Tag: Dracula

Comixology (at Amazon) Sales: Amazing Spider-Man (all of it); Blade; Dracula; Lazarus Planet; Dark Horse’s Cullen Bunn catalog

In this week’s Comixology (at Amazon) sales, Marvel puts pretty much the full run of Amazing Spider-Man on sale and follows that up with Tomb of Dracula and Blade’s various titles. DC… has issues this week. Dark Horse celebrates the work of Cullen Bunn.

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 Many Spiders…

Amazing Spider-Man  Amazing Spider-Man  Amazing Spider-Man - Kraven's Last Hunt

Marvel’s Spider-Man Legacy Sale runs through Monday, 4/29.

There’s a lot of ground to cover here, so let’s break it down by series.

  • Amazing Spider-Man (1963-98) – The original run before Marvel became quite so obsessed with rebooting titles.
  • Amazing Spider-Man (1998 – 2013) – This run starts out with the controversial J. Michael Straczynski/John Romita, Jr./Mike Deodato, Jr. run, then goes into the Brand New Day era with rotating creative teams and segues into the beginning of the Dan Slott era. (Slott’s written a LOT of Spidey.)  Now… this Amazon’s listings, so you knew something had to be messed
  • Superior Spider-Man – Possibly the high point of the Dan Slott era – Doc Ock takes over Peter’s body and life. The Complete Collections are the way to go here.
  • Amazing Spider-Man (2014 – 15) – Peter’s back in control and the Slott era continues.
  • Amazing Spider-Man(2015-2018) – It’s a relaunch. (Hey, Spidey’s been relaunched a lot less than Captain Marvel!) This is the end run of the Slott era, culminating in the Red Goblin affair. The “Worldwide Collection” omnibuses are the better buy.
  • Amazing Spider-Man (2018 – 22) – The Nick Spenser era is here, PLUS the 4 volumes of Spider-Man Beyond with Ben Reilly stepping in that take place prior to:
  • Amazing Spider-Man (2022-Present) – The current Zeb Wells / John Romita, Jr. / Ed McGuinness run.

And there are a few more Slott era omnibus editions floating around.  That’s probably not getting cleaned up anytime soon.<sigh>

Recommendations?  Well, first off Amazing Spider-Man doesn’t really have very many BAD periods. Oh, some runs are definitely better than others, but there aren’t huge swaths of duds.

You can definitely pick your poison between the $5.99 Masterworks and $6.99 Epic Collections for the original run (although a few Epic’s run a little higher). The Epics are typically much larger collections for only a buck more, but it depends on which format you started buying and which era you’re interested in. Some stretches are only in Masterworks, some are only in Epic.

Of possible interest, since there’s a sequel mini-series out, but NOT included in the link for the V.1 of Amazing is the Kraven’s Last Hunt Epic Collection, so we’ll call that one out directly. You get the J.M. DeMatteis/Mike Zeck classic, plus the issues of Amazing around it, plus Spider-Man Vs. Wolverine for about the price of just getting the regular Kraven collection.

We’d also recommend a look at the Brand New Day collections. It’s not a run that’s immediately talked about, but we found it entertaining and a much better set of creators was assembled than Marvel was necessarily given credit for: Mark Waid, Bob Gale (we wish he did more comics), Marc Guggenheim, Joe Kelly, Dan Slott, John Romita, Jr., Steve McNiven, Salvador Larroca, Phil Jimenez, Barry Kitson, Marcos Martin, Paolo Rivera, Lee Week and… others. I’m not sure there are “hidden” gems with Spidey, just runs that get discussed less.

And yes, we are enjoying the current Zeb Wells / (mostly) John Romita, Jr. series. It’s a little more somber than we were expecting from Wells, but it’s been a good ride so far. And this is a series that plays the long game resolving subplots.

Could There Possibly Be an Event Approaching?
Blade: Black and White Tomb of Dracula Greenberg the Vampire

The  Marvel Blade and Marvel Vampires Sale runs through Monday, 4/29.

That would be the Daywalker and vampire slayer who’s better known through the films than the comic.

We feel pretty strongly that Blade is best experienced in his original context – a supporting character in Tomb of Dracula. It’s not clear you can call Tomb of Dracula an under-the-radar 70s classic anymore, since it’s gotten a fair amount of exposure since the Essentials line (finally) collected it ~20 years ago, but now it’s in color reprints. One note, though – you need to give the series six or seven issues to get moving. There were some false starts until Marv Wolfman and Gene Colan were paired up… but after they’ve got a couple issues under their belt, this one really takes off.

