Comixology (at Amazon) Sales: Marvel and Dark Horse drop a pile of holiday discounts

In this week’s Comixology (at Amazon) sales, it’s time for Marvel and Dark Horse Holiday sales. Plus, another volume of Calvin and Hobbes.

Where did the New Releases and Sale pages go?

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

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

Housekeeping: We would remind you that Marvel’s normal December 8-sale spread for the month is still active and annotated here. We’ve got another batch of Marvel sales that are a little over-weighted with single issues – $0.99/$1.49/$1.99 and up. (We’re probably going to ignore most of the single issues over $2.) These are lasting through the beginning of January, which means… after a few months, someone at Marvel seems to have realized they were having a gap week without a sale. We applaud the arrival of a clue.

You’re probably asking “where’s the DC holiday sale?” We wish we could tell you. As of this typing, we’re not seeing any significant movement with DC. It could just be late arriving (as it was for Black Friday). We would caution you not to get your hopes up too high for a $1.99 tpb sale. All things are possible, but DC seems to have been doing a lot of A/B testing on higher prices in recent months. Perhaps we’ll be back with DC in a day or two. We’ll see.

Cobwebs

Ultimate Spider-Man Omnibus Vol. 5  Amazing Spider-Man Modern Era Epic Collection: Big Time  Spider-Man/Deadpool Modern Era Epic Collection: Road Trip

The Marvel Spider-Man Sale runs through Sunday, 1/4.

Lots of $0.99 single issues here, but this is the sale with the most omnibuses in it.

And the $0.99 singles and more conventional collected editions:

Hulk Smash Mistletoe

Incredible Hulk Epic Collection: To Hunt The Hulk  Immortal Hulk  She-Hulk By Rainbow Rowell Omnibus

The Marvel Hulk Sale runs through Sunday, 1/4.

There are fewer titles here than you’d think. It’s mostly single issues. Here are the highlights:

Some Assembly Required

Young Avengers Modern Era Epic Collection: Dark Reign  U.S.Avengers  Avengers: War Across Time

The  Marvel Avenger Sale runs through Sunday, 1/4.

Another one WAY overweighted with single issues. Highlights:

Fore!

Fantastic Four - The Coming of Galactus  Fantastic Four Epic Collection: The Name is Doom  Fantastic Four

The Marvel Fantastic Four Sale runs through Sunday, 1/4.

Ah! Finally a decent selection of Masterworks (and a few Epics). You’ll see some upward drift on the pricing (verily, we are in a fiscal quarter of A/B testing), but the collected editions are going to be better buys than the $0.99 single issues in most cases.

A couple prime cuts of Lee/Kirby goodness at good prices?  Fantastic Four Epic Collection: The Coming Of Galactus and Fantastic Four Epic Collection: The Name Is Doom 

Topmost

The Ultimates  Ultimate Black Panther Ultimate Invasion

The Marvel Ultimate Sale runs through Sunday, 1/4.

That’s right. The current Ultimate Universe:

We’d say Ultimate Spider-Man is the heart of the line and The Ultimates is the world-building engine.

Unannounced Sales

Adventures of Luther Arkwright  Baltimore Omnibus 1  From the World of Minor Threats: Barfly

As always, we really don’t know how long these discounts will last.

First up, Dark Horse doesn’t quite have a line-wide sale… but it’s close. Here are things we noticed with better pricing:

Recommendations? Sure.

If you’ve never sampled Bryan Talbot’s Adventures of Luther Arkwright, this is a good time. It’s a dimension hopping, psychic spy tale with not a small amount of rebellion in it. It’s also VERY appropriate for a Michael Moorcock introduction, too. A classic of the field.

Minor Threats is popular when it pops up, so if that’s your jam, have a look for fresh volumes in the From the World of Minor Threats link.

The Mignola-verse is quite reliable (and much of it is discounted right now). Something a little under the radar, relative to Hellboy, that we enjoyed quite a bit was Baltimore.  At the end of World War I, the vampire hoards are unleashed and one Lord Henry Baltimore enters into a bitter feud with them. Two omnibuses make for a nice ride.

Also on sale:

It's a Magical World: A Calvin and Hobbes Collection

Two modern classics on the list – American Born Chinese and Saga

 

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Comixology (at Amazon) Sale: Unannounced Deals on Star Wars, Avatar the Last Airbender, Saga, Groo

In this week’s Comixology (at Amazon) sales, it’s a batch of unannounced Dark Horse discounts, plus Saga.

Where did the New Releases and Sale pages go?

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

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

Housekeeping: The Marvel “holiday” sale is over, but their normal 8-sale spread for the month is still active and annotated here.

Unannounced Sales

Avatar: The Last Airbender Saga  Star Wars Hyperspace Stories

As always, we really don’t know how long these discounts will last.

