Comixology (at Amazon) Sales: DC’s Summer Sale and Dark Horse Goes Line Wide

In this week’s Comixology (at Amazon) sales, DC says school’s out for summer and Dark Horse discounts the whole line.

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):

Note: Since most of the sales are ending Monday, we _think_ things will be a little more normal, come Tuesday. We’ve been raising our eyebrow at how they’ve been timing the last few weeks of sales, too.

<Insert Alice Cooper Lyrics Here>

The DC Summer Vacation Sale runs through Monday, 7/10.

This is a standard DC misc. sale, so let’s look for the sweet spot of a lower price and better material on a few things.

American Vampire is where Scott Snyder first came to prominence over at DC (back when they still had Vertigo). Along with Rafael Albuquerque (and an opening with Stephen King), this is the story of a new breed of… that’s right American vampire, as something goes horribly wrong out West and sticks around. $4.99/volume for

Batman: Prey collects a pair of Hugo Strange arcs from Batman: Legends of the Dark Knight by longtime Batman writer Doug Moench and his old Master of Kung Fu partner, Paul Gulacy.

The Challengers of The Unknown by Jack Kirby is something of an oddity. This was a hit for DC in that brief period before Kirby left for Atlas/Marvel. The really interesting thing about this book is how much it feels like early Fantastic Four… except this was 1957 (instead of ’61) and isn’t quite superheroes. This was out of print long enough that most people don’t realize how similar the titles were.

American Vampire   Batman - Prey   Challengers of the Unknown

The Omega Men by Tom King and Barnaby Bagenda was King’s DC debut. It’s a particularly dark tale where Kyle Rainer (operating as the White Lantern at this point in continuity) is kidnapped by the Omega Men, a group that might be terrorists, might be freedom fighters or perhaps both? In some ways, it’s closer to his Sheriff of Baghdad than his Batman.

New Teen Titans by Marv Wolfman and George Perez was one of DC’s shining lights of the early to mid-80s and is generally regarded as a classic. $4.99/volume through V.7, which happens to be “The Judas Contract.”

Omega Men   New Teen Titans

Anything Goes

The  Dark Horse Everything Digital Sale runs through Monday, 7/31.

We should probably talk about this before diving in. This appears to be a line-wide sale. HOWEVER, only titles beginning with A-F are displayed on the sale page.

We know what you’re about to ask – is this another programmer error or are they going to change the page and display G-L next week?  We don’t have an answer to that.

A few browsing options for the rest of the alphabet (Amazon doesn’t have an alphabetical sort available for normal listings, so we’re going to have to improvise):

For the moment, we’re going to operate under the assumption that this was mislabeled and G-L (or a similar range) will appear next week for easier browsing.

So what’s good that’s on display in this chunk of titles?

Air – G. Willow Wilson and M.K. Perker collaborated on this criminally under-rated adventure into the unknown featuring an air hostess, terrorists, dimension hopping and celebrities who were supposed to be deceased.

Alice in Sunderland: An EntertainmentThe very unusual masterpiece by Bryan Talbot that explores the origins of Alice in Wonderland and the English town of Sunderland. It’s a bit hard to describe, but it works very well.

Baltimore – Mike Mignola, Christopher Golden, Ben Stenbeck and Peter Bergting collaborate on an epic tale of how a plague is released at the end of WWI and the solider who’s hellbent on vengeance against the vampires behind it.

Air   Alice in Sunderland   Baltimore Omnibus 1

BlacksadJuan Diaz Canales and Juanjo Guarnido bring you this jaw-dropping anthropomorphic hardboiled detective series about detective John Blacksad. These are tales from the Hammett/Chandler school with some of best art you’ll see. Click on the sample pages, don’t just take our word for it.

Concrete – Paul Chadwick’s old school, multi-award winning series about a man who becomes encased in a shell of alien rock (which he can’t escape) and the accidental celebrity that follows it.

Finder – Carla Speed O’Neil’s aboriginal science fiction series is all about world building. Much of it following Jaeger, a “Finder” who can most anything and navigate his way almost anywhere… as well as being a sin-eater. Another criminally underappreciated series. Note: Finder: Chase the Lady is mislabeled as a single issue and not listed with the graphic novels.

Blacksad   Concrete   Finder

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Still On Sale

Comixology (at Amazon) Sales: The Flash (and Batman); Ultimate Spider-Man; Black Panther; and Avatar

In this week’s Comixology (at Amazon) sales, it’s a movie week – comics with The Flash, Black Panther (with a screen writer pedigree), Spider-Man and Avatar.

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):

The Flash (Featuring Batman)

DC’s Flash Sale runs through Monday, 6/19.

It’s like there’s a movie coming out!  And that means there’s a ton of Batman and Supergirl in the sale, too.

Let’s start with the two most obvious things here:

The Flash film is based on the Flash-centered crossover Event, FlashpointThat Geoff Johns / Adam Kubert series has The Flash altering the timeline with very unexpected effects and leads into the New 52 relaunch. (Our acquaintance saw a preview of the film, liked it and thought it improved on the comic.)

And since Michael Keaton returns to the Batman role in the film, the obvious tie-in here is Batman ’89.  Sam Ham, the original 80s Batman screenwriter, joins artist Joe Quinones to tell the tale he had in mind for the third Keaton Batman film, had the franchise not had a creative shuffle. And that’s Bill Dee Williams as Two-Face. We enjoyed this one.

Flashpoint   Batman '89

There’s plenty of Batman on sale here at good prices (particularly the 80s material), but let’s have a look at the Flash material, since this is theoretically a Flash sale.

Perhaps the most interesting thing here is the ’87 – ’09, post-Crisis Wally West Flash. It starts out with a collection of the Mike Baron / Butch Guice / Mike Collins run (with William Messner-Loebs tagging in for Baron towards the end of the collection).

Then pop over to the omnibus page of that series for some of the better prices we’ve seen on The Flash by Mark Waid (with Greg Larocque, Mike Collins and Salvador Larocca, among others); the Grant Morrison / Mark Millar / Paul Ryan run; and The Flash by Geoff Johns (with Scott Kolins and Howard Porter, among others). Those are some classic runs and the Flash runs we prefer by Waid and Johns.

The current run of Flash is here, and it starts with a lengthy Josh Williamson run. (It’s a little cheaper to get these three double-volumes which are the equivalent of the first 6 at the first link.)

The Flash   The Flash   Flash

Ultimate Spider-Bendis

The Marvel Ultimate Spider-Man Sale runs through Monday, 6/12.

