Comixology Sales: DC’s Vertigo (The Whole Thing), Alpha Flight, Hawkeye and Excellent Deals from TKO

This week’s Comixology sales include some big value in a surprising place as TKO takes a bow. DC puts Vertigo in the discount category for the week and Marvel goes for a wide thematic spread.

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

A Marvel Comics Variety Pack

Marvel’s Alpha Flight Sale runs through Sunday (1/24). For Alpha Flight, we recommend the original series, Alpha Flight “Classic” as they’re calling it for the reprints. That’s the John Byrne run currently available. There’s nothing wrong with the unreprinted Bill Mantlo/Mike Mignola run that this catches the tail end of, either.

Marvel’s Hawkeye Sale runs through Thursday (1/28). And if you’re going to do Hawkeye, then you want the Matt Fraction/David Aja Hawkeye. It’s an odd run that’s off in its own little corner of the Marvel universe and not necessarily consistent characterization with, say, Avengers… but it’s awfully entertaining. <insert Pizza Dog reference here>

The Marvel Dark Reign Sale runs through Sunday (1/24). Dark Reign was an attempt to do a thematic event, as opposed to a mini-series and tie-in books. This was effectively an event that was all tie-ins, without that central mini-series. The premise is that after Secret Invasion, Norman Osborn manages to take over SHIELD, which he remakes in his own image and he starts to try and track down the various heroes and expand his power base.

There is one Dark Reign sequence that stands high above the others. Matt Fraction and Salvador Larroca stopped their Iron Man storyline and moved over the “World’s Most Wanted” storyline. Osborn wants the information in Tony Stark’s brain. Stark’s on the run and attempting to overwrite his brain so Osborn can’t get at everyone’s secret identity. It’s a self-contained story within the Dark Reign framework and it’s available in two volumes: Iron Man: World’s Most Wanted V.1 and Iron Man: World’s Most Wanted V. 2

Vertigo Lives On In Sales

DC’s Vertigo Sale runs through Monday (1/25). DC cancelled Vertigo, but son of a gun if it doesn’t keep popping up as a dedicated category when things go on sale. It’s almost like people like Vertigo or something…

Since the whole thing is here, let’s highlight some of the foundational Vertigo comics.

Saga of the Swamp Thing – Alan Moore lit the inspirational fuse with Swamp Thing and took him on a tour of America and to the stars. Along the way, a certain Mr. Constantine was introduced.
Hellblazer – The Swamp Thing spin-off has been through a LOT of hands and it was the longest lived Vertigo title. Sometimes the de facto flagship, sometimes not. You can dive into pretty much any era and enjoy it.
Sandman – Neil Gaiman’s breakthrough project started out being grounded in the DC superhero universe and horror anthologies, then broke out into it’s own mythologies. We’ll see on TV soon enough. This was probably the most influential title. Sandman: The Dream Hunters with P. Craig Russel is listed separately.

If you want to throw in Doom Patrol and Shade as OG Vertigo titles, I’m probably not going to argue with those, either. Lots of history with the imprint.

TKO Has the Best Value of the Week

The TKO Linewide Sale runs through (Sunday 1/31). You may not be familiar with TKO. That’s OK, here at the Tower of Cheap, we hadn’t really read of their titles until last week… but we came away impressed and at $1.99/$2.99 for full graphic novels, there are great values here.

Sentient by Jeff Lemire and Gabriel Walta is the best value of the week! The solicitation is about a ship’s AI having to raise the children left on the ship after the adults perish. You might read this and expect it to be some kind of sweet, kindly YA story. And you’d be wrong. This is a DARK, blunt and brutal science fiction tale that still fits the same description. It’s also excellent all the way around. Sentient earned it’s Eisner nomination. Just don’t go into when you’re craving a light fluffy read. It’s almost trigger-warning level dark. Highly recommended.

The Fearsome Doctor Fang is written by TV writer Tze Chun and Mike Weiss with art by Dan McDaid, who’s done some Judge Dredd work over at IDW. This one is a steampunk adventure that takes the old Fu Manchu trope and inverts its it. Our mysterious science villain is actually a hero. Tech suits, missing siblings and deadly ancient treasures. Something of a steampunk Indiana Jones romp, it’s a fun comic.

Sara is by Garth Ennis and Steve Epting. While we haven’t read this one yet, it’s not really being flip when we say that you’ll already know whether or not you’ll like Ennis & Epting on a book about Russian women snipers in World War II. Ennis WWII books are a known quantity.

Still on Sale

Fantagraphics Linewide Sale through Thursday, 1/28

Posted on January 22, 2021 by comics_p1pusl

Comixology Sales: Spider-Man, Vision & The Scarlet Witch, DC’s Rebirth and Fantagraphics Goes Linewide

The Comixology sales this week include Marvel slashing prices on Dan Slott’s lengthy run on Spider-Man, The Vision & the Scarlet Witch as their show drops, DC revisits Rebirth, Dark Horse has Neil Gaiman at a discount and Fantagraphics has their digital catalog on sale.

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

Spidey Gets Slotted Ahead of WandaVision

Running through Sunday (1/17) is the Spider-Man by Dan Slott Sale. This is not the easiest sale to navigate because Marvel has relaunched Spidey several times and during the “Brand New Day” era, weren’t even sequentially numbering all the collected editions. Seriously, it’s a mess. The rule of thumb is it’s easier to read the omnibus editions, which tend to be slightly better deals anyway.

