Comixology (at Amazon) Sales: This Week’s Unposted Sales

In this week’s Comixology (at Amazon) sales, we have some sales that aren’t officially on the deals page yet: Black Panther, Suicide Squad, Justice League, Hellsing.

Where did the New Releases and Sale pages go?

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

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

For whatever reason, Amazon has failed to update the Deals page at the usual time. This is happening more frequently since the (presumably) final round of Comixology layoffs. We expect that things will eventually get updated, but since people are understandably a little put off by this – and to demonstrate that there are sales going on and some of this isn’t necessarily the fault of the publishers, we’re going to cobble together a listing of some of what we know to be on sale right now.

Marvel

Black Panther Masterworks  Black Panther by Priest  Black Panther

We suspect some Black History Month programming here, starting with Black Panther

  • The Don McGregor era (AKA, pre-Priest), where Don McGregor was primary author… with a notable Kirby interlude. The best way to navigate the multiple editions is:
  • The Chrisopher Priest era  – with art by Mark Texiera, M.D. Bright and Sal Velluto (among others)
  • The Reggie Hudlin era (yes, “House Party” / “Boomerang” Hudlin) – with art by John Romita, Jr., Scot Eaton and Denys Cowan (among others)
  • The Ta-Nehisi Coates era (yes, from The Atlantic) – while the volumes are numbered consecutively, it’s split into two listing
    • Part one – with art by Brian Stelfreeze and Chris Sprouse (among others)
    • Part two – with art by Daniel Acuna and Kev Walker (among others)
  • The John Ridley era (Yes, Oscar-winner Ridley from 12 Years a Slave) – with art by Juann Cabal and German Peralta
  • The Eve Ewing era – We think V. 1 is discounted slightly?

DC

Justice League of America  Suicide Squad  Suicide Squad Bad Blood

Looks like a Suicide Squad sale.

And a Justice League Sale

Dark Horse

Hellsing

Hellsing

There is doubtless more on sale and, Amazon permitting, we’ll be back at the usual time at the end of the week with the real links.  Until then, browse away with the partial listings we were able to cobble together, quick and dirty.

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Comixology (at Amazon) Sales: Fantastic Four (all of it); Moon Knight; 90’s X-Men; Devil’s Reign; Cyberpunk 2077

In this week’s Comixology (at Amazon) sales, practically the entire Fantastic Four catalog is on sale. Plus, Marvel offers discounts on Moon Knight, Devil’s Reign and the world of the 90s X-Men. And, in what seems to be another unannounced sale, Dark Horse presents Cyberpunk 2077.

Where did the New Releases and Sale pages go?

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

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

Four Play

Fantastic Four - The Coming of Galactus    Fantastic Four by Waid   Fantastic Four by Hickman

Marvel’s Fantastic Four Legacy Sale runs through Monday, 1/29.

So, first let’s break down the various FF titles/volumes on sale

Yes, Fantastic Four has been relaunched less than other Marvel titles.  As to what’s good, the gold standard has always been the Stan Lee/Jack Kirby run. (And yes, we do think you can draw a straight line from Kirby’s Challengers of the Unknown at DC to Fantastic Four.) We’d say they start to hit their stride a few issues before Galactus shows up – V.3 of the Epic Collections (“The Coming of Galactus“) or V.4/5 of the Masterworks editions and you can ride a very fun train from there to the end of Lee/Kirby.

And at this point, we should talk about the “pick your poison” of Epic vs. Masterworks.  The Masterworks are built out straight into the Byrne era. We think the $6.99 Epic Collections are the best value here, though some of the newer ones are priced higher. The discounted Epics are now a little past the Lee/Kirby era, but stop with #146 and then pick up again after Byrne’s run. Pick the format that works for you and has the issues you’re looking for.

Speaking of Byrne’s run, that’s the next highpoint that everyone agrees on.  How to read Byrne? Well, there are 5 volumes of Masterworks on sale (V. 21-25; note: V. 25 is here and not linked in with the rest of the series) or you can hop on to Fantastic Four Visionaires: John Byrne. You’d need to cut over to the Visionaries run at V. 6 to pick up where the discounted Masterworks leave off.  These comics really ought to be in an Epic Collection, but Marvel doesn’t seem in any hurry to roll the Visionaires up into a more economical package. (Or should we say, economical when it’s on sale?)

Fast forward a bit to the Heroes Reborn era and there is a LOT to love about the Mark Waid / Mike Wieringo run. They brought back the “explorer” vibe from Lee/Kirby era that isn’t always there and upped the sense of wonder. You’d want the four Ultimate Collection volumes that start here. The “regular” collections don’t go all the way to the end.

And then, of course, there’s the the Hickman era. A long storyline that laid the groundwork for his Avengers run and you can certainly argue that his Secret Wars endcap to that is a Fantastic Four / Doctor Doom story. The omnibus editions we highlighted above include his FF spin-off comic that frequently crossed over with Fantastic Four, much like the Avengers titles flowed together. That packaging will be a better experience.

The Light of the Silvery Moon

Moon Knight  Moon Knight Epic Collection   Moon Knight

The Marvel Moon Knight Sale runs through Monday, 1/29.

The original Moon Knight run is mostly in Epic Collections, but it’s in two separate links because… well, we shouldn’t be surprised by this, should we?  The first link has two volumes that are not closely related. Bad Moon Rising is the Werewolf by Night appearances through the backups in Hulk Magazine and the first issues of 1980 solo series. The other volume in that link… we’re not as big on. That was later volumes.

You can go here for the rest of the 1980 Moon Knight series, which was the most famous version for quite some time. If you came into the character through the TV series, know that the original Moon Knight was a lot closer to Batman and The Shadow. Oh, sure the werewolf showed up, but most of the mystical things around Konshu were kept in the background and a lot more mysterious. The multiple identities were originally more like the cover identities adopted by the Shadow (and the original series editor, Denny O’Neil, adapted The Shadow for DC.) This is where Moon Knight got popular.

If you came in through the TV show, there really isn’t a comic that quite matches that version of the character, but the series did draw on the Jeff Lemire / Greg Smallwood Moon Knight series in which Moon Knight has a run-in with the Egyptian gods and his personalities run amok. It’s also a good run.

We also have been enjoying the current Jed MacKay/Alessandro Cappuccio Moon Knight series. This one takes up the unenviable task of rationalizing the various incarnations over the years (and there have been a lot of different takes on the character). Mr. Knight is in therapy for his multiple personality issues. He’s running the Midnight Mission and conduct himself as Konshu’s ambassador… after a fashion, although he’s not really happy with Konshu. And there are vampires. Lots of vampires.

Highlights of the rest:

  • Moon Knight ’89-’94 – Most of this is only collected in omnibus form for some reason for the longest running volume. This is largely the Terry Kavanaugh years with Gary Kwapisz and James Fry on art. Possibly more interesting, it also includes a Bruce Jones/Denys Cowan special and a Doug Moench/Art Nichols team-up with Shang Chi.
  • Moon Knight ’10-12 – Brian Bendis / Alex Maleev; Controversial to say the least, this one really leans into Moon Knight’s multiple personality disorder and breaks the character if you prefer the original concept. On the other hand, it’s surprisingly witty and funny. One of the oddest takes on the character.
  • Moon Knight  ’14-’15- Most notable for the style-forward Warren Ellis/Declan Shalvey reworking (introducing the business suit)

Deviltry

Devil's Reign   Devil's Reign X-Men

The Marvel Devil’s Reign Sale runs through Monday, 1/29.

Devil’s Reign is effectively a section of the excellent Chip Zdarsky/Marco Checchetto Daredevil run where The Kingpin, in his capacity as Mayor of NYC, declares war on superheroes and organizes his own version of the Thunderbolts to hunt them down. This main mini-series in the main thing you’re looking for, here.

That said, in term of tie-ins, Devil’s Rain: X-Men by Gerry Duggan and Phil Noto has a little more, by way of echoes moving forward, than you might expect. It establishes the ongoing relationship between Emma Frost and the Kingpin, which does crop up again further down the line in both the Daredevil and X-Men worlds. Plus, Phil Noto.

Hot Tub Mutant Machine

Wolverine   X-Factor Epic Collection   Generation X

The Marvel 90s X-Men Sale runs through Monday, 1/29.

We know what you’re thinking and, yes, this is about the time the X-world got a lot more complicated and Event-heavy.  And this is a pretty eclectic set. What do we recall as the winners from this period?

For X-Men (proper) we’d start with Mutant Genesis, which has the last bit of Chris Claremont’s original run as Jim Lee started to steer the boat a bit more.

For a lot of people, ’90s X-Men is about Onslaught. If you’re in that camp, there’s The Road to Onslaught  and the actual Onslaught Event.

Open things up a little wider and X-Factor pops to the top of the list. The selection of Epic Collections includes the Lousie & Walt Simonson run *and* the delightfully off-kilter first Peter David run (featuring Joe Quesada and Larry Stroman on art duties).

The Larry Hama Wolverine run is also on sale in Epic Collections. A fairly long run, too, and one of the most popular titles of the 90s. Marc Silvestri and Adam Kubert figure prominently on the artist lineup.

Now, a lot of people associate Scott Lobdell with 90s X-Men. If you want to read Lobdell’s best mutant work, that’s Generation X. It’s sort of a new New Mutants, since that title had morphed into X-Force, and we don’t think it’s even close. Chris Bachalo is the originating artist and sets the tone nicely.

There’s a bit more here for you to browse.

A Hugo Winner in an Unannounced Sale

Cyberpunk 2077   Cyberpunk 2077 Big City Dreams

Looks like there’s an unannounced sale on Dark Horse’s Cyberpunk 2077. A video game adaptation with an interesting award to its credit.