Also on sale:

Two modern classics on the list – American Born Chinese and Saga

A DC Maybe Sale

Batman and Robin: Year One

Remember several months back when Marvel was experimenting with having a quasi-sale price on one or two new releases each week? Well, DC may be dipping a toe into that. It isn’t always worth noting and this week’s “big” example really isn’t the price we’d like to see it at, but we’ll throw it out there and let you judge: Batman & Robin: Year One (Mark Waid/Chris Samnee) is listed at $16.19. Yes, that’s a bizarre price, but we seen it on one other site, so it appears to be intentional? That’s against a $29.99 digital list (and paperback) price. Would we like to see something a good deal cheaper to call it a sale? Certainly, but it’s a 12-issue collection and ~$1.35/issue isn’t horrible for a new release. Your call. We’ve heard nothing but good things about it and it’s in our reading pile.

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Comixology (at Amazon) Sale: A Week of Unannounced Discounts

In this week’s Comixology (at Amazon) sales, it’s a week of unannounced discounts.

Where did the New Releases and Sale pages go?

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

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

Housekeeping: The Marvel “holiday” sale is over, but their normal 8-sale spread for the month is still active and annotated here. The DH sales seem to be sticking around, so we’ll leave them up as this seems to be largely a week where the new sales are unlisted.

Unannounced Sales

Brandon Sanderson's Dark One  Elric  Lio's Astonishing Tales

As always, we really don’t know how long these discounts will last.

Dark Horse seems to be having a sale on their James Tynion IV titles:

Resident Alien is a comic by Peter Hogan and Steve Parkhose about a stranded alien posing as a doctor and solving murders. It got a little more famous when a TV adaptation hit and a lot more famous when the TV show moved over to Netflix. (And will now be moving over to the USA cable network.) We read the first omnibus a few months back and if your point of reference is the TV show, the comic is a little more mystery-oriented. It’s available in

Also on sale:

American Born Chinese is widely considered a modern classic, btw. We also trust you’re heard of Brandon Sanderson and Octavia Butler.

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Comixology (at Amazon) Sales: Another 8 Marvel Sales, Plus Resident Alien and James Tynion IV

In this week’s Comixology (at Amazon) sales, there are another 8 Marvel sales (besides the holiday sale). Plus, Resident Alien and Mr. Tynion.

Where did the New Releases and Sale pages go?

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

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

Housekeeping: We’re back on the usual schedule after needing three installments to process that fairly odd “Marvel Holiday Sale” that expires on Monday. Here are the links for that:

That Would Be Suuuuuuuper

Captain America  The Winter Soldier: The Bitter March  Black Widow

The Marvel Super Soldier Sale runs through Monday, 12/29.

Kind of a liberal definition of “super soldier,” relative to Cap, but who are we to question a discount?

It also seems to be mostly avoiding Epic Collections and Masterworks for the original Captain America run.

Captain America highlights

  • Selections from the original run that are discounted:
  • Captain America ’98-’02 – The second Mark Waid / Ron Garney run with some Andy Kubert and Lee Weeks art, too. Smaller volumes here, plus the underrated Dan Jurgens run that followed.
  • Captain America ’04-’11 – The main Winter Soldier/Death of Captain America Ed Brubaker run with Steve Epting, Michael Lark, Mike Perkins and Butch Guice in the artistic rotation. Note: you can pick up chunks of it cheaper in these omnibuses (and the third one includes Reborn… but, of course, is not discounted)
  • Captain America: Reborn – The actual end to the “Death of Captain America” sequence by Ed Brubaker, Bryan Hitch and Butch Guice
  • Captain America ’11-’12 – Brubaker sticks around for a relaunch, post-Death/Reborn
  • Captain America ‘18-’21 – The Ta-Nehisi Coates run with art by Leinil Francis Yu, Adam Kubert, Jason Masters and Leonard Kirk. Save a couple bucks with the 2 omnibuses.
  • Captain America ’23-’25 – J. Michael Straczynski / Jesus Saiz

What’s good here? Since the Englehart material isn’t discounted, Stern/Byrne, Gruenwald, the Waid runs and the Brubaker years are the highlights.

The Winter Soldier

For solo series, the first choice is Winter Soldier by Ed Brubaker, which is Brubaker and Butch Guice in a spin-off.

Also of possible interest:

Black Widow

Let’s walk through the highlights.

There are two Black Widow Epic Collections that collect what were largely guest or co-starring spots (with a couple notable exceptions) through the early 80s.

Black Widow: Marvel Team-Up takes place mostly between those two Epic Collections, strangely enough. It’s primarily Spidey team-ups, including a 4-part Spidey / Black Widow / Nick Fury / Master of Kung Fu serial by Chris Claremont and Sal Buscema.

