Tag: Berger Books

Comixology (at Amazon) Sales: Thor, Cable & Berger Books

In this week’s Comixology (at Amazon) sales, Marvel has discounts on a LOT of Thor titles, and Cable, too. Dark Horse favors dropping the price on the Berger Books line.

Where did the New Releases and Sale pages go?

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In case you’re having troubles with the new UIX (a LOT of people have been):

Hammer Time

Marvel’s Thor Legacy Sale runs  through Tuesday, 3/21.

As per our custom, here’s the breakdown by series/volume:

  • Journey Into Mystery ’52-’66 – The earliest Thor stories from Stan Lee and Jack Kirby
  • The Mighty Thor ’66-’96 – From Lee & Kirby until the relaunches started
  • The Mighty Thor ’96-’04 – The Heroes return Dan Jurgens era, initially with John Romita, Jr.
  • Thor ’07-’11 – Starts with J. Michael Straczynski & Olivier Coipel, ends with Matt Fraction & Pasqual Ferry. Gillen in the middle.
  • The Mighty Thor ’11-’12 – Fraction gets a relaunch with Coipel, Ferry and early Pepe Larraz
  • The Jason Aaron era ’12-’19 – It’s a LOT easer to look at the omnibuses across all the relaunches here
  • Thor ’20 to present – The current Donny Cates run with Nic Klein as the primary artist

Of your point of reference for Thor is the most recent film, you want the Jason Aaron era. The God Butcher is the first arc. If you go with that set of omnibuses, Jane Foster picks up the hammer in V.2. We don’t think that starting with the first Jane Foster issues (and slimmer volumes) is a great jumping on point. It’s a saga and you’ll get a lot more out of it if you start at the beginning of Aaron’s run.

Past that, we’re all about the Walt Simonson Thor. It’s probably the most influential run since early days and it’s great. You’ll want the Thor Visionaries: Walter Simonson set that starts here. (The Thor by Walter Simonson version of the reprints seems to be missing the final volume, or at least the last few issues. *sigh* These things happen.)

We also like to go back to the original Lee/Kirby. Not too early. We’d say stay closer to where it changed from Journey Into Mystery to Thor. The first year of JIM was a little rough. The Wrath of Odin  Epic Collection is a good chunk of prime Lee/Kirby Thor and also features the first time Jane Foster was elevated to godhood, since Jane is a big topic right now. It’s also a $6.99 Epic Collection note: the Epic Collection prices vary a bit and the newer ones a little more expensive, so keep an eye on that and compare with the Masterworks editions.

Thor by Jason Aaron   Thor by Walt Simonson   Thor - The Wrath of Odin

No, This is Not a Spectrum Sale

The Marvel Cable Sale runs through Tuesday, 3/21

There really have been a lot of Cable titles over the years.

The original Cable series was the longest-lived. It starts out as Cable Classic with the original mini’s, but we might lean a little further down the page – Ladronn art and early stories by Joe Casey and James Robinson.

The other long-running title was Cable & Deadpool. Fabian Nicieza was the writer, with Patrick Zircher and Reilly Brown as the primary artists.

The most recent Cable was the HoX/PoX era series by Gerry Duggan and Phil Noto which finds Cable much younger, but still up to his neck in time paradoxes.

Cable   Cable & Deadpool   Cable

Karen Sale

The Dark Horse Berger Books Sale runs through Monday, 3/20.

As you may recall Berger Books is Karen Berger’s imprint. Karen basically was Vertigo at DC. Berger Books is a combination of new material and pulling in a few of the old DC titles. For example:

Air is a pre-Ms. Marvel series by G. Willow Wilson and M.K. Perker that ran at Vertigo awhile back. It’s an odd book about a flight attendant, terrorists, dimension hopping, missing celebrities and all manner of conspiracies. It’s a fun one that didn’t get the run it should have at Vertigo and we sure hope there’s a continuation.

Along those lines, Incognegro by Mat Johnson and Warren Pleece is the excellent tale of a New York-based reporter passing for white, in order to investigate accusations that his brother murdered a white woman in Mississippi… as the lynch mob assembles. In this case, there was a continuation. Technically a prequel. Incognegro: Renaissance has cub reporter Zane Pinchback investigating a murder in 1920s Harlem.

Air   Incognegro   Incognegro: Renaissance

Something totally new from the line? Seeds by Ann Nocenti and David Aja is a striking book. This one blends a lot of disparate elements: an extra-terrestrial occupation, ecological terraforming, terrorism, forbidden love and… well, you get the picture.