We’d tell you to start at the beginning with the Spider-Man: Brand New Day omnibuses. For context, this starts back when Marvel decided to publish Amazing Spider-Man three times each month and cancel the secondary titles, so you’ve got a rotating cast of creators including Slott, Mark Waid, Joe Kelly and Zeb Wells (among others) as writers and the likes of John Romita, Jr., Barry Kitson, Phil Jimenez, and Marcos Martin (among a wide cast) as artists. It’s a fun era and Slott eventually ends up helming Spidey. It also ends with a certain Doctor Octopus storyline that sets up what might be Slott’s pinnacle: Superior Spider-Man. That’s the run where Doc Ock takes over Peter’s body. It sure sounded strange when first announced, but Slott made it work very well.

If those two runs didn’t keep you busy, they’re followed by The Amazing Spider-Man by Dan Slott and Spider-Man: Worldwide. Yes, Slott wrote a lot of Spidey AND Marvel can’t help themselves when it comes to relaunches. Those last two series are really separate because the monthly relaunched.

Probably because there’s a TV show debuting, Marvel also has a Vision & The Scarlet Witch Sale running through Thursday (1/21).

If you want the actual couple, the Steve Englehart/Richard Howell Vision & The Scarlet Witch: A Year in the Life, which sets up a lot of mythology, include the birth of their children.

If you’d like to see where the suburban setting reared it’s head, there’s the superb Tom King/Gabriel Walta Vision series, which is paced a lot like a horror tale as The Vision experiments with having a wife and children. (What could go wrong? Plenty.)

DC Gets Born Again (and again)

DC has their Rebirth Sale running through Monday (1/18), which is to say a big chunk of the titles from the previous relaunch.

We’re firm in the pick of the litter being Deathstroke. (You’ll also need The Lazarus Contract, which crossed over with Titans.) At first glance, that’s an unlikely pick, but Priest and a rotating cast of artists including Carlo Pagulayan, Denys Cowan, Joe Bennett and Larry Hama. Yes, it’s a comic about an assassin, but Deathstroke has intricate plotting, emotional depth and one of the best treatments of Damian Wayne.

After that, we’d direct you to Greg Rucka’s return to Wonder Woman conveniently collected as Volume 1 and Volume 2. With Liam Sharp, Nicola Scott and Bilquis Evely sharing art duties, this is where Rucka resets Wonder Woman after the New 52 era and has Wonder Woman and The Cheetah searching for the truth behind what’s happened to Paradise Island and Diana’s past.

Dark Horse Gets The Bends

The Dark Horse Mind Benders Sale runs through Monday (1/18) and is dominated by two titles.

American Gods is the Neil Gaiman/P. Craig Russell/Scott Hampton adaption of the the novel of the same name. Yes, that IS an interesting creative cast and yes, we’ve been to the House on the Rock — it’s real.

Mind MGMT is Matt Kindt’s psychic espionage tale that got quite a bit of critical acclaim back in ’12-’15. The omnibuses are the best deal for Mind MGMT.

The Fantagraphics Linewide Sale runs through Thursday (1/28). Fantagraphics doesn’t do sales quite this wide vary often, so it’s well worth giving this an extended browse. There’s everything from EC to imports to classic comic strips. Here are a few highlights:

Remember Harold & The Purple Crayon? Before switching to children’s books, Crockett Johnson wrote Barnaby, a delightful strip about a boy, his talking dog and his fairy godfather. Even Dorothy Parker was a big fan.

You could make a case for calling Love & Rockets by Gilbert and Jaime Hernendez the flagship title of Fantagraphics and few comics have been been as critically acclaimed over the years.

And if you really want to go classic, there’s the Carl Barks Library. Barks set the gold standard for Disney ducks (and arguably for all Disney comics) with his Donald Duck work and especially Uncle Scrooge McDuck.

Posted on January 15, 2021 by comics_p1pusl

Comixology Sales Roundup: Darth Vader, Miracleman, Punisher, Metal, Astro Boy, Umbrella Academy and Imports

This week in Comixology sales finds Marvel opening some slightly different vaults, DC venturing to dark place, Dark Horse being media-friendly and the joy of Jazz Maynard.

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

Darth Vader = Good Comics

Let’s start with the good stuff: the Marvel Darth Vader Sale. Darth Vader has been the best Star Wars title. We’re mainly looking at two runs here: the all-caps EXCELLENT Kieron Gillen / Salvador Larroca run and the very good Charles Soule / Giuseppe Camuncoli run.

Two things to pay attention to:

1)Vader Down is the real V. 3 of the Gillen/Larroca run, you’ll need it.
2)We’d say the Soule/Camuncoli doesn’t really hit it’s stride until V.2 and the Jedi librarian. Remember, you want the 6-issue original tpbs of this run, much cheaper than the 12 issue collections.

This sale runs through Sunday (1/10).

“The Original Writer” and Marvel Max Titles

Then you’ve got the Marvel Max sale that runs through Thursday (1/14). Marvel Max being theoretically for grownups and usually is more violent (although you have your odd adult situations and a childbirth scene).

Let’s start off with Miracleman – Parental Advisory Edition. Yeah, there’s a childbirth scene in there. Sense 8 wasn’t the first to have one of those, even if they were, perhaps, a bit more fixated on it. The “Original Writer” in the credits is Alan Moore. He doesn’t have the best relations with Marvel. Artists on this include Gary Leach, Alan Davis, John Ridgeway, Rick Veitch and John Totleben. It’s an early more post-modern deconstruction where Miracleman (originally Marvelman, a UK knock-off of Captain Marvel after it Fawcett lost the DC lawsuit and ceased publication) awakens after a time… away and all sorts of unpleasantness follows. Hugely influential comic that was out of circulation for quite some time.

