Tag: Spider-Man

Comixology (at Amazon) Sales – Rock Bottom “May the Forth” Star Wars Prices, Plus: Spider-Man, Batman, Doctor Fate and The Witchfinder

This week in Comixology (at Amazon) sales: Star Wars gets nice and cheap for the “May the Fourth” holiday, plus Spider-Man and his friends (OK, acquaintances), Batman, Doctor Fate and The Witchfinder (but not the Witchfinder General, that’s different).

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

Where did the New Releases and Sale pages go?

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

Nothing But Star Wars

The Marvel Star Wars May the Fourth Sale runs through Monday, 5/16.

Let’s break this down by key series first (since Amazon can’t be bothered to organize things this way).  There are a lot more shorter runs included, too and the prices are GOOD. Lots of $0.99 first volumes and $1.99 after that.  This is the time of the year to go hog wild on Star Wars.

  • Darth Vader (’15-’16) – The AMAZING Kieron Gillen / Salvador Larroca run
    Vader Down – the Darth Vader / Star Wars crossover sequence that is KEY to this run.
  • Darth Vader (’17 – ’18) – The also great Charles Soule / Giuseppe Camuncoli run
  • Doctor Aphra (’16-’19) – Sort of an evil Indiana Jones in the Star Wars universe, spinning off from Darth Vader. The first three volumes are especially entertaining
    The Screaming Citadel – Star Wars/Aphra crossover with key plot points to the early sequence
  • Kanan: The Last Padawan – Star Wars Rebels prequel by by Greg Weisman and Pepe Larraz
  • Star Wars (’15-’19) – The Marvel flagship title amazingly went 4 years without a relaunch!
  • Star Wars: The High Republic ($0.99 for Vol. 1)

Recommendations? For whatever reason, Darth Vader seems to bring out the best in Marvel. Get both series first. Is is a coincidence Lucasfilm recently hired Charles Soule as a creative consultant?

Your under the radar title is Kanan. A very solid series from one the animated show’s producers and Pepe Larraz has since been promoted to X-Men.

Vader   Vader Series 2   Kanan - The Last Padawan

Team-Up

The Marvel Spider-Man and Friends Sale runs through Sunday, 5/1.

There have been a few Spidey team-up books over the years and the listed here include:

The OG title, however, was Marvel Team-Up. While we like the value of Masterworks editions in general, the standout sequence of this title is the too-short Chris Claremont/John Byrne run. Yes, the classic X-Men team did a Spidey run here. Masterworks V.6 catches the beginning of that, but Marvel also has Spider-Man: Marvel Team-Up by Claremont and Byrne that catches it all in one place.  And yes, that business with the Soul Catcher from issues 60-62 is a follow up to a Tigra story line.  (The more you know…)

Marvel Team-Up

Some of the Discounts Are Decent…

The DC Epic eBooks Sale runs through Monday, 5/9.

The usual DC disclaimers apply – Amazon and/or DC seem to screw up the sale prices, initially pricing many books at bizarre numbers like $9.32 or $24.87 before settling down to something like $5.99 or $7.99.  So if the price doesn’t end in $*.99, be aware it might not be the final sale price.  Then again, they might not get around to fixing it.  We wish we were making it up, but that’s the cold, hard reality of the situation.

Anyway, some things we saw and thought the “real” sale price was active for:

WE3 is a unusual and downright disturbing self-contained story by Grant Morrison and Frank Quitely about about three house pets – a dog, a cat and a rabbit – who have been converted into cybernetically enhanced weapons systems by a government agency. They make a break for it and all hell breaks loose. Seriously, this is not The Secret of N.I.H.M. This is bloody. $5.99 is a good price, here.

Brave and the Bold: Batman and Wonder Woman is Liam Sharp’s tale of Batman & Wonder Woman investigating the murder of a Celtic god. $4.99 for a proper discount.

Doctor Fate in this case is the 2015-16 revival by Paul Levitz, with the amazing Sonny Liew as the primary artist. We don’t always like updates, but Levitz and Liew nailed this one. The helmet of Fate falls into the possession of an Egyptian American medical student for a series of adventures tied into Egyptian mythology and history.  An underappreciated gem that blends a sliver of classic Peter Parker into the Fate mythos.

There’s a LOT of collections to sort through here, we just wish it were easier to find a series that had ALL the volumes priced consistently.

WE3   The Brave and the Bold   Doctor Fate

Lost and Found

The Dark Horse Witchfinder Sale runs through Monday, 5/2.

This is another entry in the extended Mignolaverse, a staple of Dark Horse’s horror efforts. Sir Edward Grey is a witchfinder in Victorian England, who hunts things that go bump in the night while in the service of the Queen. And yes, of course Saucy Jack eventually turns up.  Mike Mignola with John Arcudi and Chris Robeson. Ben Stenbeck is the primary artist, but the some of other artists popping include John Severin, Tyler Crook, D’Israeli and Christopher Mitten.

This series of mini-series is now conveniently collected in  two omnibus editions on sale for $6.99 each and that’s a lot of bang for your buck.

Witchfinder

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Comixology (at Amazon) Sales: A Big Spider-Man Sale, Trouble With DC’s Sale Prices (Again) and a Secret Vault Sale

The big Comixology (at Amazon) Sale of the moment is on Amazing Spider-Man. As in practically all of it. So we try to make that a little easier to navigate. Plus a warning about Amazon screwing up the latest DC sale (again) and an unannounced Vault sale.

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

Where did the New Releases and Sale pages go?

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

Catches Discounts Just Like Flies

Marvel’s Spider-Man Legacy Sale runs through Sunday, 4/17.

There’s a lot of ground to cover here, so let’s break it down by series.

  • Amazing Spider-Man (1963-98) – The original run before Marvel became quite so obsessed with rebooting titles.
  • Amazing Spider-Man (1998 – 2013) – This run starts out with the controversial J. Michael Straczynski/John Romita, Jr./Mike Deodato, Jr. run, then goes into the Brand New Day era with rotating creative teams and segues into the beginning of the Dan Slott era. (Slott’s written a LOT of Spidey.)  Now… this Amazon’s listings, so you knew something had to be messed
  • Superior Spider-Man – Possibly the high point of the Dan Slott era – Doc Ock takes over Peter’s body and life. The Complete Collections are the way to go here.
  • Amazing Spider-Man (2014 – 15) – Peter’s back in control and the Slott era continues.
  • Amazing Spider-Man (2015-208) – It’s a relaunch. (Hey, Spidey’s been relaunched a lot less than Captain Marvel!) This is the end run of the Slott era, culminating in the Red Goblin affair.
  • Amazing Spider-Man (2018 – 22) – This is the volume that wrapping up right now. It starts with the Nick Spenser run and then ends with the “Beyond” storyline.

And there are a few more Slott era omnibus editions floating around.  There are too many editions of this material and nobody seems to be particularly paying attention to how this is being displayed for the prospective readers.  We’re getting used to it. <sigh>

Recommendations?  Well, first off Amazing Spider-Man doesn’t really have very many BAD periods. Oh, some runs are definitely better than others, but there aren’t huge swaths of duds, here.

