In this week’s Comixology (at Amazon) sales, lots of comics with streaming shows and films based on them: Sandman Universe, She-Hulk, The Spider-Verse and Locke & Key all get discounts. Plus, DCeased for the sake of variety!
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):
Like Sands in the Hourglass…
The DC Sandman Universe Sale runs through Monday, 8/22.
Wait, didn’t we just have a Sandman sale and a Vertigo sale? Yes, but the Sandman Netflix show is doing well, so they’re effectively extending the party. So let’s break this down:
- Sandman “traditional” collections (by storyline)
- Sandman “Deluxe” collections (Strictly issues in order, no rearranging)
- Sandman Midnight Theater – Sandman Mystery Theater crossover
- The Sandman Presents
- The Sandman Presents – wider set with more single issues
- Black Orchid – The original Vertigo Gaiman/McKean series
- Black Orchid – ’93 ongoing
- Stardust – Neil Gaiman/Charles Vess
- Batman: Whatever Happened to the Caped Crusader – Gaiman/Kubert
- Neil Gaiman’s Midnight Days – anthology of non-Sandman DC work
- Death: The High Cost of Living
- Death: The Time of Your Life
- Death: At Death’s Door
- Destiny: A Chronicle of Deaths Foretold
- Lucifer – a Mike Carey/Peter Gross series
- Lucifer (’18 version) – Dan Watters/Max Fiumara/Sebastian Fiumara
- Hellblazer – The original run
- Constantine – ’13 run
- John Constantine: Hellblazer – City of Demons – Si Spurrier / Sean Murphy
- Constantine: The Hellblazer – ’15 run
- John Constantine: Hellblazer – ’19 run by Spurrier/Campbell/Bergara
- The Books of Magic (original Gaiman/Bolton/Vess/Hampton/Johnson mini)
- Books of Magic – ’95 ongoing (Most of this run is print only)
- Names of Magic – ’01
- Books of Magick: Life During Wartime – ’04
- Books of Magic – ’18 run
- The Dreaming – ’96 run (single issues)
- The Dreaming – ’18 run
- The Dreaming: Waking Hours – ’20 run
- House of Whispers – ’18
- Dead Boy Detectives – ’13
- Sandman Mystery Theater – collected editions / single issues
And that’s going to be the bulk of it. There’s a sprawling mess of unsorted single issues presented in pretty much the least professional way possible, but if you want the singles, most of them are $0.99 (so keep this in mind when comparing with collected editions).
What’s good that we haven’t talked about in the last couple weeks?
John Constantine: Hellblazer by Si Spurrier, Aaron Campbell and Matias Bergara is one of our favorite reads of the last few years. A classic Constantine conspiracy/con, some absolutely hilarious interludes… Grade A Hellblazer. We’re still grumpy it didn’t go longer. Get both volumes, they comprise one story.
Sandman Mystery Theater is a fairly tangential cousin to Gaiman’s Sandman. It’s the pulp flavored adventures of the Golden Age Sandman – prior to the Simon & Kirby redesign. Sort of of a gentler, more introspective flavor of The Shadow. Matt Wagner starts out as writer, Steven T. Seagle joins him a bit later and eventually assumes solo duties. Guy Davis is the main artist. At 70 issues, this is one of the longer running Vertigo titles, though they’ve never really gotten the collected editions going for it. You can save a couple bucks on the two collected editions, but it’s single issues after that.
Dead Again
The DC DCeased Sale runs through Monday, 8/15.
I think the standard set of reactions to DCeased went something like:
- Oh, DC’s doing their version of Marvel Zombies
- Wait… this is actually good?!?
- Ah, it’s a Tom Taylor project.
That Taylor guy has a pretty darn good track record with this sort of thing. The high concept here is the Anti-Life Equation gets unleashed and turns MOST of the world, including many of those with superpowers, into a sort of zombie. The surviving superheroes and villains are making shaky alliances to keep themselves and the what’s left of the masses alive as the look for a cure or a way off the planet.
Trevor Hairsine is the initial artist and then there’s some switching up later on as things progress.
The publication order is
- DCeased
- DCeased: A Good Day To Die (included in the DCeased collection above)
- DCeased: Unkillables
- DCeased: Hope at the World’s End
- DCeased: Dead Planet
All recommended. And yes, it’s no coincidence that all the previous material is on sale the week that the FINAL series, DCeased: War of the Undead Gods, debuts. (Far too early for discounts on that one.)
Itsy Bitsy
The Marvel Spider-Verse Sale runs through Thursday, 8/18.
Much like the comic Event and the film, this is a sale highlighting a few different incarnations of Spidey in the various dimensions/realities of “The Spider-Verse.”
Spider-Verse is the 600+ page monster volume collecting the original event across the various Spidey-family titles.
The Miles Morales: Ultimate Spider-Man Ultimate Collection volumes by Brian Bendis, Sara Pichelli and David Marquez are good values as ~300 page collections.
And for off-the wall, there’s always Spider-Ham, which we’ve always sort of thought of as Marvel’s answer to Captain Carrot. Silly YA stuff, but not without a punny appeal.
Gama Nepotism
The Marvel She-Hulk Sale runs through Monday, 8/29.
Gosh, you’d think there was a streaming show on Disney+ or something? Is streaming STILL a theme for what’s on sale? Could be.
The two runs that will likely be the most recognizable if “She-Hulk, Attorney at Law” is your point of reference, would be
It’s also worth noting the current Rainbow Rowell / Roge Antonio She-Hulk series has the first three issues for $0.99 each.
I am the Keymaster, are you the Gatekeeper?
The IDW Locke & Key Sale runs through Monday, 8/15.
Add another streaming sale to the pile. This time for the “modern classic” Joe Hill / Gabriel Rodriguez horror tale of magical keys that open doors to the strangest places. And the prices are cheap! $0.99 for the first tpb, mostly $2.99 for subsequent volumes. $0.49 single issues for most of the run.
And all this for a superior series, too. Hype is real for this one, folks.
- The collected editions are here.
- Except for “The Golden Age” collection, which also includes the crossover with The Sandman. Will that eventually be a streaming crossover? A bit early to tell. This will run you $9.99 for being more recent.
- The single issues for the regular series
- The single issues for The Sandman crossover – $0.99 a pop (cheap)
Still On Sale
- August’s “Marvel Monthly Sale” is The Spider-Man 60th Anniversary Sale, which runs through 9/5
- The Paper Girls Sale runs through Monday, 8/15
- The Dark Horse Mike Mignola Sale runs through Monday, 8/15