Tag: Marvel

Comixology Sales: DC’s Huge Discounts Continue, Plus Ka-Zar vs. Thanos and X-Men

This week in Comixology Sales, we look at the back half of DC’s 70+% off Labor Day sale, plus Ka-Zar and X-Men get the discount treatment at Marvel.

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

DC Has STRONG Discounts

No, you’re not hallucinating. DC broke out of their slump with some of the best discounts they’ve had in months. 73-77% off. It’s better than a BOGO sale.

The “DC Labor Day Sale” comes in two parts.  Part One contains 100 Bullets though John Constantine, Hellblazer. (We looked at that last time out.) Part Two contains John Constantine, Hellblazer through Zero Hour.  There’s a ton of material here, including some semi-recent offerings so be sure to have a good browse.  That said, here’s some things that caught our eye in Part Two, but might not be at the top of your mind.

Let’s start out with Hellblazer. The adventures of anti-hero John Constantine were a pretty consistently good read from Vertigo for a very long time before internal politics killed the original series.  22 volumes are on sale, ranging from $2.99 – $4.99, depending on the volume.

Hellblazer

Not so long ago, we thoroughly enjoyed ourselves revisiting the Paul Levitz/Keith Giffen era of Legion of Superheroes (which starts out as Levitz/Pat Broderick).  The Great Darkness Saga and The Curse – read in that order – are two thick volumes of prime material for $3.99/$4.99.  Outstanding buys.

Legion of Super Heroes The Great Darkness Saga    Legion of Superheroes: The Curse

And if we’re talking Levitz/Giffen Legion, we should probably also be talking Marv Wolfman and George Perez on New Teen Titans, DC’s other defining book of the pre-crisis era.  Fortunately, the sale is accommodating us and there are 11 volumes on sale for $2.99 a pop. (Cheap.) That takes you into the early Baxter series era. A very influential series to this day.

New Teen Titans

Preacher by Garth Ennis and Steve Dillon certainly raised its already large profile when it got a TV adaption. Definitely not a comic for the easily offended, it concerns a disillusioned preacher, his girlfriend and his vampire buddy looking for God, who’s gone missing.  That’s safe for work version anyway.  Watch out for the New Orleans vampire sequence, it’s… but that would be spoiling. At $2.99 a pop for the 350+ page collections, this is another off the chart value.

Preacher

Speaking of large page counts for $2.99, remember when Gail Simone was writing the Secret Six? This is one of those title that Comixology splits up a little strangely, Volume 1 contains Villains United and the first Secret Six’s 6 issues. That was all in the run-up to Infinite Crisis. Volume 2 is where the second series starts and this is where we think it hits its stride as dark exploration of DC’s ne’er-do-wells.

Secret Six: Villains United   Secret Six

This might not be the consensus opinion, but we lean towards Omega Men being Tom King’s best DC writing. It’s also probably his least known. He was way under the radar when it started. You want this for $3.99, ignore the other link that’s the more expensive digital version of a print hard cover. (We always chuckle at HC prices for digital.)

And we end with another spectacular buy.  You may recall that a pre-Saga Brian K. Vaughan teamed with Pia Guerra for Y: The Last Man about the sole male survivor of a mysterious plague. It’s got a TV adaptation that drops on 9/13.  The omnibus editions are $2.99, same price as the regular (thinner) collections.  We’re not sure how much more you could ask for.  Click here, scroll down to “Omnibuses” and have at it.

Y the Last Man

There’s a ton more on sale and these discounts are unusual for DC, so carve out some time to browse this sale on your own.

Lord of the Jungle… er, Savage Land

The Marvel Ka-Zar Sale runs through Thursday, 9/9.

The best known Ka-Zar might be the 80’s Bruce Jones/Brent Anderson run, the first off of which is collected in Ka-Zar: Savage Dawn.

If you’d like something a bit more unexpected, Mark Waid and Andy Kubert had Ka-Zar squaring off against Thanos.  Yes, that Thanos.

And if you’re particularly old school, you’ll remember that Ka-Zar goes back all the way to the original 40s run of Marvel Mystery Comics.

There’s a bit more here, including some random Epic Editions where Ka-Zar appeared, for you to browse.

Ka-Zar Savage Dawn   Ka-Zar vs. Thanos   Marvel Mystery Comics

X-Men Event Editions

The X-Men Milestones Sale runs through Thursday, 9/9.

It’s a set of collections of X-family crossover events and it pretty self-explanatory. Looking to catch up on the original Inferno before Jonathan Hickman does his version?  This is where you can do that.

Inferno

Still on Sale

 

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Comixology Sales: Spider-Man, Guardians of the Galaxy, Shang-Chi, SHIELD, Kingdom Come, Red Son and Matt Kindt

This week’s Comixology sales include a bunch of Marvel with Spidey, Guardians of the Galaxy, Shang-Chi and SHIELD getting discounts. DC has a “Top 100” Sale and Matt Kindt’s Dark Horse work gets slashed.

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

Why Not “Fabulous Spider-Man?”

The  Marvel Spectacular Spider-Man Sale runs through Thursday, 9/2.

This sale is so small and organized, we don’t have to link to the individual series, you can just look at the sale page, no sweat.