You can definitely pick your poison between the $5.99 Masterworks and $6.99 Epic Collections for the original run. The Epics are typically much larger collections for only a buck more, but it depends on which format you started buying and which era you’re interested in. Some stretches are only in Masterworks, some are only in Epic.

Inexplicably NOT included in the link for the V.1 of Amazing is the Kraven’s Last Hunt Epic Collection, so we’ll call that one out directly. You get the J.M. DeMatteis/Mike Zeck classic, plus the issues of Amazing around it, plus Spider-Man Vs. Wolverine for about the price of just getting the regular Kraven collection.

We’d also recommend a look at the Brand New Day collections. It’s not a run that’s immediately talked about, but we found it entertaining and a much better set of creators was assembled than Marvel was necessarily given credit for: Mark Waid, Bob Gale (we wish he did more comics), Marc Guggenheim, Joe Kelly, Dan Slott, John Romita, Jr., Steve McNiven, Salvador Larroca, Phil Jimenez, Barry Kitson, Marcos Martin, Paolo Rivera, Lee Week and… others. I’m not sure there are “hidden” gems with Spidey, just runs that get discussed less.

Amazing Spider-Man - Kraven's Last Hunt   Spider-Man Brand New Day

Not Conan

We’ve got an unannounced sale for you.  The first collected edition of Barbarbic from Vault Comics by Mike Moreci and Nathan Gooden is on sale for a mere $1.99. (Cheap.)  A barbarian with a bloodthirsty axe is cursed by witches to do good… so you know it probably isn’t going to end well. We haven’t read it, but it seemed to be doing pretty well on what’s left of the Direct Market sales charts and it’s hard to beat that price. We are 100% unsure how much longer that price is going to hold, BTW.

Barbaric

Beware the DC Sale

So DC has a sale right now, but we want you to be wary of it.  As we type this Tuesday evening, they don’t have the right prices up.  Let’s give some examples:

DC Prices

$13.98? $9.32? History says these are not the REAL sale prices. Sometime – maybe Wednesday, maybe Thursday – the real prices will pop up and they’ll likely be something closer to the $5.99 you see on that Wonder Woman volume. (Wonder Woman was already on sale, so that price _might_ change, too.)  Now, if Batman: The Adventures Continue drops down to, say, $4.99… jump on that. It’s a wonderful comic.  We’ll probably revisit this sale on Friday and see if it’s normalized.

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Comixology Sales: The Return of Saga, Silver Surfer, Peacemaker, Shockrockets and Silk

This week’s Comixology sales include the Silver Surfer and Silk from Marvel, Peacemaker from DC and Image celebrates the return of Saga with a “Sci-Fi” sale.

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

Surf’s Up

The Marvel Silver Surfer Sale runs through Sunday, 1/23. (Amazon link)

You really can’t go wrong with the original Stan Lee/John Buscema (with Jack Kirby at the end) run of Silver Surfer, which is collected across two Masterworks editions.

We’re also fond of the 80s Silver Surfer run. In classic Marvel fashion, it’s collected in a strange way.  That link will take you to the Epic Collections. The first one, “Freedom” is from the Steve Englehart/Marshall Rogers run, which is excellent.  Naturally the rest of that period isn’t collected. To get the beginning of the Jim Starlin/Ron Lim period that followed it, you need to jump over to Silver Surfer: The Rebirth of Thanos. Then you can jump back to the “Thanos Quest” Epic Collection, which takes you up to issue 50 and the end of the Starlin era that really laying the groundwork for Infinity Gauntlet.  Ron Marz jumps in for the next Epic Collection, “Infinity Gauntlet” and that’s more of a companion series to the mini-series/Event of the same name, so venture forward it you want, but know the next volume is largely a tie-in.  Also – the actual Thanos Quest mini-series is reprinted in both Rebirth of Thanos  and the “Thanos Quest” volume.  Great planning, Marvel collections dept.!

Silver Surfer Masterworks   Silver Surfer - Englehart   Rebirth of Thanos

It Bites

The Marvel Silk Sale runs through Sunday, 1/23.

Yes, this would be the adventures of Silk, the other person bitten by the radioactive spider that gave Peter Parker his powers. For this one, we might go for the Spider-Verse collection

Spider-Verse

Not Dempsey and Makepeace

The DC Peacemaker & Friend Sale runs through Monday, 1/24. (Amazon link)

A small number of random collections and issues here. (Only V.’s 1 and 4 of the Ostrander/McDonnell Suicide Squad?  Weird.)

What can we put a good word in for?  Suicide Squad: Bad Blood by Tom Taylor and Bruno Redondo is quality book with more double crosses than you can shake a mallet at.  Taylor and Redondo are starting to look like a long term pairing, too.

Vigilante by Marv Wolfman is the beginnings of the Adrian Chase version of the character and gives you an artistic lineup of George Perez/Keith Pollard/Chuck Patton/Ross Andru. (The volume ends before you get some Gil Kane and Trevor Von Eden.)

Suicide Squad Bad Blood   Vigilante

Saga Returns

The Image Sci-Fi Sale runs through Monday, 2/7. (Amazon link)

But let’s call this what it really, and what they’re leading with: the return of Saga. Yes, everyone’s favorite SF/F title by Brian K. Vaughan and Fiona Staple is FINALLY returning after a ~3.5 year absence.  This one falls under the usual Image collection runs – Saga Compendium V. 1 is a fabulous deal. The entire first run (i.e. – all caught up in 1 volume) is $23.99 for 54 issues of material.  That’s less than 45 cents/issue and that’s stoopid cheap for what you’re getting.  The other omnibuses collecting ~3 “regular” volumes are more expensive than getting what Comixology calls the “Collected Editions,” so go Compendium or go individual volumes.

What else is back? Shockrockets. With Kurt Busiek’s return to Image, comes this collaboration with Stuart Immonen. A good entry in the sub-genre of military coming of age SF with salvaged alien tech being used to fight the invaders.  This was part of the short-lived gorilla comics imprint and we didn’t harbor many hopes of it returning.  Wrong.

The Manhattan Projects is also a fun ride. This Jonathan Hickman / Nick Pitarra has the Manhattan Project brain trust being brought together not just for the atomic bomb, but for a secret program of Mad Science. Space exploration, parallel dimensions and all manner of strangeness. Sometimes it’s silly and sometimes it borders on horror. All in all, quite a ride.  As with Saga, the individual collected editions are slightly less expensive than the “deluxe edition” omnibuses.

Saga   shockrockets   The Manhattan Projects

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Comixology Sales: Deadpool, Naomi, Hulk / Maestro, Spidey Meets Invincible… plus Micky Mouse

In this week’s Comixology sales: Deadpool breaks out some omnibus editions almost as wide as his mouth, Marvel highlights its eclectic Team-Ups, the Maestro gets discounted, Naomi goes on sale to celebrate the TV review and Fantagraphics has a deep bench.

