Comixology (at Amazon) Sales: DC Labor Day Sale; Doctor Doom; Ant-Man; Scarlet Witch; EC Archives

In this week’s Comixology (at Amazon) sales, DC has some new items in their Labor Day Sale, Marvel discounts Doctor Doom, Deathlok, Ant-Man and some witch-centric titles. Dark Horse slashes prices on the EC Archives and Crime Does Not Pay.

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):

DC Labors To Find You a Deal

The DC Labor Day Sale runs through Monday, 9/02.

And this sale features a few new collections for $2.99 that are either new to discounts or haven’t been discounted very long. Let’s run down the highlights.

Recent Discounts

Danger Street Vol. 2 – Tom King / Jorge Fornés; Did you get V.1? Here’s the conclusion. Recent Discount
Green Lantern ’23 – Jeremy Adams / Xermanico; More of a Silver Age feel to the current series as Hal Jordan is back on Earth and the classic supporting cast turns up. Recent discount
Hawkgirl Vol. 1: Once Upon a Galaxy ’23 – Jadzia Axelrod / Amancay Nahuelpan; Recent discount
Shazam! Vol. 1: Meet the Captain! ’23 – Mark Waid / Dan Mora; Very fun launch as Waid & Mora steer the franchise a little closer to the whimsical original tone. Recent discount
Titans Vol. 1: Out of the Shadows ’23 – Tom Taylor / Nicola Scott; The Titans step up to take over the Justice Leagues duties and Brother Blood is back. Sets up Beast Wars. Good book. Recent discount
World’s Finest: Teen Titans – Mark Waid / Emanuela Lupacchino; An adventure of the original squad, similar in tone to Waid’s World’s Finest. Recent discount

Older Titles Worth a Look

Batman: The Adventures Continue – Alan Burnett / Paul Dini / Ty Templeton; The *right* people doing an excellent continuation of The Animated Series
Batman / Spawn – Frank Miller / Todd McFarlane & Doug Moench / Alan Grant / Chuck Dixon / Klaus Janson; Both crossovers and $2.99 is a good price for it
Bizarro Comics – Alternative cartoonists, like Matt Groening, have their way with DC in this entertaining anthology
OMAC: One Man Army Corps – Jack Kirby’s ’70s satire of a corporate dystopia
One-Star Squadron – Mark Russell / Steve Lieber; Brilliant satire of on-demand apps and the gig economy… with Red Tornado
Prez – Mark Russell / Ben Caldwell; Social media accidentally elects a president; An election farce that we wish was not so relevant right now, but it’s a great comic that deserved a longer run
Rorschach – Tom King / Jorge Fornés; A meditation on identity in the world of Watchmen
Suicide Squad: Blaze; Si Spurrier / Aaron Campbell; A very dark take on super powers and the government… even by Black Label standards
Superman: Birthright – Mark Waid / Leinil Francis Yu; Influential exploration of Superman’s coming of age
Swamp Thing ’21 – Ram V / Mike Perkins; The origin of the current Swamp Thing… all three volumes are not on sale simultaneously as one might think, too…

Victor Von Doom Bows Before No Man!

The Marvel Doctor Doom Sale runs through Monday, 9/9

The top dog here is the Doctor Doom series by Christopher Cantwell and Salvador Larroca. Its an instant classic well worth your time. Doom has been framed. For now he’s on the run, but his vengeance will be terrible. Featuring Kang in a highly amusing frenemy role.

Avengers: The Private War of Doctor Doom has a lot of creators with Gerry Conway, Steve Englehart and Jim Shooter as the primary writers and George Perez as the primary artist. This is a cross-over between Super Villain Team-Up (a better than you might think series that was basically Namor and Doom plotting against each other) and Avengers.

Doctor Strange & Doctor Doom: Triumph and Torment by Roger Stern and Mike Mignola has Strange and Doom invading Hell to free Doom’s mother from the clutches of Mephisto.

Also of possible interest – Iron Man: Doomquest collects a famous pair of David Michelinie / Bob Layton tales (w/John Romita, Jr. on the first) that have a time travelling Doom clashing with Iron Man. Iron Man: Legacy of Doom is the lesser-known Michelinie/Layton/Ron Lim follow-up.

Witches

The Marvel Agatha, Marvel Witches, and The Darkhold Sale runs through Monday, 9/30.

There’s a new TV show coming out… but there aren’t a lot of Agatha comics (especially in this sale), so we get a little bit of everything else, instead.