We’re looking at 4 things here. In order of presentation:

  1. The more recent Spectacular Spider-Man, mostly by Chip “I have a Substack now” Zdarsky and Adam Kubert.  You should already know if that sounds good.
  2. Masterworks editions of Peter Parker, The Spectacular Spider-Man. Masterwork editions tend to be good value and we’d point out that V.2 has Frank Miller’s first Daredevil work and the Carrion storyline would turn out to be an important one, if controversial.
  3. The ’03-’05 Spectacular Spider-Man. We’ve always found Paul Jenkin’s Spidey to be under-appreciated. He writes the first 4 volumes with Humberto Ramos as the primary artist… with some early Paolo Rivera in V. 3. Feel free to skip the Sins Remembered tie-in in V. 5 and then Jenkins is back for V.6
  4. And the last thing listed is a collection of the 1968 magazine version of Spectacular Spider-Man by Stan Lee and John Romita, Sr.

If you like Spidey, it’s a decent menu.

Peter Parker, the Spectacular Spider-Man

Who Guards the Guardians?

The Marvel Guardians of the Galaxy Sale runs through Sunday, 8/29.

The Guardians have been around quite a while and were originally based in the future. We always recommend going back to the original Steve Gerber/Roger Stern/Al Milgrom run.  Guardians of the Galaxy: Tomorrow’s Avengers covers that.  Vol. 1 is the first appearance through the primary solo run in Marvel Presents. Vol. 2 covers the rest of their guest appearances, notably including the Korvac Saga in Avengers.

The Guardians popped up again in ’90 in a very popular (and very fun) series by Jim Valentino. Yes, we know everyone reading this is old school enough to associate Valentino more with Normalman, but GoG was the direct line leading him to co-found Image comics. This version of GoG spends quite a bit of time exploring the legacy of the Marvel universe… and some of the less mortal characters who are still floating around far in the future. Guardians of the Galaxy by Jim Valentino collects his run.

The current run start with Guardians of the Galaxy by Al Ewing with Juan Cabal on art, which finds the Guardians at war with the gods… and, as you might expect with Ewing, setting up a longer game.

Guardians of the Galaxy: Tomorrow's Avengers   Guardians of the Galaxy by Jim Valentino   Guardians of the Galaxy by Al Ewing

SHIELD’s Up

The Marvel S.H.I.E.L.D. sale runs through Sunday, 8/29.

Many would still sale the best SHIELD is Jim Steranko’s SHIELD, which is conveniently collected in… can you guess the name?  Yes, S.H.I.E.L.D. by Steranko – the Complete Collection.  There’s nothing wrong with the Lee/Kirby material, and if you go the Masterworks route, there’s some Archie Goodwin to be read, but Steranko is still the bar for many.

Nick Fury Vs. SHIELD by Bob Harras and Paul Neary was the late 80s reappraisal and still the “SHIELD has been infiltrated compromised” arc that everyone apes. (This led to the ’89-’92 series.)

SHIELD by Steranko   Nick Fury vs. SHIELD

The Deadly Hands of Reboot

The Marvel Shang-Chi Sale runs through Sunday, 9/12.

Gosh, you’d think there was a movie coming out or something?

Shang-Chi is kind of an odd character in the world of Marvel. He essentially has had three lives:

First was the Master of Kung Fu era. This was originally a licensed comic and the license was Fu Manchu. Shang, an original creation (thus, owned by Marvel) was Fu Manchu’s virtuous, rebellious son who worked with MI-5 against his father. It was blend of espionage, pulp and Hong Kong cinema. Doug Moench was the writer for the bulk of the period. Paul Gulacy is the artist most associated with the feature, but Jim Craig, Mike Zeck and Gene Day had their runs.  This was considered one of Marvel’s finest comics of the 70s, but… let’s put it mildly and say Fu Manchu is a little out of favor.

The second life was when Marvel tried to revive the character, mostly intact, and just not mention who his father is. Or assign a different father.  This never went very far.

Right now, we’ve entered the third life where Shang-Chi is now more of a fantasy comic with a more mystical evil father, weapons/caste-based secret societies and the undead. Oh, there’s still some MI-5 around the edges, but it’s a very different comic than where it started.  Gene Yang, Dike Ruan and Philip Tan.  You can feel the influence from Jimmie Robinson’s Five Weapons, too!

Master of Kung Fu   Shang-Chi

We Thought The 100 Were Villains?

The DC Top 100 eBooks Sale runs through Monday, 8/30

DC’s back at the sub-50% discount game again.  You have been warned.  Items of interest include:

Kingdom Come is the 90s classic by Mark Waid and Alex Ross that defined the dystopian future sub-genre for a spell (and we still think it’s the true inspiration for the Injustice video game).

Superman: Red Son by Mark Millar, Dave Johnson and Killian Plunkett is the tale of infant Kal-El’s spacecraft landing in the Soviet Union instead of Kansas. It’s on the short list for Millar’s best work.

We’ve mentioned before how pleasantly surprised we were with DCeased, Tom Taylor’s and Trevor Hairsine’s Anti-Life Equation zombie(ish) epic. We’re not recanting.

Kingdom Come   Superman: Red Son   DCeased

Sale MGMT

The Dark Horse Matt Kindt Sale runs through Monday, 8/30.

Matt Kindt has done a fair amount of work for Dark Horse, but his opus there will likely always be the psychic espionage series, Mind MGMT.

Mind MGMT

Still On Sale

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Comixology Sales: Dawn of X, Neil Gaiman’s Sandman, Jim Starlin’s Dreadstar

This week’s Comixology sales include: Dawn of X from Marvel, DC loosing The Sandman (and Sandman Mystery Theater), Horror from Dark Horse and Omnibus editions from Dynamite.

