Comixology (at Amazon) Sales: Black Friday Sales Part 2 – DC’s $1.99 Collected Editions(!); Star Wars; The Orville

In this week’s Comixology (at Amazon) sales, it’s more Black Friday Sales as DC has a ridiculous amount of great comics for $1.99 – $2.99. Plus, Dark Horse discounts Star Wars and The Orville.

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):

Earlier in the week, we looked at the Marvel Black Friday Sales. Given the holiday, we’re back a little bit earlier than usual to look at DC and Dark Horse. Take your time and browse this through the weekend. You will want to have a close look at the DC sale.

DC Gets CHEAP for the Holidays

The DC Black Friday Sale runs through Monday, 11/27.

$1.99 collected editions cheap enough for you? Including some double volumes. How about 52? 26 issues per volume, ~570 pages & ~600 pages for $2.99 each. That’s cheap, all right.

We’ll be breaking format and just going down the list with some quick annotations. There is a LOT we like here for the prices and/or think is notable. Not as much Batman/Superman… but that sale was last week. You’ll also note this only goes from A-J. We expect L-Z will follow.

Without further adieu:

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 $1.99? Yup.
- 100 Bullets: Brother Lono – Azzarello and Risso return for a sequel
52 – Grant Morrison, Mark Waid, Greg Rucka, Geoff Johns and Keith Giffen got together to produce a weekly comic that spanned the DC universe for a year. 52 issues, 2 volumes (collecting 26 issues each) for $2.99/volume.
All-Star Superman – Grant Morrison & Frank Quitely write a love letter to Silver Age Superman tales. A classic we hear James Gunn is a big fan of. All 12 issues for $1.99
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
Camelot 3000 – Mike W. Barr / Brian Bolland – King Arthur returns to repel an alien invasion… as was foretold. ~300 pages / $1.99
Challengers of the Unknown – Jack Kirby’s late ’50s, pre-Marvel SF/F adventurer team. Not quite superheroes, but you’ll be shocked how Fantastic Four it feels. ~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
The Scott Snyder / Greg Capullo “Metal” crossover Events:
- Dark Nights: Metal
- Dark Nights: Death Metal
DC: The New Frontier: Darwyn Cooke’s must-read classic about the dawn of the Silver Age characters
Deadman – Collecting the appearance 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 / $2.99
The Doomsday Clock – The Geoff Johns / Gary Frank crossover Event that brought Watchmen into the DC Universe. 455 pages/$2.99
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.
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 / $1.99 – no excuses
Final Crisis – The celebrated crossover Event by Grant Morrison / J.G. Jones / Doug Mahnke / Carlos Pacheco. 456 pages / $1.99 (!)
The Flash (’87 – ’09) – $1.99/$2.99 omnibuses of the Mark Waid run. Watch to see if the Geoff Johns volumes prices get better in a couple days…
The Flash: The Silver Age – The early stories, ~400 pages / $1.99
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.
Grayson – The Tim Seeley / (early) Tom King / Mikel Janin series with Dick Grayson as a spy/double agent
Green Lantern (’60 – ’86)
- Silver Age omnibuses for $1.99/$2.99
- This listing has O’Neil / Adams for $1.99 and don’t sleep on the Len Wein / Dave Gibbons -> Steve Englehart / Joe Staton volumes at the end – also $1.99@
- Green Lantern Corps continues the Englehart/Staton run
Green Lantern (’05 – ’11) – The Geoff Johns run… and this is more complicated than is should be, but it really is an excellent run.
- These double volumes take you through issue #38
- Then go here and start with “Agent Orange”
- And you need the Blackest Night miniseries to go with the GL Blackest Night volume.
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 / $2.99
Hardware: The Man in the Machine -Dwayne McDuffie and Denys Cowan gave this Milestone book a great opening arc.
Hitman – The Garth Ennis / John McCrae bloody farce
Infinite Frontier – The crossover Event. 392 pages / $1.99
Jack of Fables – The Bill Willingham / Lilah Sturges/ Tony Akins / Russ Braun Fables companion book. (i.e., fun) – 16 issues/volume – $2.99
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
Jonah Hex: Shadows West – All of the Joe R. Lansdale / Tim Truman horror take on Jonah Hex for $1.99. Great stuff that started a lawsuit!