The first three collections can be found here.

After which, the property went to the album format Dark Horse sometimes uses for titles with a higher bookstore profile, which are listed with the single issues:

Big City Dreams was the 2023 Hugo Award winner for Best Graphic Story or Comic. And there you have it.

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Comixology (at Amazon) Sales: Vertigo, Hellblazer, War of the Realms, Silk, Doctor Who and an Unannounced Dark Horse Sale

In this week’s Comixology (at Amazon) sales, DC discounts the Vertigo line and Hellblazer. Marvel drops prices on War of the Realms and Silk. Plus, Doctor Who and is that another unannounced Dark Horse sale?

Where did the New Releases and Sale pages go?

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

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

So Much For Balance

100 Bullets   Doom Patrol  DMZ

The  DC Vertigo Sale runs through Monday, 1/29.

For an imprint DC shuttered years ago, it sure does have a prominent place on their online promotional list, doesn’t it? DC would probably tell you Black Label serves a similar purpose, but we keep expecting Vertigo to rise from the ashes one of these days. They had an awful lot of interesting material and some of it is starting to migrate to other publishers (like Dark Horse’s Berger Books imprint, to the surprise of exactly no one).

The nickel tour of Vertigo titles:

  • 100 Bullets – Classic revenge/crime/spies mashup by Brian Azzarello and Eduardo Risso
  • American Vampire – The comic that first put Scott Snyder on the map as a new breed of Vampire emerges in the West and clashes with what came before. Rafael Albuquerque is the artist and Stephen King lends a hand at launch.
  • The American Way: Those Above and Those Below – John Ridley / George Jeanty; Just your average superhero alternate history tale written by an Oscar winner. Sequel to the Wildstorm series that isn’t collected/on sale.
  • Animal Man – While the Grant Morrison/Chas Troug run is what gets talked about, This is followed by Peter Milligan, Tom Veitch and Jamie Delano with Steve Dillon and Steve Pugh on art. Not exactly chopped liver.
  • Daytripper – Fabio Moon & Gabriel Ba
  • Dead Boy Detectives – Toby Litt & Mark Buckingham. Young ghosts solve crimes. Coming soon to Netflix…
  • Doom Patrol ’89 – The Grant Morrison / Richard Case run. Legendary and adapted for television. Perhaps one day they’ll adapt the rest of the run. 
  • DMZ – Brian Wood / Riccardo Burcchielli; As the US is in the middle of a civil war, a reporter becomes trapped in the no man’s land that is NYC and navigates of landscape of warlords and political intrigue from both sides.  Doesn’t get hype anymore, but a solid series that hasn’t exactly gotten stale.
  • Ex Machina – Brian K. Vaughan (Saga) / Tony Harris (Starman); Originally Wildstorm, now Vertigo, this political thriller/powers genre bender finds a world’s only superhero being elected mayor of NYC. (Long before Lucas Cage or even Wilson Fisk.)
    Fables   Preacher   Swamp Thing
  • Fables – Bill Willingham / Mark Buckingham
  • Flex Mentallo – Grant Morrison / Frank Quitely; A delightfully odd/surreal tale that starts out as parody of the old Charles Atlas ads. And an early Morrison/Quitely pairing. They work well together.
  • iZombie – Chris Roberson / Mike Allred; A zombie detective dramedy adapted for television
  • Jew Gangster – Joe Kubert; Kubert lets loose with a ’30s crime tale.
  • Lucifer – Before he was M.R. Carey and handing out “all the gifts,” Mike Carey had a long run on this Sandman spin-off. Peter Gross is the artist.
  • Preacher – Garth Ennis / Steve Dillion; Another Vertigo TV adaption (you might be noticing a pattern), God has gone missing and Jesse Custer would like to have a word with him. Also, power abhors a vacuum.
  • Punk Rock Jesus – Sean Murphy’s tale of reality TV, religion and Punk (before his solo Batman work)
  • Saga of the Swamp Thing – The classic Alan Moore years (he’s good, that one); plus the Mark Millar years.
  • Sandman Mystery Theater – Matt Wagner / Steven T. Seagle / Guy Davis; The Golden Age Sandman in a pulpy mystery series (but with a bit more character work than your average pulp). Highly recommended.
  • Sandman By some chap named Gaiman. You may have heard of it.
    Scalped   Unwritten   Y the Last Man
  • Scalped – Jason Aaron / R.M. Guera – An FBI agent goes undercover (as himself) on the reservation he thought he’d escaped to investigate the reservation casino. Aaron starting out in the crime genre we wish he could do more of.
  • Sweet Tooth – Jeff Lemire; As seen on Netflix.
  • Top 10 – Alan Moore / Gene Ha / Zander Cannon – Another Wildstorm (OK, technically America’s Best Comics) series now dubbed “Vertigo,” this is Alan Moore’s delightful excursion into the Hill Street Blues style of police procedural… but with superheroes as the law. Good stuff.
  • The Unwritten – Mike (M.R.) Carey and Peter Gross reunite for the tale of a boy one whom a Harry Potter-esque series of books was based discovers he might actually be the literary character made flesh and the lines between fiction and reality are fluid.
  • Y: The Last Man – Brian K. Vaughan (him again) and Pia Guerra in the tale of the last man alive after a mysterious incident kills everyone else on Earth with a Y chromosome. Well, except his monkey. You may have even seen the TV series.

What the Hel…
Hellblazer  Hellblazer Hellblazer: rise + fall

The DC John Constantine, Hellblazer Sale runs through Monday, 1/22.

While perhaps not the original Vertigo flagship book, Hellblazer ended up being the longest running title and something DC has tried to revive (with mixed results) post-Vertigo. Let’s run it down:

  • Hellblazer ’88 – DC would like to call it “John Constantine, Hellblazer” in the post-Keanu world, but that’s not what anyone calls it. The first run is just Hellblazer. And it’s as solid a 300 issues as you’ll find. Jamie Delano. Neil Gaiman. Garth Ennis. Brian Azzarello. Mike Carey. Paul Jenkins. John Ridgeway. David Lloyd. Steve Dillon. The list goes on quite a while. A parade of top talent, if we’re honest. Good horror comics!
  • John Constantine: Hellblazer – City of Demons ’11- One-off graphic novel by Si Spencer and Sean Murphy. We seem to recall liking it.
  • Constantine ’13 – The new 52 relaunch. Mostly Ray Fawkes / Renato Guedes
  • Constantine: The Hellblazer ’15 – Ming Doyle / James Tynion IV / Riley Rossmo
  • The Hellblazer ’16 – Rotating creators; we haven’t read this one, but it’s notable that V. 4 is co-written by Sandman Slim novelist Richard Kadrey
  • John Constantine, Hellblazer ’19 – This is the Si Spurrier/Aaron Campbell version we’ve been stumping for around here. Right up there with the best runs and DC just started a new series of it. Both volumes make for 1 story and it’s great.
  • Hellblazer: Rise and Fall ’20 – Tom Taylor/Darick Robertson Black Lablel tale. (And with that team, you should know if you want it.)
  • The Mystery of the Meanest Teacher: A Johnny Constantine Graphic Novel ’21 – Ryan North / Derek Charm YA tale
  • Constantine: Distorted Illusions – Kami Garcia / Isaac Goodhart do teen Constantine and his band

This Means War

War of the Realms  Thor Road to War of the Realms

The Marvel War of the Realms Sale runs through Monday, 1/22.

This would be the Jason Aaron Thor Event.

You know how all these Events have “The Road to” type lead-ins? That’s the case here, except it’s part of the Thor series: Thor V.2: The Road to War of the Realms (Jason Aaron / Mike del Mundo / Tony Moore).

There’s also War of the Realms Preludewhich is a collection of issues from various Thor titles that have some bearing/build-up to the Event.

The meat of the Event is the collection of the miniseries (War of the Realms – Aaron/Russell Dauterman). If it were us, we’d probably have included Thor V.3 – War’s End (Aaron/Del Mundo), but that’s not actually part of the sale for whatever reason.

As usually there are a lot of tie-in books. Choose those at your liberty, though Aaron writes the Avengers tie-in (with Ed McGuinness).

Not Just For Handkerchiefs

The Marvel Silk Sale runs through Monday, 1/22
Silk  Silk

We know what you’re thinking: “I thought Silk belonged to Quality Comics.”  And you’d be right, but that’s “Her Highness and Silk,” the Kid Eternity foes who got spun off into their own feature. This is the Marvel Spidey spin-off.

Silk starts out in the ’14 edition of Amazing Spider-Man by Dan Slott and Humberto Ramos.

Then Silk gets handed off to Robbie Thompson, whom we can safely call Cindy Moon’s primary writer.

  • There was a ’15 mini-series that Marvel identifies as a  Vol. 0 by Thompson and Stacy Lee.
  • Followed by the ’15 ongoing Silk series by Thompson with Lee as the primary artist.
  • Both of the ’15 series, plus the Amazing Spider-Man material are also collected in Silk: Out of the Spider-Versebecause… well, you know how it goes with Marvel collections. They like to rebrand.
  • During the above run, there was also an Amazing Spider-Man & Silk: Spider(Fly) Effect infinity comic (i.e. webcomic) by Thompson and Todd Nauck
  • There was a ’21 Silk series by Maurene Goo and Takeshi Mitazawa (Amazon appears to have incorrect creator credits on this.)

Who Dat?

Doctor Who

The Titan The Eleventh Doctor Sale runs through Monday, 2/26.

That’s Eleventh Doctor, as is Matt Smith’s Doctor.