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

Mutated Reading

The Marvel Dawn of X Sale runs through Thursday, 8/26.

Dawn of X is a different type of Marvel collected edition. This collects the titles of the Hickman X-Men line into a book format, but bounces between the various series in a manner similar to how one would read the issues as they came out. We’ve always felt that reading the  entire line was an additive experience and this is probably the best way to experience that in the collected edition format.  The 16 volumes of Dawn of X take you right up to the edge of X of Swords.

Dawn of X

The Stuff Dreams Are Made Of

The DC Spotlight: Sandman and the Sandman Universe Sales runs through Monday, 8/23.

We’re assuming you’re already heard of the  Neil Gaiman Sandman series. (Note: sub-50% discounts again)

So let’s talk a bit about the very loosely connect pulp spin-off Sandman Mystery Theater. It’s a pulp detective feature with a bit of subtext that’s primarily written by Matt Wagner and/or Steven T. Seagal. Guy Davis is the primary artist. It’s a lost classic from the ’90s as the Golden Age Sandman, replete with gas mask and gas gun stalks his prey.  This one DOES get you 50% off the collected editions (which will get you through issue#24) and 99-cent single issue.

Sandman   Sandman Mystery Theater

The Long, Hot… Halloween?

The Dark Horse Hot August Horror sale runs through Monday, 8/23.

Yes, we did hear it got a little warm in Portland.

You can’t have a Dark Horse Horror sale without the Mignolaverse. Rise of the Black Flame by Mike Mignola, Chris Roberson and Christopher Mitten is the tale of the Hellboy villain when the power was controlled by a cult.

In a different direction, there’s John Allison’s (Bad Machinery, Giant Days) Steeple.

And you ever notice that Steve Niles has done quite a bit of Criminal Macabre?

Rise of the Black Flame   Steeple   Criminal Macabre

Another One Rides the (Omni)Bus

The  Dynamite Omnibus Sale runs through Monday, 9/13.

We would draw your attention to two things here.

First, we’ve said it before and we’ll say it again, Jim Starlin’s Dreadstar is fantastic. It didn’t get quite as much attention when it came out from Epic and First, but it’s a large part of what he was working on between his first run at Marvel and when he returned for the run-up to Infinity Gauntlet.

Jeff Parker and Doc Shaner did an under the radar – and extremely fun – take on Flash Gordon a few years back that’s worth a look.

Dreadstar   Flash Gordon

Still on Sale

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Comixology Sales: Fantastic Four, Marvel Zombies, Star-Lord, Usagi Yojimbo, Derf and DC’s TV Sale

This week’s Comixology sales have a bit of variety. Marvel leads with Fantastic Four, Star-Lord and the Marvel Zombies. DC has a TV-themed selection. Dark Horse has “teen” titles on sale and the “Small Press” sales offers up some Kyle Baker, Ahoy and Kickstarter comics.

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

It’s Price Clobbering Time

The Marvel Fantastic Four: World’s Greatest Sale runs through Sunday, 8/15.

That’s a lot of FF and it’s a really, really cluttered sale because of how many different FF reprint volumes there are, so here’s how we’re going to do it: Click here for the original series that started in 1961. Scroll down to the Collected Editions section so we can look at this in roughly chronological order.  The Masterworks are not on sale, but the Epic Collections are, so Epics are your best buy and they start on the second screen. We think Lee/Kirby hits it stride with the Epics “The Coming of Galactus” and “Thy Name Is Doom,” but you can’t go wrong with anything by that team. As you move forward the next really notable period is John Byrne’s, which hasn’t gotten Epic treatment yet, just the “Visionaries” line. Remember, he didn’t write V. 0 for that.  We’d end up with the Walt Simonson run, which is in a couple Epics or smaller Visionaries volumes.

Now click here for the ’98 relaunch.  In the Omnibus section is the Hickman material, and that’s probably the best way to read that run.  Scroll down to the “Collected Editions” section and after V.5, the Fantastic Four by Mark Waid and Mike Wieringo volumes start. These are the omnibuses for that landmark run and the better pricing (good stuff). When you get past the Civil War volume, you come into 2 volumes of Dwayne McDuffie (Nuff said).

That’s a lot of FF and should keep you out of trouble.

Fantastic Four Epic Collection: The Name is Doom   FF by Waid and Ringo

A Solo Guardian

The Marvel Star-Lord Sale runs through Sunday, 8/15.

The bulk of the sale is the more recent incarnation, but we’d recommend going back to the original conception of Star-Lord in Star-Lord: Guardian of the Galaxy.  Al Ewing’s been revisiting some of this source material in the current GoG run. Peter Quill started out in the Marvel magazines of the ’70s before moving over to the normal comic line. You’ve got Steve Englehart, Chris Claremont and Doug Moench for writers and for artists, Carmine Infantino, John Byrne and Bill Sienkiewicz.  Not a bad set of talent.

Star-Lord

Marvel’s Walking Dead

The Marvel Zombies Sale runs through Thursday, 8/19.