But that’s just our take on the highlights. At these prices, you should have a scroll through the sale yourself between now and Monday.

Nothing But Star Wars

The Dark Horse 2023 Star Wars Digital Sale runs through Monday, 12/25.

That’s right Dark Horse has Star Wars again. They have the YA license. Rule of thumb with this sale: the $0.99 single issues are cheaper than the collected editions when available. What’s in this sale?

It Only Looks Like Star Trek

The Dark Horse 2023 The Orville-Space Job Digital Sale runs through Monday, 12/18.

Again, you want the $0.99 single issues here for maximum cheap.

Enjoy the holiday and we’ll be back next week.

Still on Sale

The Marvel Omnibus Sale runs through Monday, 12/4
The Marvel Heroes Reborn sale runs through… (we think 11/27)
The Marvel High Republic Sale runs through… (we think 11/27)
The Dark Horse 2023 Elfquest Digital Sale runs through Monday, 12/4
The Kodansha Finding Family Sale runs through Monday, 11/27
The Dark Horse 2023 Minecraft Digital Sale runs through Monday, 12/4
The Zenescope Green Eggs & BLAM! Digital Sale runs through Wednesday, 12/6
The Marvel Secret Wars sale runs through Monday, 12/4
The Dark Horse 2023 Jeff Lemire Digital Sale runs through Monday, 11/27
The Zenescope Return to Wonderland Digital Sale runs through Wednesday, 11/22

Posted on November 22, 2023November 22, 2023 by comics_p1pusl

Comixology (at Amazon) Sales: Green Lantern, Carnage, Cyberpunk 2077; Grimm Fairy Tales

In this week’s Comixology (at Amazon) sales, DC discounts Green Lantern, Marvel’s Carnage sale stops being stealth, DH throws Cyberpunk 2077 into the arena and Zenescope goes line wide with Grimm Fairy Tales.

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):

Night Lights

The DC Green Lantern Sale runs through Monday, 1/15.

Green Lantern’s been rebooted a LOT over the years (especially post-New 52), so let’s start out by listing the major titles involved here.

Green Lantern (’60-’86) – The original, although only certain stretches are collected.
Green Lantern Corps (’86-’88) – The original title changed to Corps to wrap up the Steve Englehart/Joe Staton era. We consider this the last stretch of the original series.
Green Lantern (’90 – ’04) – Only some of the Kyle Rayner material is collected from this era.
Green Lantern (’05 – ’11) – The Geoff Johns era (and one of the character’s best periods), but this is complicated to get the best deal. The omnibus editions aren’t complete yet and are broken up into different sets than the single volumes though the single volumes are mostly cheaper. You also should get Blackest Night to go with that volume of the series. There are all sorts of tie-ins for Blackest Night, but the omnibus of that does not seem to be offered in digital.
Green Lantern Corps Recharge (’05 – ’06) – Geoff Johns / Dave Gibbons / Patrick Gleason set up the GLC ongoing
Green Lantern Corps (’06-’11) – The companion book to Green Lantern, initially by Dave Gibbons / Patrick Gleason
Green Lantern (’11-’16) – New 52 relaunch. Starts out with Geoff Johns / Doug Mahnke, then Robert Venditti/Billy Tan start a long run.
Green Lantern: New Guardians (’11-’15)-The New 52 Kyle Raynor series
Green Lantern Corps (’11-’15) – The New 52 John Stewart / Guy Gardner / Kilowog series
Red Lanterns (’11-’15) – Yes, even the Red Lanterns had a New 52 book!
Sinestro (’14-’16) – Cullen Bunn / Dale Eaglesham / Brad Walker
Green Lantern/New Gods: Godhead (’14-’15) – Event crossing over with the entire GL line
Green Lantern Corps: Lost Army (’15) – Cullen Bunn / Jesus Saiz
Hal Jordan and the Green Lantern Corps (’16-’18) – The DCU Rebirth relaunch, initially by Robert Venditti and Rafa Sandoval
Green Lanterns (’16-’18) – Rebirth title starring Simon Baz and Jessica Cruz
Green Lantern (’19) – Also known as “Season One” by Grant Morrison and Liam Sharp
Green Lantern: Season Two (’20-’21) – finishing the Morrison/Sharp storyline
Green Lantern (’21-’22) – More of a John Stewart / Jo Mullein / Teen Lantern series by Geoffrey Thorne and Tom Raney

So what’s good? As a consequence of there not being that much reprinted, what’s available of the original run is pretty solid. The early Broome/Kane. O’Neil/Adams. Wein/Gibbons. Englehart/Staton. All good stuff.

