Man-Thing Archives - Comics.Cheap

In this week’s Comixology (at Amazon) sales, the Halloween sales have begun and we’ll start out look at DC, Marvel, Archie, BOOM! and a bit of Star Wars on the side.

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):

Marvel Says Boo!

The Marvel Monthly Sale – Halloween runs through Monday, 10/31.

When it comes to Marvel horror, ’70s Marvel horror is where it’s at. Two of the best things Marvel did in the ’70s were horror.

Man-Thing by Steve Gerber: The Complete Collection follows the Man-Thing across Adventure Into Fear, through Man-Thing and Giant-Size Man-Thing, and eventually even collects 2012’s posthumous Infernal Man-Thing. Gerber writes almost all of it and the selection of artists includes Mike Ploog, Tom Sutton, John Buscema, Sal Buscema and Kevin Nowlan. Some say this was Gerber’s crowning achievement, others say Howard the Duck. Either way, it’s a classic.

Tomb of Dracula: The Complete Collection is a 5 volume set that collects the Marv Wolfman/Gene Colan horror classic, with the magazine version of Dracula thrown in. The comics the bigger draw here. You need to give a few issues for Wolfman to arrive and get his feet under him, but one Wolfman & Colan gel, it’s quite a ride. A celebrated run.

Plenty more ’70s horror here and all kinds of Ghost Rider, too.

DC Says Boo!

The DC Frights & Fights Sale runs through Monday, 10/31.

Yes, more horror for the holiday. Some Vertigo, some old school DC, some new. This is another fairly deep one with 562 items.

We think it’s safe to call Nice House on the Lake by James Tynion IV and Alvaro Martinez Bueno DC’s premiere horror title right now. And it’s an extremely well-crafted comic, too. $4.99 for that? A very good deal.

We can’t very well mention Man-Thing without giving Swamp Thing equal time, can we? Yes, both DC and Marvel had a world class swamp monster horror comic in the ’70s. Go figure. The first volume is the famous Lein Wein / Bernie Wrightson run. (No hype, just quality.)

Preacher by Garth Ennis and Steve Dillon is Vertigo-era horror with a twisted sense of humor (ah, the vampires of New Orleans…). You’ve probably seen the TV adaption. $4.99 for ~12-issue volumes qualifies as a good deal.

Now, since the DC sale has a moderate amount of superhero material in it, let’s go there.

Batman: Haunted Knight is a collection of the Halloween Bat-tales that Jeph Loeb and Tim Sale did prior to landing The Long Halloween. They’re striking and were a borderline shock to see when they appeared on the shelf. It’s certainly the season for it.

DCeased is sort of the DC version of Marvel Zombies. Darkseid unleashes the Anti-Life Equation. Come to find out it’s transmitted by technology (and bites) and it creates a sort of techno-zombie. The survivors gather in groups and try to ward off the “Anti-Living” who are coming after them – including a lot of super powered non-living interlopers – while they try to figure away out of this mess. Tom Taylor and Trevor Hairsine helm this first installment and subsequent installments are also on sale. A highly enjoyable ride.

There are also a bunch of $0.99 single issues towards the bottom of the page if you keep clicking through, much of it ’70s horror. Here are some direct links to save you time and sanity, though not EVERY series.

The Dark Mansion of Forbidden Love / Forbidden Tales of Dark Mansion
Elvira’s House of Mystery
The Horrorist – Hellblazer by Jamie Delano and David Lloyd
House of Secrets
House of Mystery
The Phantom Stranger (’69-’76)
Weird Mystery Tales
The Witching Hour

And for $1.99 an issue

DC Horror Presents: The Conjuring: The Lover

Archie Says Boo!

The Archie Horror Sale runs through Monday, 10/31.

Yes, Archie does horror. And two things stand above the rest (we hope they do some more of them, too).

Afterlife With Archie by Roberto Aguirre-Sacasa and Francesco Francavilla is a shocking thing, especially the first time you behold it. You might think the elevator pitch “Night of the Living Dead in Riverdale” sounds silly… except this really is a horror comic. Archie and the survivors flee for their lives as part of the cast stalk after them. It’s serious, hits a poignant note or two and, above all, is extremely well done! The second arc is only in single issues (#6-10).

The Chilling Adventures of Sabrina by Roberto Aguirre-Sacasa and Robert Hack is what was adapted for the Netflix show. It’s a very 70s horror movie take on Sabrina, for whom her sixteen birthday presents a choice between the world of mortals and her witch heritage and an ominous destiny that seems to come with it. The cheapest way for this comic is to get the collected edition of the #1-6 and then hit the single issues.

BOOM! Says Boo!

The BOOM! Spooky Season Sale runs through Monday, 10/31.

Something is Killing the Children by James Tynion and Werther Dell’Edera is probably BOOM!’s flagship horror book right now. We’d probably call it a horror-adventure romp. Sure enough, something IS killing the children. A monster hunter shows up to stop it and her… organization then shows up to complicate matters. This one is fun horror.