Marvel Knights Black Widow by Grayson & Rucka: The Complete Collection – the end of the 90s saw Yelana enter the Widow’s world. It’s a trilogy of mini-series from Devin Grayson / Greg Rucka / J.G Jones / Scott Hampton / Igor Kordey,

Flash forward to 2004 and the highlight of a series of miniseries was a pair written by Richard K. Morgan with an art rotation of Bill Sienkiewicz, Sean Phillips and Goran Parlov. Conveniently collected in a single volume. (We hold this sequence in high regard.)

A decade later, the team of Mark Waid & Chris Samnee (a known quantity) did their own Black Widow run. Predictably, another highlight. (Also conveniently collected in a single volume.)

Shortly after that, the Eisner winning Black Widow run of Kelly Thompson and Elena Casagrande kicked off. Yes, we enjoyed this run, too… and were kind of thinking there might be a follow up, but we haven’t seen one yet. One of these days?

West Side Story

Avengers West Coast  Avengers West Coast  Vision and the Scarlet Witch

The Marvel West Coast Avengers Sale runs through Monday, 12/29.

Let’s start with the main one:

We’re partial to the original Englehart / Milgrim West Cost Avengers. There’s a case to be made for the Byrne run, but that one is a lightning rod for strong opinions. Roy & Dann Thomas follow and that run includes a big Ultron story.

The rest of the sale is a mix of the following:

Which is to say: two revivals, some Roger Stern era Avengers that ties in, Denny O’Neil’s excellent final Iron Man arc and the Vision & The Scarlet Witch series that co-launched with West Coast Avengers.

A Mister of Ill Portent

Sins of Sinister  Uncanny X-Men  Uncanny X-Men Masterworks Vol. 16

The Marvel Mister Sinister Sale runs through Monday, 12/29.

A villain sale.

  • X-Men: Cyclops & Phoenix – Past & Future – Scott Lobdell / Peter Milligan / Tom DeFalco / Gene Ha / John Paul Leon / Kyle Hotz; Contains the tale of Sinister’s origin
  • Uncanny X-Men Masterworks Vol. 16 – Chris Claremont /  Louise Simonson / Marc Silvestri / Walt Simonson / Arthur Adams / Rick Leonard; This volume has Sinister stepping out of the shadows for the Inferno event.
  • Uncanny X-Men by Kieron Gillen: The Complete Collection Vol. 1 – Kieron Gillen / Carlos Pacheco / Terry Dodson; Gillen starts doubling down on Sinister and his clones
  • Hellions by Zeb Wells – Zeb Wells / Stephen Segovia; A dark and sometimes hilarious piece of the Krakoa age where Sinister forms his own team of mutants
  • Sins Of Sinister – Kieron Gillen / Al Ewing / Simon Spurrier / Lucas Werneck / Paco Medina / Patch Zircher / Alessandro Vitti; Sinister’s scheme goes awry and he’s caught in an out of (his) control timeline in this superior X-Event

Plenty of mutant books to browse in the link.

We Skipped the TV Version

Inhumans.  Black Bolt   The Origin of the Inhumans

The  Marvel Inhumans Sale runs through Monday, 12/29.

Yeah, sign us up for the “The Inhumans shouldn’t replace the X-Men” party. And yes, Ms. Marvel should have been a mutant the entire time. Notarize it.

With Inhumans comics there is one volume that stands far above the rest: Inhumans by Paul Jenkins and Jae Lee, which was part of the old Marvel Knights imprint when it came out as a 12 issue maxi-series. That’s your gold standard.

For the #2 spot, perhaps the Black Bolt series by Saladin Ahmend and Christian Ward. It’s quite good and the first six issues? Extra special.

There’s nothing wrong with going back to the beginning. Inhumans: The Origin of the Inhumans is a collection of the early Stan Lee & Jack Kirby appearances from Fantastic Four and Thor. It’s also a thick 425 pages.

For something under the radar? Inhumans: Once and Future Kings by Priest and Phil Noto. Inhuman politics from the younger days of Black Bolt and Maximus… plus, Lockjaw comics.

There’s plenty more to browse, but outside of the above, we’ve tended to prefer the Inhumans with the FF.

That Was Cold

Iceman  Iceman  Iceman

The Marvel Iceman Sale runs through Monday,  12/29.

There actually have been some Iceman solo books:

Plenty of assorted X-Men volumes to check out on the sale page.

Fist of Fun

Iron Fist  Power Man and Iron Fist  Immortal Iron Fist

The Marvel Iron Fist Sale runs through Monday, 12/29.