The Geoff Johns era is particularly good. We’d put Sinestro Corps War as the best sequence, if we had to pick.

The Morrison / Sharp run is also interesting. It starts out as more of a police procedural in space and then progressively gets stranger, with Sharp embracing the fantastical elements and leaning into that with the art. But remember, the two seasons (One and Two) form a single story.

Deja Vu

The Marvel Carnage Sale runs through Monday, 5/15.

What’s this, you say? Wasn’t this at the bottom of the Star Wars sale last week?

Sure enough, it’s back and… got a promotion to its own sale? Umm… we have no good explanation.

If you want old school Spidey vs. Carnage, our recommendation would be the Carnage: Born in Blood Epic Collection. This gets you the first Carnage arc, as well as Maximum Carnage.

While we’re not seeing Ram V’s current horror (and Asgard) tinged Carnage title in the sale, we’re fans (the few, the proud) of the Gerry Conway / Mike Perkins Carnage run that took it in a definite horror direction with an almost Tomb of Dracula-like vibe.

Cheap Punks

The Dark Horse Cyberpunk 2077 sale runs through Monday, 5/15.

This video game adaption comes in two flavor – collected editions and single issues.

Guess what? 4 issues @ $0.99 each is cheaper than $5.99 for the collected edition. Choose wisely.

Another Fine Myth

The Grimm Universe Line Wide Digital Sale runs through Sunday, June 4th.

For those of you who’ve been clamoring for a few more independent publishers on the deals page, we now see a Zenescope sale for the first time in a while.

Unfortunately, we’re not that familiar with Zenescope’s output and the thing we most often hear about, Raven Gregory’s Wonderland saga, isn’t well represented in the sale

The flagship title for this sale is Grimm Fairy Tales.

It breaks down this way (for easier browsing):

2007-16 series

Collected Editions and Omnibus Editions work out to roughly the same price and are cheaper than single issues. The Omnibuses only take you to issue 75, the Collected Editions go further.

2016 series

Still On Sale

The Marvel Guardians of the Galaxy Legacy Sale runs through Monday, 5/15
The Dark Horse – 2023 Creepy Eerie Digital Sale runs through Monday, 5/15
The Kodansha What’s Next, Kodansha The Café Terrace and Its Goddesses Sale run through Monday, 8/15.

Posted on May 12, 2023 by comics_p1pusl

Comixology (at Amazon) Sales: Immortal Hulk; Mighty Avengers; Green Lantern; Dark Horse Art Books

In this week’s Comixology (at Amazon) sales, The Immortal Hulk and Mighty Avengers get discounts from Marvel. DC slashes Gods and Monsters (and Green Lantern). Plus, Dark Horse Art Books.

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):

Behind the Green Door

Marvel’s Immortal Hulk Sale runs through Monday, 4/17.

It’s been a bit over a year since this run ended, but Immortal Hulk by Al Ewing and (mostly) Joe Bennett is right up the with the best Hulk runs and we’d call it the best example of The Hulk as a horror character. Can The Hulk or any of the others mutated by Gamma radiation truly die? What is this mysterious Green Door they keep seeing and who lives on the other side of it? Highly, highly recommended series.

The cheapest way to get the run is the single volumes. V.1-10 collect the 50 issue series. V. 11 collects some one shots and specials, so get that instead of the Carnage collection (that issue is in V. 11). If you like you can get another collection of spin-off issues in Immortal Hulk: Great Power, but it’s a side trip.

The Mighty

The Marvel Mighty Avengers Sale runs through Monday, 4/17.

Mighty Avengers has been a spin-off Avengers title a few times. Yes, believe it or else, there didn’t used to be 3+ series with “Avengers” in the title each month.

All this started with the ’07 – ’10 Mighty Avengers, which is a Bendis-era title. This is in two larger collections. The first is Bendis and the second written by Dan Slott. LOTS of artists tagging in and out on this one. We do, however, have a preference for the Slott run. It wasn’t really a traditional Avengers lineup, but it definitely had a traditional Avengers feel in an era where that was unusual.

