Comixology (at Amazon) Sales: Amazing Spider-Man (all of it); Blade; Dracula; Lazarus Planet; Dark Horse’s Cullen Bunn catalog

In this week’s Comixology (at Amazon) sales, Marvel puts pretty much the full run of Amazing Spider-Man on sale and follows that up with Tomb of Dracula and Blade’s various titles. DC… has issues this week. Dark Horse celebrates the work of Cullen Bunn.

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):

So Many Spiders…

Marvel’s Spider-Man Legacy Sale runs through Monday, 4/29.

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
- The omnibus editions are here, including the JMS “Ultimate Colletion” and Big Time
- The “Brand New Day” era is broken out in omnibi here
- The “regular” collections are here
  Yeah… the listings here are a mess.
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(2015-2018) – 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. The “Worldwide Collection” omnibuses are the better buy.
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. / Ed McGuinness run.

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.

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 Collection, so we’ll call that one out directly. You get the J.M. DeMatteis/Mike Zeck classic, plus the issues of Amazing around it, plus Spider-Man Vs. Wolverine for about the price of just getting the regular Kraven collection.

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

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. And this is a series that plays the long game resolving subplots.

Could There Possibly Be an Event Approaching?

The Marvel Blade and Marvel Vampires Sale runs through Monday, 4/29.

That would be the Daywalker and vampire slayer who’s better known through the films than the comic.

We feel pretty strongly that Blade is best experienced in his original context – a supporting character in Tomb of Dracula. It’s not clear you can call Tomb of Dracula an under-the-radar 70s classic anymore, since it’s gotten a fair amount of exposure since the Essentials line (finally) collected it ~20 years ago, but now it’s in color reprints. One note, though – you need to give the series six or seven issues to get moving. There were some false starts until Marv Wolfman and Gene Colan were paired up… but after they’ve got a couple issues under their belt, this one really takes off.

Blade: Black & White is a collection of… that’s right, the black & white adventures over the years and is built around some magazine appearances in Vampire Tales and Marvel Preview. Wolfman and Chris Claremont are the primary writers for that period. Colan and Tony DeZuniga are the primary artists.

If you’re looking for something has resembles the film franchise a bit more, there’s Blade: The Complete Collection by Marc Guggenheim (with Howard Chaykin as artist).

For something completely out of left field, J.M. DeMatteis, Steve Leialoha and Mark Badger present Greenberg the Vampire. He tries to avoid drinking blood, loves his Mama and occasionally has writer’s block.

DC’s Almost-Sale

The DC Multiverse Sale runs through Monday, 4/29.

*Sigh* It appears to have happened again. Most of these books are are at higher price points than we’ve seen in months or set to a really strange price point. Precedent would suggest that someone at DC did not enter the sale data correctly. This was a BIG problem at various point last year. (Especially August.) As we type this up, no prices have been corrected… maybe they will be by the weekend?

If not, here’s the much shorter list of things we think are at “normal” price points & discounts. Hopefully this doesn’t linger for a month like it did in August.

Not on the sale page, but good prices:

Legion of Super-Heroes: The Great Darkness Saga ($5.99)
Multiversity ($5.99)

An Unannounced Bunn in the Oven

It appears Dark Horse is having an unannounced sale on Cullen Bunn titles.

His flagship work for Dark Horse is most likely Harrow County with Tyler Crook. The two omnibus editions in that link are the best value here by a LOT. Go to the bottom of the “regular” collection links for the Tales From Harrow County continuation.

Also on the list:

Death Follows w/ A.C. Zamudio
Lucky Devil w/ Fran Galán
Manor Black w/ Brian Hurtt & Tyler Crook
Parasomnia w/ Andrea Mutti
Shock Shop w/ Leila Leiz & Danny Luckert

Still on Sale

The Marvel X-Men: The Krakoan Age Sale runs through Monday, 4/29
Zenescope Grimm Fairy Tales Proper Sale runs through Wednesday, 5/15
The Titan The Thirteenth Doctor Sale runs through Monday, 5/20
The Caliber Comics Library Spring Sale runs through Tuesday, 4/30

Posted on April 26, 2024 by comics_p1pusl

Comixology (at Amazon) Sales: DC Classics w/ New Teen Titans, What If?, Cullen Bunn and Tyler Crook, Peanuts

This week’s Comixology (at Amazon) sales include DC “Classics,” which includes the Marv Wolfman/George Perez New Teen Titans run, so we’ll have to agree with the sale’s title. Marvel offers up What If? Fantagraphics discounts Peanuts and Dark Horse celebrates Cullen Bunn & Tyler Crook. We would also remind you that there’s a very cheap Star Wars sale and a Doctor Strange sale that aren’t quite finished yet.

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):

A “Classical” Education

The DC Classics Sale runs through Monday, 5/16

This one is a DEEP dive into the DC backlist. And since the sale prices seem to have normalized, we’re happy to be able to point you to a few title that now have each volume on sale, which wasn’t happening in the last couple months.

Point in case: New Teen Titans by Marv Wolfman and George Perez now has the first 10 volumes (coincidentally, the Perez years) for $4.99 each. Previously several volumes would be at those bizarre prices that appeared to be in error. Well, no more of that. New Teen Titans was effectively DC’s answer to X-Men in the early 80s (along with the Levitz/Giffen-era LSH, whose reprinting is more convoluted). It’s supposed to be a “classics” sale and this one is more classic than most.

Fast forward a few years and you get the “Man of Steel” era of Superman. Some people call it the John Byrne era, but this time frame also brings Marv Wolfman and Jerry Ordway into the fold. $4.99 – $5.99 per volume is also good pricing.