The Seeds

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Comixology Sales: Spider-Man/Doc Ock, Red Hulk, DC in the 90s and Berger Books

This week’s Comixology Sales highlights include Marvel wheeling out Spidey’s old pal, Doctor Octopus; the Red Hulk; DC’s 90s nostalgia sale and Dark Horse’s Berger Books.

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Tentacle Comics – Marvel Version

The Marvel Doctor Octopus Sale runs through Sunday, 10/14.

Personally, we would’ve included the Fraction/Larroca  Iron Man arc with Doc Ock in this say, but what do we know?

As usual, we think the Epic Collections are your value buys here. They’re semi-conveniently  grouped at the top of the sale page (and are an absolute mess on the Amazing Spider-Man page).  It’s hard to go wrong with Amazing Spider-Man Epic Collection: Great Power, the first half of the Lee/Ditko run.

If you’re looking for Superior Spider-Man, the landmark run where Otto is occupying Peter’s body, your best buy are the two “Complete Collection” volumes in the Omnibuses section.

Amazing Spider-Man Epic Collection: Great Power   Superior Spider-Man

Hulk See Red

The Marvel Red Hulk Sale runs through Sunday, 11/14.

Yes, there are times when the Hulk extended family starts to resemble the Green Lantern Corps with all the colors of the spectrum. This sale is about the Red Hulk… or as we like to put it: Ross, Stress For Less.

Honestly, we weren’t in the bag for the Jeph Loeb/Ed McGuinness run that opened that volume of Hulk. We thought the Jeff Parker / Gabriel Hardman / Patrick Zircher / Dale Eaglesham run was the more interesting stretch of that era.  The collected editions for this volume aren’t well numbered, so go to the Collected Editions section of the series page and start with “Scorched Earth.”

Red Hulk Scorched Earth

Age of the Super-Mullet

The DC Back in the 90s Sale runs through Monday, 11/15.

And some of the discounts are even 60%-ish. On the high side for DC!

Sales stunts and character deaths aside, the quintessential 90s DC title was probably the Grant Morrison / Howard Porter JLA. A sort of back to basics reboot, although Justice League really had already been resetting from the BWA HA HA era of the late 80s/early 90s.

A lot of the better 90s material was in the smaller books. Titles whose full runs haven’t been collected (and, of course, the single issues aren’t on sale to go along with the theme… we do wonder who makes these sales sometimes.)

John Ostrander and Tom Mandrake had a superlative run on The Spectre. Underneath the magic and horror-adventure lies a philosophical tale about the dead man who’s become the earthly host for the Wrath of God and his attempts to come to grips with his situation.

Starman by James Robinson and Tony Harris (or at least its the Tony Harris era currently collected) was another high point of the 90s. While people like to talk about Justice Society as a “legacy hero” title, this is the REAL legacy hero title.  Jack Knight very reluctantly picks up the cosmic rod of Starman after his brother is shot. He wanted no part of the Knight heritage, but he’s dragged in anyway. Aside from the heroics, it’s a tale of families and family traditions that should be celebrated more than DC has.  Also, The Shade. And the steady editorial hand of Archie Goodwin.

Take some time to sift through the haphazard selection of $0.99 single issues, which are more comprehensive than the collected editions… yet still have odd gaps.  You might take a close look at Legends of the Dark Knight, too.

JLA   The Spectre   Starman

Definitely Not Vertigo II (Said the Lawyer)

The Dark Horse Berger Books Sale runs through Monday, 11/22.

Yes, that’s Karen Berger who ran Vertigo (and editing Legion of Super-Heroes before that). She set up shop at Dark Horse after DC shut down Vertigo.  Berger Books is a little more genre-diverse than Vertigo was, but there’s a similar vibe.

Invisible Kingdom by G. Willow Wilson and Christian Ward might be the de facto flagship book. This Eisner Award winner finds a religious acolyte and a starship freighter crew on the run after discovering corporate interests conspiring with religious leaders for control and profit.  We wouldn’t have minded a fourth volume.

The Seeds by Ann Nocenti and David Aja got an awful lot of attention towards the beginning of the year and it’s certainly an interesting one that blends a lot of dispirate elements: climate collapse, aliens, exclusion zones, journalism and conspiracies.  Plus… Aja’s art!

Invisible Kingdom   The Seeds

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Comixology Sales: Wolverine, Claremont’s X-Men, (Karen) Berger Books and DC’s First Volumes Sale

This week in Comixology Sales, Claremont’s X-Men gets the nod and “Weapon X” means Wolverine is underfoot. We root out some DC Vol. 1s that are more self-contained and find some highlights from Karen Berger’s imprint.