These comics come in two formats:

The single issues are cheaper. (Collected editions tend to be 5 issues.)

We would like to point out some creator names you might recognize. Early in the run, you’ve got writing by Al Ewing and Simon (Si) Spurrier. Both of whom get mentioned around here a fair amount.

Unannounced Dark Horse Sale
Empowered

We’re not sure how long this is running, but the omnibus editions of Adam Warren’s Empowered on sale. It’s superhero satire about a heroine with terrible luck and unreliable powers.

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Comixology (at Amazon) Sales: Marvel’s “Best of ’23;” Echo; Silver Surfer; DC’s Crisis; An Unannounced Dark Horse Sale

In this week’s Comixology (at Amazon) sales, Marvel discounts their best of 2023, Silver Surfer and Echo. DC has a Crisis sale… and it looks like there’s an unannounced sale at Dark Horse.

Where did the New Releases and Sale pages go?

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

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

First, a word about the Epic Collections. In previous years, there was an Epic Collection sale the week of Black Friday. That didn’t happen in ’23.  The Omnibus sale that did run on Black Friday, ran at the beginning of February in ’23. Will the Epic Collection sale move to February this year? We don’t know, nor are we sure what the pricing would be, given that the Masterworks sale was more expensive this year. But, given that Epic Collections feature prominently this week and we’ve gotten questions about them, that’s all we know.

An Interesting Definition of 2023

Doctor Strange  Guardians of the Galaxy  Sins of Sinister

The Marvel Best of 2023 Sale runs through Monday, 2/5.

Yeah… some of these option do not exactly scream “2023” at us.  Or even “2022.” But lets do some quick annotations on thing we _did_ like here. And yes, you’re going to see a recurring theme of “Al Ewing” and “Christopher Cantwell.” In no particular order:

  • Ant-Man: Ant-Iversary – Al Ewing / Tom Reilly; A sort of retrospective of the various Ant-Man helmet-wearers in a time-spanning tale involving Ultron.
  • Wasp: Small Worlds – Al Ewing / Kasia Nie; Effectively a companion piece to Ant-Man: Ant-Iversary. Both Wasps, Janet and Nadia, are drawn into a mystery from Janet’s early days as the Wasp. Silver age continuity-driven.
  • Daredevil & Elektra by Chip Zdarsky Vol. 1: The Red Fist Saga – Chip Zdarksy / Marco Checchetto; The first volume in the final act of Zdarsky’s highly entertaining Daredevil run.
  • Doctor Strange by Jed Mackay Vol. 1: The Life Of Doctor Strange – Jed MacKay / Pasqual Ferry; Strange and Clea investigate mysterious deaths in which they both might be involved. Opening act of MacKay’s latest Strange storyline, all of which have been good.
  • Doctor Strange: Fall Sunrise – Tradd Moore; An artistic tour de force of outlandish landscapes
  • Guardians Of The Galaxy by Al Ewing – Al Ewing / Juann Cabal / Marcio Takara; Certainly not ’23, but we’re big fans of Ewing’s GoG run that blended space opera, fantasy and some interesting continuity bits so very well. Cancelled too soon!
  • Hellcat Christopher Cantwell / Alex Lins; Spinning out of Cantwell’s Iron Man, Patsy Walker confronts a particularly weird mystery spinning out of her past. Her ex-husband, the Son of Satan, is involved. As is… Sleepwalker? One of the more offbeat offerings of the year.
  • Joe Fixit – Peter David / Yildiray Cinar; PAD revisits Vegas era Hulk with Spidey in tow, as the Kingpin makes a play for the Strip. A very fun comic that flew under the radar largely because it wasn’t in the current continuity.
  • Namor The Sub-Mariner: Conquered Shores – Christopher Cantwell / Pasqual Ferry; This is the Namor version of Old Man Logan. In a dystopian future where the surface world is in ruin, an aging Namor (whose temper has only gotten worse) tries to solve a mystery surrounding the remaining humans and decide if humanity is worth saving.
  • Sins of Sinister – Kieron Gillen / Al Ewing / Simon Spurrier / Leinil Francis Yu / Lucas Werneck / Paco Medina / Patch Zircher /Alessandro Vitti; This collects one of the best X-Men events in recent memory. Mister Sinister has been running experiments in how to take over the world and resetting reality whenever something goes wrong. Yes, the scientific method is being applied. Except things get out of control and he’s unable to reset things. Thus we see hundreds of years of his altered mutant taking over the universe and fighting amongst themselves as Sinister tries to reset things and escape. It’s the very odd instance of when an Elseworlds story is firmly in continuity and has consequences moving forward.
  • X-Terminators – Leah Williams / Carlos Gomez; Jubilee, Boom Boom, Dazzler and Wolverine (Laura Kinney) find themselves kidnapped by vampires and run through Arcade-esque death traps as entertainment. It’s surprisingly funny and a little off-color. Not what you’d necessarily be expecting, but a good time.

The Bird is the Word

Silver Surfer Masterworks  Silver Surfer - Englehart  Silver Surfer

The  Marvel Silver Surfer Sale runs through Monday, 1/15.

For the most part, the solo adventures of the Silver Surfer fall into three periods:

First, the classic original series by Stan Lee and (mostly) John Buscema. This ran from ’68-’70 and is a minor legend for a reason.

There wasn’t much solo Surfer for the better part of 17 years because the Surfer was considered to be Stan’s character in a similar way to how Sandman is Neil Gaiman’s. That changed in ’87 when Silver Surfer relaunched under the team of Steve Englehart & Marshall Rogers. (Yes, the Batman pairing.) Predictably, it was excellent. The next team was Jim Starlin and Ron Lim, another great run. Starlin used this run to bring back Thanos (mostly unused since he finished his Warlock run) and set up the Infinity Gauntlet.  We think very highly of the first 50 or so issues of this run. The first four Epic Collections will take you through #50 (that would be through Thanos Quest).

Then next major addition to the cannon was the Dan Slott / Michael Allred Silver Surfer in 2014. It is confusing listed in two places. The first three volumes here and the final two volumes here.

For something that ends up being off the radar because of it’s short length, there’s always Parable, which is Stan Lee teaming up with Metal Hurlant (Heavy Metal) legend Moebius for an adventure.

And if you’re interested in cherry picking the Surfer’s original appearances in Fantastic Four, the very definition of classic, there’s an Epic Collection that does just that.

Don’t Cross the Streams

Echo  Daredevil: Born Again  Daredevil: Last Rites

The Marvel Echo & Kingpin Sale runs through Monday, 1/15.

Gosh, you’d think a streaming show was dropping?

For Echo, what you’re looking for is Echo: The Saga of Maya Lopezwhich collects both of her original Daredevil arcs by David Mack (who we don’t see enough of these days).

For Wilson Fisk, you have two excellent options.

The first one is what Marvel was supposed to be adapting for Disney+: Born Again by Frank Miller and David Mazzucchelli. This is the one where The Kingpin finds out Matt Murdoch’s secret and goes about dismantling his life. A+ material.

Daredevil Epic Collection: Last Rites actually contains two Kingpin arcs. One by Ann Nocenti at the end of her run, with Bullseye in tow. The other, which gives the collection it’s name being a final throw down (for awhile) written by D.G. Chichester. Lee Weeks draws both and is the primary artist for this collection. A couple good runs, here.

One Title Per Event, Please

Crisis on Infinite Earths  Final Crisis  Blackest Night

The DC Crisis Sale runs through Monday, 1/15.

We have been assured not every DC Event is a “Crisis,” but most of them have been. Especially post-DiDio taking office.  So lets walk through this chronologically.

The first “crises” were the annual Justice League/Justice Society team-ups, which are collected as Crisis on Multiple Earths (scroll down). The smaller “Volumes” are slightly less expensive than the larger “Books” (which are effectively 2 volumes). We’d say the best Volumes are V. 3 (for Earth-X / Freedom Fighters), V.5 (for the New Gods team-up that inserts Darkseid into the JLA’s sphere) and V. 6 (for the SSOSV arc and the All-Star Squadron crossover).

Next comes Crisis on Infinite Earths by Marv Wolfman & George Perez, which rebooted the line (and caused problems for anything Earth-2 or Legion of Superheroes). The “Companion” volumes are very much optional, although the Green Lantern stories in V.1 tie-in more than most.

Then comes ’94’s Zero Hour: Crisis in Time (note: everybody just called it “Zero Hour” when it was coming out) by Dan Jurgens & Jerry Ordway. This was the showdown with Hal Jordan’s villainous Parallax identity.

In ’05, there was a formal sequel to Crisis on Infinite Earths called Infinite Crisis. Geoff Johns, Phil Jimenez, George Perez and Jerry Ordway were the headliners here. Lots of story arcs built up to this one.

In ’08, Grant Morrison wrote the sprawling Final Crisis (that used to be a pain to read in collected edition until somebody wised up and put Superman Beyond and the relevant Batman issues in the collection). J.G. Jones, Doug Mahnke and Carlso Pacheco are the main artists for this highly regarded Event.

Now… the next thing on this list is Blackest Night. We’d have probably said Sinestro Corps War, but that was apparently too self-contained to the Green Lantern line. Here’s how you want to read it, because we don’t think it’s collected right. You absolutely need two books, here: Blackest Night and Blackest Night: Green Lantern. That’s the Event mini-series and the Green Lantern issues that are integral to it. We’d also recommend Blackest Night: Green Lantern Corps as being fairly integrated, just not as much as GL proper. This is the culmination of several plots Geoff Johns was weaving through the Green Lantern line after he revived it.