Yes, when Robert Kirkman wrote for Marvel, he did a zombie comic. And it was a scream.  It’s technically a spin-off of Ultimate Fantastic Four, which was a more serious story than the very entertaining farce it involved into. We’d say to go with the Marvel Zombies Complete Collections. Vol. 1 gives the the Millar/Land Ultimate FF and Hudlin/Portela Black Panther lead-ins and the the original Marvel Zombies by Kirkman and Sean Phillips. (Yes, you might have vague feelings that Phillips is cheating on Ed Brubaker while reading this. It’s a natural reaction.)  Vol. 2 continues with the Marvel Zombie minis, Kirkman writes the first one before Fred Van Lente tags in and Seth Graeme-Green puts in an appearance. When Phillips leaves, Kev Walker tags in as the primary artist.  We’d say go for V.1 and V.2 initially. If you’re still wanting more, V. 3 is still there, but that might be a bit much for a single sitting.

Marvel Zombies

DC thinks about Television

The DC on TV sale runs through Monday, 8/16 and comes in 2 parts:  Part 1 is the collected editions and single issues through The Flash.  Part 2 finishes up The Flash through the end of the alphabet.

We’ll be straight with you: this isn’t a great sale for collected editions. Lots of lowball 45%-46% discounts. Lower than what you’re used to. $0.99 single issues are more what you’re used to and you’ll want to make sure it’s not cheaper to buy the single issues over collected editions.  Of possible note: we don’t always see the original Superman’s Girlfriend, Lois Lane on sale.

Lois Lane

The Rabbit

The Dark Horse Teen Sale runs through Monday, 8/16.

There’s some manga, a tone of Avatar: The Last Airbender and some Stranger Things, but we think this is a great excuse to highlight Usagi Yojimbo, Stan Sakai’s long running saga of a ronin rabbit.  When we say long running, we mean since the early 80s.

Usagi Yojimbo

Indie Comics on Parade

The Small Press Graphic Novel Mega Sale runs through Thursday, 9/9.

As usual, we wouldn’t call all of it “small press,” but there’s a lot here that really runs the gamut.  A few things we noticed in there:

The Cowboy Wally Show by Kyle Baker is a legendary graphic novel and a real riot. Always highly recommended. We’ll call a satire of the entertainment biz and save the spoilers.

Billionaire Island by Mark Russell and Steve Pugh is one of the best things we’ve read recently. A _dark_ satire where Billionaires create a mobile island to escape things like taxes, global warming and… laws. A dot com billionaire has done something especially heinous and the pigeons are coming home to roost.  This one takes the satire further than we’re accustomed to seeing.  Also highly recommended.

Punk Rock & Trailer Parks is Derf Backderf’s initial foray into graphic novels after years of The City strip in alt weekly papers and before going on to do My Friend Dahmer and Kent State. It’s about the punk scene in ’79 Akron, OH.

Leaving Megalopolis by Gail Simone and Jim Calafiore is a tale of super heroes gone berserk and an popular Kickstarted comic.

Cthulhu is Hard to Spell is actually two anthologies about the slumbering one that don’t take themselves particularly seriously.

The Cowboy Wally Show   Billionaire Island  Punk Rock and Trailer Parks   Leaving Megalopolis   Cthulhu is Hard to Spell

Still on Sale

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Comixology Sales: Black Panther, Punisher, What If…, Captain Britain, Miracleman, Astro City and Cullen Bunn

Highlights from this week’s Comixology sales include just about all the Black Panther material, What If, Marvel Max selections including The Punisher and Miracleman, Captain Britain, Astro City and Cullen Bunn’s Dark Horse work.

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

T’Challa Gets Cheap

The Marvel Black Panther Sale runs through Sunday, 8/8.

The Don McGregor material is now in “print” and on sale. It’s also a little goofy to follow, the way it’s arranged. The Epic Collections and Masterworks are not all on the same page outside the sale, so let’s give you the (cheap) cheat sheet.

You can pick up the Jungle Action run for four bucks less in the Black Panther Masterworks V. 1.  That McGregor with Billy Graham, Rich Buckler and Gil Kane.  While there’s nothing wrong with the Kirby run, which is the next volume for both the Masterworks and Epic Collections, we’d probably have you skip ahead to the Panther’s Prey Epic Collection. This one collects McGregor’s return to the character with the much more grounded Marvel Comics Presents serial drawn by Gene Colan and the Panther’s Prey mini-series (prestige format, back in the day) painted by Dwayne Turner.

You can then proceed to Black Panther by Christoper Priest: The Complete Collection, the Marvel Knight era series that’s truly excellent and builds directly on that original Jungle Action run.

Black Panther Masterworks   Black Panther Panther's Prey   Black Panther by Priest

If Not, Why Not?

The  Marvel What If Sale runs through Thursday, 8/12.

Gosh, it’s like there’s a new TV show coming out or something…

Anyway, here’s the deal – there’s no significant price difference between the larger “Complete Collection” versions and the What If Classic volumes.  2 Classics = 1 volume of Complete.  Since it’s an anthology, we’re going to list some notable issues of the original series and let you figure out what you’re most interested in and which format to go for. Some of these are going to sound awfully darn familiar, too.  What If seems like a gold mine for pitching your editor!

  • #1 – What If Spider-Man Joined the Fantastic Four?
  • #2 – What If The Hulk Had the Brain of Bruce Banner?
  • #10 – What If Jane Foster Had Found the Hammer of Thor?
  • #12 – What If Rick Jones Had Become The Hulk?
  • #13 – What If Conan the Barbarian Walked the Earth Today?
  • #23 – What If The Hulk Had Become a Barbarian?
  • #30 – What If Spider-Man’s Clone Had Lived?
  • #35 – What If Elektra Had Lived?
  • #37 – What If The Beast and The Thing Continued to Mutate?
  • #43 – What If Conan Were Stranded in the 20th Century?

