a lost classic from the ’90s as the Golden Age Sandman, replete with gas mask and gas gun stalks his prey.  This one DOES get you 50% off the collected editions (which will get you through issue#24) and 99-cent single issue.

Sandman   Sandman Mystery Theater

The Long, Hot… Halloween?

The Dark Horse Hot August Horror sale runs through Monday, 8/23.

Yes, we did hear it got a little warm in Portland.

You can’t have a Dark Horse Horror sale without the Mignolaverse. Rise of the Black Flame by Mike Mignola, Chris Roberson and Christopher Mitten is the tale of the Hellboy villain when the power was controlled by a cult.

In a different direction, there’s John Allison’s (Bad Machinery, Giant Days) Steeple.

And you ever notice that Steve Niles has done quite a bit of Criminal Macabre?

Rise of the Black Flame   Steeple   Criminal Macabre

Another One Rides the (Omni)Bus

The  Dynamite Omnibus Sale runs through Monday, 9/13.

We would draw your attention to two things here.

First, we’ve said it before and we’ll say it again, Jim Starlin’s Dreadstar is fantastic. It didn’t get quite as much attention when it came out from Epic and First, but it’s a large part of what he was working on between his first run at Marvel and when he returned for the run-up to Infinity Gauntlet.

Jeff Parker and Doc Shaner did an under the radar – and extremely fun – take on Flash Gordon a few years back that’s worth a look.

Dreadstar   Flash Gordon

Still on Sale

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Comixology Sales: Fantastic Four, Marvel Zombies, Star-Lord, Usagi Yojimbo, Derf and DC’s TV Sale

This week’s Comixology sales have a bit of variety. Marvel leads with Fantastic Four, Star-Lord and the Marvel Zombies. DC has a TV-themed selection. Dark Horse has “teen” titles on sale and the “Small Press” sales offers up some Kyle Baker, Ahoy and Kickstarter comics.

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

It’s Price Clobbering Time

The Marvel Fantastic Four: World’s Greatest Sale runs through Sunday, 8/15.

That’s a lot of FF and it’s a really, really cluttered sale because of how many different FF reprint volumes there are, so here’s how we’re going to do it: Click here for the original series that started in 1961. Scroll down to the Collected Editions section so we can look at this in roughly chronological order.  The Masterworks are not on sale, but the Epic Collections are, so Epics are your best buy and they start on the second screen. We think Lee/Kirby hits it stride with the Epics “The Coming of Galactus” and “Thy Name Is Doom,” but you can’t go wrong with anything by that team. As you move forward the next really notable period is John Byrne’s, which hasn’t gotten Epic treatment yet, just the “Visionaries” line. Remember, he didn’t write V. 0 for that.  We’d end up with the Walt Simonson run, which is in a couple Epics or smaller Visionaries volumes.

Now click here for the ’98 relaunch.  In the Omnibus section is the Hickman material, and that’s probably the best way to read that run.  Scroll down to the “Collected Editions” section and after V.5, the Fantastic Four by Mark Waid and Mike Wieringo volumes start. These are the omnibuses for that landmark run and the better pricing (good stuff). When you get past the Civil War volume, you come into 2 volumes of Dwayne McDuffie (Nuff said).

That’s a lot of FF and should keep you out of trouble.

Fantastic Four Epic Collection: The Name is Doom   FF by Waid and Ringo

A Solo Guardian

The Marvel Star-Lord Sale runs through Sunday, 8/15.

The bulk of the sale is the more recent incarnation, but we’d recommend going back to the original conception of Star-Lord in Star-Lord: Guardian of the Galaxy.  Al Ewing’s been revisiting some of this source material in the current GoG run. Peter Quill started out in the Marvel magazines of the ’70s before moving over to the normal comic line. You’ve got Steve Englehart, Chris Claremont and Doug Moench for writers and for artists, Carmine Infantino, John Byrne and Bill Sienkiewicz.  Not a bad set of talent.

Star-Lord

Marvel’s Walking Dead

The Marvel Zombies Sale runs through Thursday, 8/19.