2011 brought Flashpoint, the ultraviolent sequence where The Flash tries to save his parents and ends up changing the timeline in very bad ways. This lead into New 52 and… the linkages were never really followed through on very well. Geoff Johns and Andy Kubert are the headliners, here.

2017 brought Scott Snyder and Greg Capullo into Event Mode with Dark Nights: Metal (and Starro!) and 2020’s sequel, Dark Nights: Death Metal.

Then in ’21, Joshua Williamson and Xermanico served up Infinite Crisis

That’s the nickel tour, skipping a few things we didn’t think really counted as a “crisis.”

Unannounced Dark Horse Sale?

We have no idea how long this will last, but we’re seeing what look like widespread discounts on Dark Horse titles.  A partial list (and the prices we’re seeing in case something changes):

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Still on Sale

Comixology (at Amazon) Sales: Batman Beyond and DC’s “Start Here”

In this week’s Comixology (at Amazon) sales,  DC has the new sales with Batman Beyond and… “Start Here.”

Where did the New Releases and Sale pages go?

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

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

Beginner’s Luck

Batman / Superman: The Archive of Worlds   Kingdom Come    Swamp Thing

The DC Start Here Sale runs through Monday, 1/15.

This is one of those sales where they give you a discount on volume one and hope to entice you into buying volume 2 for full price. We seem to recall that’s similar to how Comixology originally pitched Comixology Unlimited to publishers.

We’ll be contrarian and look at some volumes that stand a little better on their own, as opposed to being a cliffhanger.

Batman/Superman: The Archive of Worlds – Gene Yang / Ivan Reis – Fun-forward adventure as Batman and Superman chase a mystery across parallel, film-themed worlds.

Batman The Long Halloween Jeph Loeb/Tim Sale – The classic tale of Batman chasing a killer who only strikes on holidays… and the case’s toll on Harvey Dent.

Doom Patrol: Book One – The first few arcs of the Grant Morrison / (mostly) Richard Case run on Doom Patrol. Good enough for TV, it seems, although we liked the book better.

JLA Vol. 1 – The first two arcs of the Grant Morrison/Howard Porter run on Justice League.

JSA: The Golden Age – A forgotten classic as James Robinson and Paul Smith take the post-WWII Justice Society through the horror of McCarthyism. This might not read quite as dated as one might initially think…

Kingdom Come – Mark Waid and Alex Ross explore a dystopian nightmare that’s also a critique of the 90s grim’n’gritty fad. (90s? OK… maybe that fad lasted a little longer…)

Superman Vs. Mongul – A bit more under the radar, this would be the original DC Comics Presents encounters between Superman and Mongul, mainly by Len Wein and Jim Starlin. Plus a certain Alan Moore/Dave Gibbons tale.

Swamp Thing: The Bronze Age, V.1 – The original Swamp Thing run by Len Wein and Bernie Wrightson. One of DC’s shining lights of the early 70s.

Above and Beyond

Batman Beyond: Industrial Revolution  Batman Beyond  Batman Beyond: The Final Joke

The DC Batman Beyond 25th Anniversary Sale runs through Monday, 1/8.

Feeling old, yet?

For those coming in late, this is the comics continuation of the ’99-’01 animated series that finds young Terry McGinnis stepping in as a new Batman for the elderly Bruce Wayne in futuristic, vaguely cyberpunk Gotham.

Batman Beyond hasn’t had a constant presence in comics, but there was a concerted effort to keep it in print for 10 years and Dan Jurgens had a pretty respectable run. 66 issues across the two titles is a lot more than most people manage these days!

Here’s the chronology of the titles:

And a reminder that Monday is last call for the annual holiday Marvel Masterworks sale.

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Still on Sale

Comixology (at Amazon) Sales: The Best Bets in the Marvel Masterworks Sale

In this week’s Comixology (at Amazon) sales,  we have a look at some of the best bets in the Marvel Masterworks Sale.

Where did the New Releases and Sale pages go?

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

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

The Best of the Marvel Masterworks Sale

As you may recall, The Marvel Masterworks Sale runs through Monday, 1/8.

One of the things you’ll notice about the Masterworks line is they started with relatively thin volumes – around 10 issues/~225-250 pages per book. And then as things got further along, they got bigger. Some of them being effectively the same size as an Epic Collection. So let’s start out by looking at that and the biggest bang for your buck by page count.

I Like Big Page Counts

Masterworks with 400+ pages!
Amazing Spider-Man Masterworks Doctor Strange Masterworks Uncanny X-Men Masterworks

  • Amazing Spider-Man Masterworks Vol. 22 – 410 pages – Roger Stern / John Romita, Jr. era, including THAT Juggernaut story
  • Amazing Spider-Man Masterworks Vol. 23 – 468 pages – Roger Stern / John Romita, Jr. era… and the Hobgoblin debuts in this volume
  • Avengers Masterworks Vol. 21 – 386 pages (close enough) – Effectively the end of the Jim Shooter/Bob Hall run, plus the first Vision & the Scarlet Witch mini and, notably, a 2-part Steven Grant/Greg Laroque Black Knight storyline.
  • Avengers Masterworks Vol. 23 – this appears to be mislabeled on Amazon and should be closer to 380 pages (close enough) – Roger Stern / Al Milgrom / Mark Gruenwald. Includes the Hawkeye mini-series.
  • Champions Masterworks Vol. 1 – 460 pages – The whole ’70s series + crossovers – Bill Mantlo/Tony Isabella/George Tuska/John Byrne and others.
  • Doctor Strange Masterworks Vol. 10 – 394 pages (close enough) – Roger Stern/Paul Smith (and the Doctor Strange vs. Dracula sequence)
  • Incredible Hulk Masterworks V. 17393 pages (close enough) – Bill Mantlo / Sal Buscema – Includes the Contest of Champions mini-series.
  • Killraven Masterworks Vol. 1 – 471 pages – Don McGregor / P. Craig Russell – the entire Amazing Adventures run plus the OGN follow up
  • Uncanny X-Men Masterworks Vol. 9 – 471 pages – OK, get this line-up: Chris Claremont writing all of… Uncanny X-Men w/ Paul Smith; the God Loves, Man Kills OGN w/ Brent Anderson and the original Wolverine mini-series w/ Frank Miller.
  • Uncanny X-Men Masterworks Vol. 10 – 458 pages – the beginning of the Claremont/John Romita, Jr. era with the Brotherhood of Evil Mutants and Morlocks, plus the Magik mini-series w/ John Buscema
  • Uncanny X-Men Masterworks Vol. 11 – 457 pages – Claremont writing: X-Men with John Romita, Jr. (including the Kulan Gath issues), X-Men/Alpha Flight with Paul Smith and Kitty Pride & Wolverine with Al Milgrim
  • Uncanny X-Men Masterworks Vol. 12 – 466 pages – Claremont writes X-Men w/ John Romita, Jr. (culminating in the trial of Magneto and the end of a big arc); the “Asgardian Wars” crossover with New Mutants w/Art Adams; and then Dave Cockrum’s Nightcrawler mini.
  • Uncanny X-Men Masterworks Vol. 13 – 449 pages – Claremont & John Romita, Jr. on X-Men, plus and Ann Nocenti and Art Adams on Longshot.
  • Uncanny X-Men Masterworks Vol. 14 – 485 pages – Enter the Mutant Massacre, plus Psylocke joins the X-verse in New Mutants and Fantastic Four Vs. X-Men.
  • Uncanny X-Men Masterworks Vol. 15 – 508 pages (!) – Chris Claremont / Marc Silvestri / Roger Stern. Includes the “Fall of the Mutants” arc and the Avengers vs. X-Men mini-series.

Other notable runs (that aren’t Lee/Kirby, since those go without saying).
Black Panther Masterworks Daredevil Masterworks Warlock Masterworks

We’ll link to the first volume in the set on these.

  • Avengers V. 10 – 18; V. 10 is the Kree/Skrull War. V.11 starts the Englehart run through V.15. V. 16 & V.17 are the Jim Shooter run w/ George Perez & John Byrne; V. 18 is David Michelinie/John Byrne -a prime chunk of Avengers
  • Black Panther Masterworks Vol. 1 – The original, classic Jungle Action run with Don McGregor / Rich Buckler / Billy Graham / Gil Kane – a LOT of things get established here.
  • Captain America V. 7 – 11; V.7-9 is the classic Steve Englehart/ (mostly) Sal Buscema run with the Secret Empire, the Red Skull and a snake of an ad man. V.10-11 is Jack Kirby’s return and V.10’s Madbomb is more relevant today than it should be. Also good – V.14 contains the brief, but classic, Roger Stern/John Byrne run
  • Captain Marvel V.3 -4; V. 3 is Jim Starlin’s run, which is the first Thanos arc. Utter classic. V.4 is the half-forgotten, yet quite entertaining Steve Englehart/Al Milgrom run.
  • Daredevil V. 15-17; Frank Miller’s first run. (V. 14 ends with the first issue he drew, but it’s not particularly connected to the rest of the run.) Yes, the whole thing is now in Masterworks and it’s a decent price for the material.
  • Defenders V. 3-5The inspired strangeness of Steve Gerber’s run. Headmen! Elf With a Gun!
  • Doctor Strange V.5-10; Once Steve Englehart and Frank Brunner show up the 70s and 80s were a strong time for Doctor Strange. Consistently A-list writers and artists. Almost amazingly so for a bi-monthly title.
  • Fantastic Four V. 21-25The John Byrne era in thick slices
  • Iron Man V.5-7; The meat of Archie Goodwin’s Iron Man run with Gene Colan and George Tuska
  • Iron Man V. 13-15 – V. 13 has David Michelinie, Bob Layton and John Romita, Jr. arrive. They start with “Demon in a Bottle,” the famous arc, but Iron Man is very good for a long time, starting here.
  • Marvel Two-In-One V. 5-6; In V.5 Mark Gruenwald and Ralph Macchio arrive for a fun run that’s not always remembered. George Perez and Ron Wilson handle most of the art. “Project Pegasus” and “The Serpent Crown Affair” are two of the major arcs.
  • Sub-Mariner V. 7 – Something different? Namor’s creator, Bill Everett returns to his creation as writer/artist.
  • Warlock V. 2 – Jim Starlin’s first run on Adam Warlock, complete in one volume. A continuation of his Captain Marvel run, Thanos is back and this one really lays the groundwork for the eventual Infinity Gauntlet.