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

Team-Ups Assemble

The Marvel Team-Ups Sale runs through Sunday, 1/6. (Amazon link)

This is actually a grouping of a variety of team up titles. We’ll ignore the Masterworks that we really hope you picked up a few weeks ago when they were 99-cents and look at some other, odder things.

We read Super-Villains Unite: The Complete Super-Villain Team-Up back when it was Essential Super-Villain Team-Up.  We were surprised how much fun it was.  Until you get to the final arc, this is essentially a Sub-Mariner/Doctor Doom tale where Namor flips between hero and anti-hero and the two are constantly trying to manipulate and/or backstab each other. That extended arc ends up crossing over memorably with Avengers. There were a lot of hands involved with this one, but Steve Englehart, Bill Mantlo and Jim Shooter are prominent. Artists range wildly and include Herb Trimpe, Keith Giffen and George Perez (for the Avengers issues). When Namor exits, Doom takes over and then things get darker with the Red Skull.  All-in-all, a good example of the 70s Marvel style.

And sticking with obscure, do you remember the ’04-’06 run of Marvel Team-Up? That was one of Robert Kirkman’s titles when he spent a couple years at Marvel. The primary artists for the run would be Scott Kolins, followed by Paco Medina. The oddest thing about this run would be in V. 3 where Invincible (with Cory Walker on art) comes visiting from the Image/Kirkman-verse!

Super-Villain Team-Up   Marvel Team-Up

Grumpy Old Hulks

The Marvel Maestro Sale runs through Sunday, 1/16. (Amazon link)

That would be Maestro, as in the Hulk’s despotic future self… in certain timelines.

You could go slim with the original (and classic) Future Imperfect by Peter David and George Perez. [Note: Hulk: The End has the same contents, just a different cover] You could also go with The Incredible Hulk Epic Collection: Future Imperfect, which has the series in the context of the ongoing Hulk title of the time (Gary Frank era of the PAD run).  Either one will introduce you to the character.

The most recent entries for the character are Maestro: Symphony in a Gama Key by PAD & German Peralta and Maestro: War & Pax by PAD and Javier Pina. These are tales of the Maestro arriving in that future hellscape and ascending to power. We read these a few months back and gobbled them up as a sort of dark and twisted flavor of bubblegum.

Hulk: Future Imperfect   Hulk Epic Collection   Maestro   Maestro

Not the Dirty Harry Film

The Marvel Deadpool Legacy Sale runs through Thursday, 1/20. (Amazon link)

Your value buy here is probably the double-sized Deadpool by  Joe Kelly, The Complete Collection.  You can get 2 volumes of that before cutting back over to Deadpool Classics.

Others would say you want Deadpool by Posehn and Duggan, in which case we caution you that a single omnibus edition is almost half the price of a thinner “regular” collection, so omnibi are the way to go here!

Deadpool by Joe Kelly   Deadpool by Posehn and Duggan

CW Comix & Stories

The “DC on TV Sale: Naomi Sale” runs through Monday, 1/17. (Amazon link)

No, we’re not going to grammar check that sale name… but, as you may have heard, Naomi made a quick leap to TV.

Naomi: Season One is the initial comic by Brian Bendis, David Walker and Jamal Campbell. It’s a good thing “season” has been interchangeable with “miniseries” for a few years or we’d think this was a “developed for TV” thing from the get-go. 😉

We’d call it a riff on the Superman legend as a teen explores her emerging superpowers and her mysterious origins.

Naomi

Stripping

The Fantagraphics Massive Sale runs through Sunday, 1/20. (Amazon Link)

It seems like Fantagraphics is starting to have sales just a tiny bit more regularly, but it’s not like they’ve gone monthly.  This is a pretty wide selection… and really, idiosyncratic content is one of their strengths, so we’re going to focus in a little and look at their lineup of comics strips.

Barnaby by Crockett Johnson (yes, the Harold and the Purple Crayon guy… this is before that) is a strip about a boy and his fairy godfather. Popular with the literary set of the late 40s, this is a fantasy strip with a sense of the absurd and quick to float a sly reference in. Johnson is a master of mood and creating his own peculiar atmosphere.

Walt Kelly’s Pogo was an innovator in the social and political satire field. You can draw a fairly straight line between it and Bloom County. All sorts of shenanigans go on the swamp and all sorts of critters would really like to be in charge…

It’s not the first thing you necessarily think of for the character, but Mickey Mouse was an adventure strip in the 1930s.  Floyd Gottfredson was the cartoonist putting Mickey through is paces and if you were wondering where The Phantom Blot came from, he came from the comic strip.

Barnaby  Pogo   Mickey Mouse

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Comixology Sales: Spider-Man, Marvel Max / Punisher, She-Hulk, Silver Surfer, DC’s Joshua Williamson, Spawn and DH’s Matt Kindt

This week’s Comixology Sales includes a bunch of Marvel titles as they break out the Marvel Max line for a rare appearance, plus Sabretooth, She-Hulk and the world of Dan Slott. Speaking of creator spotlights, DC shines one on Joshua Williamson, Dark Horse on Matt Kindt and Spawn has always been a Todd McFarlane spotlight.

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

X-Villain

The Marvel Sabretooth sale runs through Sunday, 1/9. (Amazon link)

Victor Creed, the Wolverine villain who Marvel’s never quite turned into a leading man/anti-hero.

You can go back to the beginning in Iron Fist Masterworks V. 2. Yes, Sabretooth is a Chris Claremont/John Byrne creation and started out in Iron Fist’s sphere. (Later teaming with the Constrictor in Power Man and Iron Fist.)

If you think of Sabretooth as an X-Men villain, Mutant Massacre is likely a major touchpoint for you. That would be the Claremont/John Romita, Jr. era, plus crossovers.

If you think of him as a Wolverine villain… well, there’s plenty there, but we’ve also had a soft spot for the lower key Greg Rucka run. Sabretooth shows up at the end of that sequence when Darrick Robertson was on art duties.

Iron Fist   X-Men: Mutant Massacre   Wolverine by Greg Rucka

Spiders and Surfboards and Avengers, oh my

The Marvel Dan Slott Sale runs through Sunday, 1/9.

And yes, Slott has spent a fair amount of time at Marvel, so this sale covers some territory.

His most famous work has probably been Superior Spider-Man with art by Humberto Ramos and Ryan Stegman. This is the saga of when Doc Ock inhabited Peter Parker’s body. The two omnibus editions are the best deal here.

Slott’s most critically acclaimed work might be his Silver Surfer run with Mike Allred. Ah, mid-aught Marvel, OF COURSE there was a relaunch and despite the numbering, the collections are listed with series 1 and series 2. (Oh, Marvel…)

For something a little more off the beaten path, we always enjoyed Slott’s Mighty Avengers run, now conveniently collected in one volume. Back when Bendis was doing his New Avengers run, this was the only thing that felt like a traditional Avengers title for some time.

Superior Spider-Man   Silver Surfer   The Mighty Avengers by Dan Slott

Hulking Out

The Marvel She-Hulk Sale runs through Thursday, 1/13. (Amazon link)

You have a few different directions in the She-Hulk cannon. The ones that seem to get revisited the most are She-Hulk as broad farce, like the Sensational She-Hulk run of John Byrne and lawyer She-Hulk, such as the Charles Soule/Javier Pulido run.