Is this a companion piece to the Spider-Verse sale? It might as well be, because Miles Morales is the centerpiece of that sale and the saga of the Ultimate Peter Parker runs right into the origin of Miles.  And yes, the two Ultimate Spider-Men could be looked at as one really long Brian Bendis tale.

This sale is easily broken into three parts:

Ultimate Spider-Man   Ultimate Comics Spider-Man   Ultimate Comics Spider-Man: Death of Spider-Man Fallout

Black Pantherama

The Marvel Black Panther Legacy Sale runs through Monday, 6/12.

It’s a Legacy sale, which means the whole catalog, so first lets break down the highlights

  • The Don McGregor era (AKA, pre-Priest), where Don McGregor was primary author… with a notable Kirby interlude. The best way to navigate the multiple editions is:
  • The Chrisopher Priest era  – with art by Mark Texiera, M.D. Bright and Sal Velluto (among others)
  • The Reggie Hudlin era (yes, “House Party” / “Boomerang” Hudlin) – with art by John Romita, Jr., Scot Eaton and Denys Cowan (among others)
  • The Ta-Nehisi Coates era (yes, from The Atlantic) – while the volumes are numbered consecutively, it’s split into two listing
    • Part one – with art by Brian Stelfreeze and Chris Sprouse (among others)
    • Part two – with art by Daniel Acuna and Kev Walker (among others)
  • The John Ridley era (Yes, Oscar-winner Ridley from 12 Years a Slave) – with art by Juann Cabal and German Peralta

Honestly, most of the Panther pantheon is pretty good. If you haven’t read the original McGregor run, it’s truly the foundational work on the character and almost everyone calls back to it. (That’s also where Killmonger originates.)

The Priest run might be the most celebrated – and it is extremely good.

And while it’s lesser known (possibly because it’s new), we’ve been pretty happy with the Ridley run, in particular the second volume with its extra biting commentary on colonialism.

Black Panther Masterworks   Black Panther by Priest   Black Panther by John Ridley

Speaking of Movies…

The Dark Horse Avatar Sale runs through Monday, 6/26.

Yes, there are Avatar comics. And they’re displayed in a somewhat confusing way. (Yes, yes… we were shocked, too.)

This link is for the $0.99 single issues AND the three High Ground 88 page “graphic novels.”

The collected editions are here. 6 issues to a $5.99 collected edition, so there’s a 5-cent difference between the two formats, if you’re keeping count.

Avatar   Avatar

The Green Hood

The Zenescope Character Spotlight Sale runs through Saturday, 6/24.

And the character in question is Robyn Hood (the Grimm’s Fairy Tales version).

This is available in 3 formats:

And as we were looking at this, we saw a couple names we weren’t expecting to see.  The volumes “The Curse” and “Justice” are written by Chuck Dixon. “Outlaw” is written by Howard Mackie.

Robyn Hood x Robyn Hood x Robyn Hood

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Still On Sale

Comixology (at Amazon) Sales – Batman; Adam Warlock; Fables; Squirrel Girl; Avatar: the Last Airbender

In this week’s Comixology (at Amazon) sales, DC discounts some Batman and Fables (among others);  Marvel serves up Adam Warlock and Squirrel Girl; Dark Horse slashes prices on The Witcher, Avatar the Last Airbender and Legend of Korra; and Caliber goes line wide.

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):

Bats and Such

The DC Memorial Day Sale runs through Monday, 5/29.

This is one of DC’s thematically unlinked sales… which happens to have some good prices mixed into a 460 item list.

If you like ’80s/early ’90s Batman comics, the Caped Crusader (Batman) and Dark Knight Detective (Detective Comics) collections are $3.99 each, which is less than they’re sometimes offered. You’ll need to scroll down a little in the links, but Caped Crusader will take you from the Starlin/Aparo era through Alan Grant & Norm Breyfogle.  Dark Knight Detective takes you from Mike W. Barr / Alan Davis through Peter Milligan/Jim Aparo.

Also $3.99 each, the “Deluxe” (i.e., larger) edition of Fables by Bill Willingham and Mark Buckingham. The classic fantasy about the characters of fables and fairy tales fleeing to our world as a despot conquers their worlds.

Batman: The Caped Crusader   Batman: The Dark Knight Detective   Fables

A more recent book, but still at a good price, that’s been getting a little cheap attention is Batman: Killing Time by Tom King and David Marquez for $3.99.

Batman: Killing Time

The Artist Formerly Known as Him

The Marvel Adam Warlock and the Infinity Watch Sale runs through Monday, 5/22.

A small, but interesting sale, since Warlock is a through point for much of Jim Starlin’s Marvel work.  With the original “main” title, you can pretty much pick your packaging of the Starlin work. Masterworks V.1 is the pre-Starlin original solo run of the character. Everything else is basically the same material in slightly different formats.

And then Warlock returned for the Infinity series of Events

George Perez is the initial artist on these titles, with Ron Lim tagging in after a few issues. We found Infinity Gauntlet to be one of Marvel’s most enjoyable Events. War and Crusade start to dilute a bit from the original, but are a notch above most of the recent events.

It’s also worth noting the Aftermath volumes are a little more germane to the overall story arc than with some others. They’re absolutely not required reading, but Starlin and company do tend to the garden of plot developments between Events in places like the Adam Warlock titles and Silver Surfer.

Warlock Masterworks   Infinity Gauntlet   Infinity War

The Rodent of the Trees

The Marvel Unbeatable Squirrel Girl Sale is running through Monday, 5/22.

In the inimitable Marvel Way, this is one is a little goofy because of how many different editions of the same comics there are.

  • Unbeatable Squirrel Girl series “2015A” and “2015B” by Ryan North and Erica Henderson. This is where everything starts and the original Squirrel Girl appearances are in the first volume.  These are omnibus editions and take you up to #31 of the “2015B” series.
  • To get the rest of the series, switch over to the single volumes and V.9 – 12 will take you from issue #32 to the end. Coincidentally, this is where Derek Charm pops in as artist.

That’s the easy way. Now, if you want the absolute cheapest way, you want to sub in these two alternate packaging volumes for V.2 and V.3 of those omnibuses above (i.e. #1-21 of “2015B”).

Don’t worry, they’ll inevitably add another layer of repackaging to further confuse the situation.

Squirrel Girl

Magical Bounty Hunting

The Dark Horse Witcher Sale runs through Monday, 5/29.

While it’s usually presented as a video game adaptation, since these pre-date the TV series, we usually thing of The Witch as a series of novels.  We’re reasonably sure Andrzej Sapkowski would agree with that assessment.

You can partake here in three formats:

  1. $0.99 single issues
  2. The “regular” collected editions
  3. The omnibuses

The first omnibus is pretty good deal. And the second “Library Edition” omnibus is still cheaper than single issues, though it’s a bit pricier.