The next two iterations, might as well count as the same book. the ’13-’14 edition of Mighty Avengers is by Al Ewing and (mostly) Greg Land. This followed by the ’14-’15 Captain America & The Might Avengers. This time Luke Ross joins Ewing as the primary artist. If you’ve been reading Ewing’s work of late, you’ll be interested to know this is early work with The Blue Marvel / Adam Brashear.

Ah, a Brendan Fraser Reference!

The DC Gods & Monsters Sale runs through Monday, 4/17.

Yes, Brendan Fraser did star in the film Gods & Monsters, and he’s a DC actor. Then again, so did Ian McKellan and he’s Magneto. Were they alluding to the DCU Animated Original? We’ll go with Brendan Fraser.

It’s another eclectic assortment for us to sift through and there’s some good Green Lantern material this time out.

Green Lantern by Geoff Johns is a very good run by Geoff Johns with some Dave Gibbons, Rod Reis, Carlos Pacheco and Patrick Gleason tagging in and out, among others. Especially the Sinestro Corps War sequence in V. 3, which we’d put as the apex of the run.

If you scroll down to the bottom of this link, you’ll find three volumes of Green Lantern: Sector 2814, which starts out as Len Wein and Dave Gibbons, then transitions to the beginning of the Steve Englehart/Joe Staton run that eventually turns into Green Lantern Corps, post-Crisis. Another good run.

And near the bottom of this Brave & the Bold link, you’ll find three volumes of Batman by Neal Adams. A heads up, the first volume is mostly Brave & the Bold with Bob Haney (and we like our Bob Haney). What most people think of when they think of Adams on Batman is the material from Batman and Detective Comics with Denny O’Neil and Frank Robbins. That’s V.2 & 3. V. 3 also has the Power Records comics. Stacked Cards, represent.

Also of potential interest, we think this is the first time Suicide Squad: Get Joker! has been discounted.

The Art Show

The Dark Horse – Art Books Digital Sale runs through Monday, 5/1.

This is mostly an art book sale, but we did find some actual comics in it.

Kabuki is the series that brought David Mack to prominence and one we’ve enjoyed over the years. It’s a spy/mob/assassins mashup with themes about identity and yes, you could call these art books, because they’re extremely well illustrated. An assassin in the near future tries to sever ties with her agency and things like this always have complications. In this case, layers of complications. Kabuki was supposed to have been picked up as a TV show by Sony, but we haven’t heard anything about that in awhile, so… maybe? It would be a good property to adapt.

And then there’s Inside Moebius. This is a bit on the abstract side. It’s not really a series of graphic novels, more like some avant garde diaries in comics format where Jean (Moebius) Giraud meditates on his creative process and illustrates himself interacting with a few of the characters he created.

Still On Sale

The Kodansha – 2023 Spring Anime Favorites Sale runs through Monday, 4/24
The Archie and Jughead Digest Sale runs through Sunday, 4/30

Posted on April 14, 2023 by comics_p1pusl

Comixology (at Amazon) Sales: Avengers, Deadpool, ~3K DC Titles and Image Crime

In this week’s Comixology (at Amazon) sales, DC goes wide and deep with some better prices, Marvel offers up Avengers and Deadpool and Image slashes crime comics.

Where did the New Releases and Sale pages go?

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

Before we get to the sales, a message for the folks at Comixology: you really need to get some pagination in this new format. Yes, sorting and alphabetizing books is important and a step in the right direction, but there really needs to be some pagination or bookmarks. A sale like the current DC sale requires a person to click the “See more” button around 90 times to get to the end. If that person wants to read the details on any item before getting to the end, they get thrown back to the beginning of the sale when they click the back button to return. That’s a pretty awful UIX experience and puts a significant burden on the user who wants to browse something at the end of the alphabet, like Wonder Woman. Fix this.

(We recommend right-clicking and opening a new tab or window if you want to examine an item in one of these monster-sized sales. It will save you some headaches.)

DC Forget To Put the Kitchen Sink On Sale

The DC Ultimate eBook Sale runs through Monday, 10/3.

As we were saying, this is a REALLY large sale, around 2700 items – all collected editions. And here’s the thing, items that are a few years old (and a couple more recent releases) are frequently $3.99/volume with some of the “Deluxe” editions – i.e., print HCs that contain two TPBs worth of material – for $5.99. Good deals and as cheap as we’ve seen some of this in some time. It’s well worth a browse.

