Comixology (at Amazon) Sales: DC’s SDCC Sale; Absolute Batman and Wonder Woman; Grendel; Opus

In this week’s Comixology (at Amazon) sales, DC has a SDCC sale with Absolute Batman, Wonder Woman, Martian Manhunter and a murderers’ row of good books. Plus, Grendel and Opus.

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 Shows Some “Spirit”

Absolute Batman  Absolute Wonder Woman  Superman's Pal Jimmy Olsen: Who Killed Jimmy Olsen?

The DC Comic-Con Eisner Sale runs through Monday, 8/3.

It’s been a couple minutes since DC had a formal SDCC sale? Welcome back.

Pretty much everything in this sale is something we’ve enjoyed or that we’ve heard good things about and in on the to-be-read list. You know we don’t say that every week, but here we are.

First: let’s look at the highlights:

What’s better than the rest? That’s tough with the above.

Superman’s Pal Jimmy Olsen: Who Killed Jimmy Olsen? is a comedic masterpiece. Absolute Martian Manhunter  is something to behold, perhaps our favorite Absolute series. Absolute Wonder Woman is a couple cuts above, too. If you like horror, John Constantine, Hellblazer: Dead in America is excellet.  The current King/Sampere Wonder Woman run is impressively dark, too.

It’s hard to go wrong with this sale.

Unannounced Sales

Shadow of the Golden Crane  Stranger Things and Dungeons & Dragons  The Serpent in the Garden

As always, it isn’t clear when the unannounced sales will end.

Dark Horse is having a sale on some of Mike Mignola’s Hellboy-adjacent titles:

Some of the Stranger Things / Dungeons & Dragons crossovers are on sale:

Dark Horse still has Grendel on sale:

Matt Wagner’s Grendel is one of the longest running sagas in independent comics. It takes breaks, but he always returns to it.

Also on sale:

And have a look at the $5 and under page.

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Still on Sale

Comixology (at Amazon) Sales: Batman; Spider-Man; Captain America; X-Men; Hellboy

In this week’s Comixology (at Amazon) sales, DC has a Batman sale, Marvel drops six sales (including a horror one) and Dark Horse adds Hellboy to the mix.

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):

Batman Returns

Batman: The Court of Owls  Detective Comics by Tynion  Detective Comics

The DC Batman in July Sale runs through Monday, 7/20.

Now there’s something you don’t see every day: DC running back to back sales. It’s been awhile.

This is a more abbreviated Bat-sale than others we’ve seen and concentrates more on New 52/Rebirth to present.

Here are the bullets:

  • Batman (’11-’16) – The Scott Snyder/Greg Capullo run
  • Batman (’16-’25) – starts with the Tom King era and the discounts run midway through the Zdarsky run.
  • Batman and Robin (’22 – present) – intially Joshua Williamson / Simone Di Meo
  • Detective Comics (’16-current) – initially James Tynion IV / Eddy Barrows / Alvaro Martinez

What’s under-rated here? We’d say a couple of those Detective runs. The Tynion / Barrows / Martinez run that started that volume of Detective is something of a Batman Family arc. We’re also big fans of the gothic horror arc by Ram V / Rafael Albuquerque / Ivan Reis that starts here.

Super Soldier Sale

Captain America: Secret Empire  Captain America Heroes Return  Captain America

The Marvel Independence Day Sale runs through Monday, 7/27.

Looks like Marvel’s current posting schedule caused them to post the Independence Day sale after the holiday. Nothing like proper planning and being aware of the calendar, eh?

There’s a lot of material to cover here, so we’ll go with the usual format and start by breaking out the major series involved:

So… do you think Captain America gets relaunched enough? The current Chip Zdarsky relaunch isn’t even in the sale (and we enjoy it).

Some recommendations? Absolutely.

For Silver/Bronze Age adventures,  Captain America Lives Again catches the bulk of the early Lee/Kirby run. Jump ahead to “Hero or Hoax,” which you’re getting for the final arc, which begins the superlative Steve Englehart/Sal Buscema era. “The Secret Empire” is the bulk of the Englehart/Buscema run. “The Man Who Sold The United States” wraps up Englehart/Buscema and includes Madbomb, the beginning of Jack Kirby’s return run that is way more timely than it should be in the age of social media outrage.