Yes, when Robert Kirkman wrote for Marvel, he did a zombie comic. And it was a scream.  It’s technically a spin-off of Ultimate Fantastic Four, which was a more serious story than the very entertaining farce it involved into. We’d say to go with the Marvel Zombies Complete Collections. Vol. 1 gives the the Millar/Land Ultimate FF and Hudlin/Portela Black Panther lead-ins and the the original Marvel Zombies by Kirkman and Sean Phillips. (Yes, you might have vague feelings that Phillips is cheating on Ed Brubaker while reading this. It’s a natural reaction.)  Vol. 2 continues with the Marvel Zombie minis, Kirkman writes the first one before Fred Van Lente tags in and Seth Graeme-Green puts in an appearance. When Phillips leaves, Kev Walker tags in as the primary artist.  We’d say go for V.1 and V.2 initially. If you’re still wanting more, V. 3 is still there, but that might be a bit much for a single sitting.

Marvel Zombies

DC thinks about Television

The DC on TV sale runs through Monday, 8/16 and comes in 2 parts:  Part 1 is the collected editions and single issues through The Flash.  Part 2 finishes up The Flash through the end of the alphabet.

We’ll be straight with you: this isn’t a great sale for collected editions. Lots of lowball 45%-46% discounts. Lower than what you’re used to. $0.99 single issues are more what you’re used to and you’ll want to make sure it’s not cheaper to buy the single issues over collected editions.  Of possible note: we don’t always see the original Superman’s Girlfriend, Lois Lane on sale.

Lois Lane

The Rabbit

The Dark Horse Teen Sale runs through Monday, 8/16.

There’s some manga, a tone of Avatar: The Last Airbender and some Stranger Things, but we think this is a great excuse to highlight Usagi Yojimbo, Stan Sakai’s long running saga of a ronin rabbit.  When we say long running, we mean since the early 80s.

Usagi Yojimbo

Indie Comics on Parade

The Small Press Graphic Novel Mega Sale runs through Thursday, 9/9.

As usual, we wouldn’t call all of it “small press,” but there’s a lot here that really runs the gamut.  A few things we noticed in there:

The Cowboy Wally Show by Kyle Baker is a legendary graphic novel and a real riot. Always highly recommended. We’ll call a satire of the entertainment biz and save the spoilers.

Billionaire Island by Mark Russell and Steve Pugh is one of the best things we’ve read recently. A _dark_ satire where Billionaires create a mobile island to escape things like taxes, global warming and… laws. A dot com billionaire has done something especially heinous and the pigeons are coming home to roost.  This one takes the satire further than we’re accustomed to seeing.  Also highly recommended.

Punk Rock & Trailer Parks is Derf Backderf’s initial foray into graphic novels after years of The City strip in alt weekly papers and before going on to do My Friend Dahmer and Kent State. It’s about the punk scene in ’79 Akron, OH.

Leaving Megalopolis by Gail Simone and Jim Calafiore is a tale of super heroes gone berserk and an popular Kickstarted comic.

Cthulhu is Hard to Spell is actually two anthologies about the slumbering one that don’t take themselves particularly seriously.

The Cowboy Wally Show   Billionaire Island  Punk Rock and Trailer Parks   Leaving Megalopolis   Cthulhu is Hard to Spell

Still on Sale

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Comixology Sales: Black Panther, Punisher, What If…, Captain Britain, Miracleman, Astro City and Cullen Bunn

Highlights from this week’s Comixology sales include just about all the Black Panther material, What If, Marvel Max selections including The Punisher and Miracleman, Captain Britain, Astro City and Cullen Bunn’s Dark Horse work.

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

T’Challa Gets Cheap

The Marvel Black Panther Sale runs through Sunday, 8/8.

The Don McGregor material is now in “print” and on sale. It’s also a little goofy to follow, the way it’s arranged. The Epic Collections and Masterworks are not all on the same page outside the sale, so let’s give you the (cheap) cheat sheet.

You can pick up the Jungle Action run for four bucks less in the Black Panther Masterworks V. 1.  That McGregor with Billy Graham, Rich Buckler and Gil Kane.  While there’s nothing wrong with the Kirby run, which is the next volume for both the Masterworks and Epic Collections, we’d probably have you skip ahead to the Panther’s Prey Epic Collection. This one collects McGregor’s return to the character with the much more grounded Marvel Comics Presents serial drawn by Gene Colan and the Panther’s Prey mini-series (prestige format, back in the day) painted by Dwayne Turner.

You can then proceed to Black Panther by Christoper Priest: The Complete Collection, the Marvel Knight era series that’s truly excellent and builds directly on that original Jungle Action run.