Here’s a list of some things that caught our eye as cheaper than usual and/or not always on sale:

Challengers of the Unknown – This is the original Jack Kirby run and if you haven’t read it before, you may be shocked how much it feels like early Fantastic Four. $5.99
(Original) Doom Patrol – $5.99 for the first omnibus? Yes, please.
Fables – The Bill Willingham/Mark Buckingham fantasy epic in $5.99 double-volumes
Far Sector – $5.99 for all 12 issues of the N.K. Jemisen/Jamal Campbell instant classic that introduces a new Green Lantern
First Issue Special – Are you confused about the new Tom King / Jorge Fornés Black Label series? It spins out of this ’70s anthology series. A serious weird mix, but with some real gems like Doctor Fate by Martin Pasko & Walt Simonson, a few Jack Kirby one-shots and the debut of Mike Grell’s Warlord feature. $7.99 and it hasn’t been discounted until recently.
Gotham Central – $3.99 for double volumes of the Ed Brubaker/Greg Rucka/Michael Lark/Stefano Gaudiano/Kano classic? That’s crazy cheap for the material.
Green Lantern (’60-’86) – There’s a lot here for $3.99 a pop, but here’s a good sequence that’s not always properly discounted V.1 = Len Wein/Dave Gibbons, V.2 = Wein/Gibbons and transitions to Steve Englehart/Joe Staton; V.3 = Englehart/Staton; V.4 of the sequence is inexplicably packaged as Tales of the Green Lantern Corps V.3, but is the next Englehart/Staton volume. The series then changes to Green Lantern Corps, but that volume is $7.99.
Green Lantern (’18-’20) – i.e., the Grant Morrison/Liam Sharp run. It’s all one extended story and it’s _all_ on sale now. Season 1 – $3.99. Season 2 – $3.99/$4.99
Hardware: The Man in the Machine – $3.99 for the great intro arc by Dwayne McDuffie and Denys Cowan
Lois Lane: Enemy of the People – The 12-part Greg Rucka/Mike Perkins serial. – $5.99
New Teen Titans (’80-’88) – The original Marv Wolfman/George Perez classic at $3.99/volume
Orion – Walt Simonson’s criminally under-rated New Gods series. $5.99/$6.99
Rorschach – Tom King and Jorge Fornés do an excellent, if tangential, follow-up to Watchmen with a surprisingly meta meditation on identity and modern mythology.
Saga of the Swamp Thing – The Alan Moore era for $3.99/volume.
Suicide Squad (87-’92) – The John Ostrander/Luke McDonnell run that defined the concept for $3.99/volume? Ayup!
Superman: Phantom Zone – The wonderfully bizarre and creepy Steve Gerber/Gene Colan mini-series that takes more of a horror angle on Superman, plus the DC Comics Presents follow-up. $3.99
Superman’s Pal Jimmy Olsen: Who Killed Jimmy Olsen – Extremely funny take on Jimmy by Matt Fraction and Steve Leiber. HIGHLY recommended.

There’s a ton of stuff here and it’s worth your time to have an extended browse.

Avengers Disassemble

The Marvel Avengers/Mighty Avengers Sale runs through Monday, 10/3.

This would be the Bendis “New Avengers” era. There are multiple formats in play with this sale, but omnibus seems to be the way to go here:

New Avengers by Brian Michael Bendis: The Complete Collection
Mighty Avengers by Brian Michael Bendis: The Complete Collection
Avengers by Brian Michael Bendis: The Complete Collection –(The ’10-’12 Avengers, that is.)

That said, there a couple things in this sale we prefer from this era: the lesser known Mighty Avengers run by Dan Slott with Koi Pham as the lead artist. It’s not the classic Avengers lineup, but it has more of a classic Avengers feel.

You’ve also got the Ed Brubaker and Rick Remender eras of Secret Avengers. This is the Avengers “covert” ops team, so more of a spy flavor.

No, Not the Dirty Harry Film

The Marvel Deadpool Vs. the Marvel Universe Sale runs through Monday, 10/3.

Deadpool has always had a lot of fairly short run titles swapping around at any given time, this is a collection of those secondary titles.