This sequence is followed by Miracleman by Gaiman & Buckingham, Vol 1.: The Golden Age. Yes, that would be Neil Gaiman and Mark Buckingham. One day, there might be another volume in this series. It’s been talked about for a very long time.

The Garth Ennis Punisher runs have always been a big part of Marvel Max. You can still get his excellent and hilarious “Welcome Back Frank” sequence with Steve Dillon in this sale, but we’d point out the more serious Punisher run Ennis did with Leandro Fernandez, Darick Robertson, Doug Braithwaite and Goran Parlov, among others. It’s a quality, hard as nails run that doesn’t always get the fanfare of the lighter version. Punisher Max: The Complete Collection V. 1-4 covers the Ennis run.

A Trail of Infinity Events

The Infinity Gauntlet sale runs through Thursday (1/14). We say go back to the originals. Avengers Vs. Thanos collects the original Captain Marvel and Warlock sequences by Jim Starlin, the father of this saga. Infinity Gauntlet started the current cycle, written by Starlin with art by George Perez and Ron Lim.

If you’re looking at the Jonathan Hickman’s Avengers sequence – and it’s a true epic – know that you can’t do into it halfway. It’s all or nothing. Avengers, New Avengers, Infinity, Time Runs Out AND Secret Wars. That’s one long, complex story.

DC Goes Dark

DC’s Darkest Hour Sale runs through Monday (1/11) and it’s a fairly small sale. DCeased and the Dark Night: Metal titles. It’s quick to browse, but we feel obliged to point out you can save a little money getting the DCeased and Dark Nights: Metal (the main book) as $0.99 single issues.

Import Goodness

The Magnetic Press New Year’s Linewide Sale runs through Monday (1/11) and it’s filled with some absolutely lovely European imports. Seriously, browse some of those books. Top flight art. What we’d really like to draw your attention to here is Jazz Maynard by Raule and Roger Ibanez Ugena. Formally, it’s about an ex-con getting dragged back into his old world, but this comic is more about how the story is told. A noir-ish tale of a rogue, it reminded us of a modern setting for Corto Maltese and we’re not ones to invoke a Corto Maltese vibe lightly.

DH Transmedia Options

The Dark Horse Screen to Comics Sale runs through Monday (1/11) and has a fair amount of comics to screen. It’s comics based on TV & movies AND comics that have been adapted. Things like Osamu Tezuka’s Astro Boy manga. (Note: the first bundle is really V.1 & 2 in the same package. $3.99 for 424 pages is good deal.) Hellboy is one of Dark Horse’s flagship properties. Your best value there is the Omnibus editions, some of which have pretty generous page counts. Umbrella Academy is the current Dark Horse media adaption star over at Netflix.

Posted on January 8, 2021 by comics_p1pusl

Comixology Sales: Holiday Sale Roundup – even more Marvel, Image, BOOM!, Dark Horse and Archie

If you thought the holiday Comixology sales were over, think again. Those sales don’t *start* ending until Sunday. Joining our last batch are even more Marvel titles, wide sales from Image and BOOM!

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

Remember, a lot of publisher listed sales before Christmas that are still going on, including that ridiculously good $0.99 Marvel Masterworks sale – everything we covered last time is still on sale.

Even More Marvel Sales

The “Marvel 2020 Instant Classics Sale” is perhaps a bit overstating what’s in it, but there a bit of interesting material… even if some of it looks like random volumes of ongoing series.

Black Bolt by Saladin Ahmed/Christian Ward/Frazier Irving/Stephanie Hans is the real deal. It won an Eisner and was a Hugo finalist. It opens as Black Bolt’s trying to figure out exactly how he got into this space prison and what happened to his powers. That prison sequence is something else.

Doctor Doom by Christopher Cantwell and Salvador Larroca was another delightful title that seemingly came out of nowhere. Doom’s been framed, he’s on the run and his enemies are moving on Latveria.

As with all the Marvel sales right now, this one expires on Sunday 1/3.

Image digital Graphic Novels are 1/2 off

Image has a graphic novel sale that’s broken up into two parts: A-N and O-Z. For the most part, this is 50% off the Image graphic novel catalog. So if you were waiting on something, there’s a good chance it’s among the 1,473 items offered.

If you want some special deals, though… that’s where the omnibuses come into play. Specifically the Robert Kirkman “Compendium” editions. (A lot of Image omnibuses are more expensive than getting the individual volumes, but Kirkman does it right.) The Invincible Compendium 3 volume set is ~1000 pages/9 TPB per volume. And it’s the same story with The Walking Dead Compendium set. Gets it down to roughly ~$2.25 per digital TPB. Best bang for your buck at Image.

Invisible at Dark Horse

For the Dark Horse Best of 2020 Sale, we’d draw your attention to Invisible Kingdom, which won a couple Eisner Awards. This G. Willow Wilson/Christian Ward SF vehicle concerns a the crew of a space freighter and a religious acolyte on the run from her order after discovering that said religious order has some very commercial interests. Suffice to say, the commercial interests aren’t particularly happy about being discovered and the tendrils reach to high places. This is also where we feign shock that Berger Books has a winner. (Some of us occasionally miss Vertigo.) This sale runs through Monday, 1/4.

Sabrina’s Slasher

The Sabrina and the Women of Archie Sale runs through Thursday (1/7) and we absolutely thing that the Roberto Aguirre-Sacasa/Robert Hack Chilling Adventures of Sabrina and it’s 70s horror take on Ms. Spellman is worth your time. We’re not holding our breath for this version to return with the Netflix version wrapping up, but we’d sure welcome it.

Their whole line goes BOOM!