Gosh, we’re sure NOBODY ever picked up those topics a decade or four later…

What If

Marvel For the Mature

The Marvel Max Sale runs through Thursday, 8/12. This would be Marvel’s mature reader line.

The flagship title here is probably The Punisher: The Complete Collection, which is Garth Ennis returning to write non-satirical tales of Frank Castle with artists like Darick Robertson, Leandro Fernandez, Doug Braithwaite and Goran Parlov. (The Ennis run goes through V. 4.)

And yes, tucked in amongst a pretty eclectic set of comics is Miracleman.  Don’t let the credits fool you, this is Alan Moore’s run, along with Garry Leach, Alan Davis, Rick Veitch and John Totleben (among others). A man remembers his magic word and transforms into a superhero, only to start unravelling the conspiracy that created it him, which was certainly not magical. A landmark tale that’s lost some of its place in history because of the lawsuits and being buried for so long.

Punisher   Miracleman

UK Officer Material

The Marvel Captain Britain Sale runs through Sunday, 8/8.

And a strange tale this is.  The best Captain Britain is still the Alan Moore/Alan Davis serial through Alan Davis’ solo run on the Captain Britain magazine. There’s a sampler collection here, but not the full run.  As such, we’re going to have to fall back to Excalibur.What you want here are the Alan Davis issues, we like it a bit better when he returned to writing and drawing the series, but the initial run with Chris Claremont is also quite good.  The Epic Editions are the best buys, but you need to finish up the second run with the Visionary editions.

Excalibur

Astro City Returns to Image

The Image Astro City Sale runs through Tuesday, 8/17.

As you may recall, Astro City said farewell to DC awhile back and the title disappeared from digital. It’s now gone full circle. Astro City started out at the Homage imprint under Wildstorm at Image and moved over to DC when Jim Lee sold Wildstorm to them.  Astro City is back at Image and the whole lot is on sale.  Amazingly, Kurt Busiek, Brent Anderson and Alex Ross have been in this one for the long haul and we look forward to new material soon-ish.

While Astro City is written such than you can drop in just about anywhere in the run (with the exception of The Dark Ages spanning 2 volumes), we’d still recommend starting at the beginning a letting the scope of the worldbuilding grow as you read along.  Astro City is the perfect antidote for when your favorite DC or Marvel title gets into a rut. It’s everything that’s good about the super hero format.

Astro City

Horse on a Bunn

The Dark Horse Cullen Bunn Sale runs through Monday, 8/9.

Prolific dark fantasy/horror writer Cullen Bunn’s major Dark Horse work is Harrow County. This Tyler Crook (yes, we were talking about his Petrograd last week) drawn series about witches and demons with a long and contentious history is starting to be available in multiple formats.  As of right now, the cheapest method of consumption would be to grab the Omnibus Editions.  V. 1 is half off and V.2 is the same price as getting the 2 Library Editions it collects on sale (which is still cheaper than getting the regular collected editions).

Harrow County Omnibus 1   Harrow County Omnibus 2

Still on Sale:

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Comixology Sales: Rocket Raccoon and Groot, Suicide Squad, Groo, Whiteout, Kaijumax and a whole bunch of Oni GNs

This week in Comixology Sales, Marvel serves up Rocket & Groot; DC slashes the Suicide Squad (you’d think there was a movie coming out…); Sergio pops up with a Groo sale; and Oni has a very nearly line-wide graphic novel sale.

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

Like Moose & Squirrel… but with Tree

The  Marvel Rocket Raccoon & Groot Sale runs through Sunday, 8/1.

We’d say the Rocket Raccoon & Groot Complete Collection (Comixology says Ultimate Collection, but we’re going with what’s on the cover) is the place to start for the original appearances and some Annihilation-related material.  Then it’s time for that rascal Skottie Young’s Rocket Raccoon run.

Rocket Raccoon & Groot Complete Collection   Rocket Raccoon

Suicide Sale

The DC Suicide Squad Sale runs through Monday, 8/9.

DC didn’t exactly make it easy on the recommendations here. Our favorite runs are the original John Ostrander/Luke McDonnell and the recent Tom Taylor/Bruno Redondo runs. The Taylor/Redondo run is too recent to be on sale and DC just reissued V.1 of the Ostrander run, so this is an imperfect sale.

So here’s the Ostrander/McDonnell work around: go to the series page for their Suicide Squad run, get the $0.99 single issues for #1-8 and then proceed to the collected editions.  As we said, imperfect sale.  Good comics, though.  (We’ll ignore the comedy of putting the movie cast on the new cover for V.1 for the moment.  Might not be consistent with the contents.)

Suicide Squad

Groo is Getting OLD

The Dark Horse Feeling Groovy Sale runs through Monday, 8/2.

The title is a bit of a pun, since the object of the sale is Groo the Wander. How long have Sergio Aragonés and Mark Evanier been telling tales of the none-too-swift barbarian? It’ll be 40 years in 2022!  (And we have that issue of Destroyer Duck around here someplace.) This sale is for the Dark Horse material.  Groo is pretty darn portable, but if you want to start at the beginning of the Dark Horse run, then go with Sergio Aragones’ Groo: The Most Intelligent Man in the World. That’s where the Dark Horse era begins. The bottom line here: it’s Sergio and if you don’t love Sergio, we can’t help you.