Jump ahead to By Dawn’s Early Light,” which you’re looking at for the all too brief Roger Stern / John Byrne run.  The highlight of the J.M. DeMatties / Mike Zeck run is their wrap up with the Red Skull in “Sturm und Drang.

The Captain is the sequence from the Mark Gruenwald run where Steve Rogers loses the shield and his Captain America identity for a time. That’s the famous one. You might consider backing up a volume for “Justice is Served,” which introduces the Super-Patriot and leads into the more famous sequence a bit.

Once you get past around the middle of the Gruenwald run, your best of the best is anything written by Mark Waid or Ed Brubaker, and know that Brubaker’s first run is basically one long and epic story – and be sure to get Reborn or you’re missing a piece.

But wait… you want more?  Sure.

All-Winners Comics – The Golden Age series that culminates with the All-Winners Squad, the Cap/Torch/Subby/Whizzer/Ms. America group that inspired The Invaders.

Speaking of that, there’s Invaders Classicwhich collects the 70s series of the WII adventures of Captain America, Submariner and original Human Torch. (The Whizzer and Ms. America show up towards the end.)

More? How about some Winter Soldier?

Winter Soldier by Ed Brubakerwhich is Brubaker and Butch Guice in a spin-off from their classic Cap run.

Also of possible interest:

And a bonus recommendation:

  • U.S.Agent: American Zealot – Christopher Priest / Georges Jeanty; In something of a deadpan political satire, John Walker develops some issues with his handlers when sent to a small town threatened by a corporate entity… if only the optics matched reality. Smart, but you figured that with Priest involved.

Spooky Season Comes Early?

Immortal Hulk  Tomb of Dracula  Moon Knight

The Marvel Summerween Horror Sale runs through Monday, 7/27.

There’s more than a little horror on sale this week. Marvel’s entry in the trend is collection of mini-sales:

Doctor Strange

Dracula

  • Tomb of Dracula – Marv Wolfman / Gene Colan; One of the best Marvel books of the ’70s

Ghost Rider

Hulk

We really like the Johnson/Klein Hulk and Immortal Hulk was an instant classic.

Moon Knight

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. Pity the “main” volume is mysteriously omitted from discounts…

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.

Marvel being Marvel, this was then relaunched as Vengeance Of The Moon Knight with the same creators.

The novelist corner:

And the Rest of the Gang

…And Frightened Miss Muffet Away

Amazing Spider-Man Masterworks   Spider-Man Brand New Day Omnibus  Superior Foes of Spider-Man

The Marvel Select Spider-Man Sale runs through Monday, 7/27.

This is a fairly eclectic swatch of volumes from various Spidey runs:

What’s good here?

The Superior Foes of Spider-Man is straight up hilarious and under-rated.

We also think you’re pretty safe with Gerry Conway, Len Wein and the Brand New Day rotation.

Going Down in Flames as a Form of Progression Fantasy

X-Men: The Fate of the Phoenix  Phoenix Rising  Phoenix

The Marvel Phoenix Sale runs through Monday, 7/20.

Jean Grey, if you prefer.

For many, the character is defined by “The Dark Phoenix Saga,” arguably the high point of an already great run by Chris Claremont and John Byrne. Pick up X-Men Epic Collection: The Fate Of The Phoenix and get “Days of Future Past” in the same package.

Then Jean/Phoenix was dead for several years. Phoenix Rising is slightly mislabeled as being an X-Men book. The resurrection of Jean Grey is the birth of X-Factor, which crosses over with Fantastic Four and Avengers for the tale. Which means you get John Byrne, Roger Stern, John Buscema, Bob Layton and Butch Guice all contributing to the tale.

New X-Men is the Grant Morrison run with a fairly sick rotating cast of artists including Frank Quitely, Leinil Francis Yu, Igor Kordey, John Paul Leon, Phil Jimenez, Chris Bachalo and Marc Silvestri. As you’ve doubtless heard, it’s a very good run.

