It’s Black Friday time at Comixology, so we’re pulling all of the week’s posts into this master list, so you can have all the recommendations in one place. Since Comixology keeps threatening to merge their site into Amazon, we’ll toss in an Amazon link for the sales that Amazon has provided one. Amazon is not good about linking to individual sales.
Yes, there’s a lot of things to look at… as you’d expect on Black Friday.
(Disclosure: If you buy something we link to on our site, we may earn commissions)
Marvel Has the Best Deals
The Marvel Epic Collection Sale runs through Sunday, 12/05. (Amazon link for the sale)
$3.99 Epic Collections. Figure all of them that are older than ~6 months from debut. Since most of those collect around 20 issues, we’re serious about that 20 issues for the price of 1 headline. ~80%-89% off, depending on list price. If you like Marvel, this is a SPLENDID time to fill in the holes in your collection, so do some browsing.
Some suggestions?
Conan is on sale less often than other Marvel titles, so if you like the Cimmerian, you might want to grab these first. Two runs are here: The Conan Chronicles is the title for the collections of Dark Horse material. That starts out with a very strong Kurt Busiek/Cary Nord run, followed by Tim Truman tagging in as writer and adding Paul Lee and a few other to the artist rotation. Recommended for barbarian fans! Conan the Barbarian is the classic Marvel run. Scroll down to the Collected editions on the series page for the Roy Thomas/Barry Windsor-Smith/John Buscema/Gil Kane/Neal Adams classic. This one needs no introduction.
Seriously, take a good browse through this sale. It’s hard to go wrong with ~400-500 pages for $3.99. We will make one small suggestion: you can get the widely-loved, yet under-hyped Ann Nocenti/John Romita, Jr./Al Williamson Daredevil run across three volumes and that’s sure worth a look. (This is where Typhoid Mary debuts, among other things.
Slings and Arrows…
The Marvel Hawkeye Sale also runs through Sunday, 12/5. (Amazon link for the sale)
This one is of a similar flavor to the Epic sale. You remember the Matt Fraction/David Aja (with special guest appearance by Steve Lieber) Hawkeye series that was all the rage a few years back an inspired the Disney+ series that’s about to debut? $0.99 for the first collection, $1.99 each for the rest. It’s good AND it’s cheap. What more do you want?
We also particularly recommend the Steve Englehart Avengers West Coast run, but you’re better off with the Epic Collections with those (and the rest of the run, where available.)
Marvel has two other sales that fall into the more common ~60-67% off range, Both running through Sunday, 11/18. We’d say hit the Epics and Hawkeye before you venture further — those are the holiday discounts!
- The Marvel Latest and Greatest Sale (Amazon link)is an eclectic set of releases. There is a little bit of Conan – old and current – sprinkled in at random, if you’re seeking that.
- The Champions Sale is for both the 70s and current incarnations of Champions. To illustrate our point about where the deals lie this week, The Champions Classic: The Complete Collection is the same size as an Epic Collection, but will run you $3 more.
Lowest Prices for Indie Comics ($0.99 Collected Editions)
Yes, comics reader – we know you love the race to the bottom when it comes to sale prices and there are some publishers that are catering to that love for $0.99 digital trade paperback collections. Those same publishers are offering the next few volumes in a series for $1.99 each. That’s a really good, coming close to the Marvel Epic deal. We even have some favorites to look for as we wade through this.
Hasbro and Friends
The IDW Best of Sale (Amazon version) runs through Monday, 11/29 and features some of the usual suspects (Dungeons & Dragons, GI Joe, Transformers, My Little Pony, Sonic the Hedgehog and Star Wars) at $0.99 for the first Volume and $1.99 for subsequent volumes.
Spies & Monsters
The Best of Oni & Lion Forge Sale follows the same pricing formula and runs through 12/3. Among the handful of feature titles are some that we hold in very high regard at The Tower of Cheap. (Amazon link)
Queen & Country by Greg Rucka and a new artist every storyline is probably the best American spy comic… even if it’s set in the UK and is an homage of sorts to an old UK TV show called “The Sandbaggers.” Highly Recommended
Kaijumax by Zander Cannon is a tale about a supermax prison for giant monsters. Think Godzilla and his foes. Does this sound cute and campy? It’s actually quite the opposite. It’s gritty with prison gangs, smuggled drugs and assassination attempts… with giant monsters. A unique comic that’s also Highly Recommended.
We wouldn’t sleep on Stumptown or Letter 44 either.
Prices Go BOOM!
The Best of BOOM! Sale runs through Thursday, 12/2.
We’re big fans of Once and Future, a paradoxically light and breezy horror/dark fantasy adventure by Kieron Gillen and Dan Mora wherein old myths and legends are arising to herald the return of Arthur… who’s not a fan of all the foreign blood floating around modern Britain. It’s hard to make such a dark premise fun-first, but Gillen and Mora do it with aplomb.
Dune: House Atreides has seen a bump with the movie release. This is Brian Herbert and Kevin J. Anderson adapting their prequel novel with Dev Parmanik on the art. This would be the tale of young Leto Atreides and the secret origin of Duncan Idaho.
A Universe
The Best of Valiant Sale runs through Thursday, 12/2 and – that’s right – $0.99 for V.1 and $1.99 for the rest. (Amazon link)
This is also a bit of a starter sale as the early years are highlighted here. Lucky you, these are all solid SF/F adventure comics with superhero trappings. Harbinger is very similar to X-Men with a teens on the run twist… but much darker. We’d probably call it the center of the Valiant Universe’s beginnings. X-O Manowar‘s elevator pitch is “what if Conan was abducted by aliens, stole Iron Man’s armor and then returned to Earth in modern times?” It’s the flagship book and fun.