Boom’s linewide sale is broken into 3 parts, all of which run through Thursday, 1/7. You’ve got the graphic novels, single issues I and single issues II. You’ll want to pay attention that the $0.99 single issues aren’t less expensive than the collected edition, too.

For something that’s often overlooked, we really enjoyed the Planet of the Apes series by Daryl Gregory, Carlos Magno and Diego Barreto. Yes, the same Carlos Magno Marvel has since snapped up. This series leads up to the events of the original film and also does a good job of reconciling the original Pierre Boulle novel with the film continuity. We’d elaborate, but… spoilers. The whole run in conveniently in a single omnibus.

So, we were talking about Carlos Magno? He was BOOM!’s secret weapon for awhile. Deathmatch is a 12-parter written by Paul Jenkins and drawn by Magno. You know the old trope about superheroes getting kidnapped and forced to fight to the death? Well, this time Jenkins and Magno create their own cast of characters, so they can actually play out that concept. No backing off at the last minute. It’s also nice to see Jenkins with the gloves off, not worried about tying into an Event.

Oh, you wanted something current? Once & Future by Kierron Gillen and Dan Mora is a very fun series. Someone’s looking to resurrect King Arthur and… how to put this… Arthur never took kindly to foreigners. Arthur might want to do a little ethnic housekeeping if it were. A monster hunter must come out of retirement and coerce her grandson into the family business. It’s actually a breezy page turner.

This sale ends on Thursday, 1/7.

Posted on January 1, 2021 by comics_p1pusl

Comixology Sales: Immortal Hulk, Billionaire Island, Avengers: The Initiative, Pat Mills has a new anthology, Lady Mechanika

The Comixology sales this week include the wonder that is The Immortal Hulk, a stroll through Event tie-ins past with Avengers Academy and a deep dive into the big Small Press Sale.

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

All You Need Is Hulk

Probably the best sale currently going on is Marvel’s Immortal Hulk Sale which runs through Thursday (12/17). Simply put, this comic would be our pick for Marvel’s best comic of the last couple years. Al Ewing writes and Joe Bennett is the primary artist on this horror take on ‘ole Jade Jaws. Psychological horror, body horror, resurrections and that green doorway to <spoilers>. It’s a great comic and $2.99/tpb is cheap!

The Marvel Avengers Academy Sale is, at its core, a series of Event spin-offs about teen superheroes. Avengers: The Initiative spun out of Civil War and continued through Secret Invasion, then morphed into Avengers Academy with the Dark Reign era of Marvel. This will come as no shock to folks who’ve been watching the Marvel documentaries on Disney+, but Avengers: The Initiative started out as a Dan Slott written title that transitioned over to Christos Gage taking it over. Yes, that trend really does go back to 2008.

Sifting Through the Small Press

The “Best of Small Press Sale” is running through 1/7 and comes in two flavors: Graphic Novels and Single Issues. That’s a lot to plough through, so let’s take a bit of time and take a look at some of the more interesting bits.

Over at The Tower of Cheap, we’ve been suitably impressed with what we’ve seen out of Ahoy, an indie publisher with bent towards satire and fun. The majority of their material is on sale right now, so as a shortcut, here’s their Publisher Page. The Ahoy single issues are $0.99, so keep in mind you’re going to be saving money if you get those instead of the collected editions. We will personally vouch for The Wrong Earth and Edgar Allan Poe’s Snifter of Terror. Billionaire Island is currently in our reading queue.

The Wrong Earth by Tom Peyer, Jamal Igle and Juan Castro fits the elevator pitch of “what happens when Adam West’s campy TV Batman and Frank Miller’s Dark Knight Batman end up in each other’s universe?” It’s funny _and_ satisfying.

Edgar Allan Poe’s Snifter of Terror is a sort of funhouse mirror of a horror anthology. A blind drunk Edgar Allan Poe stands in for the Crypt Keeper: our host guiding us through snarky horror stories. It’s well worth your time.

Billionaire Island by Mark Russell and Steve Pugh – the sublime team behind The Flintstones at DC a few years ago – has the Billionaires escaping the ravages of climate change to their own artificially made island… a tax-free domicile, naturally…

You remember Pat Mills? One of the original architects of Judge Dredd. Famed for things like Nemesis the Warlock, Charley’s War (which is excellent and almost totally unknown in the US) and Marshall Law. It seems he has his own “Millsverse” publishing imprint at Comixology. Of particular interest may be the Requiem Vampire Knight series with art by Olivier Ledroit. I’m given to understand this is a particularly dark one, not for kids, and was originally written for the French market.

And then there’s his current project – Spacewarp, which has Mills creating a new 2000 AD-esque science fiction anthology. Something he’s well qualified to be doing. From the description:

“Featuring Special Forces One at war with Giant Viruses! Jurassic Punks versus Dinosaurs! Xecutioners: authorized to terminate Aliens! Slayer – one Robot in a Galactic war against a million Space Knights. Hellbreaker escapes from Hell to punish the Living. Fu-tant – a terrifying school for Mutants! Space Cops! Mutant secret agents! Killer robots! Virus armies! Alien invasions! Interacting in a unique Spacewarp Universe! Inventive, action-packed, heartfelt, heroic, humorous, fast-paced and fantastic value for money – as only the Brits know how. Aimed at ordinary readers of all ages. ”

Speaking of folks doing their own publishing, if you follow the Diamond sales charts for the US Direct Market, very few people are having much luck being their own publisher. One of the two exceptions that come to mind is Joe Benitez, who steampunk cyborg adventure/SF/F series Lady Mechanika has outsold a lot of comics from larger publishers.