Sensational She-Hulk   She-Hulk

Not For Kids

The  Marvel Max sale runs through Thursday, 1/20. (Amazon link)

Yes, this the Marvel imprint for ages 17+ that’s a little darker, more violent and not on sale quite as often.

The flagship here is probably Punisher. Particularly the first 4 “Complete Collection” volumes that pair Garth Ennis with Leandro Fernandez, Goran Parlov and Doug Braithwaite. This isn’t the comedy of “Welcome Back, Frank.” This is a quite serious and brutal sequence. It’s also a very good one… just not for kids.

Speaking of Welcome Back, Frank, it’s been moved over to Marvel Max. For those who haven’t heard of it, this is an Ennis/Steve Dillon/Jimmy Palmiotti Punisher series that takes a very idiosyncratic direction – Frank is still a very angry, death dealing man… but he’s thrust into the middle of an absurdist farce as he tries to bring down the Gnucci crime family. It’s utterly hilarious and something multiple directors have unsuccessfully tried to translate the screen. Influential and impossible to replicate.

There’s a lot more to the sale, but our off-the-radar pick is Dominic Fortune, Howard Chaykin’s pulp homage that also includes the character’s original appearances.

Punisher Max   Welcome Back Frank   Dominic Fortune

The Flash and Beyond

The DC Spotlight: Joshua Williamson Sale runs through Monday, 1/10. (Amazon link)

This is one of the smallest DC sales we’ve seen – only 20 items.  Williamson’s profile at DC has been raised in recent months and outside of $1.99 Robin single issues, that’s not really reflected in the sale.  What is here is the first six volumes of his popular Flash run where Carmine Di Giandomenico is the headlining artist.

Now, if you want to fly under the radar, there are a couple Vertigo volumes here pairing Williamson with artists we tend to associate with Image… and if you’re a .cheap regular, you know we mention his Image work fairly often.

Frostbite with art by Jason Shawn Alexander concerns a post-apocalyptical wasteland of a future where a plague is freezing people from the inside out.

Deathbed with Riley Rossmo finds a reporter sent to investigate the deathbed confessions of a 90-year old man who was once a famous adventure and who resurfaced after a 20-year disappearance. Could something unnatural be behind all this?  Surely not.

Flash   Frostbite   Deathbed

Capes and Chains

The Image Spawn Sale runs through Thursday 1/20. (Amazon link)

Did you know Spawn has more issues out than Cerebus?  It’s true!

Your best buy here is Spawn Compendium Vol. 1. That’s the first 50 issues and that comes out to roughly $0.48/issue. That’s the original run with Todd McFarlane doing full art, guest writers Alan Moore, Dave Sim, Frank Miller, Neil Gaiman and Grant Morrison. Early Greg Capullo art and some Tony Daniels , too.

The off-beat book here is Sam and Twitch, where a young Brian Bendis teams with Angel Medina, Alberto Ponticelli, Clayton Crain and Alex Maleev for some quirky horror detective stories about Spawn’s police acquaintances. It’s not always remembered, but it certainly helped launch some careers.

Spawn Compendium   Sam and Twitch

Underwater Minds

The Dark Horse Matt Kindt sale runs through Monday, 1/10.

Kindt’s most celebrated work at Dark Horse is definitely Mind MGMT.  It’s a bit of a genre mashup about conspiracies and psychic espionage. Kindt writes AND draws it.  One man gang, as it were.  The omnibus editions are the best deal here.

If you’re looking for something similar to Mind MGMT, we’d point you towards Dept. H, wherein an investigator is sent to an underwater base to investigate sabotage and there are much stranger things going on than meets the eye.

Mind MGMT   Dept. H

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Comixology Sales: Holiday Sale Season Has Started – $0.99/$1.99 Masterworks, Spider-Man, Star Wars, King in Black, Strange Adventures, Plus Deep Discounts From Vault, Valiant and Fantagraphics

The Holiday Comixology Sales have arrived! $0.99/$1.99 Marvel Masterworks!  $3.99 Star Wars Epic Collections! $0.99/$1.99 collected editions from Vault, Valiant and Fantagraphics! Plus, the Oni Holiday Sale and (Adam) Strange Adventures.

Given the time of the year, it’s time to pay attention to the sale end dates. The “real” holiday sales typical start between now and next week and run into the first week of January.  Publishers tend to drop 2-3 week sales now and then not update much in between ~12/23 and ~1/3.  So Marvel, Oni, Vault, Fantagraphics and Valiant are sticking around. DC’s “real” sale is yet to come.  (And there may well be a little more Marvel to come.)

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

$0.99/$1.99 Marvel Masterworks

Yes, you read that correctly.

The Marvel Masterworks Sale runs through Monday, 1/3. (Amazon link)

What’s good?  At these prices, anything you don’t already own, basically.

Things of note here (the sale goes alphabetical after the first page, and don’t pretend you’re not going to browse it):

And yes DD and FF Masterworks are starting to enter the Miller and Byrne eras.  Some people are probably feeling old when they read that.

Black Panther Masterworks Captain Marvel Defenders Masterworks

Catches Cheap, Just Like Flies — Look Out, Here Comes the Spider Sale

The Marvel Amazing Spider-Man Legacy Sale runs through Saturday, 1/1.  (Amazon link) And it’s a big one.

As with previous “Legacy” sales, this one is Spidey through the years, specifically different incarnations of Amazing Spider-Man.

You want a stellar deal? We’ve got it right here. 22 volumes of Amazing Spider-Man Masterworks (i.e. the original series). $0.99 for the first volume, $1.99 for the rest. That will take you into the Roger Stern/John Romita, Jr. years.

So let’s break this down by series.

Original ’63 – ’98 Amazing Spider-Man. For the sake of value, you only want the massively discounted Masterworks for the contents of issues 1-237. And since the Epic Collections _aren’t_ on sale this time around (that was a couple weeks ago), the only other things available here would be along the lines of Origin of the Hobgoblin (picks up where the next Masterworks would start) or the Michelinie/Larsen Sinster Six collection.

’99 – ’13 Amazing Spider-Man is noted for the JMS run and the following “Brand New Day” era.  The JMS run is divisive. We like it well enough, with the caveat that there were a couple major editorial missteps (Sins of the Past and One More Day), but your mileage will vary. As soon as JMS leaves, the One More Day era begins and it’s more of a throwback to the Spidey of years past. We particularly liked it when Mister Negative turned up and the introduction of Kraven’s heirs. The last arc of this series brings back Doc Ock, who… sticks around.

Which brings us to The Superior Spider-Man. A surprisingly entertaining run wherein Otto Octavius possess the body of Peter Parker and intends to make himself into a better, nay… superior Spider-Man. If you want this, go for the omnibuses.

Amazing Spider-Man Masterworks  Amazing Spider-Man Brand New Day   Superior Spider-Man

Still with us?  Good. Remember, Spidey reboots less than Captain America!