The recent Phoenix series is by Stephanie Phillips / Alessandro Miracolo and is more of a cosmic adventures series.

Some other sale highlights:

Apocalypse Now?

House of X / Powers of X  X-Force  X of Swords

The Marvel Apocalypse Sale runs through Monday, 7/27.

It’s a villain sale, which means the listings are a bit all over the map. Let’s hit some highlights:

What’s good? Not the first thing you’d think of when you hear “Apocalypse,” necessarily, but the Remender Uncanny X-Force run is dark run with a distinctive personality and quite the artist rotation. We think it had emerged from under the radar by the end of the series but it isn’t always discussed today.

Running with the Devil

Devil Dinosaur by Jack Kirby: The Complete Collection  Moon Girl  Moon Girl and Devil Dinosaur

The Marvel Devil Dinosaur Sale runs through Monday, 7/27.

If you’re curious about  the original 70s Jack Kirby series, it’s right here.

Then there isn’t just a ton of material until Moon Girl and Devil Dinosaur pops up.

These larger page count editions of the Amy Reeder / Brandon Montclare / Natacha Bustos main series are the better buy.

Moon Girl: Endangered Species is a collection of team-up issues outside the main title.

Unannounced Sales

Hellboy The Mystery Knight Watership Down

As always, it isn’t clear when the unannounced sales will end.

Dark Horse has Hellboy on sale. (This summer of horror trend is all over the place)

The Dark Horse James Tynion IV / Tiny Onion titles are also still on sale:

Also on sale:

And have a look at the $5 and under page.

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Still on Sale

Comixology (at Amazon) Sales: Sin City, Concrete, Dragon Age, Supergirl

In this week’s Comixology (at Amazon) sales, Dark Horse issues discounts for Sin City, Concrete and Dragon Age.

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):

Unannounced Sales

  Concrete  Sin City: The Hard Goodbye  Dragon Age

As always, it isn’t clear when the unannounced sales will end.

Dark Horse drops three new sales this week:

Also on sale:

Discounts of Steel

Supergirl: Woman of Tomorrow  Superman Love and Mercy  Lobo

The DC Summer of Supergirl Sale runs through Monday, 7/6.

We’ll repeat Tuesday’s Supergirl sale, just for giggles.

Supergirl

Something about a film…

First, the one that seems most directly related to the film: Supergirl: Woman of Tomorrow by Tom King & Bilquis Evely.

Superman

Lobo

Something about that same film.

  • Lobo (’90) Alan Grant / Keith Giffen / Simon Bisley

One of the somewhat rare ’80s reprints that we’ve enjoyed is Superman: The Phantom Zone by Steve Gerber and Gene Colan. This is a very odd, horror-flavored Superman tale as he confronts something unnatural that’s been living in the Phantom Zone… but you weren’t expecting Gerber & Colan to give you the ’50s TV version, were you?

Superman Smashes the Klan has Gene Yang and Gurihiru revisiting and revising the original Superman radio show arc, “Clan of the Fiery Cross.” It’s on the YA side of Superman, but has picked up a LOT of good reviews.

Superman, the current series by Josh Williamson and Jamal Campbell is also on sale and it’s a good one.

Lobo by Giffen/Grant/Bisley is really good stuff… as long as you have a dark sense of humor and aren’t easily offended.

Marvel

Invincible Iron Man Omnibus  Rom: The Original Marvel Years Omnibus  Wolverine Omnibus

Marvel seems to be standing pat with the “early” Prime Day Sale they released at the beginning of the month. We anticipate it ending sometime Friday evening, so it may or may not still be up when you’re seeing this. It’s a holiday-level sale with plenty of Omnibuses and Epic Collections. We looked at it more closely here.

And have a look at the $5 and under page.

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Still on Sale

Comixology (at Amazon) Sales: DC Shows Up For Prime Day w/ Supergirl

In this week’s Comixology (at Amazon) sales, DC drops a Supergirl sale on Prime Day.