Witcher Omnibus

Throw Another Nickel In

The Dark Horse Avatar/Korra Digital Sale runs through Monday, 5/29.

Nickelodeon comics adapting the animated features. For these comics, what Amazon refers to as “issues” is generally an 80 page comic and the omnibuses are collecting three of those, with the omnibus being more bang for your buck.

There’s a bit more to the longer-lived Avatar series, which feature Gene Yang and Faith Erin Hicks among its writers.

The Legend of Korra is a bit newer property and has fewer volumes.

Avatar: The Last Airbender   Legend of Korra

But Is It 9mm or .45?

The Caliber Digital Comics Sale runs through Thursday, 6/15.

There are a few titles here that were notable in the ’80s indie boom.

Deadworld   The Realm    Jazz Age Chronicles

And plenty of Don Lomax war comics.

But if you want something a little more recent, Ageless might be of interest. It’s written by Torunn GrØnbekk, who’s been recently been writing Thor, with art by San Espina.

Ageless

Still On Sale

Comixology (at Amazon) Sales: Immortal Hulk; Mighty Avengers; Green Lantern; Dark Horse Art Books

In this week’s Comixology (at Amazon) sales, The Immortal Hulk and Mighty Avengers get discounts from Marvel. DC slashes Gods and Monsters (and Green Lantern). Plus, Dark Horse Art Books.

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):

Behind the Green Door

Marvel’s Immortal Hulk Sale runs through Monday, 4/17.

It’s been a bit over a year since this run ended, but Immortal Hulk by Al Ewing and (mostly) Joe Bennett is right up the with the best Hulk runs and we’d call it the best example of The Hulk as a horror character. Can The Hulk or any of the others mutated by Gamma radiation truly die? What is this mysterious Green Door they keep seeing and who lives on the other side of it? Highly, highly recommended series.

The cheapest way to get the run is the single volumes. V.1-10 collect the 50 issue series. V. 11 collects some one shots and specials, so get that instead of the Carnage collection (that issue is in V. 11).  If you like you can get another collection of spin-off issues in Immortal Hulk: Great Power, but it’s a side trip.

Immortal Hulk

The Mighty

The Marvel Mighty Avengers Sale runs through Monday, 4/17.

Mighty Avengers has been a spin-off Avengers title a few times. Yes, believe it or else, there didn’t used to be 3+ series with “Avengers” in the title each month.

All this started with the ’07 – ’10 Mighty Avengers, which is a Bendis-era title. This is in two larger collections. The first is Bendis and the second written by Dan Slott. LOTS of artists tagging in and out on this one. We do, however, have a preference for the Slott run. It wasn’t really a traditional Avengers lineup, but it definitely had a traditional Avengers feel in an era where that was unusual.

The next two iterations, might as well count as the same book.  the ’13-’14 edition of Mighty Avengers is by Al Ewing and (mostly) Greg Land. This followed by the ’14-’15 Captain America & The Might Avengers. This time Luke Ross joins Ewing as the primary artist. If you’ve been reading Ewing’s work of late, you’ll be interested to know this is early work with The Blue Marvel / Adam Brashear.

The Mighty Avengers by Dan Slott   Mighty Avengers    Captain America and the Mighty Avengers

Ah, a Brendan Fraser Reference!

The  DC Gods & Monsters Sale runs through Monday, 4/17.

Yes, Brendan Fraser did star in the film Gods & Monsters, and he’s a DC actor.  Then again, so did Ian McKellan and he’s Magneto. Were they alluding to the DCU Animated Original? We’ll go with Brendan Fraser.

It’s another eclectic assortment for us to sift through and there’s some good Green Lantern material this time out.

Green Lantern by Geoff Johns is a very good run by Geoff Johns with some Dave Gibbons, Rod Reis, Carlos Pacheco and Patrick Gleason tagging in and out, among others. Especially the Sinestro Corps War sequence in V. 3, which we’d put as the apex of the run.

If you scroll down to the bottom of this link, you’ll find three volumes of Green Lantern: Sector 2814which starts out as Len Wein and Dave Gibbons, then transitions to the beginning of the Steve Englehart/Joe Staton run that eventually turns into Green Lantern Corps, post-Crisis. Another good run.

And near the bottom of this Brave & the Bold linkyou’ll find three volumes of Batman by Neal AdamsA heads up, the first volume is mostly Brave & the Bold with Bob Haney (and we like our Bob Haney). What most people think of when they think of Adams on Batman is the material from Batman and Detective Comics with Denny O’Neil and Frank Robbins.  That’s V.2 & 3.  V. 3 also has the Power Records comics.  Stacked Cards, represent.

Green Lantern by Geoff Johns   Green Lantern   Batman by Neal Adams

Also of potential interest, we think this is the first time Suicide Squad: Get Joker! has been discounted.

Suicide Squad: Get Joker!

The Art Show

The  Dark Horse – Art Books Digital Sale runs through Monday, 5/1.

This is mostly an art book sale, but we did find some actual comics in it.

Kabuki is the series that brought David Mack to prominence and one we’ve enjoyed over the years. It’s a spy/mob/assassins mashup with themes about identity and yes, you could call these art books, because they’re extremely well illustrated. An assassin in the near future tries to sever ties with her agency and things like this always have complications. In this case, layers of complications. Kabuki was supposed to have been picked up as a TV show by Sony, but we haven’t heard anything about that in awhile, so… maybe? It would be a good property to adapt.

And then there’s Inside Moebius. This is a bit on the abstract side. It’s not really a series of graphic novels, more like some avant garde diaries in comics format where Jean (Moebius) Giraud meditates on his creative process and illustrates himself interacting with a few of the characters he created.

Kabuki   Inside Moebius

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Still On Sale

Comixology (at Amazon) Sales: New Mutants, Batman, B.P.R.D and Hellboy Spin-Offs, Arrowsmith

In this week’s Comixology (at Amazon) sales, Marvel has discounts on New Mutants, DC has a potpourri of titles with lots of Batman mixed in, Dark Horse discounts Hellboy-adjacent comics and then there’s the new mystery category.

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 Grab Bag

The  DC Essential Books Sale runs through Monday, 4/3

This is another one of those particularly eclectic DC sales. Let’s start with the obligatory Batman breakout, because most of Batman & Detective from New 52 on are on sale.