The ’15-’18 series of Amazing Spider-Man is the end of the Dan Slott era. (He was part of the Brand New Day rotation before taking over.) Otto build up Peter’s fortune and now Peter sort of plays Tony Stark until the old Parker Luck rears it’s head… as does Norman. Possibly best known for the Red Goblin story line that wraps the series.

And the brings us to the current Amazing Spider-Man, which is the Nick Spencer era, for the purposes of this sale. An era of Parker Luck and conspiracies… although we prefer the occasional humorous interludes that have echoes Superior Foes.

Amazing Spider-Man: Red Goblin   Amazing Spider-Man

Now, because Marvel and Comixology sometimes divide things up strangely, here are a couple other things of note that don’t show up in the main title categories:

Dig through the sale and you can find the 90s Clone saga and McFarlane run listed as a separate titles for… cataloging purposes?

Did Somebody Say “Holiday Special?”

The Marvel Star Wars Massive Sale runs through Monday, 1/3. (Amazon link)

Marvel might have figured out you like those $3.99 Epic Collections.  There’s a TON of them with the original Marvel 70s/80s run and the Dark Horse material.

The Epic’s are actually a little better organized on the Sale page (yes, that’s unusual), so let’s just list out a few things we particularly like there:

  • The Legacy series (John Ostrander and Jan Duursema leading the creatives) has bounty hunting Cade Skywalker, the last heir, mixing it up with the Sith Empire
  • The Newspaper Strips – both volumes. Russ Manning is pretty good, but you really can’t beat Archie Goodwin and Al Williamson!
  • The Empire V. 6 is worth the money for the “Agent of Empire” material. The elevator pitch is “What if James Bond worked for The Empire?”  Yes, yes he does.
  • For The Original Marvel Years, we’d lean towards V.3 and V.4, if we had to choose. Empire through the beginning of Jo Duffy’s run.  You get some memorable Goodwin/Williamson (and Goodwin/Infantino), great one-off’s by Larry Hama and Mike W. Barr and the under-appreciated David Michelinie/Walt Simonson run.

Now, if you’ve got your eye on the current Marvel era of Star Wars, we have a priority for you.  We’ve liked an awful lot of it, but the BEST is the Kieron Gillen/Salvador Larroca Darth Vader run. It is jaw-dropping.  Get the two Omnibus editions – they’re cheaper and the second one includes Vader Down.  Follow it up with Doctor Aphra or the Soule run… but this is where you start.

Darth Vader Omnibus

We Thought Legendary Was a Movie Company?!?

The Marvel Legendary Runs Sale runs through Monday, 1/3. (Amazon link)

You’ll want to have a good browse through this one.  Some of the thicker volumes approach Masterworks/Epic Collection size, too.  Yes, we like it when things are 80% off.

Things that pop to the top of the list here?  (This sale is alphabetical, so just scroll through the actual sale page.)

  • Avengers Assemble is the Kurt Busiek / George Perez run and and wonderful era of Avengers.
  • Black Panther by Christopher Priest: The Complete Collection is probably still the definitive run. Yes, even ahead of Don McGregor.  Worth your time for very thick volumes at 80% off.
  • Howard the Duck: The Complete Collection – you only need the first two volumes, this site doesn’t recognize HTD if he isn’t written by Steve Gerber. Note: The 99-cent Masterworks doesn’t quite have as many issues as V.1, but it’s close.  V. 2 is not in Masterworks format.
  • Thor by Walter Simonson because Walt is the best.

Avengers Assemble   Black Panther by Priest   Howard the Duck

Not to be Confused with Dark Tower or Johnny Cash

The Marvel King in Black Sale runs through Sunday, 12/19. (Amazon link)

The is the Venom-centric cosmic invasion Event with the core mini-series by Donny Cates and Ryan Stegman.

As far as the tie-ins (and there are quite a few), we like a couple that intersected a bit more tangentially.

King in Black: Namor is largely a flashback to Namor’s youth that features an origin for Attuma as a dark secret from the past rears it’s head to menace Atlantis.  It works pretty well as a stand alone story. We’d have been good with this being an ongoing title.

The Union, drawn by Andrea Di Vito and written by British indie comics legend Paul (Kane, Jack Staff) Grist finds Union Jack heading up a new group of British heroes, very much against his better judgement.

King in Black   King in Black Namor   The Union

What a Long Strange Trip

The DC Strange Adventures Sale runs through Monday, 12/20. (Amazon link)

A sale that’s… strange?  So let’s talk about Adam Strange.  The most topical item of this sale is the current Strange Adventures Adam Strange series by Tom King, Mitch Gerads and Doc Shaner. The first 10 issues are available for $0.99 cents… and then the last 2 issues are $4.99/pop.  That’s $19.88 for the series vs. $29.99 for the digital collection.  So you can save a bit if you want to read it now or you can wait for the collection to go on sale in 6-8 months, as it inevitably will.

If you want some of the original Adam Strange, there are some $0.99 reprints towards the tail end of the original Strange Adventures series available. It’s digital, so they’re all reprints.  We’d avoid Deadman in this run: it’s incomplete and you’re better off getting a collected edition when those are on sale. The Animal Man issues are also in black & white.  We did mention this was a strange sale.

JSA: Strange Adventures is a pulpy take on the Justice Society by Kevin J. Anderson, Barry Kitson and Gary Erksine.

Strange Adventures   Strange Adventures   JSA Strange Adventures

$0.99 / $1.99 Indie Graphic Novels are Back

Welcome to the holidays, we were expecting this to filter in soon.  Remember how the first volume in a series was $0.99 and subsequent volumes were $1.99 around Black Friday?  It’s back.

Vault

The Best of Vault Sale runs through Thursday, 1/6.

We’ve heard nothing but good things about These Savage Shores, a colonial horror tale by Ram V and Sumit Kumar. We’ve also heard a bit of buzz building around Money Shot by Tim Seeley, Sarah Beattie and Rebekah Isaacs, a tale about *cough* relations with aliens *cough* and it’s not really a book for kids.

These Savage Shores   Money Shot

A Different Love & Rockets

The Fantagraphics Love & Rockets Sale runs through Thursday, 1/6.

Yes, one of the legendary indie comics by Gilbert, Jaime and Mario Hernandez falls under this category… and since the series is broken up into different sequences, there’s a lot more $0.99 material than you might expect.  A real fielders choice here. Pick what speaks to you, the pedigree is there.

Love & Rockets

Valiant

The Valiant Ring in the New and Old Sales runs through Thursday, 1/6. (Amazon link)

They had a similar sale on Black Friday, so let’s talk about three particularly good older titles that have popped up here.

Quantum & Woody by Priest and MD Bright is from the Acclaim era of Valiant and is probably the best thing they’ve published. A superhero farce with gravitas, heart and… a goat. A wonderful comic that didn’t last as long as it should have. Highly recommended.