Iron Fist originally had a short-ish run (by the standards of the day) and you can get the entire solo series (Marvel Premiere and Iron Fist) in an Epic Collection. The run is most associated with the team it finished with: an early pairing of Chris Claremont and John Byrne. You may have heard of them. Claremont/Byrne is reliable and you know what you’re getting for the back half of that.

The two books then merged into the longer-running Power Man & Iron Fist. Now here’s something we don’t always say: this one’s in Epic Collections, but not Masterworks format. Claremont & Byrne left shortly thereafter, paving the way for Jo Duffy, who might be most associated with it. Among the creators working on it were Duffy, Denny O’Neil, (a very young) Kurt Busiek, Christopher Priest, Kerry Gammil, Denys Cowan, Greg Larocque and Mark Bright. A stronger lineup than you might have guessed and a comic that remembered to be goofy at times.

It was revived as Heroes for Hire by John Ostrander and Pasqual Ferry in ’97. We also have a soft spot for the David Walker / Sanford Greene Power Man & Iron Fist in ’16.

But the best of the bunch? The Immortal Iron Fist. People are most familiar with the first half of the series, with the celebrated team of Ed Brubaker/Matt Fraction/David Aja. We’re here to tell you that the back half by Duane Swierczynski/Travel Foreman is also pretty darn good. Plus, more Fat Cobra! Don’t sleep on the back half. Good value with those collected editions, too!

Making Out

Ultimate Invasion  The UltimatesVenom

The  Marvel The Maker Sale runs through Monday, 12/29.

This would be the former Reed Richards of the original Ultimate universe, gone bad and adopting the identity of “The Maker.” The Maker Faire will never be the same. (IFYKYK)

The current arc starts with Ultimate Invasion by Jonathan Hickman & Bryan Hitch.

It then spills into the current Ultimate Universe:

Of slightly older vintage, but possible interest:

Hi, Dad

Star Wars: The Rise Of Kylo Ren  Star Wars: Legacy Of Vader - The Reign of Kylo

The Marvel Kylo Ren Sale runs through Monday, 12/29.

Unannounced Sales

Resident Alien  Let This One Be a Devil  American Born Chinese

As always, we really don’t know how long these will last.

Dark Horse seems to be having a sale on their James Tynion IV titles:

Resident Alien is a comic by Peter Hogan and Steve Parkhose about a stranded alien posing as a doctor and solving murders. It got a little more famous when a TV adaptation hit and a lot more famous when the TV show moved over to Netflix. (And will now be moving over to the USA cable network.) We read the first omnibus a few months back and if your point of reference is the TV show, the comic is a little more mystery-oriented. It’s available in

Also on sale:

American Born Chinese is widely considered a modern classic, btw.

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Comixology (at Amazon) Sales: Marvel Holiday Sale Part 3 – Last of the $0.99 Titles

In this week’s Comixology (at Amazon) sales, we finish off those $0.99 single issues from the Marvel Holiday Sale and see what else was there.

Where did the New Releases and Sale pages go?

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

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

Housekeeping: We’re still going through that Marvel Holiday Sale to make it more digestible for you. We’ll forgive you if you looked at the display and decided it was just a bunch of random issues. The presentation leaves a lot to be desired (though that’s why we’re here). What the bulk of the holiday sales appears to be is $0.99 single issues. Not exclusively from the ’22-’24 time frame, but a lot from there. Some discounted newer issues, too. And some collected editions, which we touched on.

In this third installment, we’re still consolidating the $0.99 single issue titles. NOW… you might see $1.49 for issue #1 at times. <shrugs> You may also see collected editions of some of these. We’re not quite that far along yet. You may also find that the single issues are sometimes cheaper than a collected edition, especially if the collected edition is only 4-5 issues. This doesn’t necessarily hold for a decent sale on Epic Collections, Masterworks or Omnibuses, so do a little math in your head if the single issue isn’t your preferred format.

Here’s the list of the newly discounted omnibuses / Masterworks / Epic Collections from Monday, btw.

Here’s the first breakdown of $0.99 titles.

We’ll return in the normal weekly slot for the REST of the week’s sales, which are a bit less peculiar than this holiday sale.

First, the official holiday sale link:

Marvel Holiday Sale – Ends 12/08

More Titles With $0.99 Single Issues

Immortal Hulk  Black Widow  Namor

Right, then… back in the saddle. This is going to be more of a quick and dirty, but we’ll annotate here and there when we think something is particularly good.

Best bets from this batch? Immortal Hulk and Black Widow.  For something more under the radar? Namor The Sub-Mariner: Conquered Shores.

The Best of the Rest

Micronauts Epic Collection: The Original Marvel Years - They Came From Inner Space  Rom Epic Collection: The Original Marvel Years  Fantastic Four by Waid & Wieringo Omnibus

Looking at the rest of sale, here are some things we like and think the price is OK.