  • Batman (’11-’16) – The Scott Snyder / Greg Capullo era
  • Batman (’16 – current) – Tom King, James Tynion IV, Josh Williamson -Zdarksy’s run isn’t on sale yet.
  • Detective Comics (’11-’16) – Tony Daniels, John Layman, Francis Manapul
  • Detective Comics (’16 -current) – James Tynion IV, Peter Tomasi, Mariko Tamaki

A couple things we think are on sale for the first time:

DC Vs. Vampires   Detective Comics

And a couple things we’d recommend that aren’t new:

Wonder Woman: Dead Earth by Daniel Warren Johnson is a comic that can accurately be described as “metal.” Loud, fun and full of action. This Black Label tale has Wonder Woman waking from a coma in a dystopian, apocalyptical future. She’s having trouble remembering what happened and there are a lot of monsters to slay if things are to be put right. Good stuff!

Multiversity is one of our favorite Grant Morrison Events and this one stands out because, while there is a through-plot, much of it is just Grant Morrison building new Earths, that is do say alternate dimensions – a pulp character Earth, a variation on the old Earth-S (Shazam) and, of course, President Superman. Along for the ride are a ridiculous set of artists, including Frank Quitely, Doug Mahnke, Chris Sprouse and Ivan Reis.

Wonder Woman: Dead Earth   Multiversity

Mutations

The Marvel New Mutants Legacy Sale runs through Tuesday, 4/4

Let’s break this one down by the series highlights first:

  • New Mutants (’83 – ’91) – The original run
  • New Mutants (’09 – ’11) – Zeb Wells / Diogenes Neves; DnA / Leandro Fernandez & David Lopez
  • New Mutants (’03 – ’04) – Nunzio DeFilippis / Christina Weir / Keron Grant / Khary Randolph
  • New Mutants: Dead Souls (’18) – Matthew Rosenberg / Adam Gorham
  • New Mutants (’19-’22) – The HoX/PoX (Hickman) era with rotating creators

What’s the best run of New Mutants? That’s a question that runs to personal preference more than most series. We’d say, #18-31 is the core with Chris Claremont and Bill Sienkiewicz that stands above the rest. Demon Bear. The introduction of Warlock. A good Legion arc. And it’s conveniently packaged in an Epic Collection. It’s still an interesting run after Sienkiewicz moves on, but he’s so good at setting mood and tone.

Another thing we’d throw out as particularly interesting is specifically the Jonathan Hickman installments of the most recent series. These are also conveniently collected in a single volume… and his issues didn’t always run sequentially.

Past that, this is one where you browse and see if something strikes your fancy.

New Mutants: The Demon Bear Saga   New Mutants

Friends in Warm Places

The Dark Horse – World of Hellboy Sale runs through Monday, 4/10.

Not a Hellboy sale, but rather the related titles. But that’s fine, since B.P.R.D is actually even more of a saga than Hellboy proper. There are two big arcs in omnibus format, mostly written by Mike Mignola and John Arcudi with art by the inimitable Guy Davis.

The first sequence is The Plague of Frogswherein the Bureau – i.e., the scientists and soldiers (and Abe Sapien & Liz Sherman)  Hellboy works with – go down a rabbit hole, trying to figure out what’s up with all these frog creatures that keep turning up. Hint: BAD things are up. Important note: with that link, skip the ones marked “omnibus” and scroll down to Plague of Frogs V. 1-4. Same material at a lower price.

The second sequence is Hell on Earth. And that title is no joke. Things take a turn for the worst.

We revisited these sequences during lockdown and it’s an extremely well done epic. There are some false starts early on as Mignola settles on a creative team, but once Arcudi and Davis arrive, buckle up… things start moving fast and you’ll be flipping pages.

For a very different side of the Hellboy verse, there’s Lobster Johnson. The Lobster is a pulp vigilante from the Shadow/Spider school, operating in the 1930s. The tone is all over the place from a straight pulp thriller to farce to over-the-top adventure with some Spy-Fi and occult touches. Very fun series. Mike Mignola and John Arcudi are your writers. There’s quite a rotation of artists here, but Tonci Zonjic is the most frequent contributor. You can get the first the volumes in an omnibus and then there are three more “single” collections.

BPRD - Plague of Frogs   BPRD - Hell on Earth   Lobster Johnson

The “Maybe” Sale

It has come to our attention that Amazon now has a sort of  $5 and under section for comics. We’re not quite sure what to make of it or how permanent it is.  Some of the listings are this week’s sales. Some of the listings are things that aren’t discounted… like single issues that are normally under $5. And a few things might be unannounced sales?

Some highlights:

Arrowsmith V.1 by Kurt Busiek and Carlos Pacheco for $1.99. The high concept here is World War I being fought with mages and dragons. This would be the original run. Six issues for $1.99? For Busiek & Pacheco? That just might be the bargain of the week.

Queen & Country is on the shortlist for the best espionage comic of all time. An homage, of sorts, to the old UK TV show “The Sandbaggers,” it’s a spy comic that also shows the politics that the spies’ handler must suffer through. Greg Rucka writes and the artists rotate by arc, but you’ll recognize a few of the names: Chris Samnee, Jason Shawn Alexander, Carla Speed McNeil and Mike Norton. Great series. Volumes run from $3.99 to $5.99. We think this is an unannounced sale, but we’re not positive about that.

And we have no idea what kind of time frame any unannounced sales in this section will stick around. It is, as they say, a mystery.

Arrowsmith   Queen & Country

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Still On Sale

Comixology Sales: Batman Family; Moon Knight; Shazam!; Annihilation

In this week’s Comixology (at Amazon) sales, DC drops prices on the Batman family and Shazam!, Marvel discounts Moon Knight and their cosmic world.

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):

NOTE: We’re seeing Tuesday, 3/14 as the end date for a lot of this week’s sales. Sales usually end on a Monday, so we’re not sure if they’re changing the schedule or somebody put in the wrong date for this week’s sales. We’ll find out Tuesday? And wait until you get a load of the “Nega-Bands” sale conundrum. It’s special.

Bats Everywhere

The DC Bat Family Sale runs through Tuesday, 3/14.

Lucky you, the “real” sale prices arrived Friday morning. Another slow roll-out, but they’re here for the weekend. Also “Bat Family,” not “Batman Family?” Lean in, already.

So, what’s good? We’ve always been very large fans of the original Greg Rucka / J.H. Williams III Batwoman arc, when it took over Detective Comics. Good stuff! (That volume also includes the Jock-illustrated arc.)

You say you’d rather have Batman & Robin? Well, we’ve got two options for you: The Grant Morrison Batman & Robin with Frank Quitely and Frazier Irving art and the Peter Tomasi / Patrick Gleason Batman & Robin.

Batwoman   Batman & Robin   Batman and Robin

And for the Nightwing fans:

Grayson   Nightwing

The Light of the Silvery Moon

The Marvel Moon Knight Sale runs through Tuesday, 3/14.