But let’s get a bit further off the beaten path here:

Bone Parish by Cullen Bunn and Jonas Scharf is an odd little genre bender we enjoyed. “Ash” is the new drug that’s hit New Orleans. Consuming it you experience the life of another person… the person who’s ashes where used to make the drug. One part horror for the production of the magical drug, one part crime/gang story. A pulp page-turner.

And going back a few more years, we also enjoyed Dracula: The Company of Monsters by Kurt Busiek, Daryl Gregory and Scott Godlewski. What happens when a corporation gets their hands on Dracula? Why, resurrect him and exploit him like the asset he is, naturally. Of course, Dracula’s probably used to being the one doing the exploiting. It’s a different kind of corporate warfare.

Star Wars… is more like Trick or Treat

The Marvel Star Wars High Republic Sale runs through Monday, 10/10.

The meat of this would be the collected editions of the Star Wars: The High Republic series by Cavan Scott, Ario Anindito and Georges Jeanty. And $2.99 for recent release tpbs does indeed qualify as cheap!

If you’re into $0.99 single issues:

Star Wars: The High Republic (these are cheaper in the collected editions above)
Star Wars: The High Republic – Eye Of The Storm
Star Wars: The High Republic – Trail of Shadows

There’s a lot more Halloween material on sale, so we’ll probably be back with another batch of that on Monday or Tuesday.

Still On Sale

The Sandman Universe DC Black Label Sale runs through Monday, 10/17
The Umbrella Academy Sale runs through Monday, 10/17
The Image Crime Sale runs through Monday, 10/17

Highlights of the Comixology Sales this week include Robert Kirkman taking a discount victory lap for the debut of the Invincible animated series, X-Men and Steve Gerber’s Man-Thing at Marvel and a DC universe mass sampling event.

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

Foundational X-Men Spin-Offs

The Marvel X-Men Universe Sale runs through Sunday, 3/28.

There’s a lot of X-Men material here, some of which we’ve discussed before, so we’ll look at some ’80s foundational pieces here.

X-Men: Kitty Pride & Wolverine by Chris Claremont and Al Milgrom was a sequel of sort to the Wolverine mini-series and is where Kitty got her martial arts training.

Longshot by Ann Nocenti and Art Adams is the original Longshot/Mojo tale. Nocenti’s having a moment over at Berger Books with The Seeds and… it has been awhile since we’ve seen Art Adams doing extended interior work.

Magick by Chris Clarement with a succession of John Buscema, Ron Frenz and Sal Buscema all finished by Tom Palmer on the art. This was a fairly dark story when it came out: the tale of how Illyana Rasputin was kidnapped to Limbo, taught sorcery by the demon Belasco and emerged as the Magick we know today.

Includes Giant-Size Man-Thing (yes, that’s a real comic)

The Marvel Man-Thing Sale runs through Sunday, 3/28… but let’s call this a Steve Gerber sale because his runs on the feature are the prize here. Gerber being one of the finest writers to grace a comics page.

The original run is collected in Man-Thing by Steve Gerber: The Complete Collection. Yes, these do collect the infamous Giant-Size Man-Thing issues. A third volume isn’t out yet (thus, not on sale) and it even contains the late 80s Marvel Comics Presents serial, so they aren’t kidding about complete.

The Infernal Man-Thing is more recent, a posthumously published tale by Gerber with art by Kevin Nowlan. (!) It’s actually a sequel to “Song-Cry of the Living Dead Man” from the original run (which is included in the book).

Howard the Duck: The Complete Collection is probably Gerber’s signature work. It’s also a Man-Thing spin-off. Here at the Tower of Cheap, we try to avoid non-Gerber Howard the Duck (though we’re quite happy with Destroyer Duck), you need the first two volumes. Past that… it ain’t Gerber.

Across the Multiverse

The DC Explore the Multiverse Sale is split into to parts, A-L and M- Z. The sale runs through Monday, 4/1. There’s quite a bit here, so it’s worth and extended browse. Some of the better material:

Man and Superman (Deluxe Edition) by Marv Wolfman and Claudio Castellini is something of a miracle. It was sitting in a draw at DC for YEARS before someone had the good sense to publish it. There have been several “how Clark Kent came to Metropolis and became Superman.” This is one of, possibly THE best of those. They’d be well served to make it the jumping off point next time Superman gets reset. Excellent comic and a love letter to the Man of Steel.

Speaking of Superman, you’ve probably heard good things about Superman Smashes the Klan by Gene Yuen Yang and Gurihiru. Believe them. This is the top shelf of the Young Adult superhero comics from DC.

If you’d like something rare, Batman Death Mask, the manga by Yoshinori Natsume is one of the few comics DC is discounting over 50%. 60% off is not common for DC these days!

Everything’s Coming Up Kirkman

The Robert Kirkman Sale Featuring Invincible runs through Tuesday, 5/4.

You might have heard that the Invincible animated series has dropped on Amazon Prime, but this is actually a sale on pretty much all of Kirkman’s Image output. As always, the “Compendium” omnibus editions are incredible values, particularly Invincible and Walking Dead. The Astounding Wolf-Man Complete Collection is not quite as good a buy, but you know what? It still comes out to less than 99-cents per issue and it’s not on sale as often.