Still on sale

The DC Event & Mini Series Sale through Thursday 12/17.
Spawn Sale through Thursday, 12/17.
Marvel Stormbreakers through Thursday, 12/17.
Dark Horse Aliens Predator Sale through Thursday 12/31.

Posted on December 16, 2020December 16, 2020 by comics_p1pusl

Comixology Sales: Marvel has Buy One Get One Free and drops another 3 sales, plus Batman, Star Wars Adventures and Red Sonja

Comixology sales this week include Marvel dropping 3 new sales (including some prime Silver Surfer comics), Batman/Catwoman’s still running at DC, Red Sonja takes a digital discount at IDW and Star Wars Adventures visits the bargain zone.

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

Marvel’s Dropping Lots of Sales and BOGO

Marvel just started a Buy One Get One Free Sale through Monday (12/7) at 11pm ET. Here’s what you do: go to this Comixology page and grab the Code, enter it in the cart and every other book is free (well, the lower priced of the two is free… but you know the drill). And yes, that stacks on top of the sale books, so those get very cheap, very fast!

Let’s start the Marvel parade with the Silver Surfer Sale. Strangely, the Stan Lee / John Buscema series you automatically think of is not on sale. An Epic Collection of the early Fantastic Four appearances is, however.

There’s also a lot to love with the 1987 Silver Surfer series. At that main link, the “Freedom” Epic Collection is built around some specials (including a Stan Lee/John Byrne issue) and the first 14 issues of the Steve Englehart / Marshall Rogers run that we just love. There’s a missing Epic Collection that hasn’t been issued yet that would contain the end of the Englehart run and the beginning of the Starlin run, but the “Thanos Quest” Epic Collection collects the back end of the Jim Starlin/Ron Lim run, plus the Thanos Quest mini-series and the beginning of Ron Marz’s long run. There are more Marz volumes, we’d start with Englehart/Starlin since that establishes the ongoing arc, but you’ll get a lot of Infinity Gauntlet-related material if you continue with the Epic Collections for this run.

Strangely, Comixology and Marvel have filed the first part of the Starlin/Lim run away from the rest of that Silver Surfer title as “Silver Surfer: Rebirth of Thanos” and added Thanos Quest here, too. Not exactly a unified publishing program, but good comics and a big part of what they’d call “The Road to Infinity Gauntlet” if this were being published today.

The more recent Silver Surfer are also on sale, as well as some more Stan Lee material, but those are some foundational works well worth your time. The sale runs through Thursday (12/10).

Next up, running through Sunday (12/6) is the Spider-Girl Sale. This series, across a few different titles (Marvel relaunching a comic? *gasp*) ran from ’98-’10 and it’s about Mayday Parker, Spidey’s daughter from the future. Worth noting, especially for such a long run, almost everything in the sale is by a combination of at least 2 of Tom DeFalco, Ron Frenz and Pat Olliffe. You don’t see creators that consistent on such long runs very often.

Marvel’s “Stormbreakers” Sale has nothing to do with the Alex Rider novel of the same name and isn’t a political movement (though we’ll admit it kinda sounds like one), it’s just the new name they’re using to promote their new favored artists they way they used to call them “Young Guns.”

We’ve enjoyed Friendly Neighborhood Spider-Man by Tom (“you keep mentioning that guy”) Taylor and Stormbreaker Juann Cabal, among other artists and the first volume is $2.99 for 6 issues.

You also really can’t go wrong with House of X/Powers of X by Jonathan Hickman, Pepe Larraz and Stormbreaker R.B. Silva. (And honestly, you shouldn’t need a promotion to know who Silva is. Silva’s been working at DC and Marvel for over 10 years!)

This sale runs through Thursday (12/17).

And let’s not forget the Vision & the Scarlet Witch Sale (Wanda/Vision, if you prefer) is still running through Sunday (12/13).

The Bat and The Cat

DC’s “Batman Catwoman Sale” is still running through Monday (12/7). We talked about this one last time, but we’d still like to point out Legends of the Dark Knight: Norm Breyfogle. It’s a little pricier than what we normally point out here (63% off is still $12.99), but it’s 522 pages of the Alan Grant / John Wagner / Norm Breyfogle Batman run that’s definitely an era unto itself.

The She-Devil with a Sword

Also running through Monday (12/7) is the Red Sonja Sale. If you’d like some sword with your sorcery, we’d recommend going back to the very beginning of Dynamite’s run with the first omnibus. Mel Rubi is the lead artist. You start out Mike (M.R.) Carey writing, followed by Michael Avon Oeming and it’s a fun comic. If memory serves, that Omnibus ends with the return of Kulan Gath, who you might remember from some non-Robert E. Howard Marvel comics.

The Force Happens

The IDW Star Wars Adventures Sale features the all-ages version of Star Wars and runs through Monday (12/14). A place to start? Vol. 1… or maybe take a trip to the Dark Side with Vader’s Castle?

Still On Sale

Best of Oni Sale through Saturday, 12/5
Dark Horse Noir Sale through Monday, 12/7

Posted on December 4, 2020December 4, 2020 by comics_p1pusl

Comixology Sales: Batman/Catwoman, Vision and the Scarlet Witch, Frank Miller, John Allison and more

With Cyber Monday over, it’s time to see what Comixology sales are percolating in between the start of buying season and the start of unwrapping season. A bit of Batman, the source material for a Marvel / Disney+ show, Dark Horse’s noir offerings and we dig through the small press sale for you.

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

Batman / Catwoman

DC leads off our post-Cyber Monday parade with the “Batman Catwoman Sale.” (Hint: there’s a whole lot more Batman than Catwoman in this sale.)