Blade: Black & White is a collection of… that’s right, the black & white adventures over the years and is built around some magazine appearances in Vampire Tales and Marvel Preview. Wolfman and Chris Claremont are the primary writers for that period. Colan and Tony DeZuniga are the primary artists.

If you’re looking for something has resembles the film franchise a bit more, there’s Blade: The Complete Collection by Marc Guggenheim (with Howard Chaykin as artist).

For something completely out of left field, J.M. DeMatteis, Steve Leialoha and Mark Badger present Greenberg the Vampire. He tries to avoid drinking blood, loves his Mama and occasionally has writer’s block.

DC’s Almost-Sale

Legion of Super Heroes The Great Darkness Saga  Batman Beyond: The Final Joke  Lazarus Planet

The DC Multiverse Sale runs through Monday, 4/29.

*Sigh* It appears to have happened again. Most of these books are are at higher price points than we’ve seen in months or set to a really strange price point. Precedent would suggest that someone at DC did not enter the sale data correctly. This was a BIG problem at various point last year. (Especially August.)  As we type this up, no prices have been corrected… maybe they will be by the weekend?

If not, here’s the much shorter list of things we think are at “normal” price points & discounts. Hopefully this doesn’t linger for a month like it did in August.

Not on the sale page, but good prices:

An Unannounced Bunn in the Oven

Harrow County Omnibus 1  Tales From Harrow County  Shock Shop

It appears Dark Horse is having an unannounced sale on Cullen Bunn titles.

His flagship work for Dark Horse is most likely Harrow County with Tyler Crook. The two omnibus editions in that link are the best value here by a LOT.  Go to the bottom of the “regular” collection links for the Tales From Harrow County continuation.

Also on the list:

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Comixology (at Amazon Sales) – DC and Marvel Halloween Sales; Unannounced Dark Horse Halloween Sale; X-Men

In this week’s Comixology (at Amazon) sales, DC & Marvel Halloween sales. An *unannounced* Dark Horse Halloween Sale. Plus, discounts on X-Men.

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 Halloween Sale

The DC Horror and Mystery Sale runs through Monday, 10/30.

Picking up where we left off last week, let’s have a look at the back half of this most interesting sale, where the prices are uniformly good.

What’s good? Pretty much all of it, and much of it at a friendly $2.99 price.  Some more off the beaten path recommendations you might be less familiar with:

Night Force is the Tomb of Dracula team of Marv Wolfman & Gene Colan getting back together at DC a few years later for a new horror comic. Marv once told us it’s his favorite of his books. Baron Winters lives in an old mansion in the Georgetown neighborhood of DC with his pet leopard. He doesn’t leave the mansion. The mansion has a door that leads to other times and places. He also has somewhat reluctant minions that look into things for him. Supernatural things. It’s a good one for Halloween that doesn’t get enough love.

The Spectre by John Ostrander & Tom Mandrake was quietly one of DC’s best books of the 90s, along with Starman and Sandman Mystery Theater. Jim Corrigan died, yet he still walks the Earth. His soul has been intertwined with The Wrath of God, an entity that manifests itself as The Spectre. The Spectre seeks vengeance and Jim Corrigan struggles to come to grips with his existence. Sound like a Vertigo book? It would have fit in, though Vertigo was mostly operating in it’s own space, away from DC continuity at that point.

Speaking of DC in the 90s, The Books of Magic is one of Neil Gaiman’s lesser known DC works and his entry in the “boy wizard” sub-genre. Timothy Hunter is child destined to be a most powerful wizard, though there is some question about how he might use his aptitude for magic. The Phantom Stranger, John Constantine, Doctor Occult and Mister E (yes, this is the introduction of the Trenchcoat Brigade) give him a tour of the magical side of the DC universe in an attempt to feel him out, as the Cult of the Cold Flame also searches for Tim. It’s not exactly Harry Potter, but it’s ballpark. Gaiman attributes it to he and Rowling drawing on the same literary sources. This one just happened to come out a few years earlier.

Night Force      The Books of Magic

Marvel’s Halloween Sale

The Marvel Halloween Sale runs through Tuesday, 10/31.

That’s right, an extra day so it’s on the proper day.