X-O Manowar: Retribution is the opening act in the original series where a barbarian comes into possession of sentient suit of unspeakably powerful armor worship by aliens. Sort of Conan gets Iron Man’s suit… but with more explosions.  The creative line up on this one? Steve Englehart, Jim Shooter, Bob Layton, Barry Windsor-Smith and Joe Quesada. Yes, there are reasons this was a hot book in the 90s and worth revisiting.

Harbinger: Children of the Eighth Day kicked off the original Harbinger saga. It’s something that seemed to fall out of the collective consciousness after Valiant’s first incarnation folded, but it’s a solid tale of teen psionics (mutants… why that would be a different publisher) confronting a conspiracy to control and own them. Jim Shooter and David Lapham are the creators.

Quantum and Woody   X-O Manowar   Harbinger

Oni For the Holidays

The Oni Holiday Sale runs through Tuesday, 1/4. (Amazon link)

Bryan Lee O’Malley’s Scott Pilgrim might be Oni’s flagship book at this point. The main question is whether a sequence that started in 2004 is a “modern classic” or just “a classic.” Hugely influential, either way.  The color omnibus is the best value here.  6 volumes for $14.99 comes out to ~$2.50/volume and that’s not bad at all.

We’ve spoken about the greatness that is The Sixth Gun before (and it’s also on sale), but we haven’t spoken of Shadow Roads. It’s a sequel series. Now… without getting into spoilers, this is not a sequel you were necessarily expecting, but there are a few familiar faces and some… echoes you’ll recognize. It does follow on quite nicely and if you liked The Sixth Gun, we’re confident you’ll like Shadow Roads.  Cullen Bunn and Brian Hurtt are back with A.C. Zamudio on art.

Stumptown is a Rockford Files-inspired detective comic by Greg Rucka, Matthew Southworth and Justin Greenwood.  A down on her heels PI navigates the quirky world of Portland. We especially liked V.4’s affair with rare coffee beans for maximum quirk.

Scott Pilgrim in Color   Shadow Roads   Stumptown

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Comixology Sales: Spider-Man / Green Goblin; Astro City; DC’s pre-Black Friday Sale; Image Superheroes

Highlights of this week’s Comixology sales include Spider-Man and the Green Goblin over at the House of Ideas, DC’s “Road to Black Friday” sale and Image’s superhero sale, which includes the return of Astro City.

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

He’s Got Your Pumpkin Right Here

The Marvel Green Goblin Sale runs through Sunday, 11/21.

You absolutely can’t go wrong with the Epic Collections that make up the top row of this sale.  Lee/Ditko, Lee/Romita… that’s the foundational material.  We also would point you towards Spider-Man: Light in the Darkness for something that’s a bit under the radar. That’s an Epic Collection-sized slice of the under-appreciated Peter Parker: Spider-Man run by Paul Jenkins and Mark Buckingham. Jenkins doesn’t get enough love these days.

Amazing Spider-Man Epic Collection: Great Power   Spider-Man: Light in the Darkness

The Warm Up

The DC Road to Black Friday Sale – Graphic Novels runs through Monday, 11/22 and comes in two parts – Part 1 (100 Bullets to New Teen Titans) and Part 2 (Night Force to Zero Hour).

Which is to say, they’ve got most of the catalog on sale.  The discounts are ranging from ~52% – 69% off, the upper part of the range being above average for DC in ’21… but makes us wonder what’s in store for the actual Black Friday sale?

It’s worth an extended browse, but some things that came to our attention for being at better discounts:

Preacher, the darkly satirical road trip horror epic from Garth Ennis and Steve Dillon is on the high end of the discounts with the first three of the six collected editions at 69% off.  Since these are effectively double-sized collections, it’s a pretty good deal as-is.

Multiversity, the dimension-hopping Event by Grant Morrison and a cadre of artists like Frank Quitely and Ivan Reis was a ton o’ fun (we’ll see your President Superman and raise you a pulp-flavored Justice Society). It’s also 70% off right now! Incidentally, you ever notice the Multiversity cover makes no sense unless you already know the comic is about exploring the different worlds in the DC Multiverse?

Speaking of Grant Morrison, the Discount Gods are smiling upon him this week with Final Crisis on sale for 69% off. With JG Jones and Doug Mahnke on art, this one collects the main mini-series, as well as key tie-ins (there was some malpractice at DC during the original release and it was not effectively communicated that Superman Beyond was VITAL to the story), so you can get the whole thing in one sitting.

Preacher   Multiversity   Final Crisis

Astro City Returns… On Sale

Yes, technically it’s part of the Image sale, but it’s so nice to see Astro City back in digital, it gets it’s own header.  This Kurt Busiek/Brent Anderson/Alex Ross collaboration exited the DC publishing sphere awhile back and was in limbo until the current Image deal was announced. Appropriately, Astro City started out at Image, so things are now full circle.

Astro City is essentially a distillation of all that’s good about superhero comics. Particularly Silver Age comics. “Astro City” is the setting and the characters are a pantheon of superhero archetypes. Some tales are about the heroes. Some are about the people around them.  You can pick up pretty much any volume on it’s own and enjoy it (OK, maybe not Dark Age Part 2…), but if you start at the beginning and move forward, the world building is additive.

Astro City

Independent Capes

The  Image Superhero Sale runs through Monday, 11/22.

To start with something out of left field, there’s always The Pro. Very much in the “mature readers” side of things, this is Garth Ennis, Amanda Connor and Jimmy Palmiotti crafting the adventures of a superpowered prostitute.  Oh, yes… wherever you think they won’t go, they do. Very funny, very dark and keep the children away from this one.

Radiant Black by Kyle Higgins and Marcelo Costa is one of the current Image buzz books. The first volume of this Millennial hero whose adventures start by moving back in with the parents is 50% off.

And right back from the dawn of Image, there’s Spawn Compendium Vol. 1. That’s the first 50 issues of Spawn. Todd McFarlane doing the full art before Tony Daniels and Greg Capullo pick up the pencil. Guest scripts by Alan Moore, Neil Gaiman (now that was an expensive script!), Dave Simm and Grant Morrison. Here’s the deal – with this discount, it’s less than $0.50/issue and you just don’t get much cheaper than that!

The Pro   Radiant Black   Spawn Compendium

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Comixology Sales: Spider-Man/Doc Ock, Red Hulk, DC in the 90s and Berger Books

This week’s Comixology Sales highlights include Marvel wheeling out Spidey’s old pal, Doctor Octopus; the Red Hulk; DC’s 90s nostalgia sale and Dark Horse’s Berger Books.

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

Tentacle Comics – Marvel Version

The Marvel Doctor Octopus Sale runs through Sunday, 10/14.

Personally, we would’ve included the Fraction/Larroca  Iron Man arc with Doc Ock in this say, but what do we know?

As usual, we think the Epic Collections are your value buys here. They’re semi-conveniently  grouped at the top of the sale page (and are an absolute mess on the Amazing Spider-Man page).  It’s hard to go wrong with Amazing Spider-Man Epic Collection: Great Power, the first half of the Lee/Ditko run.

If you’re looking for Superior Spider-Man, the landmark run where Otto is occupying Peter’s body, your best buy are the two “Complete Collection” volumes in the Omnibuses section.