Black Panther Masterworks   Black Panther Panther's Prey   Black Panther by Priest

If Not, Why Not?

The  Marvel What If Sale runs through Thursday, 8/12.

Gosh, it’s like there’s a new TV show coming out or something…

Anyway, here’s the deal – there’s no significant price difference between the larger “Complete Collection” versions and the What If Classic volumes.  2 Classics = 1 volume of Complete.  Since it’s an anthology, we’re going to list some notable issues of the original series and let you figure out what you’re most interested in and which format to go for. Some of these are going to sound awfully darn familiar, too.  What If seems like a gold mine for pitching your editor!

  • #1 – What If Spider-Man Joined the Fantastic Four?
  • #2 – What If The Hulk Had the Brain of Bruce Banner?
  • #10 – What If Jane Foster Had Found the Hammer of Thor?
  • #12 – What If Rick Jones Had Become The Hulk?
  • #13 – What If Conan the Barbarian Walked the Earth Today?
  • #23 – What If The Hulk Had Become a Barbarian?
  • #30 – What If Spider-Man’s Clone Had Lived?
  • #35 – What If Elektra Had Lived?
  • #37 – What If The Beast and The Thing Continued to Mutate?
  • #43 – What If Conan Were Stranded in the 20th Century?

Gosh, we’re sure NOBODY ever picked up those topics a decade or four later…

What If

Marvel For the Mature

The Marvel Max Sale runs through Thursday, 8/12. This would be Marvel’s mature reader line.

The flagship title here is probably The Punisher: The Complete Collection, which is Garth Ennis returning to write non-satirical tales of Frank Castle with artists like Darick Robertson, Leandro Fernandez, Doug Braithwaite and Goran Parlov. (The Ennis run goes through V. 4.)

And yes, tucked in amongst a pretty eclectic set of comics is Miracleman.  Don’t let the credits fool you, this is Alan Moore’s run, along with Garry Leach, Alan Davis, Rick Veitch and John Totleben (among others). A man remembers his magic word and transforms into a superhero, only to start unravelling the conspiracy that created it him, which was certainly not magical. A landmark tale that’s lost some of its place in history because of the lawsuits and being buried for so long.

Punisher   Miracleman

UK Officer Material

The Marvel Captain Britain Sale runs through Sunday, 8/8.

And a strange tale this is.  The best Captain Britain is still the Alan Moore/Alan Davis serial through Alan Davis’ solo run on the Captain Britain magazine. There’s a sampler collection here, but not the full run.  As such, we’re going to have to fall back to Excalibur.What you want here are the Alan Davis issues, we like it a bit better when he returned to writing and drawing the series, but the initial run with Chris Claremont is also quite good.  The Epic Editions are the best buys, but you need to finish up the second run with the Visionary editions.

Excalibur

Astro City Returns to Image

The Image Astro City Sale runs through Tuesday, 8/17.

As you may recall, Astro City said farewell to DC awhile back and the title disappeared from digital. It’s now gone full circle. Astro City started out at the Homage imprint under Wildstorm at Image and moved over to DC when Jim Lee sold Wildstorm to them.  Astro City is back at Image and the whole lot is on sale.  Amazingly, Kurt Busiek, Brent Anderson and Alex Ross have been in this one for the long haul and we look forward to new material soon-ish.

While Astro City is written such than you can drop in just about anywhere in the run (with the exception of The Dark Ages spanning 2 volumes), we’d still recommend starting at the beginning a letting the scope of the worldbuilding grow as you read along.  Astro City is the perfect antidote for when your favorite DC or Marvel title gets into a rut. It’s everything that’s good about the super hero format.

Astro City

Horse on a Bunn

The Dark Horse Cullen Bunn Sale runs through Monday, 8/9.

Prolific dark fantasy/horror writer Cullen Bunn’s major Dark Horse work is Harrow County. This Tyler Crook (yes, we were talking about his Petrograd last week) drawn series about witches and demons with a long and contentious history is starting to be available in multiple formats.  As of right now, the cheapest method of consumption would be to grab the Omnibus Editions.  V. 1 is half off and V.2 is the same price as getting the 2 Library Editions it collects on sale (which is still cheaper than getting the regular collected editions).

Harrow County Omnibus 1   Harrow County Omnibus 2

Still on Sale:

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