The longest running of the set is Deadpool & Cable, Fabian Nicieza and Patrick Zircher being the team most associated with it. Amusingly, the monthly comic was called Cable & Deadpool, but the character popularity has flipped since then.

Deadpool Corps maybe of heightened interest with Rob Liefeld joining writing Victor Gischler for it.

Crime Time?

The Image Crime Sale runs through Monday, 10/17.

We’d probably call a LOT of these comics more SF/F than Crime, but we always did like a genre-bender.

If you want a straight up crime comic, The Good Asian by Pornsak Pichetshote and Alexandre Tefenkgi should trip your trigger. It lives up to the considerable hype (especially the first half). This is a noir mystery about a Hawaiian detective of Chinese descent, summoned to San Francisco to investigate a disappearance related to his wealthy guardians family… and then things sideways. Conspiracies mingle with politics and racial identity. And it’s well researched, too.

While Criminal was originally published at Icon/Marvel, it’s kind of the old school flagship for crime work at Image, since that’s where Ed Brubaker and Sean Phillips started doing crime tales (non-superpowered crime tales, at least, since they’d previously worked together on Sleeper).

Now, if you want something a lot further out there, but still with a criminal element, we’ve always been big fans of Chew. This John Layman / Rob Guillory classic is the right kind of weird. It’s also frequently hilarious. In world recovering from a nasty bird flu, after which poultry is outlawed, FDA agent Tony Chu chases a conspiracy, aided by ability to experience the memories of anything he eats. Awesomely strange, one might say. (The sequel series, Chu is also top notch.) Oh, yes… there’s also a death-dealing rooster named Poyo.

The rest of the sale is definitely worth a browse. It’s a nice selection, especially if you like Brubaker/Phillips.

Still On Sale

The Marvel Monthly Sale – X-Men: Grand Design & Other Stories Sale runs through Monday, 10/3
The Sandman Universe DC Black Label Sale runs through Monday, 10/17
The Best of Top Shelf Sale runs through Thursday, 10/6
The Umbrella Academy Sale runs through Monday, 10/17

Posted on September 30, 2022 by comics_p1pusl

Comixology (at Amazon) Sales: Shang Chi, Ms. Marvel, Captain Marvel, Superman, Green Lantern and Elfquest

This week’s Comixology (at Amazon) sales include Marvel’s transmedia heroes: Shang Chi and Ms. Marvel (Kamala Khan), plus the original Kree Captain Marvel. DC highlights include Superman, Green Lantern and Jimmy Olsen, while Dark Horse discounts Elfquest.

Where did the New Releases and Sale pages go?

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

(Former) Master of Kung Fu

The Marvel Shang Chi Sale runs through Monday, 6/6.

Shang Chi has a… complicated story at Marvel that involves a lot of “inside Baseball” maneuvering behind the scenes. There are basically three periods to the character:

Period #1 is what we’ll call the “classic” period, for lack of a better term. Master of Kung Fu started out as a licensing deal for the old Fu Manchu novels. In original run, Shang is the son of Fu Manchu, who’s rejected his ways and is working with an elderly Sir Dennis Nayland Smith (protagonist of the novels) and British Intelligence against Fu Manchu’s schemes. When Doug Moench settled in as writer, especially with Paul Gulacy, Mike Zeck and/or Gene Day on art duties, it settled into a sort of pulpy espionage comic with touches of fantasy around the edges. It’s also widely considered one of Marvel’s best works of the ’70s. The series technically lasted past Doug Moench leaving for DC, but only by a couple issues. Moench would eventually return for a Marvel Comics Presents serial (alongside a revival of another 70s cult star, Man-Thing) and a special.

There are two Epic Collections of this run, though the second is probably more representative of the series.

Eventually, Marvel decided to revive the character a little more actively, but in the 00’s, they no longer had the Fu Manchu license, so they updated Shang’s costume to more of a track suit (*cough* Bruce Lee *cough*) and just didn’t talk about his father and/or tried to switch his father to The Yellow Claw, a 50s Marvel Fu Manchu knock-off that appeared every once in a while. In this period, Shang was usually popping up in team books, like Secret Avengers.

