Comixology Sales: Hickman X-Men, 50% off Kodansha for CU, The Boys, Harley Quinn, Resident Alien

This week’s Comixology Sales include the Dawn of Hickman’s X-Men ear, Harley Quinn, 50% off Kodansha for CU subscribers, The Boys and an outbreak of spies at Dark Horse.

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

Dawn of Hickman

The Marvel X-Men: Dawn of X Sale runs through Sunday, 4/25.

This is the current Jonathan Hickman curated X-era, which is a pretty  good era. The sale is with the individual series collected editions and single issues, not the Dawn of X collections, which might be a better way to read the material as a line.

Everything starts out with House of X / Powers of X, the dual limited series that set up the premise. That’s by Hickman, Pepe Larraz and R.B. Silva.

X-Men by Jonathan Hickman is the flagship title, written by Hickman with Leinil Francis Yu. A lot of the plots flow through the main book (though sometimes the threads are picked up in the sundry titles).

Hellions by Zeb Wells is a newer addition to the line and its more self-contained than some of the other titles. Wells and Stephen Segovia craft a (very) darkly humorous tale of Mister Sinister tasking Psylocke with running a team of the more… damaged mutants so that they can take out their frustrations, aggressions and murderous instincts on appropriate targets. It’s nice to see Wells back in comics.

House of X / Powers of X   X-Men by Jonathan Hickman   Hellions by Zeb Wells

It’s like there was movie coming out…

The DC Harley Quinn & Suicide Squad Sale runs through Monday, 4/26.

If you’re itching for Harley Quinn, there’s a lot here, but (with Mad Love not here) we’d point to the ’13-’16 Harley Quinn series written by Amanda Conner and Jimmy Palmiotti with Chad Hardin as the primary artist.  Conner & Palmiotti pop in and out of Harley all the time for several years and have a nice, absurdist take on the character, poke around and you’ll find a lot more of it.

For Suicide Squad… well, truth be told, we’re waiting for the Tom Taylor run to be collected next week. We’ve heard good things about it and Taylor’s reliable. Until such a time as we read that, we say you need to start with the classics – the John Ostrander/Luke McDonnell run.

Harley Quinn   Suicide Squad

Half Off Kodansha

There’s another sale for Comixology Unlimited Subscribers. This week it’s 50% off Kodansha comics. Yes, the discounts are stackable, so you can get functional discounts of 70%+ if something’s already on sale.

And yes, the preorders are 50% off, too. Here’s the release date view – you can move the weeks forward and preorder about a month out.

This runs through 11PM ET on Sunday, 4/25.

Attack on Titan

Cloak & Lobster

The Dark Horse Spy Sale runs through Monday, 4/26.

This is an eclectic sale, not all of which we’d necessarily put under the spy heading, but there’s some fun stuff here.

We love Lobster Johnson and we suppose it does frequently involve Nazi spies. This is a Hellboy spin-off pulp style 30’s/40’s adventurer written by Mike Mignola and John Arcudi with Tonci Zonjic being the most regular artist. Sometimes it’s a “serious” pulp and sometimes the tongue is firmly planted in cheek, but it’s always entertaining.

You may have seen Resident Alien on Syfy Channel. It was a comic by Peter Hogan and Steve Parkhouse before it was a TV show. The omnibus is the better buy here (collects V. 1-3 of the regular collections).

And speaking of media adaptions, for a more direct spies and assassins tale (this one being adapted by Netflix), there’s always Polar by Victor Santos.

Lobster Johnson   Resident Alien   Polar

Boys, What a Sale

The  Dynamite Garth Ennis Sale runs through Monday, 5/3.

The Boys is the series most associated with Ennis at Dynamite. With art by Darick Robertson, John McCrea and Russ Braun, it’s a violent, filthy satire of superheroes with a heart. Lots of people have seen the Amazon streaming adaption, which takes off on a slightly different vector.

You’ll also note at the very end of The Boys single issues, you’ll find The Boys: Dear Becky issues on sale for $0.99 each.  That’s the follow up mini-series by Ennis and Braun.

Also on sale is Battlefields, a series where Ennis tells a range of war stories. And Ennis telling a war story is something you already know whether you like or not.  The “Complete Editions” are the better buys, except for V. 1, where it’s slightly cheaper to get the individual collections.

The Boys  The Boys: Dear Becky   Battlefields

Still On Sale

Posted on by comics_p1pusl

Comixology Sales – Marvel Still 50% off with Captain Marvel, Thor, Darkhawk, Carl Barks, Don Rosa, The Question, All-Star Squadron and Atomic Robo

This week in Comixology sales, Marvel’s still half off for Comixology Unlimited subscribers with stackable discounts on Captain Marvel, Thor and Darkhawk that makes them awfully CHEAP. Plus some DC Classics highlights, Atomic Robo and Disney Ducks.

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

50% off Marvel for Comixology Unlimited Subscribers

That’s right, if you’re a Comixology Unlimited subscriber, you get 1/2 off all Marvel comics (except subscriptions and bundles) through 11pm ET on Monday, 4/19. Unusually, this includes _current_ comics. It also includes pre-orders. Click here to see the release week view for Marvel. You can move forward, week-to-week and pre-order at 1/2 off through the end of June.