The original Moon Knight run is mostly in Epic Collections, but it’s in two separate links because… well, we shouldn’t be surprised by this, should we?  The first link has two volumes that are not closely related. Bad Moon Rising is the Werewolf by Night appearances through the backups in Hulk Magazine and the first issues of 1980 solo series. The other volume in that link… we’re not as big on. That was later volumes.

You can go here for the rest of the 1980 Moon Knight series, which was the most famous version for quite some time. If you came into the character through the TV series, know that the original Moon Knight was a lot closer to Batman and The Shadow. Oh, sure the werewolf showed up, but most of the mystical things around Konshu were kept in the background and a lot more mysterious. The multiple identities were originally more like the cover identities adopted by the Shadow (and the original series editor, Denny O’Neil, adapted The Shadow for DC.) This is where Moon Knight got popular.

Moon Knight   Moon Knight Epic Collection

If you came in through the TV show, there really isn’t a comic that quite matches that version of the character, but the series did draw on the Jeff Lemire / Greg Smallwood Moon Knight series in which Moon Knight has a run-in with the Egyptian gods and his personalities run amok. It’s also a good run.

We also have been enjoying the current Jed MacKay/Alessandro Cappuccio Moon Knight series. This one takes up the unenviable task of rationalizing the various incarnations over the years (and there have been a lot of different takes on the character). Mr. Knight is in therapy for his multiple personality issues. He’s running the Midnight Mission and conduct himself as Konshu’s ambassador… after a fashion, although he’s not really happy with Konshu. And there are vampires. Lots of vampires. $0.99 single issues, too, if you prefer that format.

Moon Knight   Moon Knight

The Nega-Bands / Magic Word Sales

You might want sit down for this, ’cause it’s WEIRD. There’s a Marvel Cosmic Heroes sale and a Shazam sale. And they have the same URL (that’s techie for web address). We can’t be sure if this is a coding error or the world’s most awkward A/B test, but when you click on the link to either sale (or load the overall Deals page at Amazon), you won’t know which one will show up. If you get the wrong one, start reloading and the other should show up within 5 reloads.  Maybe Amazon will fix it and BOTH sales will show up on the Deals page? As we said, we aren’t 100% if this is by design or not.

It’s like when Mar-Vell would clang the Nega-Bands together and trade places with Rick Jones in the Negative Zone. Or when Billy Batson speaks the magic word and is replaced by Captain Marvel. Are both Captain Marvels in this sale? Yes. So we’re really not sure if this is a sort of prank or performance art piece.

The Magic Word

The DC Shazam Sale runs through Monday, 4/3.

You’d think there was a movie or something. The original Captain Marvel has some very different incarnations. The sampler is Shazam!: A Celebration of 75 Years, which has tales from the 40’s through the Geoff Johns reimagining a few years back. It’s also the only place to get the original, more whimsical, 1940s version.

It was revived in the 1970s and for this run, we’d direct you to V.3, which is the E. Nelson Bridwell / Don Newton “new look” run that began at the tail end of the solo series and continued into World’s Finest and Adventure Comics digest. An obvious labor of love, and some of the best work of both, it’s a fairly successful attempt to write the original characters and scenarios from a slightly more adult perspective, while sometimes retaining the whimsy (depending on the individual plot). It’s under rated. Technically, this run begins in the last two issues collected in V.2, but most of that volume is younger audience material and the influences of the TV show weren’t helping. V.3 is a better place to start if you aren’t a completist.

The next major revival was the Power of Shazam by Jerry Ordway and Peter Krause, this was the post-crisis reinvention and still faithful to the spirit of the originals. This is a little goofy in the usual way – you can get the first 12 issues cheaper in the collected edition and the #13 onwards are $0.99 single issues.

Shazam   Shazam!   Power of Shazam

Also of possible interest: $0.99 issues of the current Josie Campbell / Doc Shaner New Champion of Shazam!

The Cosmic Ride

The Marvel Cosmic Heroes Sale runs through Tuesday, 3/14.

We promised Mar-Vell and he makes a couple appearances in Captain Marvel: Starforce. Let’s refer to this one as creative packaging, reprinting some very random tales with Kree villains as a theoretical movie tie-in.  But it fits the theme of Nega-Band links!

A lot closer to the current definition of “cosmic” at Marvel is Annihilation. This started out a series of mini-series bring some of the comic heroes of the present, like Nova, Star-Lord and Drax, together to face down an invasion by Annihilus. After some sequels, the format eventually reformed as the current incarnation of The Guardians of the Galaxy, so this is roughly where all that starts. (You’ll want the two “complete collection” volumes.)

The Last Annihilation is a sort of mini-event centered around the final Al Ewing/Juan Frigeri Guardians of the Galaxy arc. The Guardians, plus S.W.O.R.D., the Wakandans and Doctor Doom face down a different type of incursion… and the cover should tell you all you need to know about that. It’s quite good.

Captain Marvel: Starforce   Annihilation   The Last Annihilation

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Still On Sale

Comixology (at Amazon) Sales: Spider-Man, Batman’s Valentines, Nova, New Warriors and Hellboy

In this week’s Comixology (at Amazon) sales, Marvel chops prices on Amazing Spider-Man, Nova and New Warriors. DC and Dark Horse celebrate Valentine’s Day.

Where did the New Releases and Sale pages go?

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

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

So Many Spiders…

Marvel’s Spider-Man Legacy Sale runs through Monday, 2/20.

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) – The Nick Spenser era is here, PLUS the 4 volumes of Spider-Man Beyond with Ben Reilly stepping in that take place prior to:
  • Amazing Spider-Man (2022-Present) – The current Zeb Wells / John Romita, Jr. run. Also some 99-cent single issues if you prefer that format.

And there are a few more Slott era omnibus editions floating around.  That’s probably not getting cleaned up anytime soon.<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 (although a few Epic’s run a little higher). 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.

Of possible interest, since there’s a sequel mini-series out, but NOT included in the link for the V.1 of Amazing is the Kraven’s Last Hunt Epic Collectionso 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.

And yes, we are enjoying the current Zeb Wells / (mostly) John Romita, Jr. series. It’s a little more somber than we were expecting from Wells, but it’s been a good ride so far. Peter’s trying to get back on his feet after doing something to get everyone mad at him. Who should show up with a redemptive peace offering, but… Norman Osborn? And that’s before the Hobgoblin turns up.

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

Nooooova, Come Out and Plaaaaaay…

The Marvel Nova and the New Warriors Sale runs through Monday, 2/20.