Remember, New Year’s Day is last call for the DC Holiday Sale. Our extensive annotations for it are here.

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Still on Sale

Comixology (at Amazon) Sales – The DC Holiday Sale – $1.99 Batman, Superman, etc. (Cheap)

In this week’s Comixology (at Amazon) sales, it’s a DEEP dive into the DC Holiday Sale. Plus, an unannounced Bendis sale at Dark Horse.

Where did the New Releases and Sale pages go?

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

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

DC’s Commitment to Cheap

The DC Holiday Sale runs through Monday, 1/1.

This is definitely the value sale between now and January 1st. Plenty of $1.99 collected editions and MUCH better than usual prices on expensive volumes that get lousy discounts during the rest of the year. If you have received some gift cards or are about to, this is where your credits will go the furthest at the moment.

There’s 3071 items in it, so it takes a little time to scroll through. When you do, PLEASE remember to right-click on anything you’re interested in and open the link/book in a new tab? You really, really do not want to loose your place. Trust us – this ain’t our first rodeo.

That said, here’s an entirely too large list of annotations of things we like, think are particularly good deals or otherwise notable. And we’ll try and get a *little* organization to it, because it’s still a lot of info.  Yes, that we can make this list may also be an indictment of our lifestyle, but we’re used to it. 😉

Batman

Tales of the Batman: Steve Englehart  Tales of the Batman: Archie Goodwin  Legends of the Dark Knight Norm Breyfogle 2

  • Batman (1940-’11) -We especially like $2.99 “Caped Crusader” (the ’80s run) and $2.99 Ed Brubaker volumes if you scroll down.
  • Detective Comics(1937-’11) – We especially like $2.99 “Dark Knight Detective” (the ’80s run) and “New Gotham” volumes.
  • Batman and the Outsiders – The classic ’80s team book by Mike W. Barr / Jim Aparo / Alan Davis. It’s rare to see all three volumes on sale at the same time (and the first volume rarely gets a proper discount)
  • Batman & The Joker: The Deadly Duo – Marc Silvestri does Batman. $2.99
  • Batman/Superman: World’s Finest – Mark Waid & Dan Mora’s excellent current series. (And yes, this is a star turn for Mora.) – $2.99@
  • Batman: Damned – Brian Azzarello / Lee Bermejo; It will go down as infamous for the “bat pole” and the behind the scenes political upheaval it caused.
  • Batman: Death and the Maidens – A Ra’s Al Ghul tale by Greg Rucka / Klaus Janson
  • Batman: Gates of Gotham – Scott Snyder / Kyle Higgins / Trevor McCarthy – early Snyder Batman
  • Batman Universe – Brian Bendis channeling pure fun? Believe it! This is the Bendis/Nick Derington tale that was hidden away in the Walmart comics and we want another volume! A lot more than $1.99 worth of entertainment.
  • Batman and Robin – The Grant Morrison / Frank Quitely / Cameron Stewart / Frazier Irving material
  • Batman/Spawn – both of the 90s crossovers for $1.99
  • Batman: Arkham Asylum – The Grant Morrison / Dave McKean classic for $1.99
  • Batman (2016-present) – Tom King’s run through the current Chip Zdarksy run, mostly $1.99/volume with some $2.99 sprinkled in.
  • Detective Comics (2016-present) – James Tynion IV’s first and – we’ll say it – better Batman run for $1.99@.
  • Tales of the Batman: Steve Englehart – Mostly Englehart/Marshall Rogers, but also some Walt Simonson. This is the Detective Comics run that’s on most “best Batman run” short lists, plus the follow-ups over the years. 452 pages / $5.99
  • Tales of the Batman: Archie Goodwin – The Batman tales of one of the best writers (who moved up to editorial) and also one of the nicest guys in comics. Probably The nicest guy. 471 pages / $4.99
  • Legends of the Dark Knight: Norm Breyfogle V.1 and V.2 – The Batman team of Alan Grant and Norm Breyfogle, who had a fantastic run in the late 80s/early 90s and (get this) introduced a lot of new villains. 522 / 471 pages, $5.99
  • Tales of the Batman: Gerry Conway Vol. 1 / Vol. 2 / Vol. 3 – Conway wrote Batman & Detective in the early 80s and the stories bounced between the two books quite a bit, so this is the better way to read the Don Newton and Gene Colan stories. 438 / 472 / 502 pages, $5.99
  • Tales of the Batman: Alan Brennert – Normally a TV screenwriter, Brennert wrote some notable Batman over the years, all collected here. 207 pages / $2.99
  • Legends of the Dark Knight: Alan Davis – The Mike W. Barr / Alan Davis run from Detective. 270 pages / $4.99
  • Legends of the Dark Knight: Jim Aparo Vol. 1 / Vol. 2 / Vol. 3 This is mostly the very long and rather amazing Bob Haney / Jim Aparo run from The Brave and the Bold. Every volume over 500 pages / $5.99. Fun stuff, off in it’s own little world.
  • Batman: Tales of the Demon – Denny O’Neil / Neal Adams / Don Newton. This is the original set of Ra’s al Ghul stories. Because it’s a HC in print, it usually has a ridiculous digital price, so $5.99 is a good price for it, right now.

Superman

All-Star Superman  Adventures of Superman  Superman Smashes The Klan

Wonder Woman 

Wonder Woman: The Golden Age  Wonder Woman New 52  Wonder Woman - True Amazon

  • Wonder Woman: The Golden Age Early Wonder Woman is strangeLots of bondage and domination themes. Seriously. ~400 pages for $2.99. Worth getting one cheap to see how off the wall these are.
  • Wonder Woman (1987 series) – Don’t ask us why, but you need to click here and here to get everything. We don’t know why the listings are split like that. Anyway, you can’t go wrong with the George Perez run or the first Greg Rucka run at the end of this series. And be away that V.6 of the Perez run and the War of the Gods collection that isn’t numbered contain the same comics.
  • Wonder Woman (2011 series) – The first six issues by Brian Azzarello / Cliff Chiang / Goran Sudzuka are a top notch story. A little sacrilegious to the character? Probably. Consider it an Elseworlds take, but it’s good.
  • Wonder Woman (2016 series) – You want the first two “Rebirth Deluxe Editions” as Greg Rucka / Nicola Scott / Liam Sharp reset Wonder Woman, post-Azzarello
  • Wonder Woman: True Amazon – Jill Thompson’s Eisner Award winner

Justice League

Justice League of America  Justice League Quarterly  JLA

  • Justice League of America (1960 – 87) – The biggest highlight here is the set of $1.99/$2.99 Silver Age collections of the earliest stories. The JSA/JLA team-ups (Crisis on Multiple Earths) are also deep discounted at $1.99. This series hasn’t really been collected often.
  • Justice League of America (1987 – 96) – This is the Justice League International era, as started by Keith Giffen/J.M. DeMatteis/Kevin Maguire. Bwa ha ha. And that’s the best place to start.  $1.99 each.
  • JLA (’97-’06) – Starts with the Grant Morrison/Howard Porter Justice League run. Then some Mark Waid, Joe Kelly… even Chris Claremont / John Byrne. Double volumes for the most part: $1.99/$2.99
  • Justice League of America (2006 – 11) – The gems here are the 4 volumes written by Dwayne McDuffie (from the animated series): V1 / V2 / V3 / V4
  • Justice League (2016 -18) – The gem here is the Priest / Pete Woods arc.
  • The Nail – Alan Davis weaves a masterpiece in this pair of Elseworlds about a world where the Kents don’t find baby Kal-El in his spaceship and Superman does not emerge. A+ for $2.99

Green Lantern

Green Lantern  Green Lantern  Green Lantern by Geoff Johns

  • Green Lantern (’60 – ’86)
    • Silver Age omnibuses for $2.99
    • This listing has O’Neil / Adams for $2.99 and don’t sleep on the Len Wein / Dave Gibbons -> Steve Englehart / Joe Staton volumes at the end –  $1.99@
    • Tales of the Green Lantern Corps, V.3  – Bizarrely mislabeled, this is the first six issues of the Steve Englehart/Joe Staton Green Lantern Corps, which extends their Green Lantern run
    • Green Lantern Corps continues the Englehart/Staton run… after that Tales volume
  • Green Lantern (’05 – ’11) – The Geoff Johns run… and this is more complicated than is should be, but it really is an excellent run.
  • The Green Lantern by Grant Morrison & Liam Sharp – One of the more imaginative Lantern stories in a while, especially as illustrated, this is really one long story in four volumes, broken up as Season One  and Season Two (even though the first series was never referred to as a season… that or DC is actively trying to confuse you, which is not beyond the realm of possibility).

Legion of Super-Heroes

Superboy and the Legion of Super-Heroes   Legion of Super Heroes The Great Darkness Saga  Legion of Superheroes: The Curse

Not as much of the Legion run is in digital or currently in print as you might think. Of what is, here are some highlights and recommendations.