And yes, that CU discount stacks on top of the sales, so some of those Captain Marvel and Thor collections are a rock bottom $1.50. We think that qualifies as cheap.

Kree Goodness

The  Marvel Captain Marvel World’s Mightiest Hero Sale runs through Sunday, 4/18. It’s predominantly made up of three runs:

Captain Marvel   Captain Marvel   Ms. Marvel

The Once and Future Thor

The Marvel Jane Foster Sale runs through Thursday (Thor’s Day), 4/22. This would encompass the three titles Jason Aaron has written with Jane.

It starts with Thor by Aaron and Russell Dauterman.

It’s Marvel, so of course there was a relaunch, and it emerged as The Mighty Thor, still with Aaron and Dauterman as the primary creators.

After the Thor runs were over, Jane becomes Valkyrie as written by Aaron and Al Ewing with Cafu as the primary artist.

Thor   The Mighty Thor   Valkyrie

Not Nighthawk

The Marvel Darkhawk Sale runs through Sunday, 4/18.

Darkhawk Classic is the original run by Danny Fingeroth and Mike Manley.

For something a little different in the Darkhawk vein, there’s Amazing Spider-Man Epic Collection: Round Robin. Darkhawk teams up with Spidey, Punisher, Moon Knight, Nova and Night Thrasher (yes, it’s the ’90s) in the titular tale from that collection from the Michelinie/Bagley era of Amazing.

Darkhawk Classic   Amazing Spider-Man Epic Collection: Round Robin

DC Single Issues That Haven’t Been Collected

The DC Classics Sale runs through Monday, 4/19 and it’s broken into 5 sections:        Graphic Novels, Single Issues I, Single Issues II, Single Issues III and Single Issues IV

Last week, we looked at graphic novels in this sale. This week, we’re looking at a few individual series that haven’t been collected into graphic novel format… and in some case might not ever be. They are, however, on sale for 99 cents a pop.

All-Star Comics is the original home of the Justice Society of America. If you’d like some Golden Age material, this is a decent buy. The 70’s revival featuring folks like Gerry Conway, Paul Levitz, Wally Wood and Joe Staton is also on sale.

All-Star Squadron is the Roy Thomas 1940s Justice Society-adjacent series where Johnny Quick, Liberty Belle, Robotman, The Shining Knight and Firebrand step up alongside the usual suspects. There were several artists on this one, but Jerry Ordway’s run was a particular highlight (which spun into Infinity, Inc.).

Legion of Super-Heroes is the “Baxter” run of the title, which is mostly out of print. This will likely eventually get collected. Paul Levitz is the writer with a rotation of artists that includes a bit of Keith Giffen at the beginning and end, with Steve Lightle and Greg Larocque

Plastic Man in this instance is the original Plastic Man by Jack Cole. If you haven’t seen the original, it’s well worth a dollar. There’s a reason it’s considered a classic and the character endures… those it’s very rare for it to equal Cole’s work.

The Question is one of those titles that really should have been collected a long time ago. An absolute classic from the late ’80s with Denny O’Neil, Denys Cowan and Rick Magyar on what’s essentially a hardboiled Zen kung fu romp.  Yes, it’s actually a very philosophical comic and we seldom see its like.

All-Star Comics   All-Star Squadron   Legion of Super Heroes   Plastic Man   The Question

Robot vs. Nazis and Dinosaurs

The Atomic Robo Sale runs through Thursday, 4/22.

This such a fun series, a thinking robot created by Tesla goes on adventures taking on mad scientists, dinosaurs, Nazi’s… you know, the usual suspects. Brian Clevenger and Scott Wegener do the honors.

Atomic Robo

Quack

The Fantagraphics Walt Disney Sale runs through Monday, 4/19.

Sure, there’s some Eurocomics and classic Mickey Mouse, but the class of the sale is the two Duck Masters: The Complete Carl Barks Disney Library  and The Don Rosa Library.

The Complete Carl Barks Disney Library   The Don Rosa Library

 

Still on Sale

Posted on by comics_p1pusl

Comixology Sales – 50% off Marvel for CU Subscribers (and the Pre-Order Loophole on Subscriptions)

Comixology has a new variation on the Marvel BOGO and this one’s interesting.

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

If you’re a Comixology Unlimited Subscriber – Marvel comics are 50% off until 4/19 at 11pm ET. Just log in and if you’re a Comixology Unlimited subscriber you’ll see the discounts. Yes, new comics are part of this – everything except “series subscriptions and bundles” – but there’s a loophole to series subscriptions: Pre-Orders!

So if you’re cheap, it looks like you can kill your series subscription and just pre-order the comics.  If you want to order, here’s a great way to do it. This is the “Release Date” page for this week’s Marvel Comics. Go there and then keep hitting the next week button.  You can preorder through the last new comics day in June.  At 50% off.