Lots of titles in this one, but if we were to boil it down to three series, here’s how it would fall:

Man-Thing by Steve Gerber: The Complete Collection – three volumes get you the full run of one of Gerber’s longest running associations. He didn’t create the Man-Thing, but Gerber defined him. The final volume even catches you up on the Marvel Comics Presents serial and The Infernal Man-Thing miniseries that was published post-posthumously. There are a lot of artists tagging in and out, but prominent ones include Mike Ploog, Val Mayerick, John Buscema, Tom Sutton and Kevin Nowlan. Yes, both DC and Marvel had great swamp monster runs that kicked off at roughly the same time.

Tomb of Dracula – This one had some creative false starts, but once Marv Wolfman and Gene Colan have a couple issues to settle in and start building their supporting cast, this quickly becomes one of the most interesting books Marvel was publishing for it’s 70 issue issue run. Like Man-Thing, it’s one of the gems of the ’70s.

And for something a little more modern, there’s Marvel Zombies. The “Complete Collection” editions are extra interesting because the first one collects the Zombie dimension’s initial appearances away from the miniseries that followed. While the mini’s have occasion to float into the absurd, the initial appearances where a little more firmly in the horror world. And yes, the first two mini’s were Robert Kirkman writing zombies at Marvel.

Man-Thing by Steve Gerber   Tomb of Dracula   Marvel Zombies

X Marks the Spot

The Marvel Dawn of X/Reign of X/Trials of X Sale – runs through Monday, 10/30.

These are the collected editions that approximate reading the Hickman era as single issues. Roughly speaking they cycle through X-Men, Wolverine, X-Force, Marauders, etc. etc.

While this effect dissipates after time, we think this is the better way to read the Hickman X-Men titles. Story elements originally floated between books and their sum was greater than their parts. The order does something like this:

  • House of X / Powers of X  <initial limited series/Event, not in the sale>
  • Dawn of X
  • X of Swords <line wide Event, not in the sale>
  • Reign of X
  • Hellfire Gala <line wide Event, not in the sale>
  • Trials of X

Inferno is the last arc for Hickman before leaving and it fits in roughly after The Trial of Magneto ends, so you can read it somewhere between Trials of X V.3-6. Again, not part of this sale.

We’re not as adamant about reading this issue-to-issue format after Hickman leaves… although X-Force and Wolverine are certainly intertwined at times. Through Inferno, though? Yes.

Dawn of X   Reign of X   Trials of X

Unannounced Dark Horse Halloween Sale

No link for an overall sale, but we’re seeing a lot of Dark Horse horror titles at $6.99 or $7.99/volume. There’s a sale, we just don’t know why Amazon hasn’t posted it.

Some things to have a look at:

Hellboy   Creepy   Harrow County Omnibus 1

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Comixology Sales: Thor, Deadpool, 70%+ off at DC (and Batman), plus Image Horror

This week in Comixology Sales, there’s pretty complete run of Thor on sale and DC’s still over 70% off on many of their graphic novels.  Plus Deadpool and Image’s horror line is on sale for Halloween.

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

Bringing the Thunder

The Marvel Thor: Massive God of Thunder Sale runs through Sunday, 10/17.

This is pretty much Thor on sale up and down all the various titles for ~60-67% off per volume and some $0.99 single issues.  The sale page is incredibly poorly organized, so we’ll walk you through the titles and point to some better stuff.  Our rule of thumb is that Epic Collections and Marvel Masterwork editions are the best values. We like Epic’s a little better, but the Masterworks are published in the right order, so pick your poison.

Thor starts in Journey into Mystery. Fair warning, the earliest issues can be a little rough as they figure out the format. As Lee and Kirby lock in, it improves greatly, but the first Masterworks’ worth is for completists.

As we all know, Journey into Mystery changed the title to Thor, and just as things were getting interesting. You’re good with the initial Stan Lee / Jack Kirby (the Mangog and Galactus sequences are particularly good circa #154 – 169). Fine when John Buscema tags in for Kirby, but then opinions vary quite a bit when Stan exits.  What everyone agrees on is then when Walt Simonson shows up, it’s the best Thor since Lee/Kirby.  The “Thor Visionaries: Walter Simonson” set of books is more complete than Thor by Walter Simonson, FYI. Visionaries has the end of the run.