Amazing Spider-Man Epic Collection: Great Power   Superior Spider-Man

Hulk See Red

The Marvel Red Hulk Sale runs through Sunday, 11/14.

Yes, there are times when the Hulk extended family starts to resemble the Green Lantern Corps with all the colors of the spectrum. This sale is about the Red Hulk… or as we like to put it: Ross, Stress For Less.

Honestly, we weren’t in the bag for the Jeph Loeb/Ed McGuinness run that opened that volume of Hulk. We thought the Jeff Parker / Gabriel Hardman / Patrick Zircher / Dale Eaglesham run was the more interesting stretch of that era.  The collected editions for this volume aren’t well numbered, so go to the Collected Editions section of the series page and start with “Scorched Earth.”

Red Hulk Scorched Earth

Age of the Super-Mullet

The DC Back in the 90s Sale runs through Monday, 11/15.

And some of the discounts are even 60%-ish. On the high side for DC!

Sales stunts and character deaths aside, the quintessential 90s DC title was probably the Grant Morrison / Howard Porter JLA. A sort of back to basics reboot, although Justice League really had already been resetting from the BWA HA HA era of the late 80s/early 90s.

A lot of the better 90s material was in the smaller books. Titles whose full runs haven’t been collected (and, of course, the single issues aren’t on sale to go along with the theme… we do wonder who makes these sales sometimes.)

John Ostrander and Tom Mandrake had a superlative run on The Spectre. Underneath the magic and horror-adventure lies a philosophical tale about the dead man who’s become the earthly host for the Wrath of God and his attempts to come to grips with his situation.

Starman by James Robinson and Tony Harris (or at least its the Tony Harris era currently collected) was another high point of the 90s. While people like to talk about Justice Society as a “legacy hero” title, this is the REAL legacy hero title.  Jack Knight very reluctantly picks up the cosmic rod of Starman after his brother is shot. He wanted no part of the Knight heritage, but he’s dragged in anyway. Aside from the heroics, it’s a tale of families and family traditions that should be celebrated more than DC has.  Also, The Shade. And the steady editorial hand of Archie Goodwin.

Take some time to sift through the haphazard selection of $0.99 single issues, which are more comprehensive than the collected editions… yet still have odd gaps.  You might take a close look at Legends of the Dark Knight, too.

JLA   The Spectre   Starman

Definitely Not Vertigo II (Said the Lawyer)

The Dark Horse Berger Books Sale runs through Monday, 11/22.

Yes, that’s Karen Berger who ran Vertigo (and editing Legion of Super-Heroes before that). She set up shop at Dark Horse after DC shut down Vertigo.  Berger Books is a little more genre-diverse than Vertigo was, but there’s a similar vibe.

Invisible Kingdom by G. Willow Wilson and Christian Ward might be the de facto flagship book. This Eisner Award winner finds a religious acolyte and a starship freighter crew on the run after discovering corporate interests conspiring with religious leaders for control and profit.  We wouldn’t have minded a fourth volume.

The Seeds by Ann Nocenti and David Aja got an awful lot of attention towards the beginning of the year and it’s certainly an interesting one that blends a lot of dispirate elements: climate collapse, aliens, exclusion zones, journalism and conspiracies.  Plus… Aja’s art!

Invisible Kingdom   The Seeds

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Comixology Sales: Spider-Man and the Spider-Verse; X-Men and Phoenix; Wonder Woman and IDW Horror

This week’s Comixology Sales highlights include Spider-Man and X-Men from Marvel, good discounts on Wonder Woman from DC and an IDW horror sale for Halloween.

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

The Spiders From Another Dimension

The Marvel Spider-Verse Sale runs through Sunday, 10/24.

Which is to say, the Spidey family, as built around a couple Events that you go into prelude and post-Event volumes, because… Marvel’s sales department.

The center of the activity here is the titular Spider-Verse omnibus.  Morlun’s up to his old tricks and ALL the Spider-Men across the various dimension must act.  The omnibus contains the Amazing issues and the crossovers, so you’re looking at Dan Slott, Christos Gage (yes, Gage covering deadlines — it’s a thing!), Peter David, “Hopeless” Dennis, Adam Kubert, Olivier Copiel, Mark Brooks and a ton of others.  Roughly 600 pages of Spidey to keep you out of trouble.

And the follow-up to that is Spider-Geddon.  This one has a little smaller scope than Spider-Verse.

Now, if you’re talking the extended Spider-family, Miles Morales is the character we most associate with the phrase “Spider-Verse.” The omnibus editions are the ones on sale here and you can do a lot worse than the Bendis / Marquez /Pichelli run.  Some would say this (particularly Spider-Men, which followed) was top of the final Marvel years for Bendis.

Spider-Verse   Spider-Geddon   

Shot Down in Flames

The Marvel Phoenix Sales runs through Sunday 10/24.

This is a fairly straightforward and small sale. X-Men Epic Collection: The Fate of the Phoenix is a classic of medium.  Accept no substitute and go for the Epic Collection.

X-Men: The Fate of the Phoenix

Sappho Suffered For This Sale, Part 2

The Wonder Woman 80th Anniversary Sale runs through Monday, 10/25.

Last time out, we looked at earlier Wonder Woman titles, this time we’ll take a look at New 52 on.

Brian Azzarello and Cliff Chiang (with Tony Akins and Goran Sudžuka drawing a few issues) launched the New 52 edition of Wonder Woman. It’s a darker, alternate take on Wonder Woman’s origins. Some would prefer you treat this one like an Elseworlds story. A sacrilegious a take on the mythos as it maybe be, it’s also one of the best comics to come out of the New 52.  That said, when the Azzarello/Chiang era stops with Volume 6, we would advise you to stop there.

For the Rebirth Era of Wonder Woman, we love the first arc(s) where Greg Rucka returns to undo the Azzarello run (no, really) with Liam Sharp and Nicola Scott alternating parallel stories.  Save a couple bucks with the first omnibus editions in the run or get the first 4 regular collections for this.

And for something a little different, do you remember Matt Wagner’s Trinity? Wonder Woman, Batman and Superman get together to thwart a Ra’s al Ghul plot. Save yourself a buck and get the original (prestige format) issues for $0.99 each.

Wonder Woman New 52   Wonder Woman  Trinity

Revenge of the Trick or Treaters

The IDW Horror Sale runs through Thursday, 11/4.

Yes, it’s the most magical time of the year… for the undead.  There’s plenty for your Halloween appetite rite now, er… right now.  Two things that spring to mind are:

From Hell – Alan Moore and Eddie Campbell collaborate on a very dark exploration of the tale of Jack Ripper. It’s a thick volume and has garnered a veritable ton of accolades over the years. The current edition is in color, “with pictorial revisisions for color by Eddie Campbell, as the cover says.” Be aware, in League of Extraordinary Gentleman, Alan Moore does more of a Victorian pastiche.  The tone here is way different.  This is a horror sale.