Let’s run down the contents here:

  • Nova (1976-78) – The original Marv Wolfman/John Buscema/Sal Buscema/Carmine Infantino run
  • Nova (2007-10) – The Dan Abnett/Andy Lanning/Paul Pelletier/Kev Walker/Andrea di Vito era – the Complete Collection is the better deal.
  • Nova (2013-15) – Gerry Duggan / Paco Medina was probably the longest tenured creative team of this volume.
  • Nova: Resurrection (2015) – Jeff Loveness / Ramon Perez
  • Nova: The Human Rocket (2015-16) – Sean Ryan / Cory Smith / John Timms

What’s good here?  We’d go with the original run or the DnA run (complete with a space station carved out of a Celestial’s head – yes, the concept predates Avengers Mountain).

For the New Warriors:

  • New Warriors Classic – The original Fabian Nicieza / Mark Bagley / Darick Robertson series
  • New Warriors ’07-’09 The Kevin Grevioux / Paco Medina / Reilly Brown series
  •  New Warriors ’14 – The Christopher Yost / Marcus To series

And here we’d absolutely go with the original run.

Nova Classic   Nova by Abnett & Lanning   New Warriors

Not the Safest Valentine…

The DC Valentine’s Day Sale runs through Monday, 2/20.

We’re not saying the DC universe is the safest place to celebrate a relationship… but there are a few things on sale.

The Batman Adventures: Mad Love is a classic of unhealthy relationships. This is the animated series origin story of Harley Quinn and Mister J. by Paul Dini and Bruce Timm. It is a romance, after all! Also falls under the category of “classic.” If you don’t need all the optional extras, you can get the original story in its original format for a lousy $0.99.

Speaking of Batman and unhealthy relationships, there’s always Batman: Birth of the DemonThis collects Batman: Son of the Demon by Mike W. Barr and Jerry Bingham, Batman: Bride of the Demon by Mike W. Barr and Tom Grindberg and Batman: Birth of the Demon by Denny O’Neil and Norm Breyfogle. Three original graphic novels about R’as al Ghul and Bruce’s relationship with Talia al Guhl. Indeed, Son of the Demon could be considered the origin of Damien, or at least a chunk of it. Originally, that tale wasn’t even supposed to be in continuity, except it was quite popular and things changed.

And for something a little more recent, there’s Mister Miracle by Tom King and Mitch Gerards. While the storyline is about Mister Miracle attempting to escape death, his relationship with his wife, Big Barda, is certainly at the core of the story. A series that did quite well for itself on the awards circuit.

Scroll down to the bottom of the sale for an eclectic selection of single issues. A lot of wedding issues, but… to be honest, we probably wouldn’t have suggested celebrating Valentine’s Day with the first issue of Longbow Hunters. That’s a bit much.

Mad Love   Batman: Birth of the Demon   Mister Miracle

Enough With the Romance

The Dark Horse Valentine’s Day Sale runs through Monday, 2/20.

OK, enough with mushy stuff, let’s talk about the usual suspects here.  It’s Dark Horse, so you know there’s going to be multiple Mike Mignola items on sale. The Hellboy Omnibus line continues to be a good value – excellent comics with high page counts (especially V.3). If you haven’t been keeping up, scroll through the sale and scan the newer releases. Hellboy is still coming out.

Blacksad by Juan Díaz Canales and Juanjo Guarnido is an amazing body of work. Chandler-esque hardboiled detective stories in a world of anthropomorphic animals… but there’s nothing cartoony about it. Absolutely jaw-dropping art by Guarnido, too. Thick with detail and atmosphere. Click through and look at a couple preview pages.

Invisible Kingdom by G. Willow Wilson and Christian Ward has several rewards to it’s name. It’s a science fiction tale of what happens when an intergalactic corporation gets in bed with a religion.  All’s far in love and profit, after all. Note: The Library Edition is cheaper than getting the single volumes, which is not always the case.

Hellboy   Blacksad   Invisible Kingdom

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Still on Sale:

Comixology (at Amazon) Sales: X-Men; New Teen Titans; Aztec Ace; Geiger; Air

In this week’s Comixology (at Amazon) sales, Marvel contemplates Mister Sinister, DC celebrates teamwork, Image does science fiction and Dark Horse discounts fantasy.

Where did the New Releases and Sale pages go?

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

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

New sales did post this week, so that’s good… but make sure you eyeball the displayed prices to see if it looks like it’s really on sale. A number of things did not pass the eye test, although at least the DC sale got fixed. As we type this, not everything did. Speaking of DC:

Fight and Then Team Up

The DC Super Teams Sale runs through Monday, 1/30.

There’s a 2-Omnibus set of 52 that’s a good deal. 52 issues for $20 works out to $0.38/issue, better than you usually see. 52 was a weekly comic co-written by Mark Waid, Greg Rucka, Grant Morrison and Geoff Johns. Keith Giffen did the layouts and then a whole bunch of artists finished those. The story is a set of plot threads telling the aftermath of Infinite Crisis, with arcs for Booster Gold, Black Adam, Elongated Man, Adam Strange, Will Magnus (the Metal Men’s creator) and The Question, among others.

This World’s Finest is the 1990 Prestige/Dark Knight format version from Dave Gibbons and Steve Rude. Not something we’ve heard discussed in awhile, this is an attempt to recapture the Silver Age mojo as Lex Luthor and The Joker team-up to bedevil Superman and Batman. As pretty a comic as you’ll find.

The New Teen Titans by Marv Wolfman and George Perez essentially pulled DC back from the brink at a low point in the company’s sales history. It’s a classic and it’s $4.99 per volume.

52   World's Finest   New Teen Titans

It’s a Sin

The  Marvel X-Men: Sinister Stories Sale runs through Monday, 1/30.

A tie-in to the “Sins of Sinister” Event? Sure enough. And given that’s a Kieron Gillen outing, it seems like Uncanny X-Men by Kieron Gillen: The Complete Collection is probably good background reading, since it establishes Gillen’s take on Mister Sinister.

Also particularly relevant to the current incarnation of Sinster is the recent Hellions series by Zeb Wells and Stephen Segovia. We’re big fans of this one, which has Minster Sinister acting as Professor X for a unit of more… anti-social mutants. Is he using them as pawns in his greater schemes? Absolutely. One warning here, though. The middle volume of this doesn’t have much of a discount and we’re wondering if that’s an error? The omnibus edition is a tad more expensive and also a lot higher priced than you’d expect for a sale. Maybe it gets fixed and maybe it doesn’t. It’s still a highly entertaining run.

And while it’s not the first appearance of Sinister, we think one of the better values in the sale is X-Factor Epic Collection: All-New, All-Different X-Factor, which is the Peter David run. You’ve got a Mister Sinister arc, a Hulk crossover and art by Larry Stroman, Dale Keown… and some lad named Joe Quesada (whatever happened to him?)