Licensed books: not the best discounts, but these are usually not discounted at all.

And for non-licensed:

Unannounced Sales

American Born Chinese  Barbaric  Superman The Ultimate Guide

As always, we really don’t know how long these will last.

American Born Chinese is widely considered a modern classic, btw.

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Comixology (at Amazon) Sales: Marvel Holiday Sale Part 2 – the $0.99 Singles; American Born Chinese

In this week’s Comixology (at Amazon) sales, we dive deep into those $0.99 single issues from the Marvel Holiday Sale. Plus, American Born Chinese.

Where did the New Releases and Sale pages go?

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

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

Housekeeping: We’re still going through that Marvel Holiday Sale to make it more digestible for you. We’ll forgive you if you looked at the display and decided it was just a bunch of random issues. The presentation leaves a lot to be desired (though that’s why we’re here). What the bulk of the holiday sales appears to be is $0.99 single issues. Not exclusively from the ’22-’24 time frame, but a lot from there. Some discounted newer issues, too. And some collected editions, which we touched on.

In this installment, we’re consolidating the $0.99 single issue titles. NOW… you might see $1.49 for issue #1 at times. <shrugs> You may also see collected editions of some of these. We’re not quite that far along yet. You may also find that the single issues are sometimes cheaper than a collected edition, especially if the collected edition is only 4-5 issues. We figure this is a big enough chunk of those titles for one sitting. There will be more

Here’s the list of the newly discounted omnibuses / Masterworks / Epic Collections from Monday, btw.

First, the official holiday sale link:

Marvel Holiday Sale – Ends 12/08

Titles With $0.99 Single Issues

Immortal Thor  G.O.D.S.  Marvel Unleashed

Yes, we used to see single issues more often, didn’t we? This is going to be more of a quick and dirty, but we’ll annotate here and there when we think something is particularly good.

Best bets from this batch? Immortal Thor  and G.O.D.S. For something more under the radar and fun? Joe Fixit and Marvel Unleashed

To be continued…

Unannounced Sales

American Born Chinese  Barbaric  Superman The Ultimate Guide

As always, we really don’t know how long these will last.

American Born Chinese is widely considered a modern classic, btw.

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Comixology (at Amazon) Sales -Marvel Holiday Sale, Part 1 – New Omnibuses / Masterworks / Epic Collections

Where did the New Releases and Sale pages go?

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

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

Housekeeping: Jumping Bendis on a pogo stick! Marvel just dropped a 5K item holiday sale that ends next Monday and the silly thing is as unorganized as you could possibly imagine. We’re probably going to need a few posts to organize it for you. i.e. – yes, we might be the only ones who care about your shopping experience.

We’re going to start out with what’s proven to be the burning question annually – What’s new in the three major Marvel Holiday Sales this year? WARNING – this is absolutely not the annual Omnibus/Masterworks/Epics sale as we’re used to seeing it and not everything that’s been released in the last year is discounted.  Will those annual sales pop in their proper form? We haven’t a clue. Marvel has changed how they do sales in the last few months. (Seriously, no Comixology/Amazon Black Friday sale? That’s new and not a change for the better, either.)

First, the official holiday sale link:

Marvel Holiday Sale – Ends 12/08

What’s New in Omnibus Sales?

Fall Of The House Of X / Rise Of The Powers Of X Omnibus  Namor The Sub-Mariner Omnibus  Spectacular Spider-Man By Dematteis & Buscema Omnibus

Omnibi that were not discounted in last year’s sale:

What’s New in Epic Collection Sales?

Micronauts Epic Collection: The Original Marvel Years - They Came From Inner Space  Rom Epic Collection: The Original Marvel Years  Young Avengers Modern Era Epic Collection: Dark Reign

These aren’t necessarily the best Epic prices we’ve ever seen, HOWEVER, there’s actually a discount on a Micronauts and a Rom. Rare occurrences, that. If those titles are your sweet spot, take note of that. Here’s what wasn’t in last year’s sale.

What’s New in Masterworks Sales?

Incredible Hulk Vol. 19 Masterworks  Man-Thing Masterworks  Uncanny X-Men Masterworks

And here’s what’s new since last year’s sale in Masterworks.

To be continued…

Unannounced Sales

Blacksad  Money Shot  Scarlet

As always, we really don’t know how long these will last.

Dark Horse appears to have an unannounced Black Friday sale. They have a LOT of their collected editions on sale, but not the newest material and not the single issues.  Here’s a link that will *eventually* get you through their catalog in a very laborious way and with the single issues mixed in. (It’s not perfect, but we’re trying.)

Here are some direct links to various series:

Recommendations? Sure.