The value buy here is Vision & The Scarlet Witch: The Saga of Wanda and Vision. It’s a sort of faux-Epic Edition, clocking in at 467 pages and including the wedding of Wanda and Vision from Giant-Size Avengers #4, the ’82 Bill Mantlo/Rick Leonardi mini-series and the ’85 Steve Englehart/Richard Howell 12-parter.

Also of interest:

Strange Academy – Skottie Young / Humberto Ramos (Omnibus editions)
Strange – Jed MacKay / Marcelo Ferreira; Clea’s turn as Sorceress Supreme

What Did the Pink Panther Say To The Ant?

The Marvel Ant-Man Sale runs through Monday, 9/2.

Since there are multiple formats for much of this, we’re going to walk through the highlights in the cheapest formats (which means omnibus, if available).

Ant-Man/Giant-Man Epic Collection: The Man in the Ant-Hill is a collection of the early Hank Pym stories from Tales to Astonish

Ant-Man/Giant-Man Epic Collection: Ant-Man No More follows Pym from the final Tales to Astonish issues through Scott Lang’s debut in the suit in Marvel Premiere.

Ant-Man: Scott Lang is a compilation book of the early appearances of Scott Lang in the Ant-Man suit. i.e., Lang before Lang became more of a comedy character. This is a relatively David Michelinie-driven volume with the solo 2-parter in Marvel Premiere, an Avengers arc and an Iron Man arc.

Irredeemable Ant-Man is the Robert Kirkman / Phil Hester run with Eric O’Grady finding the Ant-Man suit. At this point, O’Grady’s an unethical SHIELD agent playing both sides against the middle and it’s a bit of a farce. And this is where Ant-Man starts being played as an action comedy. Something that’s still largely the case.

The Astonishing Ant-Man: The Complete Collection is the omnibus for the Nick Spencer era, with art by Ramon Rosanas, Anapaolo Martello and Brent Schoonover. This is where Ant-Man is reset closer to the films as more of an action-farce. Scott Lang has worse luck than Peter Parker and he tries to get his life together, get a job and start co-parenting his daughter… but things are seldom that easy.

Ant-Man: World Hive by new Spidey scribe Zeb Wells and Dylan Burnett finds Scott Lang forced to team up with Swarm. Yes, a Nazi scientist with a body made up of bees. There’s an honest-to-goodness invasion/conspiracy to create an insect uprising and he’s having the hardest time getting the Avengers… or Spidey… or even Black Cat to take him seriously. We particularly enjoyed this one.

The Al Ewing trilogy. Ewing did this sneaky trilogy that wasn’t billed as such. Three miniseries that build on each other with Ant-Man and the Wasp. Naturally, the third one (which was GREAT) isn’t included in the sale.

Ant-Man: Ant-Iversary – Ewing / Tom Reilly
Wasp: Small Worlds – Ewing / Kasia Nie
Avengers, Inc. – Ewing / Leonard Kirk

Lok… Because Spelling Is Kewl

The Marvel Deathlok 50th Anniversary Sale runs through Monday, 9/2.

Originally a cyborg (against his will) in a dystopian future, the original Deathlok was a Rich Buckler creation and the whole run of that incarnation can be had in the Deathlok Masterworks, nice and easy.

The next time Deathlok popped up in a major way was the 90s and it was a hot comic for a short period of time. Dwayne McDuffie/Gregory Wright/Butch Guice/Denys Cowan reinvented a modern day Deathlock in Deathlok: The Living Nightmare of Michael Collins, which was followed by an ongoing series.

Since then, there have been a few revivals:

Deathlok ’99-’00- Joe Casey / Leonardo Manco
Deathlok ’09-’10 – Charlie Huston / Lan Medina
Deathlok ’14-’15 – Nathan Edmondson / Mike Perkins

The Marvel “Maybe” Sales

The trend returns after a short break. New releases at lower than expected price points and discounted pre-orders. Is this the new normal? We’re not sure, but let’s run them down.

Dropping This Week

Avengers: Twilight – Chip Zdarsky / Daniel Acuna; $10.99
Vengeance Of The Moon Knight Vol. 1: New Moon – Jed MacKay / Alessandro Cappuccio; $6.99
Wolverine by Benjamin Percy Vol. 9: Sabretooth War Part 2 – Percy / Victor LaVelle / Geoff Shaw; $10.99

Pre-Order for Next Week

X-Men by Gerry Duggan Vol. 6 – Gerry Duggan / Phil Noto; $8.99

Possible Oni Sales

OK… you might remember this drill from the distant past. Oni’s had two sales listed for a couple of days. They don’t look like sale prices to us. Maybe that gets fixed at some point, but that’s what we’re seeing at the moment.