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Let’s say it’s Chris Claremont-centric

The X-Men Legends Sale runs through Sunday (2/21). It might be a little reductionist to call it a Chris Claremont sale when they’re launching the X-Men Legends comic as a monthly, but… we know what we’re looking at here.

X-Men Forever  is Claremont returning to X-Men and picking up where he left off when he exited the title.  And you know what? It moves with a faster and more deliberate pace than the original Tom Grummett is the primary artist on the run, though Vol. 2 is notable for having some Paul Smith work.

X-Men: Legion – Shadow King Rising is a set of stories featuring Legion and the the Shadow King.  Again, this is largely a Claremont collection and notably includes the excellent Legion sequence from New Mutants with Bill Sienkiewicz.

X-Men: Mutant Genesis is where Claremont got off the airplane, the first time around. It’s the launch of the “adjective-less” X-Men with Jim Lee.

X-Men Forever   X-Men: Legion  X-Men: Mutant Genesis

Wolverine by any other name

Marvel’s Weapon X Sale runs through Sunday (2/21).  Let’s just call it a Wolverine sale, shall we? A couple things stand out here.

Wolverine: Weapon X is the Barry Windsor-Smith serial from Marvel Comics Presents that tales the brutal tale of how the adamantium got into Logan.  You want Weapon X? This is Weapon X. An influential comic.

Wolverine: Weapon X Unbound is the tail end of the Larry Hama/Marc Silvestri run.  Hama had a pretty long run on Wolverine and Silvestri was destined for Image.

Wolverine: Weapon X   Wolverine: Weapon X Unbound

DC’s V.1  sale

DC’s Start Here Sale comes in 2 flavors: Graphic Novels and Single Issues.  DC would probably like you to buy Volume 1 at a discount and keep buying the rest at regular prices. We’re cheap, so let’s talk about some volumes that aren’t the first part of sagas you’ll need another five collections of.

DC’s 1st Issue Specials is an oddball book. In the 70s, it was a sort of tryout book, although the only thing it really launched was Warlord. That said, there are some gems in here. Martin Pasko and Walt Simonson have a stellar Doctor Fate strip.  Jack Kirby has three concepts here that are worth a look. Manhunter actually sorta/presages Englehart’s use of the concept in Justice League, even if Englehart takes the ball and runs in a very different direction.  Atlas would have been an epic fantasy. The Dingbats of Danger Street — your mileage may vary on this one, but it’s an extra goofy updating of ’40s kid gang comics with a little more bite.  This one comes at a good discount, too. It’s not for everyone, but if you’re interested in Bronze Age ephemera or Kirby, jump on it.

Swamp Thing: The Bronze Age Vol. 1 is the original Len Wein/Bernie Wrightson run. It is legendary for a reason.

Green Lantern: Sector 2814 Vol. 1 is another Lein Wein project. This is his Green Lantern run with a pre-Watchmen Dave Gibbons and a pleasant run it is.

DC's First Issue Specials   Swamp Thing: The Bronze Age   Green Lantern

Don’t call it Vertigo (while anybody’s looking)

The Dark Horse Berger Books Sale runs through Monday (3/1).

We’re not saying Berger Books is Vertigo, so much as we’re saying Karen Berger is Vertigo and she happened to switch publishers.  There is a certain throughline to Berger’s editorial work.

Incognegro by Mat Johnson and Warren Pleece is a wonderful mystery/crime comic about an African-American reporter from New York sent to Mississippi in the 1920s to investigate a murder his brother’s been accused of… and he does so by “passing” as a white man.  Excellent book that moved over from DC with Berger. There’s also a second volume if you like the original.

Invisible Kingdom by G. Willow Wilson and Christian Ward is conspiracy tale about a religious sect and an intergalactic religion having some backdoor relations when they’re supposed to be at each other’s throats.  It also won 2 Eisner Awards in 2020.

The Seeds hasn’t been out much more than 6 weeks as a collected edition, but the buzz has been building on it.  Ann Nocenti and David Aja construct a strange and eerie tale of a collapsing ecosystem, an anti-tech movement, click bait journalism and aliens who harvest the seeds of dying races. We’re going to have to invoke those pretentious film students you went to college with and say the real star here is the comic’s mise-en-scène.  The non-pretentious phrasing would be atmosphere, but Seeds has so much texture to the atmosphere, it needs the fancy term to really do it justice.

Incognegro  Invisible Kingdom  The Seeds

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