Scarlet by Bendis and Alex Maleev is a political thriller about a Portland woman rebelling against a corrupt police department/government. Bendis back in his original pre-capes Thriller mode and it might be having a Long Tail moment right now.

Nexus by Mike Baron & Steve Rude – It looks like a superhero comic, but it’s a science fiction epic about a man appointed as the executioner of mass murderers. A job he doesn’t want and can’t escape.

B.P.R.D. (mostly) by Mike Mignola / John Arcudi / Guy Davis is not as widely read as Hellboy, but it’s the real backbone of the Hellboy universe’s story.

Blacksad by by Juan Diaz Canales / Juanjo Guarnido is very good detective series in the Raymond Chandler tradition… except the characters are anthropomorphic. Nothing “kiddie” about it and the art is as good as it gets.

Also on sale:

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Comixology (at Amazon) Sales: DC’s Very Short Black Friday Sale

In this week’s Comixology (at Amazon) sales, DC will only give you four days for Black Friday/Cyber Monday this year, so pay attention.

Where did the New Releases and Sale pages go?

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

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

Housekeeping: We’re going to leave the unannounced Dark Horse sale up. Our best guess is we won’t see anything from Marvel earlier than Monday evening, but we’d love to be wrong about that.

Tick Tick Tick

Absolute Batman  Absolute Wonder Woman  Justice League Unlimited

The DC Seasonal Savings Sale runs through 12/1.

We’ve noted how recalcitrant DC has seemed about throwing a sale in recent months. Only having 4 days (maybe 3.5 – Amazon is cutting off these sales earlier in the day, so don’t be surprised if it disappears by 7pm or 8pm ET on Monday) of a Black Friday sale seems in character for 2025.

What’s on sale? This one is interesting and unlike their corporate synergy sales since March, it actually has some new material! Absolutely, you might say.

The Absolute Section

Absolute Batman

Absolute Wonder Woman

Absolute Superman

Absolute Martian Manhunter

Absolute Flash

Absolute Green Lantern

The Lead-Ins

There are two books that loosely lead into the Absolute run:

  • Absolute Power – Mark Waid / Dan Mora; This sets up All-In and various things in the main DCU moving forward.
  • All-In Special – Joshua Williamson/ Scott Snyder / Daniel Sampere / Dan Mora / Wes Craig; This one explains how the Absolute universe came into existence and they things are such a *cough* “dark mirror” of the DCU. It’s a useful table setting, so it’s possibly poor planning from DC not to have it included in the sale. We’ll just leave the link here. We didn’t totally need it for the opening collected editions we read, but we DO think it will be key before things get too far along.

What do we recommend? We’ve read the V.1’s of Absolute Batman and Absolute Wonder Woman. If you’re only going to pick up one collected edition? Absolute Wonder Woman. This is one of those happy occasions where there is no hype, only facts. Heavy use of mythology to the point it’s more urban fantasy than superhero and it’s as good as you’ve heard.

We’ve also heard nothing but love for Absolute Martian Manhunter, but we have read V.1 yet. (Next thing in the queue when we’re done with the JLU/World’s Finest crossover.)

Current DC Series / Newly Discounted

We haven’t read everything on the list, but things we’ve read and will vouch for? We’ll put the Spurrier/Campbell Hellblazer up against any other run (and we know what we just said). If you like the Waid/Mora World’s Finest, you’ll like Justice League Unlimited (and if you don’t like World’s Finest, you probably hate having fun). The Ram V / Cagle The New Gods is a really interesting take on what appears to be a post-Darkseid New Gods (although we’re highly suspicious of his demise).

And We’d Be Remiss Not To Mention a New Edition of:

Best Jimmy Olsen ever? Quite possibly. It’s a great book.

Unannounced Sales

Blacksad  Money Shot  Scarlet

As always, we really don’t know how long these will last.

Dark Horse appears to have an unannounced Black Friday sale. They have a LOT of their collected editions on sale, but not the newest material and not the single issues.  Here’s a link that will *eventually* get you through their catalog in a very laborious way and with the single issues mixed in. (It’s not perfect, but we’re trying.)

Here are some direct links to various series:

Recommendations? Sure.

Scarlet by Bendis and Alex Maleev is a political thriller about a Portland woman rebelling against a corrupt police department/government. Bendis back in his original pre-capes Thriller mode and it might be having a Long Tail moment right now.

Nexus by Mike Baron & Steve Rude – It looks like a superhero comic, but it’s a science fiction epic about a man appointed as the executioner of mass murderers. A job he doesn’t want and can’t escape.

B.P.R.D. (mostly) by Mike Mignola / John Arcudi / Guy Davis is not as widely read as Hellboy, but it’s the real backbone of the Hellboy universe’s story.