The Oni Press Singles Sizzlers Sale runs through Monday, 9/30
The Oni Press Back to School Sale runs through Monday, 9/30

Unannounced Sales

Dark Horse has their EC Archives on sale. Tales From the Crypt, Weird Science, Two-Fisted Tales and that whole family of famous titles.

They also have Crime Does Not Pay on sale. This isn’t an EC book. It actually predates EC, but it eventually had a narrator called “Mr. Crime” who was a few years ahead of the Crypt Keeper and company… although the mysterious host was a radio tradition going back to the 1930s. (The Shadow was the narrator of Detective Story Hour in 1930 before the pulp magazine turned him into a fleshed out character, for instance.)

Still on Sale

The Hit (the) Kodansha Books Sale runs through Monday, 9/02

Posted on August 30, 2024 by comics_p1pusl

Comixology (at Amazon) Sales: Ant-Man, DC Pride, Jeff Lemire’s Dark Horse Titles

Recent additions to the Comixology (at Amazon) sales include – DC’s Pride sale with Hellblazer, The Invisibles and Snagglepus; Ant-Man from Marvel and Dark Horse’s Jeff Lemire catalog.

Tuesday’s look at the X-Factor and Mickey Mouse sales are also still in effect.

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):

You’d Think This Sale Would Be All Month

The DC Pride eBook Sale runs through Monday, 6/13.

It’s Pride month and DC’s curated a bit under 400 titles for this sale. Let’s look at the lower priced options first.

It’s always a good time for Hellblazer, with many of the earlier volumes going for $5.99. Hellblazer was consistently entertaining over it’s original run, too. (We also can’t say enough good things about the most recent series.)

Completely at $5.99/volume, you’ve also got Grant Morrison’s The Invisibles an ancient secret society that advances humanity through anarchy (read: freedom) clashes with the forces of order (read: the aristocracy); i.e. an urban fantasy about sticking it to The Man. All kinds of artists you’ll recognize on this: Steve Yeowell, Jill Thompson, Phil Jimenez, Chris Weston… even early Ivan Reis.

But perhaps the most Pride Month book of the lot is Exit Stage Left: The Snagglepuss Chronicles. And an unusual book it is. Mark Russell and Mike Freehan recast Snagglepuss as Tennessee Williams-esque playwright in 1950s NYC. The House Unamerican Activities Committee is trolling showbiz for subversives and communists. Snagglepuss is not without his enemies and being gay only puts a bigger target on his back. Yes, Snagglepuss as a dark social and political satire. And it’s good! Worth it for the Dorothy Parker bits, alone.

What Did the Pink Panther Say To The Ant?

The Marvel Ant-Man Sale runs through Monday, 6/13.

Since there are multiple formats for much of this, we’re going to walk through the highlights in the cheapest formats (which means omnibus, if available).

Ant-Man/Giant-Man Masterworks is one of the occasions we’ll give Masterworks a nod over Epics. In this case, the Epic is a higher price point and isn’t complete. We will caution you that this wasn’t one of Marvel’s better known Silver Age strips for a reason, but you get Stan Lee, Larry Leiber, Jack Kirby, Don Heck, Dick Ayers, Carl Burgos and Bob Powell. Still, it’s the Hank Pym run.

Another Jeff (Collect Them All)

The Dark Horse Jeff Lemire Sale runs through Monday, 6.13.

As you might expect, this is dominated by the Black Hammer franchise, a superhero universe devised by Lemire and Dean Ormston.

The Black Hammer is the core series/story by Lemire and (mostly) Ormston.

The World of Black Hammer is the umbrella title for a series of mini-series that flesh out some of the characters and other corners of this universe. Lemire scripts and all sorts of artists pop up.

Note: the Library Editions tend to be a little more expensive than the regular volumes in digital and this sale.

And since Jeff Lemire is very capable of doing the illustrations himself, here are the single issues for Mazebook, a recently completed urban fantasy series where Lemire did what we like to call “The Full Cartoonist.”

Still On Sale

The Dynamite “The Boys Sale Up to 75% off” runs through Monday, 6/13
The Dark Horse Elfquest Sale runs through Monday, 6/13.
The DC Road To Dark Crisis eBook Sale runs through Monday, 6/13.
The Marvel Ms. Marvel Sale runs through Monday 6/20.
The Marvel X-Factor Legacy Sale runs through Monday, 6/13.
The Fantagraphics Disney Masters and Mickey Mouse Sale runs through Wednesday, 6/22.