Uncanny X-Men   Hellions by Zeb Wells   X-Factor Epic Collection

We Were Promised A Flying Purple People-Eater?!?

The Image Sci-Fi Sale runs through Tuesday, 1/31.

Fear Agent by Rick Remender, Tony Moore and Jerome Opeña is a pulp science fiction adventure of the hard-drinking final member of the Fear Agents, a force that handled alien threats. Spoiler: one of those alien threats is still active. It’s an old favorite around here.

Farmhand is a science fiction/horror/comedy series from Rob Guillory, who you might remember from Chew. This time out Rob’s doing full writer/artist duties and proving that Layman wasn’t the only pleasantly twisted person behind Chew. In Farmhand, Jedidiah Jenkins has an unusual cash crop – he grows replacement for human organs. Where did these crops come from? That would be telling, but strange things are happening around the farm at to some of the transplant recipients.

Geiger is a Geoff Johns / Gary Frank post-apocalyptical, traversing the wastelands adventure. We got some (darker) Kamandi/Ben Boxer vibes off it. Very much a post-modern take on the DC “Great Disaster” era science fiction tales of the 60s and 70s and in a good way.

Fear Agent   Farmhand   Geiger

No, Not That Kind of “Fantasy”

The Dark Horse Fantasy Sale runs through Monday, 1/30.

This is a VERY expansive sale and worth an extended browse it you have time. We’re going to point out three, somewhat under the radar books, two of which we don’t think have been on sale before.

Air by G. Willow Wilson and M.K. Perker was originally a Vertigo book that Karen Berger appears to have pulled over to Dark Horse and Berger Books.  We would very much like to see a continuation, but… first things first. This is a very unusual genre bender. A little science fiction, a little fantasy, a little thriller. It also takes a little while to start unfolding. What starts as a flight attendant getting pulled into a terrorist conspiracy takes a turn for the weird and lands in a much wider conspiracy involving teleportation, time lost celebrities and an Aztec god. This is not a comic that’s easily reduced to a tagline, but it’s a good one.

Alice in Sunderland by Bryan Talbot is your unabashedly intellectual comic of the week. An excellent work of art and truly unusual. The starting point is a history of Talbot’s hometown of Sunderland, which turns into a study of the influences on Lewis Carroll while writing Alice in Wonderland and then turns… where Talbot feels like going. A unique book!

Aztec Ace by Doug Moench, Dan Day, Michael Hernandez and Ron Harris is a time travel adventure. The most unusual thing about it might just be that Moench had never seen Doctor Who before writing it in the early 80s. This is a very Doctor Who-compatible series. Originally coming out from Eclipse and long out of print, Ace is a time traveler from the 23rd century who’s battling time paradoxes and the mysterious Nine-Crocodiles, who seems to be behind the paradoxes. He’s aided by Bridget Chronopolis, who wanders into his sphere very much like one of The Doctor’s companions would, and the floating head of Sigmund Freud. Not the lowest priced item, but it’s 15 issues + extras, so a better value than you might think at first glance. And a lot easier than trying to track down the single issues. (Just trust us on that, ’cause we did.)

Air   Alice in Sunderland   Aztec Ace

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Still on Sale:

Comixology (at Amazon) Sale: X-Men, X-Force, Greg Pak-a-Mania, Prelude to Lazarus Planet

In this week’s Comixology (at Amazon) sales, Marvel has TWO flavors of X-books on sale, plus Greg Pak. DC’s prepping for the Lazarus Planet and Top Shelf is tossing some discounts around.

Where did the New Releases and Sale pages go?

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

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

Let’s Put the X in Sale

The Marvel Dawn of X/Reign of X Sale runs through Monday, 1/16.

What is this sale? Following House of X/Power of X, the X-Men line of comics has a suggested reading order in the back of the books. If you read from issue to issue, particularly during the Dawn of X era, you really did get an additive experience and more of a view of the X-universe.  These two runs collect the individual issues of ALL the X-titles in a reading order for the line.

Dawn of X picks up after HoX/PoX and runs up to X of Swords (which isn’t on sale). Reign of X picks up after X of Swords and ends just before Trial of Magneto and Inferno.

Dawn of X   Reign of X

An Extra X Sale

The Marvel X-Force Legacy Sale runs through Monday, 1/16

Uncanny X-Force by Rick Remender with art by Jerome Opeña, Phil Noto, Esad Ribic and a whole bunch of others would be our top choice. A particularly dark take on X-Force as black ops, much of it weaving in and out of the labyrinthian plans of Apocolypse.

The original X-Force has come Epic Collections available and we always like the value of those. You can pick your era here.

The X-Force portion of Peter Milligan & Mike Allred’s run that would soon become X-Statix is conveniently available as a single volume. 

X-Force   X-Force   X-Force

Send Them Pak-ing

The Marvel Greg Pak Sale runs through Monday, 1/16.

Pak’s been over in the Star Wars universe lately, and that’s on sale, but we always associate him very strongly with Hulk.

Planet Hulk, written by Pak with art by Carlo Pagulayan, Aaron Lopresti and Gary Frank was where Pak really broke wide. This one has Hulk exiled to a planet where he effectively becomes that world’s Conan. It’s now a classic.

For unknown reasons, World War Hulk is not in the sale. (Yes, that seems boneheaded to us, too.)

But Pak was on Hulk for the ’09-’11 series with Paul Pelletier as the lead artist.

A bit less remembered, Pak returned to Hulk in ’17 with Greg Land and Carlo Barberi to revisit the Planet Hulk and World War Hulk storylines.

Planet Hulk   Incredible Hulk   Hulk

Resurrecting A Sale From the Dead

The DC Journey to Lazarus Planet Sale runs through Monday, 1/16.

That’s a mouthful of a sale title, but DC’s got an event in the offing that will raise some things from the dead like Lazarus… or a Lazarus Pit.

Scroll down a bit here and you’ll find the James Tynion 4.0/Jorge Jiménez and first volume of the Josh Williamson (and so many different artists) run of Batman on sale. Here’s a quirk for you. The collected editions started a new Volume 1 for Tynion’s run, but because the single issues didn’t renumber, the collected editions are on the same page as the Tom King run.  And they wonder why it confuses the bookstore managers?

Nightwing looks to have a big role in DC’s next wave, so the current volume is mostly on sale. (A couple volumes in the middle aren’t for whatever reason.) The current Tom Taylor/Bruno Redondo run being one of DC’s most celebrated offerings.