If you’re looking for actual Batman/Catwoman comics, we can recommend Prey, which collects two Doug Moench/Paul Gulacy (yes, the Master of Kung Fu creative team) arcs from Legends of the Dark Knight. These are Hugo Strange arcs, but Catwoman figures prominently in them.

If you’re looking for solo Batman, here’s something off the beaten path: Batman: Haunted Knight collects the Jeph Loeb/Tim Sale Batman Halloween specials that led to The Long Halloween being commissioned. These came completely out of nowhere when they dropped, but are now less famous than the follow up series.

If you’re looking for solo Catwoman, you could a lot worse than the Ed Brubaker run, which starts out with Darwyn Cooke providing the art.

This sale runs until Monday (12/7).

Vision and the Scarlet Witch

Marvel follows up Black Friday with a Vison and the Scarlet Witch Sale, which runs through Sunday, 12/13.

This might have the single best comic on sale this week in it: the Tom King / Gabriel Hernandez Walta Vision series. If it’s not the best thing Tom King’s written, then it’s #2. It’s a masterclass in descent into madness as The Vision builds a family and moves to the suburbs, only to have his perfect Norman Rockwell life slowly fall to pieces. Get both volumes and bunker down for a ride.

Vision and the Scarlet Witch by Steve Englehart and Richard Howell was launched in parallel with Englehart’s West Coast Avengers run and starts with a crossover. This is the series where Wanda conjures herself into a pregnancy, which has so many repercussions down the road.

AKA Comixology Submit’s Hidden Gems

Running through Thursday (12/3) is the Small Press Mystery and Suspense Sale. This is a fairly large sale that’s not particularly organized, so we’ll give it the once over for you!

Watson & Holmes: A Study in Black by Karl Bollers, Rick Leonardi and Larry Stroman might be more popular in libraries than the Direct Market, where it never got its footing. Which is too bad, as this reimagining of Sherlock Holmes and Dr. Watson in present day Harlem is a solid comic and worth your discounted $4.49.

John Allison’s pre-Giant Days series Scary Go Round: The Continuing Adventures clocks in at 99 cents/volumes. Also, both issues of Scary Go Round: Expecting to Fly are $0.99.

We have mentioned before that Kyle Baker is a genius. Two of his works on in this sale and both of them even won an Eisner. What more do you really want from the man? You Are Here also one a Harvey Award. I Die at Midnight was merely on the 2000 Eisner slate.

Dark Horse Crime Comics

The Dark Horse Noir Sale runs through Monday (12/7).

Frank Miller is sort of the grandfather of Dark Horse Noir with Sin City. It’s a hugely influential series beyond the films, winning multiple Eisners and Harveys.

Grandville by Bryan Talbot is an anthropomorphic steampunk detective thriller. Yes, it checks an awful lot of boxes and the third installment has a Hugo nomination to it’s credit. And yes, that’s the same Talbot from Alice in Sunderland and Luther Arkwright. Highly recommended.

It’s also hard to go wrong with EC’s Crime SuspenStories.

Still on Sale

Marvel World Shattering Events (Amazon link) through Thursday, 12/3
The Best of Valiant Sale (Amazon link) through Thursday, 12/3
The Best of Oni Sale through Saturday, 12/5

Posted on December 1, 2020 by comics_p1pusl

Comixology Sales: Marvel’s Black Friday Push Starts with X-Men, Spider-Man and Events

As Black Friday approaches, Marvel’s brought out some bigger names for their Comixology sales. Hickman’s X-Men is on center stage with the Spectacular version of Spider-Man and their Events flanking them.

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

Jonathan Hickman’s X-Men Universe

Let’s start things out with X-Men, because the Dawn of X Sale also features an interesting collection format that’s worth talking about. Dawn of X is the umbrella title for the X-Men family of titles as overseen/showrun by Jonathan Hickman. Whichhas been a nice run, truth be told.

This all starts out with the House of X / Powers of X collection that sets the table for this X-Men format. I suppose you don’t absolutely have to read it before diving in, but it’s definitely helpful.

Once you’re past that, there are two options for reading the Hickman era (both of which are on sale): the collected editions of the individual titles or the Dawn of X collections. Dawn of X is an interesting construction. Generally speaking, they’re taking 6 of the X-Men comics and packing them as a book format of that month’s titles for $10.99 in digital (the first seven volumes are $3.99@ in this sale). Now, sometimes they’ll have two issues of one title in the package and so on, but it’s an interesting way to read the story of the X-Men universe as it unfolds in the monthlies, as opposed to how collected edition readers usually only read things title by title. Personally, as someone reading the X-line in single issues, I find I do get a little more out of the line by reading the entire set. Some of the story elements bleed into other books, particularly early on, and it does help with the worldbuilding. This format is probably the best way to experience that in collected editions.

It’s also a format we could see more of in the future. You frequently hear apocalyptic stories about the death of print comics and single issue comics. While we’re not seeing any imminent danger of that, this is the sort of format that could effectively bundle single issue comics in a way more compatible with bookstore shelves. It’s also potentially the way to handle anthology comics, which there are always questions about when industry figures discuss new formats and alternate strategies.

Dawn of X is a themed anthology, though one where the stories are more tightly interwoven than most. You could picture something similar being down with Batman, especially, as well as properties like Spider-Man, Superman, Avengers and Justice League. It would take a lot of work to make one of those franchises into its own little corner of a greater superhero universe the way Dawn of X is architected, but it’s certainly an experiment we could see more of and I think it’s worth contemplating the possibilities if reading the X-line in this format is interesting to you. This sale runs through Sunday (11/29).