Blacksad by by Juan Diaz Canales / Juanjo Guarnido is very good detective series in the Raymond Chandler tradition… except the characters are anthropomorphic. Nothing “kiddie” about it and the art is as good as it gets.

Also on sale:

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Comixology (at Amazon) Sales: The Dark Horse Black Friday Sale Arrives

In this week’s Comixology (at Amazon) sales, The Dark Horse Black Friday sale arrives, plus… Money Shot.

Where did the New Releases and Sale pages go?

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

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

Housekeeping: The Dynamite sale will be up through the end of the year, but the DC / Marvel cupboard is devoid of Black Friday sales at the moment. If the prices start changing, we’ll do an update. (OK, that would probably warrant a new post, not an update.)

Unannounced Sales

Blacksad  Money Shot  Scarlet

As always, we really don’t know how long these will last.

Dark Horse appears to have an unannounced Black Friday sale. They have a LOT of their collected editions on sale, but not the newest material and not the single issues.  Here’s a link that will *eventually* get you through their catalog in a very laborious way and with the single issues mixed in. (It’s not perfect, but we’re trying.)

Here are some direct links to various series:

Recommendations? Sure.

Scarlet by Bendis and Alex Maleev is a political thriller about a Portland woman rebelling against a corrupt police department/government. Bendis back in his original pre-capes Thriller mode and it might be having a Long Tail moment right now.

Nexus by Mike Baron & Steve Rude – It looks like a superhero comic, but it’s a science fiction epic about a man appointed as the executioner of mass murderers. A job he doesn’t want and can’t escape.

B.P.R.D. (mostly) by Mike Mignola / John Arcudi / Guy Davis is not as widely read as Hellboy, but it’s the real backbone of the Hellboy universe’s story.

Blacksad by by Juan Diaz Canales / Juanjo Guarnido is very good detective series in the Raymond Chandler tradition… except the characters are anthropomorphic. Nothing “kiddie” about it and the art is as good as it gets.

Also on sale:

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We don’t spam! Read more in our privacy policy

Still on Sale

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Comixology (at Amazon) Sales: The Shadow, Red Rising, Flash Gordon, The Hedge Knight

In this week’s Comixology (at Amazon) sales, Dynamite kicks off the holiday sale season. Plus, The Black Hammer, Hedge Knight and unannounced sales.

Where did the New Releases and Sale pages go?

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

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

Housekeeping: This month’s Marvel sales are still active, but expiring on Monday. Something we found amusing. With Amazon starting it’s Black Friday promotions, you may see some of the Marvel and Kodansha comics marked as “Black Friday Deals.” They’ve been for a couple weeks and will be theoretically gone by the time the true Black Friday rolls around. How did Guns ‘n’ Roses put it… Use Your Illusion?

We are, however, happy to report that Dynamite has stepped up with what we consider the first Holiday Sale.

Starting the Holidays with a Bang

The Shadow  Flash Gordon  Green Hornet Year One

The Dynamite Year End Sale runs through  Wednesday, 12/31.

If this isn’t a line-wide sale, it’s awfully close, so let’s run through some of the interesting things that are less frequently on sale. We trust you can identity Red Sonja and Vampirella on your own after their recent sales.

The Shadow

Dynamite’s always had a feel for the pulp traditions that preceded comic books and they’ve got a bunch of interesting material featuring what was probably the pulp world’s most preeminent dark avenger of the night.

  • The Shadow (’12-’14) – Starts out with Garth Ennis / Aaron Campbell, then Victor Gischler tags in for Ennis,  then Chris Roberson / Giovanni Timpano finish it out
  • The Shadow: Year One – Matt Wagner / Wilfredo Torres; An origin tale
  • The Shadow: Midnight In Moscow – Howard Chaykin; Chaykin returns for a ’50s Cold War tale
  • The Shadow Now – David Liss / Colton Worley; The Shadow returns to NYC in 2015
  • The Shadow: The Death Of Margot Lane – Matt Wagner; Wagner goes deep into the pulps as writer/artist on this one
  • The Shadow: The Last Illusion – Cullen Bunn / Giovanni Timpano; This one might just be our favorite of the bunch. The Shadow crosses paths with the spirit of Harry Houdini as a secret society of illusionists seek to steal Houdini’s “Last Illusion” – an escape from death. We could have done with Bunn/Timpano getting a longer run

And then there’s some collections of pre-Dynamite Shadow material, which is all top notch:

  • The Shadow: Blood & Judgment – Howard Chaykin; Chaykin’s science fiction-tinged, mature reader revival of The Shadow for DC.
  • The Shadow Master Series – Andy Helfer / Bill Sienkiewicz / Kyle Baker / Marshall Rogers / Joe Orlando; Helfer followed up on the Chaykin series with a more subversive set of stories that grew increasingly absurdist with dark, dark humor. Conde Nast was said to have been repulsed by it, but we think it was straight up brilliant. Definitely not the traditional Shadow, but a real gem.
  • The Shadow 1941: Hitler’s Astrologer – Dennis O’Neil / Michael William Kaluta / Russ Heath; The team that originally brought The Shadow to comics at DC, returned in the late ’80s for Marvel Graphic Novel. O’Neil writing. Kaluta inked by Heath. The Shadow turning his .45s on a Nazi plot. What more do you really need to know?