Journey into Mystery   Thor: To Wake the Mangog

We’ll ignore Heroes Reborn, and then the new Thor series is an extended run written by Dan Jurgen with John Romita, Jr. as the initial artist.

The  next volume starts out with a good run by J. Michael Straczynski and Olivier Copiel, then has Keiron Gillen popping up around a Siege tie-in and then starts the Matt Fraction / Pasqual Ferry run.  It’s a pretty good volume.

As we enter the Relaunch Era of Marvel, Fraction/Copiel gets a new #1 as it relaunches as The Mighty Thor. Note: Comixology (and Marvel) have some weird housekeeping at the final act of the Fraction run, Everything Burns, is collected all by itself.

Thor by Dan Jurgens   Thor by JMS   The Mighty Thor   Everything Burns

This is when Jason Aaron popped on board. First with Thor confronting The God Butcher and then Jane Foster’s time as Thor. This is a funky one to keep track of by individual titles, but Marvel has a Thor by Jason Aaron: The Complete Collection that simplifies things quite a bit.

Which leaves us with the current  Donny Cates/ Nic Klein run.  And that’s the nickel tour of Thor.  That sale page is pretty jumbled up.  This is where you’ll find your $0.99 single issues.

Thor by Jason Aaron   Thor by Donny Cates

Rare “Good” Discounts at DC

The DC Fandome Sale marches on through Monday, 10/18. It’s in two links: Part 1 and Part 2. It’s a disorganized batch of titles, but very good discounts for DC in the ~69%- 75% off range.  Very good discounts for DC.  Last time we looked at oddities and value buys. This time we’re going to look at some the stuff with higher list prices where you’re saving more actual dollars.

One of the very best Batman runs was the Steve Englehart/Marshall Rogers era.  Tales of the Batman: Steve Englehart contains that Detective run, the much later Dark Detective miniseries and basically all the Batman Englehart wrote. 452 pages, 74% off.

All-Star Comics: Only Legends Live Forever is the 70s Justice Society run (All Star Comics and Adventure Comics) in one large volume. Gerry Conway and Paul Levitz are your writers. The art line up is most associated with Joe Staton, but Keith Giffen and Wally Wood are notable here.  449 pages, 74% off.

Marv Wolfman once told us his favorite work was Night Force. You may not have heard of it, but that’s why we’re here. It’s time travel horror caper of a comic about a mansion in Washington D.C. that’s a portal into time and the mysterious Baron who lives there.  Gene Colan does the art. Yes, it’s the Tomb of Dracula crew back in the saddle at a different publisher.  Really good stuff and this edition collects the original 14-issue run.

Tales of the Batman: Steve Englehart   All-Star Comics  Night Force

More Halloween!

The Image Horror Sale runs through Monday, 11/1.

And Image has a lot of horror. It was one of the beneficiaries when DC made the questionable decision to throw Vertigo to the curb.  A few things that bubble to the top of our list:

We’re in the bag for Killadelphia. Rodney Barnes and Jason Shawn Alexander serve up a neo-noir horror thriller (with great punchlines sprinkled in here and there) about father and son detectives trying to head off a vampire takeover of Philly.  That’s the non-spoiler version. It’s much darker and intricate than a spoiler-free description can describe.  Highly recommended for Halloween.

Dracula, Motherf**cker! by Alex de Campi and Erica Henderson is… an experience. And we mean that in the best possible way. Think a ’70s exploitation era crime film with vampires. Dracula is in LA and not everyone is happy about it. An absolute tour de force for Erica Henderson, too.  She really catches that early 70s vibe and sets a unique tone you should see for yourself.

Kill or Be Killed is Ed Brubaker and Sean Phillips spinning a tale of a young man at war with the Russian mob who’s either possessed by a demon or insane. Which is it? That would telling, but a superior and creepy entry in the Brubaker & Phillips library.

Killadelphia   Dracula, Motherf**cker!   Kill or Be Killed

Deadpool or Treat

The “Marvel Deadpool World’s Greatest Sale” runs through Sunday, 10/17.

Let’s translate that for you – it’s the 2015-2017 Deadpool series that’s on sale. It’s called Deadpool: World’s Greatest on Comixology, but the actual covers just say “Deadpool” with the Fantastic Four’s “World’s Greatest Comics Magazine” tagline above the logo in sardonic fashion.  Were you go to the actual series page for the comic and scroll down to the Omnibuses section, you can save a small amount by getting it in that format.  As it the case with most of the sales this week, the sale page is a jumbled up mess.