So if you have Comixology Unlimited now is the time to be cheap.

Posted on by comics_p1pusl

Comixology Sales: DC has Better Discounts, Secret Warriors, Brian K. Vaughan’s Mystique, Locke and Key, Beasts of Burden

Notable in this week’s Comixology Sales: DC’s discounts are back in the normal range after some stingy weeks, Marvel highlights their women, Beasts of Burden and Locke & Key both take the Cheap Agenda.

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

DC Has Better Discounts Again

The DC Classics Sale runs through Monday, 4/19. It’s divided up into Graphic Novels, Single Issues I, Single Issues II, Single Issues III and  Single Issues IV.

Good news! DC’s stopped being so stingy with the discounts! We didn’t see anything under 50% this time and plenty at 60+% off. As always, keep an eye on how many issues are in a collection and that you’re not paying over $0.99/issue if the singles are on sale.  This is a two-week sale, so this week we’ll look at some of the better material in graphic novel format and next week we’ll dive into some single issues that haven’t been collected yet.

Legends of the Dark Knight: Norm Breyfogle Vol. 1 and Vol. 2 are large slices of the Alan Grant/Norm Breyfogle era of Batman (with John Wagner co-writing the early issues). This is a very popular run we happen to be in the middle of reading right now, here at The Tower of Cheap.  (And we think a huge opportunity was missed when Grant & Breyfogle didn’t do a Demon spin-off.  We’ll have to live with what’s here.)

Legion of Super Heroes by Paul Levitz and (primarily) Keith Giffen is one of the high water marks of that franchise’s considerable history. You should be looking at two excellent values: “The Great Darkness Saga” which starts effectively when Levitz returns to the title and goes through the return of Darkseid.  Then you’ve got the extra length “The Curse” which deals with all manner of hijinx in the aftermath of Great Darkness. Top notch super heroes and science fiction.

Suicide Squad, and we mean the ’80s Suicide Squad. Technically not the original, this run is where the Dirty Dozen concept of criminals pressed into government service entered comics in a big way. John Ostrander is the scribe in one of his signature series, Luke McDonnell and later Geoff Isherwood are the main artists. If you like the movie… well, this is better than the movie and its where they got the Enchantress bits.

Legends of the Dark Knight Norm Breyfogle   Legends of the Dark Knight Norm Breyfogle 2   Legion of Super Heroes The Great Darkness Saga   Suicide Squad

Ladies Take the Spotlight at Marvel

The Women of Marvel Sale runs through Sunday, 4/11. It’s all about comics about comics starring the women of the Marvel universe, but you could probably guess that from the title. A couple good ones that aren’t necessarily on the radar?

All-New Wolverine is the Tom Taylor written series with a rotating cast of artists that took place while Logan was dead. (Oh, Marvel…) X-23 takes over the costume. This is just a well done series that flows from light to borderline horror, depending on the arc.

Mystique by Brian K. Vaughan Ultimate Collection is by Vaughan (duh) with Michael Ryan, Manuel Garcia and Jorge Lucas on the art. This is a spy book with Mystique backed into a corner and coerced into running black ops for Charles Xavier.

All-New Wolverine   Mystique

Nick Fury at the End of the Aughts

The Marvel Secret Warriors Sale also runs through Sunday, 4/11.

The centerpiece here is the Dark Reign era Secret Warriors series. This is an early Jonathan Hickman Marvel title with Bendis co-plotting the early issues. Stefano Caselli and Alessandro Vitti are the primary artists. This is essentially a Nick Fury series with a team of underground super agents investigating a Hydra infiltration of SHIELD.

Secret Warriors

Dogs and Demons

The Dark Horse Beasts of Burden Sale runs through Monday, 4/12. This series about five dogs and a cat protecting their community from paranormal activity is written by Evan Dorkin with art by Jill Thompson and later Benjamin Dewey. Which is to say high quality creators and multiple Eisner Awards. While it’s not particularly well labelled on Comixology, Animal Rites is the first volume.

Beasts of Burden

If the Key Fits

The IDW Locke and Key Sale runs through Thursday, 4/29. It’s not exactly a haunted house tale, so much as a house that contains enchantments. At any rate this horror tale by Joe Hill and Gabriel Rodriguez is one of those comics you kinda want to call a classic… except it might not quite be old enough for that. Old enough for Netflix to have pounced on it, at any rate. There are some follow on stories on sale, but you need to read the original series – in order – first.

Locke and Key

Still on Sale

Posted on by comics_p1pusl

Comixology Sales: Lots of Avengers, Nick Fury, Scott Pilgrim and Valiant “Fierce Females”

Highlights from this week’s Comixology sales include Marvel breaking out a deep slab of Avengers and Nick Fury, Scott Pilgrim’s omnibuses get discounts and Valiant unleashes Secret Weapons.

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

All Avengers, All the Time

The awkwardly named “Marvel Avengers Earth’s Mightiest Sale” runs through Thursday, 4/8.  There’s a lot of quality material on sale, but it can be a little hard to parse because of how poorly Marvel manages it’s backlist. You can browse the main sale page or follow the links to the individual series and scroll down to the Collected Edition sections.  But if in a collected edition, it’s most in there.  Hickman and Aaron runs, too.