Peter Parker, The Spectacular Spider-Man

Next up on Marvel’s Black Friday trail, The Spectacular Spider-Man Sale. Not Amazing, Spectacular. The major flavors here are: original series / Peter Parker, the under-rated ’03 -’05 Spectacular Spider-Man that was primarily written by Paul Jenkins with art by Humberto Ramos or Mark Buckingham and the more recent Chip Zdarksy/Adam Kubert Peter Parker, The Spectacular Spider-Man. Of particular note, while it’s on the dark side for Spidey, The Death of Jean DeWolff is considered a classic. This sale runs through Thursday (11/26 — gobble, gobble).

Marvel does like big crossover Events

Finally, there’s the “Marvel World-Shattering Events Sale.” You’re probably familiar with the more recent events, since Marvel’s marketing typically runs through them. Have a browse through the sale for those, but I’ll recommend some older Events instead that are a little more contained and with tighter circles of creators.

Avengers: The Kree/Skrull War is the granddaddy of Marvel Events in many ways. This Roy Thomas / Neal Adams / John Buscema / Sal Buscema reverberated through future events like the Annihilation sequence and Empyre.

Iron Man: Armor Wars(or “Stark Wars” as it was originally known) has Tony looking to repossess some of his stolen technology and finding himself in all manner of trouble over it. This David Michelinie/Bob Layton/Mark Bright run was a trendsetter.

X-Men: Asgardian Wars has Loki causing all manner of trouble for the X-Men, New Mutants and Alpha Flight. Written by Chris Claremont with A+ art from Paul Smith and Arthur Adams, this is one of the more fun X-Men sequences.

This sale runs through Thursday, 12/03.

Still on Sale

DC Road to Black Friday Sale – Graphic Novels Part 1 and Part 2, through Monday, 11/23
Titan Doctor Who Sale, through Monday, 11/23

Posted on November 22, 2020 by comics_p1pusl

Comixology Sales – The Kingdom Come Sequel, Luke Cage, Legion of Super-Heroes, Archer & Armstrong and a Valiant Sampler

As Black Friday approaches, the Comixology sales continue to have that flavor. DC favors graphic novels. Marvel favors Luke Cage and… “Brute Force.” Valiant’s showcasing their early titles.

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

DC’s Graphic Novel Sale Marches On

Last time we looked at Part 1 of DC’s Black Friday runup sale for Graphic Novels, so this time we’ll have a look at some overlooked gems from “DC Road to Black Friday – Graphic Novels II.” (We do not know who comes up with these catchy names…)

While it’s not the best value in terms of price per pages, the ’07 version of Justice Society has 3 volumes where Alex Ross joins Geoff Johns and Dale Eaglesham for “They Kingdom Come,” Ross’s follow up to Kingdom Come. DC never really pushed it when it was coming out and not everyone knows it exists.

Legion of Super-Heroes: The Curse might be the best value of this batch. It contains “The Great Darkness Saga” where Darkseid pops up to…. well, that would be telling. It also has the material on either side of that classic arc. It’s the beginning of the Paul Levitz/Keith Giffen run and one of the very best Legion of Super-Heroes periods. It’s also a fat 544 pages for $6.99. Great stories and great bang for your buck.

Night Force by Marv Wolfman and Gene Colan has the Tomb of Dracula creative team reuniting at DC for a horror series about a mansion that’s a portal to different times and places with the mysterious Baron Winter inhabiting it like the spider controlling its web. Marv told me it’s his favorite work and it really should be better known. I’ve always enjoyed it and it always comes back for another round every decade or so. This is the original run.

This runs through Monday (11/23) so there’s still a little time to browse. If you don’t mind the elevated price and packing the Steve Gerber/Michael Golden/Russ Heath pairing on Mr. Miracle is pure gold that was entirely too short lived.

Marvel’s Offerings

Marvel leads with a Brute Force Sale. It’s animal-centric and… you need to see this one for yourself.

Then it’s on to the Luke Cage Sale. The traditionalist view would be the original Hero for Hire / Power Man series. For an alternate take, perhaps Cage! by animation legend Genny (Samurai Jack) Tartakovsky?

Both sales run through Sunday (11/22).

Valiant Origins

I might quibble that The Best of Valiant Sale doesn’t include any Britannia, but Valiant has some nice offerings. To pick three?

Archer & Armstrong by Fred Van Lente with Clayton Henry and Pere Perez as the main artists is a hilarious romp with a cult escapee and a drunken immortal trying to foil a conspiracy by “The 1%.” It’s great.

Bloodshot, particularly the first 3 volumes by Duane Swierczynski , Manuel Garcia and Barry Kitson, is a rare creature. An action shoot ’em up with some genuinely interesting subtext. Bloodshot isn’t completely sure who he is… or rather who he was. His current existence is as a nano-tech enhanced supersoldier, but his employers are rewriting his memory. So as he escapes from his less than equitable terms of employment, he also has to figure out who he is and who he was. It’s an action epic that’s also about personal identity.

Harbinger by Joshua Dysart and Khari Evans is sort of the mutant title for the start of the Valiant universe. Except they’re “psiots” at Valiant. It’s a psychologically dark tale of a particularly powerful psiot trying to stay out of the system and a group of psiot friends that assemble around him as the clash with the mysterious billionaire psiot who’d really like to have them in his charitable foundation / school / indoctrination center from which conspiracies spring forth.

And yes, the Bloodshot and Harbinger conspiracies are most definitely on a collision course. Bottom line? The first volumes are all $0.99 (cheap) and that’s hard to beat.