Deadpool: World's Greatest

Still On Sale

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Comixology Sales: Hulk, Secret Invasion, Spotlight on James Tynion IV, Image Graphic Novels

Highlights of this week’s Comixology Sales include Hulk smashing prices, Secret Invasion, a James Tynion IV spotlight and Image’s OGN line.

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

Hulk Smash Prices

The Marvel Hulk: Incredible Legacy Sale runs through Sunday, 6/20.

Here are the Tower of Cheap, we’re huge fans of the Al Ewing / (mostly) Joe Bennett Immortal Hulk run. It’s a horror-flavored Hulk that takes the multiple personality disorder version of the character to new depths and it really works.  The first 8 collected editions are on sale for $2.99. Highly recommended.

There’s a lot on sale for the original Incredible Hulk series (Comixology lumps the real original series with the second series). Pick your poison between Masterworks editions or Epic Collections (Epic is a better value, but those jump around a little).  If you’re interested in the Peter David run, this is how it works right now.  There’s an Epic Collection that collects the Byrne run and the Al Milgrom run that leads up to PAD’s run. There are 8 volumes of the Peter David “Visionaries” series and then it switches over to Epic Collections for #397 on.  No overlap, they just haven’t converted the Visionaries to Epic Collections yet. (One presumes this will eventually happen, but it is what it is.)  The 3 volumes of Bill Mantlo Hulk are in between Masterworks and Epic, in terms of page count.

Plenty to browse for this one.

Immortal Hulk   Hulk

Not So Secret Now…

The Marvel Secret Invasion Sale runs through Thursday, 6/24.

Secret Invasion is a challenging story to read in collected editions. Parts of it are told in  flashbacks. It jumps from title to title. Marvel hasn’t always been consistent about a recommended reading order, either.  The Secret Invasion mini-series is the spine. If you want the full story, pretty much anything with Avengers in the title, especially written by Bendis, will be key. The Captain Marvel collection is also relevant in ways that are not immediate apparent.

Secret Invasion

And By “Something,” We Mean Monsters…

The BOOM! Creator Spotlight: James Tynion IV sale runs through Thursday, 7/1.

Yes, Tynion seems to be having himself a moment. His BOOM! backlist is on sale here. We can happily recommend Something Is Killing the Children by Tynion and Werther Dell’Edera, an urban fantasy monster hunter tale. It’s getting to be a bit of a bandwagon with the speculators jumping on the print issues, but everyone once in a while, the bandwagon is for a good title.

Something is Killing the Children

So Much For Serialization

The Image Original Graphic Novel Sale runs through Thursday, 7/1.

Yes, Image has been doing more OGNs in recent years and this is well worth a browse. Highlights?  Not a problem.

Ed Brubaker and Sean Phillips are a pretty darn reliable pairing, but Pulp is a high water mark for them. A writer of pulp westerns in ’30s NYC finds himself with declining prospects, a nest of Nazi spies and the ghosts of the past. Oh, it’s a crime thriller, but it’s a very philosophical one where the meditations only serve to enhance the mayhem.

Dracula, Motherf**ker! by Alex de Campi and Erica Henderson is an absolute delight. It’s a 70s exploitation style take on the Dracula mythos. It’s 1974 Los Angeles and Dracula’s brides are out for revenge, following the tropes of that sort of film. Henderson shows us a KILLER new side and it’s a true showcase for her. We just wish there was more of it, the pace accelerates a quick read.  A really fun book for horror fans who crossover with 70s cinema and/or Tarantino.

And for something clear out of left field, Last of the Independents has returned. This Matt Fraction/Kieron Dwyer crime story actually predates Criminal and we were pleasantly surprised that it returned to print (or digital in this case). Keeping in the theme here, this is also a love letter to 70s cinema, but more crime flicks than the exploitation/revenge genres. A bank heist goes terribly wrong and our antiheroes find that someone’s come looking for them. It’s all in the execution.

Pulp   Dracula, Motherf**cker!   Last of the Independents

Another Generic DC Sale

You know how DC keeps running the same sale with the same copious sub-50% discounts?  It’s back. This time they’re calling it the “DC June Start of Summer Sale.” It runs through Monday, 6/28 in Part 1 and Part 2.

There are much better discounts to be found in  DC’s Pride Sale.

Still on Sale

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