The  original ’63 – ’96 Avengers series is broken up into the Masterworks editions (chronological), the Epic editions (seemingly random chunks) and a few stray mostly one-off collections. The Epic editions are your best value, particularly the $7.99 ones. Eventually, the Epic editions should be a continuous run, but Marvel isn’t there yet.  We particularly like the Englehart era “The Avengers Defenders War,” “The Final Threat” is primarily Gerry Conway/Jim Shooter era with George Perez and John Byrne as primary artists collecting the Private War of Doctor Doom and Bride of Ultron arcs AND the Jim Starlin Thanos showdown.  “Under Siege” and “Judgement Day” will get you most of the delightful Roger Stern/John Buscema/Tom Palmer run, which is one of the best.

Avengers Assemble is what you want from the ’98-’04 run. This is the Kurt Busiek era (with a few side series with folks like Roger Stern and Roy Thomas popping in as writers). George Perez is the initial art and it ends with a rotation of artists. This is also one of the best periods of the franchise. Vol. 1-5 will keep you out of trouble for awhile.

One you might not be familiar with that we liked back in the day was The Mighty Avengers by Dan Slott – The Complete Collection. It wasn’t particularly long lived, but Slott’s run was the rare Avengers book with a classic Avengers feel during the Bendis era.

Avengers   Avengers Assemble   The Mighty Avengers by Dan Slott

Cloak & Dagger & Eyepatch

The Marvel Nick Fury Sale runs through Sunday, 4/4.

Frankly, we’ve read and enjoyed most of the things on sale here. First a heads up on something that’s on sale, but we’re not seeing the collected editions list on the sale page: Nick Fury, Agent of SHIELD Masterworks Vol. 1, Vol. 2 and Vol. 3. Vol. 1 starts the Strange Tales run, Vol. 2 is where Steranko turns up and starts the Nick Fury, Agent of SHIELD solo series. Vol. 3 collects the rest of Nick Fury, Agent of SHIELD, so more Steranko, a bit of Archie Goodwin and early Barry Windsor-Smith.

One thing that most people appeared to sleep on was Nick Fury: Deep-Cover Capers by James Robinson and ACO from ’17. This is simply an extremely fun book.  007 spy hijinx beautifully illustrated in a slightly modernized pop art style.  We were hoping for a sequel.  Our personal favorite Nick Fury, Jr. tale.

The plot of SHIELD being infiltrated and compromised has been done a few too many times.  That said, Nick Fury vs. SHIELD did it the best and sparked the late 80s/early 90s Nick Fury revival. Bob Harras and Paul Neary sent Fury on the run, framed for treason and trying to work out exactly what’s happened to his agency.

Nick Fury   Nick Fury Deep-Cover Capers   Nick Fury vs. SHIELD

Scott Pilgrim’s Precious Little Sale

The Oni Scott Pilgrim Sale runs through Thursday, 4/15.

Oni’s conveniently collected the iconic Bryan Lee O’Malley series an omnibus. The choice is between the original black & white or the colorized edition.

Scott Pilgrim   Scott Pilgrim in Color

Maternal Mayhem

The  Valiant Fierce Female Sale runs through Thursday, 4/8.

We enjoyed War Mother, a future dystopian science fiction tale by Fred Van Lente, Stephen Segovia and Tomás Giorello.

Secret Weapons by Academy Award nominee Eric Heisserer, Raúl Allén and Patricia Martin is in the conversation for the best comic Valiant has published. Psiots are essentially the Valiant equivalent of mutants.  Livewire, a technopath psiot, discovers that the recently deposed big bad of the universe had been “activating” psiots and unbeknownst to the world at large, was discarding the kids whose powers weren’t useful as weapons. As Livewire’s trying to track them down, something else is trying to consume them. A little bit of X-Men, a little bit of Legion of Substitute Heroes (but not as goofy).

War Mother   

Still on Sale

Posted on by comics_p1pusl

Comixology Sales: Invincible (and The Walking Dead), X-Men, Giant-Size Man-Thing and the DCU

Highlights of the Comixology Sales this week include Robert Kirkman taking a discount victory lap for the debut of the Invincible animated series, X-Men and Steve Gerber’s Man-Thing at Marvel and a DC universe mass sampling event.

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

Foundational X-Men Spin-Offs

The Marvel X-Men Universe Sale runs through Sunday, 3/28.

There’s a lot of X-Men material here, some of which we’ve discussed before, so we’ll look at some ’80s foundational pieces here.

X-Men: Kitty Pride & Wolverine by Chris Claremont and Al Milgrom was a sequel of sort to the Wolverine mini-series and is where Kitty got her martial arts training.

Longshot by Ann Nocenti and Art Adams is the original Longshot/Mojo tale. Nocenti’s having a moment over at Berger Books with The Seeds and… it has been awhile since we’ve seen Art Adams doing extended interior work.