  • Legion of Super-Heroes: The Silver Age – The earliest appearances, through the first 10 issues of their Adventure Comics feature.
  • Superboy and the Legion of Super-Heroes – These two volumes pick up roughly where Paul Levitz starts writing and takes you through where Superboy leaves the Legion (which is the Gerry Conway run). Artists include Mike Grell, James Sherman, Joe Staton and a bit of Jim Starlin. Included are the wedding of Lightning Lad & Saturn Girl and the Earthwar sequence.
  • Legion of Super-Heroes (1980-85) – What you’re really looking at here are the last two volumes where Paul Levitz returns and starts to hit his stride, with Keith Giffen joining him fairly quickly.
    • The Great Darkness Saga  – Levitz/Giffen with their all-time classic arc in the middle of it. 414 pages for $2.99? A steal.
    • The Curse – Levitz/Giffen continue to deal with the fallout from The Great Darkness. 544 pages for $2.99? Very hard to beat for value.
  • Legion of Super-Heroes (1985-89) – Only one volume available and they really need to get on the stick about collecting the rest of the Levitz run.
  • Legion Lost – The entertaining (if controversial) Dan Abnett / Andy Lanning / Oliver Copiel run. The setup and then the actual Legion Lost.
  • Legion of Super-Heroes (2005-09) – Starts out with the now familiar team of Mark Waid and Barry Kitson. Ends with a flawed, but interesting run by Jim Shooter, returning to the feature he started out on.
  • Legion of Super-Heroes (2010-11) – Paul Levitz returns.
  • Legion of Super-Heroes (2011 – 13) – The Levitz run is relaunched for New 52… and Keith Giffen returns for the final volume in the set.

Jack Kirby

New Gods by Jack Kirby  Jimmy Olsen by Jack Kirby  Kamandi

Most of his DC material is included

Fourth World:

Non-Fourth World DC work:

And more gems from that tall pile of comics:

Creature Commandos  Doctor Fate  Doomsday Clock

  • 100 Bullets – Brian Azzarello and Eduardo Risso spin a tale about the intersection of revenge, crime and espionage. A classic from Vertigo. Double volumes for $2.99.
  • The Atlantis Chronicles – Sometimes filed under Aquaman, this is an undersea high fantasy series about the history of Atlantis and Atlantean royalty. (And where all this “Orin” stuff comes from.) Always under the radar because there isn’t usually a reasonably priced edition. Peter David writes. Estabon Maroto draws – and slays. We don’t usually see this for $5.99 outside the holidays.
  • Camelot 3000 – Mike W. Barr / Brian Bolland – King Arthur returns to repel an alien invasion… as was foretold. ~300 pages / $1.99
  • Clean Room – A lesser-known Gail Simone / Jon Davis-Hunt horror tale from Vertigo
  • Creature Commandos – soon to be an animated series, these are the originals for a lousy $1.99
  • The Scott Snyder / Greg Capullo “Metal” crossover Events:
  • DC: The New Frontier: Darwyn Cooke’s must-read classic about the dawn of the Silver Age characters
  • Deadman – Collecting the appearances from Neal Adams in Strange Adventures through the ’80s mini-series.
  • Dial H – The China Mieville / Alberto Ponticelli / Mateus Santolouco “weird fiction” take on the dial that gives it’s wearer new powers each time. A bizarre delight. ~400 pages / $3.99
  • Doctor Fate – Paul Levitz and Sonny Liew did a wonderful, mythology forward update of the character.
  • The Doomsday Clock – The Geoff Johns / Gary Frank crossover Event that brought Watchmen into the DC Universe. 455 pages/$4.99
  • Exit Stage Left: The Snagglepus Chronicles – Mark Russell’s and Mike Feehan’s dark satire casts the cartoon character as a gay playwright facing off against the House Un-American Activities Committee in the 1950s. No, really. It’s good.
  • Fables – Bill Willingham’s / (mostly) Mark Buckingham’s series about the characters from fairy tales hiding out in New York City as refuges after their worlds have been conquered. A classic. Double (deluxe) volumes for $2.99!
    Far Sector  Gotham City: Year One  John Constantine, Hellblazer
  • Far Sector N.K. Jemisin / Jamal Campbell take a new Green Lantern to the edge of the universe to solve a mystery. Absolutely wonderful book. ~300 pages / $2.99.
  • Final Crisis – The celebrated crossover Event by Grant Morrison / J.G. Jones / Doug Mahnke / Carlos Pacheco. 456 pages / $2.99
  • The Flash (’87 – ’09) – $2.99/$3.99 omnibuses of the Mark Waid and Geoff Johns runs… plus the “it’s not happening again” team of Grant Morrison & Mark Millar for $1.99.
  • The Flash: The Silver Age – The early stories, ~400 pages / $2.99
  • The Flintstones – Mark Russell and Steve Pugh hit a high water mark with a satirical and bittersweet take on the stone age.
  • Gotham Central – Ed Brubaker / Greg Rucka / Michael Lark / Stefano Gaudiano / Jason Alexander / Kano – The Gotham PD handles things without Batman. EXCELLENT series and $1.99 for double volumes. Just get it.
  • Gotham City:  Year One Tom King & Phil Hester’s very recently collected noir detective series where Slam Bradley is sucked into a chain of events that create the Gotham City as we know it today.
  • Grayson – The Tim Seeley / (early) Tom King / Mikel Janin series with Dick Grayson as a spy/double agent
  • Hard Time: The Complete Series – Steve Gerber / Mary Skrenes / Brian Hurtt in a criminally below the radar of super powered teen who gets (shafted) sent to prison. 458 pages / $4.99
  • Hardware: The Man in the Machine -Dwayne McDuffie and Denys Cowan gave this Milestone book a great opening arc.
  • Hellblazer – Vertigo’s longest running title for $1.99/$2.99 per volume.
    • John Constantine, Hellblazer – The superlative Si Spurrier / Aaron Campbell / Matias Bergara that’s right up there with the best of a storied franchise. $1.99/volume, so no excuses!
  • Hitman – The Garth Ennis / John McCrae bloody farce
  • Infinite Frontier – The crossover Event. 392 pages / $2.99
  • Jack of Fables – The Bill Willingham / Lilah Sturges/ Tony Akins / Russ Braun Fables companion book. (i.e., fun) $1.99/volume
  • Jonah Hex: Shadows West – All of the Joe R. Lansdale / Tim Truman horror take on Jonah Hex for $2.99. Great stuff that started a lawsuit!
    Kingdom Come  Manhunter  Mister Miracle
  • Kingdom Come – Mark Waid and Alex Ross paint a dystopian future (and comment on the 90s grim ‘n’ gritty trend) – $1.99
  • Lobo by Keith Giffen and Alan Grant – With art by Simon Bisley, until the editors realized what he was sneaking into the cover. The rude, crude humor version that screams “Jason Momoa” to everyone. Much fun, but not for puritans.
  • Manhunter – Archie Goodwin and Walt Simonson did an absolute classic as a backup in Detective. Spies, ninjas, a secret society and Batman crosses over in the end. Highest recommendation – $1.99.
  • Marshal Law– Pat Mills and Kevin O’Neill do a satire of superheroes as a Judge Dredd-like vehicle. If you like The Boys, this is worth a look for $5.99. Darker and more violent, not for kids.
  • Mister Miracle by Steve Englehart & Steve Gerber – A few years after Kirby left, DC revived Mister Miracle, only to have it fall in the “DC Implosion.” That’s actually Englehart/Marshall Rogers and Gerber/Michael Golden/Russ Heath. Yes, Heath inking Golden and it’s GREAT. The Gerber/Golden/Heath run is the star and you’ll be mad it was cancelled. Totally under the radar for years.
  • Mister Miracle (2017-19) – The Tom King / Mitch Gerads Eisner-Winning revival. $2.99
  • New Teen Titans – Marv Wolfman / George Perez for $1.99@
  • Night Force – Marv Wolfman & Gene Colan (as in Tomb of Dracula) reunite at DC for horror/time travel series that flew under too many radars.
  • Nightwing – Tom Taylor / Bruno Redondo – the series that could be the current center of the DCU. Vol. 1 for $1.99;  Vol. 2  and  Vol. 3 for $2.99@. (We think it hits its stride in V.2)
  • The Omega Men: The End – Tom King and Barnaby Bagenda turn the Omega Men into a study of fanaticism and terrorism. Also a Green Lantern tale as Kyle Rayner is abducted. Near the top of the King cannon.
  • One-Star Squadron The “wait… why haven’t they collaborated before?” team of Mark Russell and Steve Leiber pit Red Tornado and Power Girl against the gig economy! Yes, it’s a pitch black satire. – $1.99
  • Orion by Walt Simonson – Walt at the top of his game exploring the Kirby mythos. We’d put it up with his Thor, but DC didn’t market it very well and hardly anyone remembers it. Recommended.
  • Planetary – Warren Ellis & John Cassaday.
  • Preacher – Garth Ennis / Steve Dillion. Double volumes for $1.99 (!)
    Road to Perdition  Sandman Mystery Theater  Sheriff of Babylon
  • Prez: Corndog-in-Chief – Mark Russell & Ben Caldwell. We wish this book wasn’t so darn relevant. An accurate satire of election law and political horse trading finds a teen becoming president after a video of her mishap with a corn dog deep fryer goes viral. It’s a winner, especially as we approach an election year. – $1.99
  • Promethea – Alan Moore & J.H. Williams explore mythology and symbolism as a college student becomes the latest incarnation of the avatar of imagination… and tries to head off a looming apocalypse. Smart and beautifully illustrated book. – $1.99@
  • The Road to Perdition – Max Allan Collins & Richard Piers Rayner – this is where the film came from.
  • Saga of the Swamp Thing – The legendary Alan Moore years for $1.99@.
  • Sandman Mystery Theater – Matt Wagner / Steven T. Seagle / Guy Davis (main artist) – A wonderful pulp detective series from Vertigo with the Golden Age Sandman (pre-teen sidekick). Pulp with more introspection. 300+ page installments for $2.99. Great series.
  • Scalped – Jason Aaron & R.M. Guéra – A Vertigo crime series. An FBI agent goes undercover at the casino on the reservation he grew up in and thought he’d escape. Nobody does rural noir like Aaron.
  • Secret Society of Super Villains For the completists, at a better price.
  • Seven Soldiers of Victory – Grant Morrison’s self-contained series of mini-series/Event in two volumes
  • Shade, The Changing Man – Peter Milligan and Chris Bachalo reimagine the Ditko character for Vertigo. – $1.99
  • The Sheriff of Babylon – Tom King & Mitch Gerads explore murder and crime in Baghdad’s Green Zone. The full series for $2.99
  • Starman – James Robinson & Tony Harris reinvent the legacy superhero (and legacy villain) with one of the best things to come out of DC in the 90s. DC really needs to finish collecting this one.
  • Stormwatch – The original Warren Ellis / Tom Raney / Brian Hitch run
  • Strange Adventures – Tom King & Mitch Gerads with a political/deconstructionist take on Adam Strange
  • Suicide Squad – John Ostrander / Luke McDonnell – the original ’80s Dirty Dozen riff that spawned the current franchise. -$1.99@
  • Suicide Squad: Get Joker – Brian Azzarello & Alex Maleev did a Black Label version
    Jimmy Olsen    The Human Target  The Brave and the Bold
  • Superman’s Pal Jimmy Olsen: Who Killed Jimmy Olsen? – Matt Fraction & Steve Leiber drop a joke bomb disguised as a murder mystery. HILARIOUS. Highly recommended.
  • The Authority – Warren Ellis & Bryan Hitch revamp Stormwatch, then Mark Millar & Frank Quitely tag in.
  • The Brave & The Bold – Liam Sharp teams Batman and Wonder Woman against Celtic gods.
  • The Hawk and the Dove: The Silver Age – Steve Ditko’s original run for $2.99
  • The Human Target – One of the most recent releases listed, Tom King & Greg Smallwood craft a noir mystery about Christopher Chance investigating who poisoned him and it looks like one of the BWA HA HA era Justice League did the deed. Noir and slapstick intermingling? YES. Very well done and especially great art. And, apparently, James Gunn’s favorite DC title of ’23. Both volumes for ~$5, total.
  • The Huntress: Origins – Paul Levitz and (mostly) Joe Staton with The Huntress’s adventures from Batman Family and Wonder Woman. – $1.99
  • The Invisibles – Grant Morrison / Jill Thompson / Phil Jimenez – The one with the letter column request. If you know, you know.
    Multiversity  Nice House on the Lake  
  • Multiversity – Grant Morrison’s tale of parallel worlds. One volume/$2.99.
  • The Nice House on the Lake – James Tynion IV and Alvaro Martinez Bueno spin a horror table in what was a pretty big hit. – $1.99@
  • The Spectre – John Ostrander and Tom Mandrake’s under the radar classic about a man who isn’t alive and the force of destruction he’s bound to. – $1.99@
  • The Unwritten – Mike (M.R.) Carey and Peter Gross in a tale of fiction shaping reality (with a mild Harry Potter satirical element in the premise).
  • The Wild Storm – Warren Ellis and John Davis-Hunt reimagine the Wildstorm universe.
    • The Wild Storm: Michael Cray – Bryan Hill / N. Stephen Harris companion book where an assassin goes after funhouse mirror versions of the DC heroes.
  • Top 10 – Alan Moore / Gene Ha / Zander Cannon – What if Alan Moore wrote Hill Street Blues, but the police were superheroes? That’s essentially what this is and it’s wonderful.
  • Transmetropolitan – Warren Ellis and Darick Robertson present the absurdist adventures of a Hunter S. Thompson-esque journalist in a dystopian future, butting heads against a corrupt president. The interesting thing is how many different presidents/prime ministers/etc. have been compared to “The Smiler.”
  • Watchmen – Alan Moore and Dave Gibbons. We figure you’ve heard of it by now. $2.99. We do find it a little offensive this is listed as “Media Tie-in / Adaptation,” though…
  • Y: The Last Man – Brian K. Vaughan / Pia Guerra in $1.99 double volumes. A deal!