And for something off the beaten path, that’s also interesting to see in the runup to an Event, there’s Zatana by Paul Dini. Yes, after marrying a magician, you’d think Dini would have a feel for the material, wouldn’t you? The artists on this include Stephanie Roux, Jamal Igle and Cliff Chiang.

Batman: Abyss   Nightwing   Zatana by Paul Dini

Also of potential interest, $0.99/$1.99 single issues. Highlights include:

Shelving Sale

The Top Shelf Sale runs through Monday, 1/23.

Top Shelf is an imprint of IDW and much of it is on sale right now.

They Called Us Enemy is probably the de facto flagship title for Top Shelf and it’s won a lot of Awards. That would be the graphic novel adaption of George Takei’s memoir and play of growing up in an internment camp by Justin Eisinger, Steven Scott and Harmony Becker.

For something a little more out of left field, The Bojeffries Saga is Alan Moore and Steve Parkhouse from the early 80s doing a darker, more horror-forward riff on The Adams Family/Munsters spliced with Monty Python. The originals mostly ran in Warrior and A1. It’s a entertaining series from a different side of more than you usually see.  (The March of the Sinister Ducks side.)

They Called Us Enemy   The Bojeffries Saga

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Comixology (at Amazon) Sales: DC has *a new* $1.99 Graphic Novel Sale

In this week’s Comixology (at Amazon) sales, DC offers up a new slate of $1.99/$2.99 collected editions. We could get used to this.

Where did the New Releases and Sale pages go?

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

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

Isn’t this interesting? DC has another week of much better than usual discounts, so they get a solo post today and we’ll be back for the rest of the week at the usual time.

The question you might be asking yourself: “Will DC have even better discounts next week or did they wisely decide to unleash the good prices while everyone else was waiting for the week of the 20th?”

We won’t have an answer to that until next week, but we’re awfully curious.

The Hit Parade

The DC’s Greatest Hits Sale runs through Monday, 12/19.

There’s a little bit of everything here and a few items, like Far Sector and the George Perez Wonder Woman run, hanging on from previous recent sales.

First a piece of real good advice. This sale is monster to get to the end of. We lost track of how many times we had to click for more books. It you want to examine something, right click it and open it in a new window so you don’t lose your place and have to manually reload everything from the top!

So let’s break this into highlights by price points. Here’s what caught our eye in terms of story and pricing:

$2.99 “Deluxe” Editions

These are great values – they generally contain the equivalent or 2 “regular” collected editions (10-12 issue worth), so you’re paying an effective $1.50 per collected edition. That’s about as cheap as it gets with DC!

  • 100 Bullets – Brian Azzarello / Eduardo Risso
  • Batman: Shadow of the Bat Alan Grant/Norm Breyfogle/Tim Sale/Bret Blevins
  • DMZ – Brian Wood and Riccardo Burchielli
  • FablesBill Willingham / Mark Buckingham
  • The Flash by Geoff Johns – with Scott Kollins as the lead artist; scroll to the bottom of the page for this, but a couple Flash by Mark Waid volumes are also $2.99
  • JLA – Initially by Grant Morrison and Howard Porter
  • New Gods – Jack Kirby’s classic saga + the ’84 wrap-up from the reprints + The Hunger Dogs OGN

$1.99 Collected Editions

  • Batman (’16-current) – All but the end of the Tom King run, then $2.99
  • Detective Comics (’16-current) – The James Tynion IV & Peter J. Tomasi runs are mostly $1.99, and then $2.99
  • Ex-Machina – Brian K. Vaughan and Tony Harris; “Deluxe” double volumes – usually 10 issues worth – cheap!
  • Green Arrow (’88-’98) – Best known as the Mike Grell era with Ed Hannigan, Dan Jurgens and Rick Hoberg illustrating the Grell run
  • Green Lantern: Sector 2814 (’60-’86) – at the bottom of the page, the Len Wein/Dave Gibbons run into the Steve Englehard/Joe Staton run
  • Green Lantern (’05-’11) – The Geoff Johns run, a GL highlight
  • The Nice House on the Lake – James Tynion IV / Alvaro Martinez Bueno
  • Shazam!: The Monster Society of Evil – by Jeff Smith
  • Superman: Emperor Joker – Joe Kelly/Jeph Loeb/Doug Mahnke/Ed McGuinness
  • Superman: Phantom Zone – Steve Gerber / Gene Colan / Rick Veitch
  • Superman: The Man of Steel  – The John Byrne era, also with Marv Wolfman, Jerry Ordway, Ron Frenz and some Roger Stern
  • Superman Vs. Mongul – Len Wein/Jim Starlin are behind the early DC Comics Presents appearances of Mongul, plus the classic Alan Moore/Dave Gibbons “For the Man Who Has Everything”
  • Y- The Last Man – Brian K. Vaughan and Pia Guerra; this version is actually the “Deluxe” double volumes for $1.99, so extra cheap!

A little pricier at $4.99, but of potential interest this week, First Issue Special is what Tom King’s Danger Street is based on. This is sort of the ’70s version of Showcase. The only “hit” to come out of it was Mike Grell’s Warlord, which one was of DC’s best sellers into the early 80s. The Martin Pasko/Walt Simonson Doctor Fate issue is a classic. Kirby’s Manhunter and Atlas issues are also worth your time. A mixed bag, but an interesting mixed bag.

What’s the pick of the litter? When all the prices are this good, it really depends on your tastes.  If you emphasize page count vs. price, New Gods might just get the crown. ~420 pages of great comics whose influence is hard to overstate for a mere $2.99. For the uninitiated, this is Jack Kirby’s epic of superhero-esque gods on the planets of New Genesis and Apokolips. Orion is the lead hero, Darkseid is the big bad and Mister Miracle was actually a companion book, not the main title. This is where Darkseid comes from.

Ex-Machina is pre-Saga Brian K. Vaughan and post-Starman Tony Harris telling the tale of the mayor of NYC and his unsuccessful efforts to stay retired from superheroing. A more adult take on superheroes set against a backdrop of politics long before the Kingpin or Luke Cage was mayor. $1.99/volume for the double volumes? Yes, please.

For “traditional” DC capes hijinx, we’ll give the JLA run a slight nod over Flash. As JLA moves forward, the page counts get a little higher than Flash. Particularly the Waid/Hitch volume. The Flash also doesn’t wear a cape, so there’s that, too. And for bonus points, the first volume of JLA is $1.99. Cheap. Really, both of those are fine, iconic runs. Pun intended.

There’s a LOT to look at with this sale. 1300+ items, so if you like the DC cannon, it’s probably worthwhile to carve some time out to browse this before the weekend passes.

New Gods by Jack Kirby   Ex Machina   JLA

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Still On Sale