Magick by Chris Clarement with a succession of John Buscema, Ron Frenz and Sal Buscema all finished by Tom Palmer on the art. This was a fairly dark story when it came out: the tale of how Illyana Rasputin was kidnapped to Limbo, taught sorcery by the demon Belasco and emerged as the Magick we know today.

Kitty Pride & Wolverine   Longshot   Magick

Includes Giant-Size Man-Thing (yes, that’s a real comic)

The Marvel Man-Thing Sale runs through Sunday, 3/28… but let’s call this a Steve Gerber sale because his runs on the feature are the prize here.  Gerber being one of the finest writers to grace a comics page.

The original run is collected in Man-Thing by Steve Gerber: The Complete Collection.  Yes, these do collect the infamous Giant-Size Man-Thing issues. A third volume isn’t out yet (thus, not on sale) and it even contains the late 80s Marvel Comics Presents serial, so they aren’t kidding about complete.

The Infernal Man-Thing is more recent, a posthumously published tale by Gerber with art by Kevin Nowlan. (!) It’s actually a sequel to “Song-Cry of the Living Dead Man” from the original run (which is included in the book).

Howard the Duck: The Complete Collection is probably Gerber’s signature work. It’s also a Man-Thing spin-off. Here at the Tower of Cheap, we try to avoid non-Gerber Howard the Duck (though we’re quite happy with Destroyer Duck), you need the first two volumes. Past that… it ain’t Gerber.

Man-Thing by Steve Gerber   Infernal Man-Thing   Howard the Duck

 

Across the Multiverse

The DC Explore the Multiverse Sale is split into to parts, A-L and M- Z.  The sale runs through Monday, 4/1.  There’s quite a bit here, so it’s worth and extended browse.  Some of the better material:

Man and Superman (Deluxe Edition) by Marv Wolfman and Claudio Castellini is something of a miracle. It was sitting in a draw at DC for YEARS before someone had the good sense to publish it. There have been several “how Clark Kent came to Metropolis and became Superman.” This is one of, possibly THE best of those.  They’d be well served to make it the jumping off point next time Superman gets reset. Excellent comic and a love letter to the Man of Steel.

Speaking of Superman, you’ve probably heard good things about Superman Smashes the Klan by Gene Yuen Yang and Gurihiru. Believe them. This is the top shelf of the Young Adult superhero comics from DC.

If you’d like something rare, Batman Death Mask, the manga by Yoshinori Natsume is one of the few comics DC is discounting over 50%.  60% off is not common for DC these days!

Man and Superman   Superman Smashes The Klan   Batman Death Mask

Everything’s Coming Up Kirkman

The Robert Kirkman Sale Featuring Invincible runs through Tuesday, 5/4.

You might have heard that the Invincible animated series has dropped on Amazon Prime, but this is actually a sale on pretty much all of Kirkman’s Image output.  As always, the “Compendium” omnibus editions are incredible values, particularly Invincible and Walking Dead.  The Astounding Wolf-Man Complete Collection is not quite as good a buy, but you know what?  It still comes out to less than 99-cents per issue and it’s not on sale as often.

Invincible   Walking Dead   Astounding Wolf-Man

 

Still On Sale

Posted on by comics_p1pusl

Comixology Sales: Marvel Buy One, Get One Free with Falcon & the Winter Soldier; plus Carnage, Justice League, Baltimore and Peanuts

This week’s Comixology sale include a BOGO sale at Marvel, with Falcon & The Winter Soldier and Carnage lined up for discount multipliers.  Plus, the Justice League, Mignola’s Baltimore and Peanuts.

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

Marvel Bogo!

Yes, that’s right – click here for the Marvel Buy One, Get One Free sale running through 11PM EST on Monday, 3/22.  Enter the code in your cart and the second comic of an equal (or lessor) price is free. Remember, you can stack the BOGO on top of the existing sales! Get yourself some extra cheap Captain America comics!

It’s like there was a TV show debuting or something…

Marvel’s Falcon and the Winter Soldier Sale runs through Sunday (3/21)

There’s a lot to like in this sale, so let’s take it chronologically.

First, you have selections from the original Captain America & The Falcon.  We’d point you to 4 of the 5 sales items here.  From the Steve Englehart/Sal Buscema era: Secret Empire and Nomad. Secret Empire (if you’re picking between the two, pick this one) has Cap and the Falcon tracking a conspiracy to the highest levels of government. Nomad has Cap so shaken from the fallout of said conspiracy, he gives up his costume.  From Jack Kirby’s 70s run, you have Madbomb where Cap and Falcon track down a plot by wealthy would be revolutionaries to use psychic bombs to start riots.  It’s pretty relevant today. You also have The Swine, which brings back The Red Skull.

Flash forward ~25 years and we still think too many people were sleeping Captain America & The Falcon by Christopher Priest: The Complete Collection. There are several artists involved with this one – Bart Sears and Joe Bennett being the leads.  The signature tale has Cap and Falcon crossing swords with a drug cartel and a military black ops super soldier program.