30 Days of Night is an important book for IDW.  Never mind the movies, this Steve Niles/Ben Templesmith comic was an important early hit that helped put IDW on the map.  The premise is one so obvious, you’ll hate yourself for not thinking of it first. (Those are always the best ones.) Bad Things happen when a group of vampires realize that in rural Alaska, the sun goes down for a whole month at a time.

From Hell   30 Days of Night

Still on Sale

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Comixology Sales: Avengers, Spider-Man, Batman, James Bond and Dark Horse Celebrates Halloween

Highlights of this week’s Comixology Sales include Hickman’s Avengers, the chronology of once and future Spider-Man, Ben Reilly, Dark Horse’s Halloween sale and a whole bunch of DC graphic novels… which is to say, Batman.

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

The New Spider-Man (Again)

The Marvel Ben Reilly: Spider-Man Sale runs through Sunday, 10/10.

If you’re not up on this, it’s going to take some explaining. When Nick Spenser leaves Amazing Spider-Man, the Ben Reilly character will be putting on the Spidey suit and taking over. (Yeah, we know. It almost certainly won’t be forever.) So this sale is about catching you on the character.  You’re going to need a score card, so let’s walk you through this.

Spider-Man: The Original Clone Saga is where this kicks off, way back in the 70s. (Yeah, we’re talking clones, so this is a long and winding road.)  The clone saga truly starts with a plot by The Jackal spawning the first clones at the end of the Gerry Conway/Ross Andru run. Then we fast forward to the first encounter with Carrion in the Bill Mantlo/Sal Buscema Peter Parker, The Spectacular Spider-Man run as the clones return.  This is where Ben Reilly comes from, though you won’t read that name yet.

Flash forward to the ’90s. Nobody really called the “Original Clone Saga” anything like that until the “Clone Saga” took over the Spidey line in the 90s. It’s collected in the 5 (thick) volume “Spider-Man: The Complete Clone Saga Epic” series. This is where Ben Reilly, Peter’s clone,  shows up as the Scarlett Spider. So you’ve got the Jackal back running around, and hijinks with Venom and Carnage in the middle of it.

At the conclusion of how Marvel’s collecting the Clone Saga, Ben Reilly takes over as Spidey. This run is collected as Spider-Man: The Complete Ben Reilly Epic. At the end of it, we’re done with Ben Reilly for awhile and many would say that’s the real end of the Clone Sage (90s version).

Spider-Man: The Original Clone Saga   Spider-Man: The Complete Clone Saga Epic   Spider-Man: The Complete Ben Reilly Epic

Of course, this is comics, so of course Ben Reilly is back from the grave in the Dan Slott-era Amazing Spider-Man: The Clone Conspiracy. And then he spins off into his own series, as you knew he would in the current era.  But hey, we warned you all this clone stuff is a long and winding road. That’s your primer for the new Spidey era.

Amazing Spider-Man: The Clone Conspiracy

Hickman’s Revenge

The Marvel Avengers by Jonathan Hickman Sale runs through Sunday, 10/10.

We’ve said it before and we’ll say it again: Hickman’s Avengers run is really one long story and you need to treat it as such.  Do not try and read Avengers and New Avengers as separate collections.  That’s not how the material was published.

Fortunately, Avengers by Jonathan Hickman: The Complete Collection seems to be taking that approach. Yes, this sequence includes Infinity, so you don’t need to buy that on its own.  Next up is Time Runs Out, which is the ending arc of Avengers and New Avengers. All in one oversized volume. And finally, after the collapse of known universes, the story wraps up in Secret Wars.

“Epic” is a word that gets thrown around a lot at Marvel. Hickman’s Avengers tale earns that word. The sheer scope of the story is stunning and is really a vital part of the experience. Don’t jump in at the end. Start at the beginning and take the full ride. In for a penny, in for a pound.  Or maybe five pounds in this case.

Avengers by Jonathan Hickman - the Complete Collection   Avengers: Time Runs Out    Secret Wars

Let the Halloween Sales Begin

‘Tis the season for horror-ish sales and The Dark Horse Halloween Sale kicks it off (and runs through Monday, 11/1).

There’s a lot of stuff in here, since Dark Horse has always published a lot of horror. We’ll assume you already know about Hellboy and B.P.R.D – both are in there and both are worth your time if you haven’t partaken, but we’ll focus on some different offerings.

Point in case, one of the… outer resident of the Mignola-verse is Baltimore, the tale of a world where the vampires rose at the end of WWI and the bloody quest for vengeance Lord Baltimore sets out for against those vampires. Now conveniently contained in two omnibus editions, we had a good time reading those a few months back. Mike Mignola and Christopher Golden are the authors with Ben Steinbeck and Peter Bergting tagging off on art.

It seems like this is the season for some Neil Gaiman, and there’s plenty on sale. Perhaps it’s a good year for Snow, Glass, Apples? That would be Colleen Doran adapting Neil’s twisted retelling of the legend of Snow White. (Also available in The Neil Gaiman Library V. 3)

And for something extra below the radar, we offer up The Marquis.  Originally published by Oni, this is a supernatural affair written and drawn by Guy Davis. Yes, the same Guy Davis who rocked B.P.R.D. The Marquis concerns an ex-inquisitor in the 18th century who can see the demons who are possessing members of society as he dons a mask to root them out… in a hail of bullets. It’s Guy Davis with the gloves off, slinging horrors at the reader.

Baltimore Omnibus 1   Snow, Glass, Apples   The Marquis

The Road to PR

The DC Road to FanDome Sale comes in Part 1 (100 Bullets to New Teen Titans) and Part 2 (New Teen Titans to Zero Hour). FanDome is DC’s attempt to pass off a PR event as their own convention, so they’re pretty much putting most of their graphic novels up for 50% off.

If you’d like a little bang for your buck, you could do a lot worse than Batman by Ed Brubaker V. 1. That’s Brubaker with Scott McDaniel and Karl Story as the primary art team. 317 pages for $5.99. There’s a second volume, but heads up that it’s in the middle of the “Bruce Wayne: Fugitive” event, so parts of it might read a little odd – not an uncommon problem with single-creator themed Batman collections.

Superman’s Pal, Jimmy Olsen by Jack Kirby is essentially the Fourth World Superman title and it’s a little under-rated.  Jimmy Olsen hooks up with the Cadmus Project as Intergang and Darkseid loom over things and Superman keeps watch. A more influential series than you might realize – these additions to the mythos have largely stuck around over the years.

The Brave and the Bold: Batman and Wonder Woman is Liam Sharp’s tale of Batman and Wonder Woman investigating the death of a Celtic god from a couple years back (before Sharp hooked up with Grant Morrison for Green Lantern).

Batman by Ed Brubaker   Jimmy Olsen by Jack Kirby   The Brave and the Bold

No Time to Die Shop

The Dynamite James Bond Sale runs through Monday, 10/18.

If you like Ian Flemming’s novels, have we got a comic for you.  Kill Chain by Andy Diggle and Luca Casalanguida bring Bond back into the crosshairs of SMERSH. One of the best 007 updates, period.

James Bond Kill Chain

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