Things are probably going to be quiet through New Year’s Day. We may or may not pop in sometime next week to drop some recommendations on individual Masterworks editions. If you want to see what was new to the annual Masterworks sale this year, click here.

In the meantime… holiday vacations are a good time to read some comics.

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Comixology (At Amazon) Sales: The Annual Marvel Masterworks Sale, Plus Star Wars and What If

In this week’s Comixology (at Amazon) sales, its the Annual Marvel Masterworks sale, plus Star Wars and What If.

Where did the New Releases and Sale pages go?

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

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

Marvel’s Annual Masterworks Sale
Daredevil Masterworks Amazing Spider-Man Masterworks Black Panther Masterworks

The Marvel Masterworks Sale runs through Monday, 1/8.

Yes, we’ve been getting a lot questions about whether this sale was happening this year. It’s happening now, though the $4.99 price point is not as cheap as it’s been the last couple years.  Since a lot of folks make this an annual “stock-up sale,” and wandering what’s come out since last year’s sale, we’ve compiled a list of those titles.  We’re looking out for you on that.

For the most part, we’re into the 1980s with this batch. Daredevil is the end of the first Frank Miller run. Fantastic Four is nearing the end of the John Byrne era and V. 25 includes The Last Galactus StoryIron Man sees the transition from the first David Michelinie / Bob Layton run to Denny O’Neil / Luke McDonnell run and Rhodey taking over armor duties.

We also feel we should point out the oddity of that last Dazzler collection. Did you realize that the original series ended with a short run by Archie Goodwin and Paul (Concrete) Chadwick? It also contains the more X-centric Beauty and the Beast mini-series by Ann Nocenti and Don Perlin.

Past that, hit the main sales page and dig it. Plenty of classic Marvel on sale for what usually works out to under $0.50/issue.  Cheap.

Whither the Epic Edition Sale?

Yes, we’ve been hearing that question, too. In past years, the Epic Editions were on sale the week of Black Friday. This year, there was an Omnibus sale the week of Black Friday.  Since the Masterworks sale is in it’s normal time slot, we’re guessing the Epic Editions sale is pushed back to January… although whether the second week or later is beyond us.  We can’t imagine they’d skip it altogether, though.

Nothing But Star Wars

Original Marvel Star Wars   Star Wars Wild Space

The Marvel Star Wars Omnibus Sale runs through Monday, 1/8.

$4.99 collections of the original Marvel run and the Dark Horse Material. This is broken up in the series entries a little oddly:

What’s good?  Over in “The Rebellion” link, some of those volumes of the original Marvel series get over 500 pages.  Lets call those V. 1, V.2, V.3, V.4 and V.5.  V. 3 catches most of the under-rated David Michelinie / Walt Simonson run.

This is really organized to let you pick your era and go.

If Not, Why Not?

What If?

The Marvel What If? Sale runs through Monday, 1/8.

NOTE: as we type this, What If is in a negaband sale, assigned to the same URL as last week’s Alpha Flight sale. If you click the link and get Alpha Flight, reload a few times until What If shows up.

We have a preference for the original What If, here, but we’d like to point something out to you first. When you go to the series link for the original, toward the top of the page, you’ll see a new navigation feature that’s a little more relevant here. Under the series graphic on the left hand side is a pulldown menu where you can select “Volumes” or “Omnibus.” Volumes being the “normal” sized collections.  We’ll have to have a longer look at how that’s implemented. It might be useful… IF it works.  In this case it only shows the omnibus on sale. Yes, that’s right, there are actually four omnibuses containing ~12 issues each of What If. Only one of them is on sale and that’s the only one that shows up on the Omnibuses page, ergo the Omnibuses page appears to be broken. (Why are you acting surprised?)

So, here’s the link for the “regular” volumes. Here’s the link for the lone omnibus on sale (which is issues #1-12).  And we’ll look at some of the more interesting stuff in the individual volumes, since What If is all over the map. 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? (V. 1 / Omnibus)
  • #2 – What If The Hulk Had the Brain of Bruce Banner? (V. 1 / Omnibus)
  • #10 – What If Jane Foster Had Found the Hammer of Thor? (V. 2 / Omnibus)
  • #12 – What If Rick Jones Had Become The Hulk? (V. 2 / Omnibus)
  • #13 – What If Conan the Barbarian Walked the Earth Today?  (NOPE, no longer collected)
  • #23 – What If The Hulk Had Become a Barbarian? (V. 4)
  • #30 – What If Spider-Man’s Clone Had Lived? (V. 5)
  • #35 – What If Elektra Had Lived? (V.6)
  • #37 – What If The Beast and The Thing Continued to Mutate? (V.6)
  • #43 – What If Conan Were Stranded in the 20th Century? (No longer collected).

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

We’ll be back at the normal time at the end of the week to look at the rest of the new sales. The DC sale looks familiar and cheap, but we need some time to dig through it.

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Comixology (at Amazon) Sales: (Pre-Film) Aquaman; Old Man Logan; Alpha Flight

In this week’s Comixology (at Amazon) sales, DC discounts Aquaman ahead of the film, while Marvel drops prices on Old Man Logan and Alpha Flight.