Then, a bit more recently (and likely influenced by Marvel Studios), Marvel decided maybe it wasn’t such a good thing to have one of their most prominent Asian characters rooted in the most famous Yellow Peril franchise. So they pulled in heavy hitter Gene Lueng Yang, Dike Ruan and Phillip Tan to relaunch Shang Chi as more of a fantasy adventure hero. An ongoing series followed shortly thereafter. It’s a pretty big shift between eras. If you’re familiar with the character from the films, this is the version you’re looking for.

You Look Marvelous

The Marvel Ms. Marvel Sale runs through Monday 6/20.

This would be Ms. Marvel as in Kamala Khan, not the current Captain Marvel, Carol Danvers. Hmm… it’s like there was a TV show coming out or something? Let’s break this down by volume, since there have been relaunches.

Ms. Marvel ’14-15 – The original run with G. Willow Wilson and Adrian Alphona as the primary artist
Ms. Marvel ’15-’19 – How silly is this relaunch? The collected edition number doesn’t even reset! It’s still Wilson and Alphona, although the artist rotate a bit as it goes on.
Magnificent Ms. Marvel ’91-’21 – Relaunched after Wilson’s departure, this is written by Saladin Ahmed with Minkyu Jung and Joey Vazquez as the lead artists
Ms. Marvel: Beyond the Limit – The most recent mini-series (only single issues are on sale) by Samira Ahmed and Andrés Genolet.

There’s a selection of Champions, where Ms. Marvel was a member, also on sale.

Recommendations? We thought Ms. Marvel was at its best early in the run, before it got too integrated into the Marvel universe, but that’s just us. Definitely start with Wilson’s run, though. It made quite the mainstream splash.

Speaking of Marvelous…

The Marvel Captain Mar-Vell Sale runs through Monday, 6/6.

Yes, things have gotten complex enough that Marvel is calling him by his Kree name of Mar-Vell. This would be Marvel’s original Captain Marvel, who’s title Carol Danvers took up in recent years… yet, only one of the two series comprising the bulk of the sale is of the original Marvel.

What we’re looking at:

Captain Marvel ’68-’79 – This being the original run most people think of.
Captain Marvel ’02-’04 – This being the adventure of the orginal Mar-Vell’s son, Genesis. Written by Peter David with seemingly a different artist for each arc.

Recommendations? If you’re not looking to get the full run of Masterworks for the original run, we’d point you towards two volumes:

Captain Marvel by Jim Starlin: The Complete Collection – Get this in place of Masterworks V. 3. It also contains the Death of Captain Marvel graphic novel and some other material for a slightly high page count. This is the first Thanos storyline and Starlin’s Captain Marvel is the character’s high point.
Captain Marvel Masterworks V. 4 – This volume is largely forgotten, but a friend made this magically appear in our Comixology account a couple years back and we enjoyed it. Steve Englehart and Al Milgrim pick up where Starlin leaves off and run with it for a bit. The Supreme Intelligence schemes and Ronan accuses. Not quite to the legendary level of Starlin, but these two volumes are effectively the “Best of.”

Crisis On the Road To Utopia

The DC Road To Dark Crisis eBook Sale runs through Monday, 6/13.

These “Road To” titles always make us think the marketing departments are Bob Hope/Bing Crosby fans…

So, while this is supposed to be a Dark Crisis lead-in sale, the 1000-ish comics in it suggest that might be hyperbole. Or perhaps DC will prove us wrong and the Meg (Princess Diaries) Cabot / Cara McGee Black Canary: Ignite YA OGN is really leading into Dark Crisis?

There’s obvious a LOT on sale, so it’s worth a browse. Recommendations? Sure.

Superman: Man of Tomorrow, Vol. 1: Hero of Metropolis is a bona fide hidden gem. Completely under most radars as a digital first comic, this is a string of connected “classic” Superman tales as a conspiracy unfolds in the background… with the Parasite, Metallo and a giant ape in the mix. It also has a strong sense of humor with a subplot about how hard it is to stash your clothes when changing into costume. Robert Venditti writes it, Paul Pelletier is the primary artist. Probably our favorite Superman in at least a couple years. (Plus, $5.99 is one of the lower price points, here.)