Everything here is recommended.

Flash Gordon

Jeff Parker and Doc Shaner are an excellent pairing if you want a fun book. Flash Gordon Omnibus Vol. 1: The Man From Earth is their Flash Gordon run. Fun, action-forward Science Fantasy with a hearty endorsement.

The Spider

The Spider is a pulp contemporary of The Shadow. To be charitable, a rival publisher’s attempt to get a piece of The Shadow’s audience. To call it a more over-the-top Shadow would accurate as the originals tended to have more flamboyant villains and immense body counts. Novelist David Liss stepped in for a new spin on The Spider that we thought really captured the flavor and spirit of the original. “Terror of the Zombie Queen” is the opening act and that’s pure Spider. The art takes a hit when Colton Worley leaves, but the writing is strong throughout.

The Green Hornet

Technically a radio character that draws on the pulp hero tradition, you have some interesting options here:

  • Green Hornet: Year One – Matt Wagner / Aaron Campbell; This is a 1930s origin story
  • Green Hornet –Mark Waid / Daniel Indro / Ronilson Freire; A tale late in the original Hornet’s continuity as The Green Hornet starts to buy his own hype and it comes back to bite him. A particular favorite, although as we type this, Amazon is showing the wrong preview for V. 2, so keep an eye on that.
  • Green Hornet Omnibus Vol. 1 – Kevin Smith / Phil Hester / Jonathan Lau; Kevin Smith turned his Green Hornet screenplay – a modern affair with the Hornet as a legacy hero – into a comic w/ Lau and then Hester ran with format.

Project Superpowers

Project Superpowers is a little complicated to explain. This is Alex Ross show running a series that’s bringing back classic 40s characters like the original Daredevil, Black Terror, Green Lama and The Fighting Yank. At the time, this is what you read if you wanted a “classic Marvel” feel while Marvel was caught up in the extended “Dark Reign” storyline. Ross does covers, character design, art direction and co-plotting with Jim Krueger. There were a few different artists involved, including Doug Klauba, Stephen Sadowski, Carlos Paul and Edgar Salazar. There were also a few miniseries spinoffs that are collected in that omnibus set. Black Terror was the longest running, but we seem to recall having a jones for the Death Defyin’ Devil.

Quentin Tarrantino

Yes, Quentin Tarantino co-wrote a Django / Zorro crossover with Matt Wagner. It’s true.

Django/Zorro – Quentin Tarantino / Matt Wagner / Esteve Polls

Red Rising

Yes, Howlers, we see you. Pierce Brown’s Red Rising: Sons Of Ares is a 3 volume series by Mr. Brown / Rik Hoskin / Eli Powell / Kewber Baal

Garth Ennis

Mr. Ennis has a following and he’s done a wide range of work for Dynamite. Included in the sale:

Eduardo Risso

Borderline is a post-apocalyptic dystopian SF series Risso was doing with Carlos Trillo in Italy, prior to 100 Bullets. We liked it.

Plenty more to browse, including the usual suspects.

Unannounced Sales

Black Hammer Omnibus  The Hedge Knight  The Secret to Superhuman Strength

As always, we really don’t know how long these will last.

Dark Horse has the world of Black Hammer on sale this week, which probably needs a walk-through.

This would be — we think it’s OK to call it a superhero universe at this point — the indie superhero saga by Jeff Lemire, Dean Ormston and friends. There are a couple branches to how this saga unfurls.

The main Black Hammer series is here and that’s where you should start the journey. But, as with many long running titles, there are a few different editions to it and this is what we think the cheapest (if messy to sort) way to read the series is.

There are currently 9 volumes under the main series + a collection of specials + 2 volumes of “Visions” with guest creators playing in the Black Hammer standbox.

So what you want to do to cheap out is go to the omnibus page first.

The Omnibus and Library Editions are essentially the same thing with a different binding in print. If you stick with the Omnibus version, then you can pick up again with V.5 of the regular editions. Since there are three Library Editions, you’d pick up with V.8 of the regular editions.

Then you’ve got the World of Black Hammer collections, which are solo tales about the various heroes and villains like Barbalien and Sherlock Frankenstein. There are also Library Editions, but the pricing is a little higher per series in that format.

Also on sale:

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