The Rest of the Rock Bottom Pricing Club
The Dynamite Artbook Sale runs through Thursday, 12/2 and is $0.99/per book. These usually go for $25 or so. (Amazon link)
The Best of Mad Cave Studios sale runs through Monday, 12/29. We really aren’t familiar with Mad Cave, but $0.99 collected editions is a great way to get our attention. We can’t recommend anything specifically, though.
I See a Friday and I Want It Painted Black
The DC Black Friday Sale runs through Monday, 11/29.
(Amazon link if you prefer that)
Glancing through this sale, which is a smaller set of books than others, we’re seeing a discount range of 69%-75%, which is definitely on the high side for DC. Not quite up to the Marvel standard or independent $0.99/$1.99 scheme, but up there for what they’re offering.
A lot of the usual suspects are on sale, but for some suggestions:
We always through Sinestro Corps War was the peak of the Geoff Johns era of Green Lantern.
Longtime readers know that we appreciate Tom Taylor around these parts. One of the first times he made us raise an eyebrow and say “this shouldn’t work as well it does — how did he do that?!?” was the video game adaption of Injustice: Gods Among Us. We especially like his Green Arrow. Mike S. Miller & Jheremy Raapack provide the art and later Bruno Redondo… yes, the same fellow on Nightwing with Taylor. Comics work like that sometimes.
And finally, we’re a bit after that holiday, be Batman: The Long Halloween is still our favorite of the Jeph Loeb/Tim Sale collaborations. For those new to the series, it has Batman chasing a serial killer who strikes each month on a holiday, as DA Harvey Dent starts to spiral…
Image Organizes a Sale
The Image Graphic Novel Sale runs through Monday, 11/29.
This is pretty much their full digital catalog at half-off. If you’ve been meaning to try something and the tpb is at least a few months old, go digging for it.
Some recommendations? Sure!
Fatale was the comic that brought Ed Brubaker and Sean Phillips to Image. When it blew up, those two had a new trajectory. It was an important book for both the publisher and the creator. More importantly, it’s a good comic. A bit of a genre-bender adding horror to the noir formula as a reporter stumbles into a feud between immortals: a mysterious beauty who leaves a trail of dead suiters and mobster whose humanity is very much in question.
Another Image title we’d consider complimentary to Fatale is Ghosted by a pre-DC stardom Josh Williamson, Goran Sudzuka and Miroslav Mrva. Its first arc was promoted as “Ocean’s 11 meets The Shining,” with a team of thieves hired to steal a ghost from a haunted house. While the criminal element stays for the long haul (pun intended), this one dives into some deeper occult horror after the first volume and is a nice little package. We also like that the volumes of this one are a little cheaper than some of the current offerings.
Saga is due back soon and it occurs to us that it’s been on hiatus long enough, not everybody has read it. If you haven’t yet, it’s probably time to get caught up. This Brian K. Vaughan / Fiona Staple title is a masterclass in worldbuilding. Let’s be clear – Staple’s design sense is a BIG part of how immerse Saga can be. The tale itself is not complex: star-crossed lovers of warring races have a child and go on the run, as both sides would like to destroy the evidence of what’s happened. It’s cast of characters that makes the book. Scientists, magicians and a lot of bounty hunters. The unusual… appetites of Prince Robot IV. A ghost. Spaceships that grow like trees. Saga is its own beast and well worth your time.
And finally, one of Image’s recent hits. $3.99 for the first volume of The Department of Truth is worth taking a flier on if you haven’t already. James Tynion IV (no relation to Prince Robot IV) and Martin Simmonds spin an X-Files-ish tale about willing conspiracies into reality through the power of belief. Creepy and oddly current… but with historical through-lines.
Is It a Turkey?
The “Dark Horse Turkey Five Sale” runs through Monday, 11/29 and comes in three parts: 1 ( graphic novels, 300 – The Last of Us), 2 (graphic novels The Legend of Korra – Zombie World; single issues 47 Ronin – Hellboy) and 3 (single issues, Hellboy – Zodiac Starforce).
Graphic novels are 50% and single issues are $0.99.
What’s interesting? Let’s avoid the usual suspects this time.
Dark Horse has always been good at anthologies and Dark Horse Presents gets a lot more interesting when it’s $0.99 per issue. Good creators, real variety and those early issues are 80+ pages, so good value. We just wish we could figure out where they put the first issue!
If you want to go old school, there’s always The Complete Elfquest by Richard and Wendy Pini. One of the original Direct Market titles, it’s an acknowledged classic. The elves are burned out of their home by the humans and so begins the quest. (Which is to say nothing of the trolls.)
Finder by Carla Speed McNeil has been running under the radar for ~20 years, but the most recent graphic novel, Chase the Lady, came out in June. This is a very anthropological science fiction series where cultures play a central role. The lead character for most of the journey is Jeager, a sin eater and “Finder” whose abilities to track things and appear anywhere are almost as mysterious as the past he can’t remember. It’s been around 20+ years for a reason and is worth a look.
Nexus by Mike Baron and (mostly) Steve Rude is a science fiction adventure with superhero trappings that dates back to the 80s, but still pops up once in awhile. The omnibus editions go back to the beginning and are definitely where you should start. Horation Hellpop dreams of murders and the nightmares won’t stop until he’s murdered the murderers. The alien Merk has granted him cosmic powers and the title of Nexus. This is set against a political backdrop as the independent planetoid where Hellpop lives struggles to remain free of the Sov Empire, the religious fanatics of the Elvonic Brotherhood and slave traders. Plus… Judah the Hammer.
Also Worth Noting
- The Archie 1000 Page Graphic Novel Sale runs through Monday, 11/29 (1000 pages for $1.99) – Amazon link
- The Dynamite Graphic Novel Sale runs through Monday, 11/29 – Amazon link