Still on Sale

Miles Morales: Spider-Man through Sunday, 11/22

The Witcher through Monday, 11/23

Doctor Who through Monday, 11/23

Posted on November 20, 2020November 20, 2020 by comics_p1pusl

Comixology Sales: Big DC Sale, Batman, Spider-Man, James Bond, Fear Agent, Bendis’s Goldfish and More

This week’s Comixology sales include a wide ranging DC graphic novel sale, Spider-Man’s married years, James Bond and the end of the Image Science Fiction blowout.

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

DC Graphic Novels

DC is having their 2-Part “Road to Black Friday” graphic novel sale, so here’s DC Road to Black Friday Sale – Graphic Novels I. (We’ll come back for a closer look at Part 2 of the sale on Friday.) Part 1 is essentially Action Comics through Justice League and features a whole lot of Batman.

In fact, several of Part 1’s value buys involve Batman. As you may recall, James Tynion IV is the current Batman writer. When the “Rebirth” relaunch started, he was the writer for an extended run on Detective Comics and it was very much what I’d call a “Batman Family” affair. The “deluxe editions” of that run are $7.99 a pop for roughly 12 issues of material per volume. That’s a decent value and the volumes are linked below:

Even you’d like even more bang for your buck, Tales of the Batman: Archie Goodwin gets you 471 pages of Batman written by one of the best writers (and editors) in comics for $7.99. Tales of the Batman: Steve Englehart is a couple dollars more for roughly an issue less of material, but I believe it’s the complete collection of one of the most influential Batman scribes. Plenty of Batman to sift through if you go to the main sale page.

Stepping away from Batman, other titles of interest include: Boy Commandos V. 2 – That’s the second collection of the highly influential 1940’s Simon & Kirby comic about a kid gang that punches Nazis. It seems highly unlikely you’d ever see the print edition for $5.99. (85% off list)

Dial H is weird fiction legend China Miéville’s dark, quirky and surreal take on Dial H for Hero with Mateus Santolouco and Alberto Ponticelli on art. This was criminally overlooked by most people when it came out and 398 pages for $7.99 is a good buy, too.

Before he ever set foot at DC or Marvel, Brian Bendis did crime comics. He didn’t just write them, he drew them. Goldfish is the story of a con man returning to Cleveland looking for his son and it’s one of the tales that put Bendis on the map. You don’t hear about it much, these day, but it’s good one. There’s over 900 graphic novels in part 1 of the sale, which runs through Monday (11/23)

Spider-Man’s Married Life

Meanwhile, over at Marvel, the Amazing Spider-Man Renew Your Vows Sale is running through Thursday (11/19). That would be the adventures of a married Peter and Mary Jane, along with their daughter, Annie. It started out as a Secret Wars spin-off mini by Dan Slott and Adam Kubert. Then it came back as a regular series, initially by Gerry Conway and Ryan Stegman.

Dynamite’s First Volumes

Also ending on Thursday (11/19) is the Dynamite Vol. 1’s Sale, which is Dynamite putting the first volumes in various series on sale. The Shadow, Vol. 1: Fire of Creation is Garth Ennis’s take on the pulp character with art by Aaron Campbell (who’s been killing on Hellblazer).

If you enjoy the original Ian Fleming novels, James Bond: Kill Chain by Andy Diggle and Luca Casalanguida will put you in a happy place – it brings SMERSH back into the Bond equation and it’s old school in all the best ways.

Red Sonja: Scorched Earth by Mark Russell and Mirko Colak is a very unusual Red Sonja tale. It works as a satire of the philosophy of kings and it also works as an adventure. Who knew Mark Russell would adapt so well to sword & sorcery? Worth a look.

Image’s Science Fiction

Thursday (11/19) is also last call for the Image Science Fiction Sale. Here are a couple more things of note from that sale.

Fear Agent is a SF series from Rick Remender, Tony Moore and Jerome Opena about a booze-soaked alien exterminator that was a critical darling when it was coming out.

Casanova by Matt Fraction, Gabriel Ba and Fabio Moon is trippy, dimension hopping espionage caper that has a certain Jerry Cornelius vibe to it.

Still on Sale:

Miles Morales: Spider-Man (through Sunday, 11/22)

Dark Horse Witcher Sale (through Monday, 11/23) Note: The Omnibus is the best deal by a lot.

Posted on November 17, 2020November 17, 2020 by comics_p1pusl

The Best of Comixology Sales and Cheap Digital Comics

A Marvel Comics Variety Pack

Vertigo Lives On In Sales

TKO Has the Best Value of the Week

Still on Sale

Spidey Gets Slotted Ahead of WandaVision

DC Gets Born Again (and again)

Dark Horse Gets The Bends

Darth Vader = Good Comics

“The Original Writer” and Marvel Max Titles

A Trail of Infinity Events

DC Goes Dark

Import Goodness

DH Transmedia Options

Even More Marvel Sales

Image digital Graphic Novels are 1/2 off

Invisible at Dark Horse

Sabrina’s Slasher

Their whole line goes BOOM!

All You Need Is Hulk

Sifting Through the Small Press

Still on sale

Marvel’s Dropping Lots of Sales and BOGO

The Bat and The Cat

The She-Devil with a Sword

The Force Happens

Still On Sale

Batman / Catwoman

Vision and the Scarlet Witch

AKA Comixology Submit’s Hidden Gems

Dark Horse Crime Comics

Still on Sale

Jonathan Hickman’s X-Men Universe

Peter Parker, The Spectacular Spider-Man

Marvel does like big crossover Events

Still on Sale

DC’s Graphic Novel Sale Marches On

Marvel’s Offerings

Valiant Origins

Still on Sale

DC Graphic Novels

Spider-Man’s Married Life

Dynamite’s First Volumes

Image’s Science Fiction