Groo

Oni Opens the Vault

The  Oni Graphic Novel Sale runs through Monday, 8/9.

There’s a lot of territory to cover here and we’re going to assume you already know what a Scott Pilgrim is.  And we’ll go a little deeper here because the full monty seems to be on sale.

The Rucka Trilogy

Greg Rucka’s had a good run with Oni over the years. It starts with Whiteout with Steve Lieber, a outright classic about a murder at Antarctica. Yes, there was a film, but we don’t talk about that. The next title was a sidestep towards espionage with the long-running Queen & Country. Possibly the best spy comic of them all, this one rotates artists with each arc and you see everyone from Chris Samnee to Jason Shawn Alexander to Carla Speed McNeil. Q&C channels a cult UK spy show called The Sandbaggers, which is also worth your time. More recently, Rucka teamed with Matthew Southland and later Justin Greenwood for Stumptown, a Rockford Files-esque PI show set in Portland that has a TV adaptation. (We might like V.4’s stolen exotic coffee beans plot the best.)

Whiteout   Queen & Country   Stumptown

Normally, we’d be pushing The Sixth Guy, but Oni’s being a jerk about it with this sale. The “Deluxe” editions are on sale — as in hardcover pricing for digital.  The regular collected editions mostly aren’t on sale — and they’re still cheaper than the Deluxe sales price.  Great series, but this sale is not the one.

There’s a similar situation with Kaijumax by Zander Cannon. In this case, the regular collected editions are on sale, so avoid the Deluxe version in the Omnibus window and their HC pricing and stick with the normal ones.  So what is Kaijumax?  A criminally overlooked delight.  Oh, yes… it looks like a funny animal book, but it’s a DARK tale about an island that’s a supermax prison for giant monsters.  Think Godzilla goes to jail and you’re not far off. Prison gangs, contraband and breakout attempts. Cannon plays this one straight and the contrast between the art style and the subject matter is part of the fun. Seriously, your jaw will drop as you get used to the format.

And for something in a different direction, there’s Petrograd, Phillip Gelatt’s and Tyler Crook’s tale of a British spy sent to arrange Rasputin’s demise.

Kaijumax   Petrograd

Still on Sale:

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Comixology Sales: Old Man Logan; Ms. Marvel; V For Vendetta; Early Bendis and a LOT of Image Comics

Highlight of this week’s Comixology Sales include Marvel dropping prices on Old Man Logan and Ms. Marvel, DC having an “essential” sale (why yes, that includes Batman) and a ton of Image gets the discount treatment.

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

Ageism For Mutants?!?

The Old Man Logan Sale runs through Sunday, 7/25. If Jennifer Walters finds out they’re calling Logan that at the office, there might be a discrimination suit!

You’re mostly looking at two flavors here: The original post-apocalyptic Mark Millar / Steve McNiven Old Man Logan. While we’d probably call this a variation on Days of Future Past, in terms of the superheroes in a bleak future, this one really was a trend setter and has inspired a lot of imitators. “Old Man” is not an uncommon way to start a title at Marvel these days.

Then you’ve got the ongoing Old Man Logan series, initially by Jeff Lemire and Andrea Sorrentino. This one brings the older Logan back in time to the present and, frankly, was better than most people were expecting at the time.

Wolerine: Old Man Logan   Wolverine: Old Man Logan

You Look Mahvellous

The Ms. Marvel Sale runs through Thursday, 7/29.

This would be the Kamala Khan Ms. Marvel, as opposed to Carol Danvers, and we’re firm in thinking you need to start with the original G. Willow Wilson / Adrian Alphona series that caused quite a stir (especially on the Scholastic circuit).

Ms. Marvel

Essential Oils Minus the Oil

The DC Essentials Sales runs through Monday, 7/26.

For something relatively current, we’ve thoroughly enjoyed DCeased, the Tom Taylor / Trevor Hairsine / Stefano Gaudiano vehicle where the Anti-Life Equation gets lose and creates a zombie doomsday scenario. What can we say, as he often does, Taylor takes a pitch that sounds like “Marvel Zombies for DC” and creates something new with depth. (Mind you, Marvel Zombies was also a lot of fun for a few installments.)

Going back a bit further, Multiversity is one of Grant Morrison’s best vehicles for sheer world building fun. This one hops dimensions as we follow a conspiracy across the multiverse. And, being that rare self-contained event, Morrison’s got a murderer’s row of artists for the story, including Frank Quitely, Jim Lee, Chris Sprouse and Doug Mahnke.

And if you want to go back to the 80s, Alan Moore and David Lloyd did a project called V for Vendetta that started as a serial in Warrior magazine and finished up at DC. A very political tale of resistance to tyranny, it’s proven influential and was an early hit that crossed over to the mainstream.

DCeased   Multiversity   V for Vendetta

Image HumbleBrag Sale

The Image Eisner Sale runs though Monday, 8/2.

There’s some pretty strong and recent content here, so we’ll just highlight three things we particularly liked.

The Department of Truth by James Tynion IV and Martin Simmonds is the real deal. It’s an X-Files-esque tale of conspiracies theories become real and the power of belief. Tynion’s definitely having a moment right now. Simmonds’s art style is a good fit for the material, too.