If you’re looking for Winter Soldier, the Captain America crew of Ed Brubaker / Butch Guice / Michael Lark have 3 volumes here as Bucky Barnes and the Black Widow chase Russian sleeper agents from the Winter Soldier’s old program.

 x Captain America & the Falcon by Christopher Priest   Winter Soldier

When Venom isn’t enough

The Marvel Carnage Sale runs through Thursday (3/25).

We prefer a more unusual take on the character – the Gerry Conway/Mike Perkins Carnage that involves the Book of Darkhold and is an updated 70s horror-style series in many ways.

You might prefer the more recent Donny Cates / Ryan Stegman Absolute Carnage.

Carnage   Absolute Carnage

Gosh, could there be a Director’s Cut involved here?

The DC Rise of the Justice League Sale runs through Monday (3/22) and they’ve broken it into three links: Graphic Novels, Single Issues Part 1 and Single Issues Part 2. DC is offering lower discounts on the graphic novels than other publishers, so remember to keep an eye on how many issues are collected in each volume.  Most of these issues are going to be available for $0.99, so in some cases it will be cheaper to grab those.

Ignore the omnibus and head for the Justice League International collected editions. This is the bwa ha ha era (which did have a few dramatic moments) with Keith Giffen/J.M. DeMatteis/Kevin Maguire/Al Gordon as the originating creative squad. This collection format branches to include Justice League Europe when that debuts. A good era, if one of the most unconventional.

If you’re looking for something a bit more current, the Scott Snyder Justice League run is on sale. The first post-Snyder volume (with Robert Venditti writing) is not on sale, but most of the single issues of that arc are $0.99, if you’re so inclined.

Justice League International   Justice League

Definitely Not Hot L Baltimore

The Dark Horse Baltimore Sale runs through Monday (3/29).

One Mike Mignola’s secondary historical fictions, this Mignola/Christopher Golden/Ben Stenbeck collaborations takes us back to the end of WWI, where Lord Baltimore discovers the hard way that’s there’s a whole bunch of vampires floating around Europe.  He departs on 1000+ page quest of vengeance that’s now conveniently collected in two omnibus editions. We had a real good time revisiting BPRD in Omnibus format last summer and have this on our entered on our “to  read” list.

Baltimore Omnibus Volume 1 and Volume 2

Baltimore Omnibus 1   Baltimore Omnibus Volume 2

All this and a beagle, too…

The Fantagraphics Peanuts Sale runs through Monday (3/29).  Yes, that’s a lot of Charlie Brown and Snoopy.

The Complete Peanuts collects the dailies and Sundays in black & white. (And has the most strips for the price.)

Peanuts Every Sunday collects just the Sunday strips, but has them in color.  There are fewer pages for the same price with these volumes.  Yes, that’s silly… but color printing is more expensive and the business side of comics has decided that digital prices have to be based on print prices, so here we are. It’s still Charles Schulz’s masterpiece.

The Complete Peanuts   Peanuts Every Sunday

Still on Sale

Posted on by comics_p1pusl

Comixology Sales: Empyre, Wonder Woman, Harley Quinn, Kelly Thompson, Invisible Kingdom

Highlights from this week’s Comixology Sales include Marvel offering up Empyre and most of the Kelly Thompson catalog.  Women are in the spotlight at DC and  Dark Horse with Wonder Woman, Harley Quinn, Invisible Kingdom and She Could Fly.

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

2020’s Big Marvel Event is Now on Sale

The Marvel Empyre Sale runs through Sunday, 3/14.

Empyre was the big Marvel (universe-wide) crossover Event in 2020 where the Kree and Skrulls get a new Emperor and gang up on Earth.

Empyre: Road to Empyre is the optional introductory reading by… a little bit of everyone.  There’s some minor prologue material, but it’s most useful for people who aren’t familiar with the Kree/Skrull War or Steve Englehart Avengers.

Empyre is the collection of the actual Empyre miniseries, plus the prologue/epilogue issues.  The main series is by Al Ewing / Dan Slott / Valerio Schiti.

That’s the core. It’s a Marvel Event, so there are all kinds of spin-off titles you can opt into if you like.  We thought the X-Men tie-in was the best read. Captain Marvel V. 4 in the Kelly Thompson sale below had some impact on the overall plot.  Maybe avoid the Captain America mini?

Road to Empyre   Empyre

It’s the Kelly Thompson Weekend at Marvel

The Marvel Kelly Thompson Sale runs through Sunday 3/14.

Is Kelly Thompson better known at Marvel for Captain Marvel or Hawkeye?  We’re thinking it’s Captain Marvel.  (We think it ought to be Black Widow, but that’s a newer title and not on sale yet.)

Captain Marvel   Hawkeye

DC’s Ladies

The Wonderful Women of DC Sale runs through Monday, 3/15.

This would celebrating characters, more than creators.  As has been the case lately, these aren’t always the biggest discounts, so keep an eye on how many issues there are per collection.  Making this goofier is that fewer of the single issues are on sale right now, so you can’t always save a little extra with $0.99 single issues.