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):

Is DC finally taking part in Prime Day, or is it merely a coincidence and their Supergirl tie-in sale was going to drop on a Tuesday, regardless? If we had to bet, we’d go with the latter… and yet, here we are.

Discounts of Steel

Supergirl: Woman of Tomorrow  Superman Love and Mercy  Lobo

The DC Summer of Supergirl Sale runs through Monday, 7/6.

Yes, DC’s having another corporate synergy sale as the movie release is imminent. And if you look at the content, it’s as much a Superman sale as a Supergirl sale. “House of El” and all. The sale prices are a little more “normal” than some of the previous sales, so we’ll take that as a positive.

Let’s break it down:

Supergirl

Something about a film…

First, the one that seems most directly related to the film: Supergirl: Woman of Tomorrow by Tom King & Bilquis Evely.

Superman

Lobo

Something about that same film.

  • Lobo (’90) Alan Grant / Keith Giffen / Simon Bisley

One of the somewhat rare ’80s reprints that we’ve enjoyed is Superman: The Phantom Zone by Steve Gerber and Gene Colan. This is a very odd, horror-flavored Superman tale as he confronts something unnatural that’s been living in the Phantom Zone… but you weren’t expecting Gerber & Colan to give you the ’50s TV version, were you?

Superman Smashes the Klan has Gene Yang and Gurihiru revisiting and revising the original Superman radio show arc, “Clan of the Fiery Cross.” It’s on the YA side of Superman, but has picked up a LOT of good reviews.

Superman, the current series by Josh Williamson and Jamal Campbell is also on sale and it’s a good one.

Lobo by Giffen/Grant/Bisley is really good stuff… as long as you have a dark sense of humor and aren’t easily offended.

Marvel

Invincible Iron Man Omnibus  Rom: The Original Marvel Years Omnibus  Wolverine Omnibus

Marvel seems to be standing pat with the “early” Prime Day Sale they released at the beginning of the month. It’s a holiday-level with plenty of Omnibuses and Epic Collections. We looked at it more closely here.

Unannounced Sales

  Superman The Ultimate Guide Cat's Eye Omnibus Volume 2

As always, it isn’t clear when the unannounced sales will end.

Also on sale:

And have a look at the $5 and under page.

We’ll be back at the end of the week for the usual wrap up when the dust has cleared.

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Still on Sale

Comixology (at Amazon) Sales: Batman; Marvel Omnibuses and Epic Collections; Groo

In this week’s Comixology (at Amazon) sales, DC has a Batman sale. Marvel adds some random Omnibuses and Epic Collections to the discount pile. Plus, Groo.

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):

Holy Mixed Bag Batman!

Batman: The Dark Knight Returns  Batman: Knightfall  Tales of the Batman: Archie Goodwin

The Lego Batman Sale runs through Monday, 6/1.

It’s a DC sale, so you might expect it to be a corporate synergy event. And it would appear you’re right as the Lego Batman: Legacy of the Dark Knight video game launches.

Not all of these prices are great. We would also hasten to remind you that DC typical drops the recent digital collections to $9.99 after a few months… or to mimic the stylings of Frank Gorshin: “Riddle me this: when is a sale, not a sale?” We’re also not fond of some of the prices on the Tales of the Batman volumes, but will concede some of those $9.99 prices could be the best we’re getting (as we curse the phenomenon of HC pricing for digital). The rest of them… well, judge for yourself.

That being said, here are a few things where we were OK with the prices:

Epics and Omnibi and Marvel, Oh My!

Invincible Iron Man Omnibus  Rom: The Original Marvel Years Omnibus  Power Man and Iron Fist

Marvel has an unnamed sale with no dates attached to it. We’re double-not-sure how long it’s going to last, but there are a few worthwhile things we would draw your attention to:

What’s good?

Invincible Iron Man Omnibus V. 2 will get you the bulk of the Archie Goodwin run, which is where Iron Man really takes off, as far as we’re concerned.

Rom is not always on sale and these licensed books sometimes disappear, so if it’s your jam, consider getting it while available at a better price.