The team of Ed Brubaker and Sean Phillips have also been having a particularly strong run that’s represented here by two original graphic novels. We’d probably put Pulp slightly ahead, that would be the meditative tale of pulp writer in 1930s reliving his wild younger days with a hail of bullets.  That said, Reckless, the opener for a series about an ex-FBI undercover man turned underground fixer, is pretty darn good, too.

Department of Truth   Pulp  Reckless

Image Throws in the Kitchen Sink

The Image Mega Sale runs through Monday, 8/2. It might not be the entire Image library, but it’s close enough. Plenty to browse, but let’s highlight a few things that might not pop to the top of your mind.

Once upon a time, Bendis was not a big name creator. Yes, that really was quite a while ago, but back when he was an emerging writing, Todd McFarlane tapped him to write the Spawn spin-off Sam and Twitch.  Yes, the oddball detectives investigating dark things. Who was drawing it?  Names you’ll recognize: Angel Medina, Ashley Wood, Alex Maleev.  Yes, Bendis and Maleev go WAY back.

Lewis & Clark – Monster Hunters.  That’s the elevator pitch for Manifest Destiny by Chris Dingess, Matthew Roberts and Tony Akins. Lewis & Clark are sent to map out the Northwest Territory, but also to investigate unsettling supernatural questions and clear out the territory of monsters. It starts out light and fun before descending into madness. Usually under the radar, always enjoyable.

The Black Monday Murders by Jonathan Hickman and Tom Coker is a tale of an occult cartel controlling the world’s financial system and the power struggle an apparent murder sets off in it. One of our favorite things from Hickman and Coker knocks it out of the park with some downright haunting art.  Coker occasionally posts pages from his work on the third act, so we’re hoping it’s not too far away from being scheduled.

   Sam and Twitch   Manifest Destiny   The Black Monday Murders

Still on Sale

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Comixology Sales: X-Men, Superman, Moon Knight, Tarzan and a WIDE sale at IDW (with an extra 50% off for CU subscribers)

This week’s Comixology Sales include a visit from the classic X-Men era, Superman, Tarzan over at Dark Horse, Moon Knight and we seem to have uncovered an unadvertised 50% off sale at IDW that stacks on a deep graphic novel sale.

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

Not Brand Xs

The Marvel Uncanny X-Men Legacy Sale runs through Sunday, 7/18.

Probably better to view the items on the sale page for this one. The graphic novel section for the Uncanny X-Men series on Comixology is a real mess.  What? Marvel overproducing X-Men graphic novels in strange combinations?  Surely not!

The best buys here are the Epic Collections and Marvel Masterworks collections (which get thicker as the series go on). We like the Epic’s a little better, but pick your poison.

X-Men Epic Collection

Point of Origin

The Marvel Origins Sale runs through Sunday, 7/18 and it’s an odd one.

Wolverine: Origin, the Marvel “Season One” OGNs from a few years back and some origin story anthologies.  Browse for yourself.

Wolverine: Origin

Crescent Moon

The Marvel Moon Knight Sale runs through Thursday, 7/22.

While pretty much all the runs are here, we’ve always been of the opinion that the Moon Knight you need is the one before the insanity questions started — the (mostly) Moench/Sienkiewicz era.  There are three Epic Collections for this and that’s where you should definitely start. Visits from Morpheus and The Werewolf always make for an interesting evening.

Moon Knight Epic Collection

Up, Up and on Sale

The DC Superman Sale runs through Monday, 7/19.

We’re assuming you already know about All-Star Superman, so let’s talk about some other interesting Superman titles.

Here at the Tower of Cheap, we are HUGE fans of Steve Gerber’s Superman.  Yes, he of Howard the Duck and Man-Thing fame.  Superman: Phantom Zone is a collection of the mini-series of the same name (drawn by Gene Colan) and the DC Comics Presents follow up (drawn by Rick Veitch). This is a dark fantasy horror take on Superman and the Phantom Zone mythos. Come for the interdimensional prison, stay for the Kryptonian sorcerer.  Highly recommended.

For something in the opposite direction, more recent and YA focused, there’s Superman Smashes the Klan where the Gene Yuen Lang and Gurihiru reinterpret the classic 1940s radio serial.

Superman: Phantom Zone  Superman Smashes The Klan

Lord of the Jungle

The Dark Horse Welcome to the Jungle Sale runs through Monday, 7/19.

We would draw your attention to Edgar Rice Burroughs’ Tarzan: The Complete Joe Kubert Years. By all accounts, that was a passion project for Kubert and a run that the pros talk about. With that sale, you can get the full run for less than any single volume of the 3 part archive editions.  There’s a bit more Tarzan (we picked up the “regular” omnibus a couple days ago) and some Tomb Raider, but this is the top of the heap.

Joe Kubert's Tarzan

Thor’s Not Dead

The IDW Graphic Novel Sale runs through Monday, 8/2.  And there’s a bonus here. We can’t find the announcement of this sale, so we can’t tell you how long it’s going to last, but as we type this IDW is 50% off for Comixology Unlimited subscribers, so jump on this in hurry if that’s you?  The discount stacks and that makes for some rock bottom prices.

There’s a ton of stuff here – TMNT, Star Trek, Bloom County, Transformers, Locke & Key, My Little Pony and so forth… but our favorite IDW series on sale is Walt Simonson’s Ragnarok, where Thor… half-survives the Twilight of the Gods and has a score to settle.  Comixology has this broken up into two series for unknown reasons.  You can get the first two volumes here and the volume 3 is a different link.