Promethea is the metaphysical masterpiece by Alan Moore, J.H. Williams III and Mick Gray. A young woman is transformed into the embodiment of imagination… which brings some ancient detractors out of the shadows.

Wonder Woman there’s a LOT of Wonder Woman on sale, as you might expect.  We’re pointing towards the Heroes Reborn Rucka/Scott/Sharp run. (Vol. 1-4 or single issues 1-25 + the rebirth special.) Getting the single issues is ever so slightly cheaper than getting the collected editions which are slightly cheaper than the omnibuses.

Harley Quinn by Amanda Conner / Jimmy Palmiotti / Chad Hardin always made us chuckle. It’s an absurdist excursion into the DCU.

Promethea   Wonder Woman   Harley Quinn

Invisible or Fly?

The Dark Horse Women in Comics Sale runs through Monday, 3/15.

This is not the first time we’ve sung the praises of Invisible Kingdom by G. Willow Wilson and Christian Ward. It’s a science fiction tale of a conspiracy when a religion and a corporation attempt to rig the game.

Something else that might be of interest is She Could Fly. Before Christopher Cantwell blew up over at Marvel, he teamed up with Martín Morazzo for this pair of tales about a mentally disturbed 15-year old girl tracking down the secrets of, and technology behind, a woman seen flying across the Chicago skies.

Invisible Kingdom   She Could Fly

Still on Sale

Posted on by comics_p1pusl

Comixology Sales – Justice League, Deadpool, James Bond, The Witcher, Critical Role and The Guild

The highlights of this week’s Comixology sales include all manner of Justice League comics, a birthday for Deadpool, James Bond, Tini Howard’s Marvel work and some gaming properties over at Dark Horse.

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

Wade Wilson is how old?

The Deadpool 30th Anniversary Sale runs through Sunday,  3/7.  And there’s all kinds of Deadpool on sale.  That said, there’s one thing that really took us by surprise:

Did you realize there are 23 volumes of Deadpool Classic? Some of the more recent runs of the flagship series are listed as their own sets, but that’s a lot of Deadpool!

Deadpool Classic

Marvel’s writer of the week

The Marvel Tini Howard Sale runs through Thursday, 3/11.

We’re happy to recommend Excalibur by Howard and (primarily) Marcus To.  The first two collections feature the mechanizations of Apocalypse and shenanigans in Otherworld.  The pair will take you right to the precipice of X of Swords.  And yes, you’ll eventually want to read X of Swords. That was the best comics crossover Event in recent memory.

Excalibur

And by “teamwork,” they mostly mean Justice League

The DC Teamwork Sale runs through Monday, 3/8.  It also is divided into three sections – Graphic Novels, Single Issues I and Single Issues II. You’ll want to keep a close eye on prices for this one. Some of the offerings, particularly the ones that are hardcover in print are not at particularly good prices for a digital sale.  Pretty much everything in the graphic novels will be available for 99-cents/issue  and the single issues might be cheaper.  There are also more single issues available that haven’t been collected as graphic novels, so the single issue sections are worth a browse if you have the time.

JLA is the ’97 series that launched with the Grant Morrison/Howard Porter run. The collections  are priced lower than the singles here and there are some more unusual runs later in the series you can cherry pick as singles if you don’t like what they’re packaged with in the graphic novels: #94-99 is a Chris Claremont/John Byrne arc.  (We wouldn’t say it’s quite up to their X-Men run, but it’s sure a novelty.) #107-114 is a Kurt Busiek/Ron Garney run.

Justice League of America is the original ’60s into ’80s title.  The “Silver Age” collections offer a better rate per issue, but the entire run is available as single issues.  You can cherry pick some 100 page spectaculars or pick up the Steve Englehart/Dick Dillon run (starting with #139).

JLA Year One doesn’t seem to have a graphic novel edition available in digital right now.  This is a 12-part series written by Mark Waid and Brian Augustyn with art by Barry Kitson. It’s a fun 90s take (yes, there were comics embracing fun in the 90s… just not that many) on the Justice League’s origin.

The Brave and the Bold in this case refers to the recent Liam Sharp series teaming Batman with Wonder Woman in an adventure through Celtic mythology.  This one is cheaper to pick up the single issues.

JLA   Justice League of America   JLA Year One   The Brave and the Bold

Games people read

The Dark Horse Video Game Sale runs through Monday, 3/15.

This might really be more of a gaming sale than strictly a video game sale.  A few things of note:

Critical Role is the adaption of the popular streaming show of a Dungeons & Dragons campaign. The digital issues were some of the best selling comics on Comixology while it was being serialized.

The Guild is an adaption of the Felicia Day web comedy about a group of gamers. Day does the writing and Jim Rugg provides the art for Volume 1.

The Witcher Omnibus… you could say this is a comic based on a game or you could say its a comic based on a series of books.  The Witcher is as transmedia as a property can get these days. Paul Tobin is your scribe with a rotating cast of artists.

Critical Role   The Guild   Witcher Omnibus

007

The Dynamite James Bond Sale runs through Thursday, 4/1.