The full run isn’t discounted, but Miracleman Vol. 1: A Dream Of Flying is the beginning of a classic run.

There’s a bit more to the sale than the above, should you care to browse.

Unannounced Sales

Groo Meets Tarzan Groo These Savage Shores

As always, it isn’t clear when the unannounced sales will end.

Yes, it’s still going strong, AND it’s on sale: Groo by Sergio Aragonés and Mark Evanier. Also included:

Dark Horse is still having a sale on their Mark Millar line of comics, AKA Millarworld, including:

For our money, Starlight is way under appreciated. The Hollywood elevator pitch would be along the lines of “Flash Gordon’s retirement isn’t going well.”

Also on sale:

And have a look at the $5 and under page.

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Still on Sale

Comixology (at Amazon) Sales: Superman, Resident Alien, EC Archives

In this week’s Comixology (at Amazon) sales, DC shows their face with a Superman sale. Plus, Resident Alien and the EC Archives.

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):

Superman Returns… To Having Discounts

Superman Love and Mercy  Superman: Phantom Zone  Lobo

The DC Superman Day Sale runs through Monday, 4/28. This is a little different than DC’s last (Vertigo) sale, which generated a few complaints. This is by no means what we used to seeing, but it’s a step in the right direction. Lots of $4.99 books. The number of books in a run that are _properly_ discounted is all over the place (more so for Action, kind of like Detective was super spotty during the last Batman sale and you’re not sure if the person setting the discounts is totally aware which title came first). That said, there’s a whole lot more on sale this time and not just the first volume in a series. And yes, feel free to ignore the things that are only discounted ~20%.

Superman

Supergirl

Something about a film…

Lobo

Something about that same film.

  • Lobo (’90) Alan Grant / Keith Giffen / Simon Bisley

One of the somewhat rare ’80s reprints that we’ve enjoyed is Superman: The Phantom Zone by Steve Gerber and Gene Colan. This is a very odd, horror-flavored Superman tale as he confronts something unnatural that’s been living in the Phantom Zone… but you weren’t expecting Gerber & Colan to give you the ’50s TV version, were you?

Superman Smashes the Klan has Gene Yang and Gurihiru revisiting and revising the original Superman radio show arc, “Clan of the Fiery Cross.” It’s on the YA side of Superman, but has picked up a LOT of good reviews.

Superman, the current series by Josh Williamson and Jamal Campbell is also on sale and it’s a good one.

While the discount could be higher, Lobo by Giffen/Grant/Bisley is really good stuff… as long as you have a dark sense of humor and aren’t easily offended.

Unannounced Sales

 

  Tales From the Crypt  Resident Alien  Let Me in Your Window

As always, it isn’t clear when the unannounced sales will end.

Dark Horse has their EC Archives on sale. Tales From the Crypt, Weird Science, Two-Fisted Tales and that whole family of famous titles.

Resident Alien is a comic by Peter Hogan and Steve Parkhose about a stranded alien posing as a doctor and solving murders. It got a little more famous when a TV adaptation hit and a lot more famous when the TV show moved over to Netflix. (And will now be moving over to the USA cable network.) We read the first omnibus and if your point of reference is the TV show, the comic is a little more mystery-oriented. It’s available in

Critical Role from Dark Horse is still on sale. That would be the comics based on the campaigns from the popular web series about Dungeons & Dragons campaigns… and this will take a moment to explain. There’s an omnibus format  and a “regular”  collected edition sale. There are some OGNs/albums filed under the single issue format. (Hey, don’t look at us.) Also on sale:

And have a look at the $5 and under page.

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Still on Sale

 

Comixology (at Amazon) Sales: Vertigo vs. Creepy and Eerie

In this week’s Comixology (at Amazon) sales, it’s the dueling pianos of Vertigo vs. Creepy and Eerie.

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):

A Non-Cliffhanger View of Vertigo

Doom Patrol  Jonah Hex: Shadows West  Sandman Mystery Theater

The  DC Vertigo Sale runs through Tuesday, 2/24.