Posted on June 10, 2022June 10, 2022 by comics_p1pusl

Comixology Sales: Ant-Man, Hellboy & The BPRD, Saga & Image Science Fiction, Miles Morales: Spider-man and More

Marvel’s so excited about their Ant-Man sale on Comixology, they renamed Tales to Astonish! Plus Hellboy & the B.P.R.D., Saga, Outer Darkness, Elephantmen, Miles Morales: Spider-Man and a bunch more digital comics at deep discounts.

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

Marvel leads the weekend with its Ant-Man Sale. Ant-Man comes in primarily two flavors: Hank Pym and Scott Lang. (We’re going to ignore O’Grady.) For Hank Pym’s original Tales to Astonish run, your best deal is picking up the two Marvel Masterworks volumes. You should, regardless, click that link and see how Marvel has rebranded those Tales to Astonish issues as “Ant-Man.” Even the ones after Pym had switched his identity to Giant Man. It’s a hoot. Those pre-Hulk Tales of Astonish are also available in the original format (i.e., as Tales to Astonish), but those versions aren’t on sale. This sale runs until Sunday (11/15).

For Scott Lang, there have been a few recent titles and they’ve tended towards tongue-in-cheek. There were two Nick Spencer/Ramon Rosanas runs: Second Chance Man sets up the new status quo as the bumbling hard luck father seeking approval. Astonishing Ant-Man then continues that arc.

Ant-Man & The Wasp: Lost and Found by Mark Waid and Javier Garron finds Scott Lang and Nadia Pym lost in subatomic space. Ant-Man: World Hive by Zeb Wells and Dylan Burnett finds Scott Lang wearing out his welcome as a house guest in an ant hill while encountering an insect conspiracy and is forced to team up with Swarm. Yes, that would be the Swarm whose body is made of bees.

Then there’s the Dark Horse Hellboy & BPRD Sale through Monday (11/16). I had occasion to go back and re-read most of these a few months ago and it’s high quality work. BPRD is also very much an ongoing saga told in large acts. There are a lot creators involved in the saga, with Mike Mignola and John Arcudi being the primary writers through Hell on Earth. Guy Davis is the primary artist for most of Plague of Frogs and Hell on Earth.

The prequel is B.P.R.D. 1946 – 1948 featuring Prof. Bruttenholm and his original agents running down Nazi vampire experiments. That’s a 469 page volume with three series in it.

The BPRD sequence really starts with The Plague of Frogs. Specifically, it starts picking up about halfway through the first omnibus as the Bureau for Paranormal Research and Defense investigates the increasing appearances of frog-like monsters and slowly come to realize something very bad is on the way. This leads into the next sequence, Hell on Earth, which is accurately named. Ancient powers get unleashed and the world is just trying to survive. You know how with a lot comics, you can be pretty sure they’re not going to that dark, disaster-ridden place? Well, BPRD goes there. And does it well. The best value for these titles is the omnibus editions, which are all 400+ pages (i.e., 3 of the regular collected editions). There’s a bit more in the series, but those three sequences are the backbone and everything I’ve ever read of the series has been high quality.

Let’s also talk a little more about the ongoing Image Science Fiction Sale that runs through Thursday (11/19). So much good stuff in this one. Farmhand by Rob Guillory is about a farm that grows replacement organs instead of corn and the strange things that are starting to happen to the transplants. You may remember Rob as the artist of Chew. If you liked Chew, you should like Farmhand. It might be a little darker, but the two are very much compatible. Speaking of Chew, Outer Darkness by Chew writer John Layman and Afu Chan is also on sale. Outer Darkness is about ghosts and demonic possessions in the outer reaches of space and it’s fantastic. It also ends with a Chew crossover. Saga is also on sale. What else really needs to be said about the Brian K. Vaughan/Fiona Staples classic, other than we’re all impatiently waiting for new issues to resume? Note: as is often the case with Image, it’s slightly less expensive to get the “Collected Editions” than the “Omnibuses” in digital. It usually works the other way with Dark Horse digital sales.

The Elephantmen Sale contains the Image run of Richard Starking’s long-running Elephantmen series. Comixology scooped this series up as an exclusive title, post-Image. The “elephantmen” are genetically engineered human/animal hybrids bred and trained to be mercenaries by a company the sought to own them and rent them out. Eventually, things changed and the survivors seek to integrate back into society with a lot of baggage from their wars and old scores that pop up wanting to be settled. Starking assembled a wonderful set of artists like Moritat and Ladronn for the series and it’s definitely worth a look.