While a little more expensive at $8.99 (but at least you’re getting 12 issues, here), Superman’s Pal Jimmy Olsen: Who Killed Jimmy Olsen by Matt Fraction and Steve Leiber is an instant classic. This is a surprisingly densely plotted screwball adventure that simultaneously calls back to the over-the-top silliness of the Silver Age. As Jimmy Olsen tries to stay alive long enough to solve his own murder, we witness: a drunken marriage in Gorilla City, an ancestral feud between the Luthors and the Olsens, podcast pranks and… look, OF COURSE there’s a giant turtle. A masterpiece.

The first two volumes/season are priced a little lower, but the entirety of the Grant Morrison/Liam Sharp Green Lantern run is now on sale. Morrison explores a lot of tropes in what starts out as exploring the “space cop” aspect of GL. Sharp varies the art with the themes for a different experience than you typically get with a mainline DC character, too. This is essentially one extended story told across two “seasons.”

Season One
Season Two (Note: the 80th Anniversary book is NOT part of the story, despite how it’s displayed.)

Wolf Riders

The Dark Horse Elfquest Sale runs through Monday, 6/13.

This is the classic and pioneering fantasy tale of Elves fleeing when the humans burn down their forest by Wendy and Richard Pini.

The saga, except for the current installment, is collected in very thick omnibus volumes as The Complete Elfquest and 500-600 pages for $5.99 is a good deal!

The current installment is Elfquest: Stargazer’s Hunt, of which the second book isn’t out, but the first is on sale.

Still On Sale

The Dynamite “The Boys Sale Up to 75% off” runs through Monday, 6/13

Posted on June 3, 2022 by comics_p1pusl

Comixology Sales: Archie Vs. Predator! Deadpool! Spawn! and DC’s Crisis of Events on Sale!

This week’s Comixology Sales include Deadpool, DC’s Events over the years, Spawn and Dark Horse put the Aliens and Predator lines on sale ahead of Marvel’s versions.

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

Crisis on Infinite Sales

The DC Event & Mini Series Sale runs through Monday (12/14). It’s a little heavier on Events. For a somewhat recent title, Event Leviathan has made its to the discount zone. The Brian Bendis/Alex Maleev tale of a mysterious criminal conspiracy moving on DC’s spy organizations in preparation for a takeover was supposed to have a sequel, Event Leviathan: Checkmate that hasn’t been rescheduled yet.

DC’s best event in recent(ish) memory is probably Multiversity. Grant Morrison went about exploring the multiverse with Frank Quitely and a posse of A-list artists in tow. Not that the multiverse might suddenly be relevant at DC again or anything… This is a nice thick 450 page package, too.

Going back a hair further to the Before New 52 Times, Sinestro Corps War is probably the pinnacle of the celebrated Geoff Johns era on Green Lantern. This first GL event kept it tightly in the family with just Green Lantern, Green Lantern Corps and an Event special.

The Merc with the Discount

The Deadpool Vs. The Marvel Universe Sale (Amazon link) runs through Sunday (11/13). The first thing you’re thinking when you read that sale name is probably Deadpool Kills the Marvel Universe by Cullen Bunn and Dalibor Talajic. And you’d be right to think that. It’s the first thing listed on sale. There are several volumes of Cullen Bunn’s various Deadpool titles, as it happens.

The sale is made up of several of the “side” series Deadpool has had over the years… and that’s a fairly long list. For a couple alternate ideas, Deadpool Vs. X-Force is written by Duane Swierczynski with some relatively early Marvel art by Pepe Larraz, who’s certainly on the A-list today.

And if you’d like a bit of high concept snark, Deadpool’s Art of War by Peter David and Scott Koblish has the Merc with the Mouth in a get rich quick scheme involving translating Sun Tzü’ venerable tome and… things don’t go quite as planned.

Lots of Marvel still on sale in the bottom section.

Spawn

Image lines up with a Spawn sale (Amazon link) through Thursday, 12/17. This is one very long series. The 20 volumes of Spawn Origins takes you through #122, then the titled volumes pick up a bit later in the series. Spawn#312 shipped a couple weeks ago, so Spawn has outlasted Cerebus.

Aliens and Predators on the Way Out the Door

Running until 12/31, Dark Horse has an Aliens Predator Sale (Amazon link). Since Marvel already has their first Aliens comic scheduled, its possible some of this material is going to be out of circulation for awhile. If you want bang for your buck, go with the Aliens Omnibus and Predator Omnibus lines. If you want something different… Archie vs. Predator by Alex de Campi and Fernando Ruiz. Yes, that’s real.