Now that everyone’s over Wednesday shock of DC actually having a sale, let’s look at the sale’s intent and some countermeasures.

Sales where the first volumes *only* are on sale should be viewed as samplers designed to get the customer to buy the rest of the series (often at full price). There’s nothing wrong with that. It’s pretty common in the greater publishing community, but this is NOT what people are used to from the DC and the grumbling is acute.

So, let’s go through the sale and pick out some good volumes that work as stand-alone books. There really are a chunk of these.

Jonah Hex: Shadows West is something of a value buy. It’s listed at 387 pages, though it’s really 13 issues collecting the complete series of mini-series by master horror novelist Joe R. Lansdale and Tim (Grimjack/Scout) Truman. Hex confronts demons and monsters in a Weird Western / action-horror collection.

Doom Patrol Vol. 1: Crawling From the Wreckage by Grant Morrison & Richard Case is essentially the first arc of Morrison’s run and an issue that pauses before the second arc. Oh, Mister Nobody is up to something, but we wouldn’t call it a cliffhanger, per se.

Sandman Mystery Theater – Matt Wagner / Steven T. Seagle / Guy Davis; We’re not in love with the $9.99 price point, but we do love this series. There are actually two volumes at that price, for which you get 12 issues and roughly 300 pages of comics, so it’s not horrible by that measure. These are the pulpy adventures of Wesley Dodds, the golden age Sandman.

Saga of the Swamp Thing: Book One – Alan Moore / Stephen Bissette / John Totleben; The American Gothic saga hasn’t begun yet, so these are short tales beginning with the legendary “Anatomy Lesson” and ending with an encounter with Etrigan. As classic as it gets.

Swamp Thing: The Bronze Age Vol. 1 – Len Wein / Bernie Wrightson / Nestor Redondo; While not on the Deals page, this one’s price dropped to that $9.99 price point. Sure enough, ~13 issues plus the original short story gives you about 300 pages of comics for $9.99 and the pattern emerges. This is classic, original Swamp Thing run by Wein and Wrightson. It’s very good stuff. While Wrightson stuck with horror, Wein did more superhero work after starting out with Swamp Thing and Phantom Stranger, so not everyone remembers how good he was with the dark and magical tales.

Top 10 – Alan Moore / Gene Ha / Zander Cannon – This is Alan Moore’s delightful excursion into the Hill Street Blues style of police procedural… but with superheroes as the law. Good stuff. America’s Best/Wildstorm is now Vertigo… or maybe Alan Moore is just Vertigo, full stop. At any rate this is another $9.99 / 12 issues offering and it’s good stuff.

Trillium – Probably our favorite Jeff Lemire work. Two people on a journey across time and space to find each other before the universe can end, notable for a particularly effective parallel narrative structure. The single issues were released as flipbooks to heighten that parallel structure.

  • Black Orchid – Early Neil Gaiman although Dave McKean might be stealing the show in this tale of botanical rebirth
  • Cinderella: Fables are Forever – Chris Roberson & Shawn McManus in this Fables-universe tale of Cinderella as a spy (Why is the actual first Cinderella series, From Fabletown With Love, not on sale? You’d need to ask whoever at DC makes this lists.)
  • Daytripper – Fabio Moon & Gabriel Ba
  • 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.
  • Get Jiro – Anthony Bourdain / Joel Rose / Langdon Foss; Yes, that Anthony Bourdain spinning a tale of a sort of gangland war between chefs
  • Global Frequency – Warren Ellis applies a science fiction layer to the Mission: Impossible format (or perhaps ’83 TV show Masquerade, if you want a deep cut) with rotating artists
  • Joe the Barbarian – Grant Morrison / Sean Murphy; This one always reminded us of the film, Jacob’s Ladder. We’re not sure $9.99 for 8 issues is such a great deal, though…
  • Kill Your Boyfriend/Vimanarama Deluxe – Grant Morrison / Philip Bond / Matt Brooker; Collecting a pair shorter Morrison one-offs
  • Orbiter – Warren Ellis / Colleen Doran; An OGN about shenanigans revolving around a missing space shuttle
  • Strange Adventures – The Tom King / Mitch Gerads / Doc Shaner Black label deconstruction of Adam Strange (darker than you’d ever think they’d go), although we’re not wild about the $9.99 price tag
  • Sweet Tooth – Jeff Lemire; As seen on Netflix.
  • The Wake – Scott Snyder / Sean Murphy; Very Bad Things are happening at a secret underwater oil rig… and then things get considerably worse. We would like to point out this is $4.99 for 10 issues in marked contrast to some of the other pricing