Dynamite has several 007 titles, but there’s one that stands above the others for our dollar: Kill Chain by Andy Diggle and Luca Casalanguida. It might just be the perfect repositioning of Bond for the modern era.  Finding himself in the middle of a “Kill Chain” of assassinations, Bond discovers his old foes at SMERSH have reemerged and are trying to draw MI6 and the CIA into conflict.

James Bond Kill Chain

Still On Sale

The  Image Romance Sale through Monday, 3/8.
Sex Criminals

Posted on by comics_p1pusl

Comixology Sales: The Joker, Transformers, War of the Realms, Vintage Jim Starlin, Young Avengers and Image gets Romantic(ish)

This week’s Comixology Sales highlights start with a celebration of the Joker. Then Marvel highlights the Young Avengers and Ware of the Realms. Valentine’s Day is over, but we look at what’s notable in Image’s romance sale anyway. Plus, Transformers galore and that the glory that is Dreadstar.

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

The Joke’s on who?

DC’s The Joker’s Greatest Jokes Sale runs through Monday (3/1).

If you’re going to get one “Best of” Joker collection, you’re going to want The Joker: A Celebration of 75 Years. Being a thicker collection makes it more complete, but moreover, we don’t think you can have a “Best of” that doesn’t include the Englehart/Rogers “Laughing Fish” storyline.

For something that doesn’t necessarily come immediately to mind, there’s the Joker arc of Gotham Central, the classic GPD series by Ed Brubaker & Greg Rucka with Michael Lark as the artist for this arc.

There’s a lot more Bat-family material in this one, though we weren’t sure the Joker is integral to (or even appearing in) all the titles in this sale.

Joker: Celebration of 75 Years   Gotham Central

No love for the Old Avengers

The Marvel Young Avengers Sales runs through Sunday 2/28.

Young Avengers by Allen Heinberg and Jim Cheung: The Complete Collection is the original, formative run. And for as short as it actually was, this is a fairly influential comic with everything from the recent Empyre Event to WandaVision on streaming having echoes of it.  Oh, there’s more Young Avengers material on sale, but this is one of the times to start at the beginning.  And yes, Young Avengers: Children’s Crusade is conspicuous by its absence.

Young Avengers

Why can’t The Realms just get along?

Marvel’s  War of the Realms Sale runs through Thursday (3/4).

This was a Thor-centric Jason Aarons event. As a Marvel Event, there were a ton of spin-off mini-series that tied in. Explore those at your leisure, but this War of the Realms is the tentpole series around which the Event revolved.

War of the Realms 

More off-kilter romance

The Image Romance Sale runs through Monday (3/8).

No, Image really isn’t a bastion of traditional romance, but they do have a few things that fall vaguely into that territory.

Twisted Romance is an anthology of, well… twisted romantic tales built around a set of Alex de Campi stories with some prose and shorter comics filling in around them. Notably, there’s some intergalactic space pirate romance with Carla Speed McNeil on the art.

My Heroes Have Always Been Junkies might not be the most romantic title in the sale, but it’s good book. A entry in Ed Brubaker / Sean Phillips crime catalog (as consistent a catalog as you’ll find these days), this one concerns murder and mayhem at a high end rehab clinic.  As always, recommended if you have an itch for crime comics.

Sex Criminals is the recently completed Matt Fraction / Chip Zdarsky off-color comedy about a couple who can freeze time when they have sex and use their ability to rob banks.  OK, there’s a bit more to it, but that’s the tried and true tagline.  All but the still-new final volume are on sale.

Twisterd Romance   My Heroes Have Always Been Junkies   Sex Criminals

All Hail Megatron has transformed into an omnibus

The IDW Transformers Sale runs through Thursday (3/4).

IDW has effectively treated the Transformers line as a saga. The original run of that is The Transformers: The IDW Collection series of omnibuses and is probably a good place to start here.

Fans of a certain age might also be interested in Transformers: Classics, which is the original Marvel Comics run.

Transformers: The IDW Collection   Transformers: Classics

Thicker editions

The Dynamite Select Omnibus Sale runs through Sunday (2/28).

Dreadstar Omnibus is the first 12 issues (and story arc) of Jim Starlin’s Dreadstar. Dreadstar was Starlin’s major work between wrapping up the original Captain Marvel / Warlock / Thanos saga and returning to Marvel (proper) for Silver Surfer and Infinity Gauntlet. (Sure, he did some Batman before returning, but Dreadstar is just on another level.) It’s the tale of the last survivor of the Milky Way taking on the corrupt Church of the Instrumentality as a rebel insurgency of sorts. An absolute classic of the first wave of creator owned comics in the ’80s.

The Shadow: Year One – Omnibus is an origin tale for The Shadow and Margo Lane, written by Matt Wagner (who’s done a lot with ’30s era heroes over the years) with art by Wilfredo Torres.

There’s a lot of Red Sonja and Vampirella on sale, too, if that floats your boat.

Dreadstar   The Shadow: Year One

Still on Sale

Posted on by comics_p1pusl