Ragnarok   

Still on Sale

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Comixology Sales: Marvel Buy One Get One Free; DC’s Black Label; 50% off BOOM!, Dark Horse, Dynamite, Fantagraphics, Harlequin, Humanoids, Lion Forge, IDW, Kodansha and Oni

This week in Comixology Sales: Marvel’s still running a BOGO with two sales you can stack discounts on; DC slashes prices on Black Label titles and subscribers get 50% off a bunch of indie publishers.

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

Half Price Marvel

As you may have heard, Marvel has one of their mostly line wide Buy One Get One Free sales going on. Click here for the codes. (Type it in with ALL CAPS) The sale runs through 11PM ET on Sunday, 7/11. The sale is on material released prior to 6/4/21. No bundles, etc.  You know the drill by now.  HOWEVER, since these discounts stack, let us point out:

The Black Widow Sale (with strange Epic Collections)  that runs through Sunday, 7/18.

What’s good for Black Widow?  We always liked the Richard K. Morgan (yes, as in Altered Carbon)/Goran Parlov/Sean Phillips/Bill Sienkiewicz run that’s collected in Welcome to the Game.

You also can’t go wrong with the Mark Waid/Chris Samnee run, that’s also conveniently collected in a single volume.

Black Widow - Welcome to the Game   Black Widow by Mark Waid and Chris Samnee

And coming in fresh is the Exiles Sale. This title was an X-Men / Age of Apocalypse spin-off of sorts with a team of mutants drawn from various realities dimension hopping and trying to fix the time stream. The original version had a healthy 100 issue run.

Exiles

Someone at DC likes Johnnie Walker?

Hmmm… we wonder what DC likes to drink? At any rate, DC has a Black Label sale on through Monday, 7/12.  Black Label being sorta/kinda the new Vertigo imprint, but with a little more emphasis on alternate versions of their superhero lineup, not just horror and genre material. And the discounts aren’t as punk as in recent weeks. Collected editions are all over 50% for a change, about half are 60%+.  Single issues are 50-60% off, depending on title.  None of this miserly 45% off business this time out.

Our highest possible recommendation goes to John Constatine, Hellblazer by Si Spurrier / Aaron Campbell / Matias Bergara. It’s horror. It’s occasionally laugh out loud hilarious. It’s insideous and sneaky. Join us is being angry there were only 12 issues. One of the best Hellblazer runs in years and some of DC’s best recent work.

An excellent example of Black Label’s alternate takes on superheroes is Daniel Warren Johnson’s Wonder Woman: Dead Earth.  Yes, “hero in a post-apocalyptical wasteland” is a subgenre at this point, HOWEVER… this is one of the better examples because of just how gosh darn kinetic and fun Johnson’s art is.  There’s mayhem aplenty and we can confirm that his work is just about as “metal” as it gets.  Excellence of execution!

There’s more to browse in the single issues here, as DC hasn’t put all the collected editions on sale yet. Please note, some of these titles are Euro-style albums in single issue format.

Hellblazer   Wonder Woman: Dead Earth

50% off all sorts of Indies for Unlimited Subscribers.

So the holiday sale comes after the holiday?  It’s another blow out for Comixology Unlimited subscribers, with 50% off BOOM!, Dark Horse, Dynamite, Fantagraphics, Harlequin, Humanoids, Lion Forge, IDW, Kodansha and Oni. All through Monday, 7/12. Details here.

Now remember – the discounts stack, so if you’re a CU member, prices just got a lot more interesting for the following sales:

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Comixology Sales – Jason Aaron gets the discount spotlight from Marvel, plus Black Hammer

This week’s Comixology sale highlights include Marvel putting the spotlight on Jason Aaron, plus Jeff Lemire’s and Dean Ormston’s Black Hammer.

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

Jason Aaron’s Spotlight Begins

The Marvel Jason Aaron Sale runs through Thursday, 7/1.

Perhaps best described as the regular Marvel U Jason Aaron, this covers a lot of territory.

If you want a value buy, there’s the nice thick volumes of Thor by Jason Aaron: The Complete Collection, which starts with the “God Butcher” material and features art by the likes of Nic Klein, Ron Garney, Esad Ribic and Russell Dauterman (among others) as the saga unfolds and Jane Foster moves to center stage.

There’s also the entire “Life and Death of Conan” run by Aaron and Mahmud Arsar from Conan the Barbarian, now in one volume.

And quite a bit more, since Aaron’s had a long run at Marvel.

Thor by Jason Aaron   Conan the Barbarian

Ultimate Aarons?

The Marvel Ultimate Universe  Sale runs through Sunday, 6/27.

You already know about the original flagship titles of the Ultimate run, so let’s look at a couple things from a bit later in the universe from names you might just find familiar.

How about Ultimate Captain America by Jason Aaron (him again?) and Ron Garney, which we enjoyed back in the day.

And before was the X-Men showrunner, Jonathan Hickman had a run on Ultimate Comics – The Ultimates with Esad Ribic as the primary artist. Most people would consider that an interesting creative pair, we think.

Ultimate Captain America   Ultimate Comics - The Ultimates

Getting Hammered

The  Dark Horse Black Hammer Sale runs through Monday, 6/28.

This critical darling by Jeff Lemire and Dean Ormston is very much a world building experience.  Start with the core series and then branch to the spin-offs as the spotlighted characters catch your fancy.  There’s plenty of imagination to go around.

Black Hammer

Still on Sale

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