Unannounced Sales

Creepy   Eerie

As usual, we’re not sure when these sales are ending, but here’s what we’re seeing:

Dark Horse is thematically matching DC this week with a Creepy / Eerie sale. Oh, wait… they’re discounting more than just volumes ones, too.

Creepy was the first one and is available in both archive  format and “Creepy Presents” volumes spotlighting individual artists (Alex Toth, Bernie Wrightson, Richard Corben, Steve Ditko).

Eerie was the companion series. By halfway through it’s run, it had evolved into something a little different with multi-part stories and characters who returned, the breakout character being The Rook (a time traveler with some western elements baked in). It’s also available in archive format and “Eerie Presents” for collecting individual features (El Cid and Hunter).

Also on sale:

And have a look at the $5 and under page.

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Still on Sale

Comixology (at Amazon) Sales: DC Returns With a Vertigo Sale

In this week’s Comixology (at Amazon) sales, DC actually had a (Vertigo) 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):

Look Who’s Back

100 Bullets   Doom Patrol  DMZ

The  DC Vertigo Sale runs through Tuesday, 2/24.

Well, well, well… look who has returned. It’s a DC sale. Vertigo sales in January are not an unusual thing, historically speaking, but this is a bit of a surprise. Particularly, dropping mid-week. And this time it’s running for roughly a month. None of this Black Friday 4-day nonsense.

The inevitable caveat: they’re discounting Volume 1’s, not entire series like they used to.

Still, everybody’s been clamoring for DC (especially since the normal December sale was AWOL), so we’re dropping the broad strokes immediately and when our normal installment arrives at the end of the week, we’ll focus on what makes a little more sense as a solo purchase (i.e. avoiding the dreaded “to be continued”).

The nickel highlight 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.
  • American Carnage – Bryan Edward Hill / Leandro Fernandez; Late stage vertigo crime thriller about an FBI agent infiltrating a white supremacist group
  • 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 – Relatively early Grant Morrison with Chas Truog
  • Black Orchid – Early Neil Gaiman although Dave McKean might be stealing the show in this tale of botanical rebirth
  • Cinderella: Fables are Forever – Chris Roberson & Shawn McManus in this Fables-universe tale of Cinderella as a spy (Why is the actual first Cinderella series, From Fabletown With Love, not on sale? You’d need to ask whoever at DC makes this lists.)
  • Clean Room – Gail Simone & Jon Davis-Hunt craft a horror tale
  • Daytripper – Fabio Moon & Gabriel Ba
  • Dead Boy Detectives – Toby Litt & Mark Buckingham. Young ghosts solve crimes. A Netflix series.
  • 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
  • Fairest – An anthology series about the ladies of Fabletown (Fables)
  • 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.
  • Get Jiro – Anthony Bourdain / Joel Rose / Langdon Foss; Yes, that Anthony Bourdain spinning a tale of a sort of gangland war between chefs
  • Global Frequency – Warren Ellis applies a science fiction layer to the Mission: Impossible format (or perhaps ’83 TV show Masquerade, if you want a deep cut) with rotating artists
  • Hellblazer – in some respects, the Vertigo flagship title. It starts out with Jamie Delano and John Ridgeway and it’s good for a very long time
  • The Invisibles Grant Morrison and a rotating cast of artists in a tale of a secret society of anarchists battling a conspiracy from the establishment
  • iZombie – Chris Roberson / Mike Allred; A zombie detective dramedy adapted for television
  • Jack of Fables – Primarily a Bill Willingham / Lilah Sturges / Tony Akins run, this is a Fables spin-off about that rascal Jack Horner
  • Jonah Hex: Shadows West – Weird Western adventures with Joe R. Lansdale and Tim Truman, both of whom are acquainted with such things
  • Lucifer For some reason, we’re seeing the revival series and not the original Carey / Gross run. No idea why
  • 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.
  • 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.
  • Sheriff of Babylon – Tom King / Mitch Gerads; A political thriller / murder mystery in occupied Baghdad
  • Strange Adventures – The Tom King / Mitch Gerads / Doc Shaner Black label deconstruction of Adam Strange (darker than you’d ever think they’d go), although we’re not wild about the $9.99 price tag
  • 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.
  • Transmetropolitan  – Warren Ellis / Darrick Robertson;  A pastiche of Hunter S. Thompson wages a media war against corrupt politicians in the near future
  • 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. While you don’t see it on the discount page, that slightly higher than we’d like price point is one they’re pushing on some of the sale titles.
  • Trillium – Probably our favorite Jeff Lemire work. Two people on a journey across time and space to find each other before the universe can end, notable for a particularly effective parallel narrative structure. The single issues were released as flipbooks to heighten that parallel structure.
  • 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.
    • The  final two volumes are listed separately. (And you wonder why the retailers want better metadata?) The last volume has a discount. <shrugs>
  • 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.