Where did the New Releases and Sale pages go?

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

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

Wolverine… and the Sea?

Wolerine: Old Man Logan   Wolverine: Old Man Logan

The Marvel Old Logan and the Wasteland Sale runs through Monday, 12/18.

Yes, the Old Man Logan storyline has spawn a series of miniseries set in “The Wasteland” setting from the original.

That’s what the real spread is here with the rest of the sale being side attractions you may or may not be into.  The original storyline of a cranky, aged (“Old Man”) version of Wolverine living in a dystopic future came off as a sort of Elseworlds tale and is fairly well regarded as a standalone tale.

It was popular enough that the “Old Man Logan” version of the character was contrived to appear in the present (his past… before the disaster that spawned a dystopia) in the period when Wolverine was supposed to be “dead.” It even lasted 50 issues. We’d say give the Jeff Lemire issues a look if it sounds interesting, particularly the Lemire/Sorrentino issues. This was one of their pre-Image collaborations and it’s much more entertaining than the editorial premise sounds.

The Great White North

Alpha Flight  X-Men / Alpha Flight

The Marvel Alpha Flight Sale runs through Monday, 12/18.

We know what you’re thinking: “If Spider-Man could team up with the Not Ready for Prime Time Players, why couldn’t Alpha Flight team up with Bob and Doug McKenzie?” The way we heard it, this was proposed, but Guy Caballero nixed it.

The main item of note here is Alpha Flight Classic3 volumes that comprise the John Byrne run on the original series and a Bill Mantlo/Mike Mignola issue and Byrne essentially traded Alpha Flight for The Incredible Hulk. (We recall the Mantlo run being better than advertised, but there doesn’t currently seem to be interest in collecting it.)

Of possible related interest is X-Men / Alpha Flightwhich features some early Uncanny X-Men appearances and two crossover mini-series. The 1985 mini by Chris Claremont and Paul Smith is particularly good and the first half of the “Asgardian Wars” story arc.

And for something out of left field, there’s the more recent Gamma Flightwhich is an Alpha Flight adjacent spin-off of Immortal Hulk by Al Ewing, Crystal Frazier and Len Medina.

The Deep Blue Sea

Aquaman    Aquaman  Aquaman by Peter David

The DC Aquaman Sale runs through Monday, 12/18.

You’d think there was a movie coming out?

We’ve heard a few versions of what the new film is supposed to be about. Inspired by Silver Age Aquaman stories with Black Manta as the villain is one story we’ve heard. That it’s incorporating elements from the abandoned “The Trench” spin-off film in another.

We always associated Black Manta a little more with the 70s and the Death of a Prince storyline, but he debuted in ’67 and made some more appearances as the first Aquaman run was ending. And, really, the Steve Skeates/Jim Aparo run was one of the better Silver Age runs, so there you go. That’s collected in a couple books that are a little more expensive than things we’ve seen in recent weeks. Manta pops up in The Search for Mera, but we think what the filmmakers are referring to are the Deadly Waters stories, where Manta tries to usurp Atlantis.

All this business about “The Trench” is from the first two volumes of the Geoff Johns / Ivan Reis (New 52) run, where Aquaman encounters a scary race of creatures from the deepest depths of an undersea trench. The second volume, “The Others,” is particularly good.

Another take was the Peter David / Martin Egeland ’90s Aquaman run, which featured an angrier, more violent Aquaman who’d lost a hand and replaced it with a hook. Popular, but controversial.

But if you want an unusual (and quite enjoyable) run, you’re looking for Aquman: Sword of AtlantisKurt Busiek and Jackson Guice added an undersea Conan feel to the feature with plenty of sorcery and a bit of mystery around who various characters really were. We wished this version had a longer run.

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Comixology (at Amazon) Sales: Howard the Duck; Doctor Who; Aliens; Inhumans; Planet of the Apes and Ms. Tree

In this week’s Comixology (at Amazon) sales, Marvel discounts the unique mix of Howard the Duck, Inhumans and Alien. Plus, Doctor Who and Ms. Tree.

Where did the New Releases and Sale pages go?

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

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

You can find the highlights of this week’s DC sale here (plenty of $1.99 collected editions).

And a quick word about the Marvel sales. There’s usually a Masterworks sale around the holidays. You want what you want, when you want it… but keep that in the back of your mind. At this point we’re not sure if they’re holding that back for NYE or not, but we can’t imagine it’s not coming.  That said…

Duck Soup

Howard the Duck  Howard the Duck  Howard the Duck

The Marvel Howard the Duck Sale runs through Monday, 12/11.

The original 27-issue Howard the Duck run by Steve Gerber/Frank Brunner/Gene Colan is a classic and a delight. (You may have noticed Gerber has several classics, too.) Wonderful comics.

Now, Howard was Geber’s baby and Gerber didn’t necessarily like other people writing Howard. We tend to feel that way, too, but you be you.  After a handful of issues post-Gerber, the series was relaunched (outside the comics code) as Howard the Duck Magazine. That was largely written by Bill Mantlo with Gene Colan, John Buscema and Michael Golden on art.

Then in ’15 (possibly due to a movie cameo), Howard got brought back by Chip Zdarksy and Joe Quinones. First in a mini-series. Then in a regular series.

We’re So Glad Disney Re-Acquired the Film Rights and Ended the Nightmare…

Inhumans.  The Origin of the Inhumans  Inhumans: Once and Future Kings

The Marvel Inhumans Sale runs through Monday, 12/11.

Yeah, sign us up for the “The Inhumans shouldn’t replace the X-Men” party. And yes, Ms. Marvel should have been a mutant the entire time. Notarize it.

With Inhumans comics there is one volume that stands far above the rest: Inhumans by Paul Jenkins and Jae Lee, which was part of the old Marvel Knights imprint when it came out as a 12 issue maxi-series. That’s your gold standard.

Curiously, the Black Bolt series by Saladin Ahmend and Christian Ward isn’t in the sale. We’d have probably slotted that at #2. It’s quite good and the first six issues? Extra special.

There’s nothing wrong with going back to the beginning. Inhumans: The Origin of the Inhumans is a collection of the early Stan Lee & Jack Kirby appearances from Fantastic Four and Thor. It’s also a thick 425 pages.

For something under the radar? Inhumans: Once and Future Kings by Priest and Phil Noto. Inhuman politics from the younger days of Black Bolt and Maximus… plus, Lockjaw comics.

Foxy

The Marvel 20th Century Sale runs through Monday, 12/11.

Aliens: The Original Years  Alien  Planet of the Apes Adventures

And by “20th Century,” they mean 20th Century Fox. These are movie comics.

The Aliens: The Original Years Omnibus program is extended from last month’s omnibus sale. That’s the Dark Horse Aliens material. The first chunk of that Dark Horse Aliens material is also available in an Epic Collection, if you’d rather just dip a toe in. It’s likely the rest will eventually get in Epic format, but that will likely take a few years.

You may recall that Marvel was doing some new Aliens material. It’s true and we quite enjoyed it. Phillip Kennedy Johnson writes it. Salvador Larocca illustrates the first two volumes and Julius Ohta does the third. Weyland-Yutani Corporation is the through line for these tales, as you might expect, manipulating all manner of things as they look for that perfect weaponized life form. This one is split up oddly – Vol. 1 & 2 are here, while Vol. 3 is here.

And for something a little more odd, there’s Planet Of The Apes Adventures: The Original Marvel Years. What is this? Marvel’s Planet of the Apes magazine adapted the first two films. Marvel then reprinted the adaptations in color as the “normal” Adventures on the Planet of the Apes comic. Doug Moench writes, George Tuksa illustrates the first film and Alfredo Acala illustrates Beneath the Planet of the Apes. Unusually, they’ve got this “omnibus” priced at $6.99, although this is a lot skinner than the typical omnibus.

Hammer-isms

Ms. Tree

The Titan Ms. Tree Sale runs through Sunday, 12/31.

You don’t hear the name pop up that often, but Ms. Tree had a 50-issue run (plus specials) before DC Comics picked it up for a ~2.5 year run as an ~80 page quarterly, at which point everything stopped. Including the specials, that’s pushing the equivalent of a 100-issue run. Not something many 80s/90s indies can boast of.

Max Allan Collins, these days, is probably best known as the writer of The Road to Perdition. When this started he was fresh off some awards for his detective novels and was also writing the Dick Tracy comic strip. He was joined on his comic book adventure by Terry Beatty, who’s currently writing and drawing the Rex Morgan, MD comic strip.

Ms. Tree’s premise is essentially “what if Mike Hammer got killed and Velda took over?” (Velda being Hammer’s secretary who’s quite a bit more hardboiled in the books than in the TV adaptations.) So this is a Mickey Spillane/Mike Hammer-esque detective series. And yes, these days Collins – at Spillane’s request – has been completing the manuscripts and manuscript fragments from Spillane’s files. So if you’re looking for Spillane-esque, this is pretty close to official.

Now, these collections are somewhat out of order. V. 1 and V.2 are actually collecting the Ms. Tree Quarterly stories from DC, which weren’t collected before. V. 3 goes back to the beginning and starts going through the original material, which did have a couple different book collections (including mass market paperback).

V.1 – 3 are here.

V.4 (and the upcoming, not discounted, V.5) are here.

Knock Knock

Doctor Who

The Titan 10th Doctor Sale runs through Monday, 1/15.

That’s 10th Doctor as in David Tennant’s first run on Doctor Who. Nick Abadzis is your writer, initially with Elena Casagrande and then Giorgia Sposito on art.

It’s available as single issues and collected editions.

We would point out that five issues @ $0.99 is cheaper than a five issue collection for $5.99. Just saying…

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