Unannounced Sales

The Cartoon History of the Universe   FataleStink Eye: A Baby Blues Collection

As usual, we’re not sure when these sales are ending, but here’s what we’re seeing:

Also on sale:

And have a look at the $5 and under page.

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Still on Sale

Comixology (at Amazon) Sales: Unannounced Discounts Lead This Week

In this week’s Comixology (at Amazon) sales, it’s an “unannounced” week with Cyberpunk 2077, Red Sonja, Delirium and Charlie’s Angels.

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):

Housekeeping: Last week’s Marvel sales continue, but the big news here is the return of the $5 and under page. Not everything you’ll find there is a bargain… but some of them are. That page returning this week is fitting as we’re firmly in unannounced territory at the moment.

Unannounced Sales

Cyberpunk 2077: Kickdown  Delirium's Party: A Little Endless Storybook  Red Sonja: Vulture's Circle

As usual, we’re not sure when these sales are ending, but here’s what we’re seeing:

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 five collections can be found here  (although only 4 are discounted).

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:

And then Cyberpunk 2077: Kickdown seems to be floating around in the system without series affiliation.

Also on sale:

And have a look at the $5 and under page.

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Still on Sale

Comixology (at Amazon) Sales: More Unannounced Discounts

In this week’s Comixology (at Amazon) sales, it’s a new year and the new discounts have gone unannounced.

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):

Housekeeping: A lot of people seem to be simmering about the lack of a DC holiday sale. We’re not sure what to say. Something could drop at any moment, but we have no idea how likely that is. It seems like there’s a lot of A/B testing going on with pricing in recent weeks.

Marvel’s new sales from last week are still active. Links below or look to last week’s post. The Dark Horse sale also seems to be active, so we’ll keep our list up for now.

But I Really Wanted a DC Sale

OK, OK… we hear you. In the last day we did notice a price drop.

Action Comics (’11-’16) Vol. 2: Bulletproof – Grant Morrison / Rags Morales for $7.99.

We’ve mentioned over the last few weeks that there’s seemed to be an awful lot of A/B price testing going on. We think $7.99 is one of the price points DC is testing for discounted books. At various spots, we’ve noticed a $7.99/$9.99/$11.99/$13.99 spread. Considering DC’s been sporting what they possibly internally refer to as an “everyday discount” of $9.99 on a lot of titles on Amazon, you might call that “upward pressure.” We could be mistaken and things could also change, because it’s been a constant state of flux since April. But when the next DC sale comes, don’t be totally shocked if you see more $7.99 pricing.

Unannounced Sales

The Art of Harvey Kurtzman  G.I. Joe A Real American Hero Compendium Book One

And Dark Horse’s continuing holiday sale, which seems like it will be going at least a little longer.

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Still on Sale