In general, the “Silver Age” collections tend to be a slightly larger page count and good bang for your buck. However, you also might find yourself thinking that DC’s collected editions can be a little spotty and, gosh darn it, sometimes you’d just like to get some $0.99 single issues to fill in those series. You’re in luck, there are a LOT of $0.99 single issues here, although it’s a royal pain to browse in Amazon sub-par user interface. Here’s a cheat sheet for some of the single issues on sale:

Action Comics ’38-’11
Adventure Comics
All-Star Comics
Aquaman ’63-’78
Batman ’40-’11
Brave and the Bold (spotty discounts on this one)
DC Comics Presents
Detective Comics ’37-’11
The Flash ’59-’85
Green Lantern ’60-’86
Superman ’39-’11 (Yes, Amazon files the ’06-’11 series here. Don’t ask us to explain why…)
Superman ’87-06
Wonder Woman ’42 – ’86

If Not, Why Not?

The Marvel What If Sale runs through Monday, 5/16.

The interesting thing about What If is how often the modern age of Marvel has gone back to pilfer from it. What If is where Jane Foster first took up the hammer of Thor. The first place Conan stalked the streets of the present. The first time the Hulk became a barbarian. Apparently, “there’s gold in them there hills!” The larger collections are slightly more bang for your buck, BTW.

The Fantagraphics Peanuts Sale runs through Monday, 5/16.

Yes, the classic Charles Schultz comic strip with Charlie Brown and Snoopy. Fantagraphics is reprinting it from the beginning. Strangely, there’s no series link on Amazon for this.

Tag Team?

The Dark Horse Bunn & Crook Sale runs through Monday, 5/23.

That would be Cullen Bunn & Tyler Crook, who’ve done quite a bit at Dark Horse over the years. Their best known collaboration is probably Harrow County (the omnibus editions are BY FAR the best buy).

If you’d like something a bit more recent, Parasomnia by Bunn and Andrea Mutti was a February release. The Unbelievable Teens (part of the Black Hammer universe) by Jeff Lemire and Crook was released on 4/5… and this is as quickly as we’ve seen a collection go on sale!

Still On Sale

The Marvel Star Wars May the Fourth Sale runs through Monday, 5/16. ($0.99/$1.99 tpbs – definitely check it out if you’re remotely into Star Wars)
The Marvel Doctor Strange Sale runs through Monday, 5/16
The DC Justice League R.I.P. Sale runs through Monday, 5/16
The Image Jeff Lemire Sale runs through Monday, 5/16

Posted on May 13, 2022 by comics_p1pusl

Comixology Sales: Black Panther, Punisher, What If…, Captain Britain, Miracleman, Astro City and Cullen Bunn

Highlights from this week’s Comixology sales include just about all the Black Panther material, What If, Marvel Max selections including The Punisher and Miracleman, Captain Britain, Astro City and Cullen Bunn’s Dark Horse work.

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

T’Challa Gets Cheap

The Marvel Black Panther Sale runs through Sunday, 8/8.

The Don McGregor material is now in “print” and on sale. It’s also a little goofy to follow, the way it’s arranged. The Epic Collections and Masterworks are not all on the same page outside the sale, so let’s give you the (cheap) cheat sheet.

You can pick up the Jungle Action run for four bucks less in the Black Panther Masterworks V. 1. That McGregor with Billy Graham, Rich Buckler and Gil Kane. While there’s nothing wrong with the Kirby run, which is the next volume for both the Masterworks and Epic Collections, we’d probably have you skip ahead to the Panther’s Prey Epic Collection. This one collects McGregor’s return to the character with the much more grounded Marvel Comics Presents serial drawn by Gene Colan and the Panther’s Prey mini-series (prestige format, back in the day) painted by Dwayne Turner.

You can then proceed to Black Panther by Christoper Priest: The Complete Collection, the Marvel Knight era series that’s truly excellent and builds directly on that original Jungle Action run.

If Not, Why Not?

The Marvel What If Sale runs through Thursday, 8/12.

Gosh, it’s like there’s a new TV show coming out or something…

Anyway, here’s the deal – there’s no significant price difference between the larger “Complete Collection” versions and the What If Classic volumes. 2 Classics = 1 volume of Complete. Since it’s an anthology, we’re going to list some notable issues of the original series and let you figure out what you’re most interested in and which format to go for. Some of these are going to sound awfully darn familiar, too. What If seems like a gold mine for pitching your editor!

#1 – What If Spider-Man Joined the Fantastic Four?
#2 – What If The Hulk Had the Brain of Bruce Banner?
#10 – What If Jane Foster Had Found the Hammer of Thor?
#12 – What If Rick Jones Had Become The Hulk?
#13 – What If Conan the Barbarian Walked the Earth Today?
#23 – What If The Hulk Had Become a Barbarian?
#30 – What If Spider-Man’s Clone Had Lived?
#35 – What If Elektra Had Lived?
#37 – What If The Beast and The Thing Continued to Mutate?
#43 – What If Conan Were Stranded in the 20th Century?

Gosh, we’re sure NOBODY ever picked up those topics a decade or four later…

Marvel For the Mature

The Marvel Max Sale runs through Thursday, 8/12. This would be Marvel’s mature reader line.

The flagship title here is probably The Punisher: The Complete Collection, which is Garth Ennis returning to write non-satirical tales of Frank Castle with artists like Darick Robertson, Leandro Fernandez, Doug Braithwaite and Goran Parlov. (The Ennis run goes through V. 4.)

And yes, tucked in amongst a pretty eclectic set of comics is Miracleman. Don’t let the credits fool you, this is Alan Moore’s run, along with Garry Leach, Alan Davis, Rick Veitch and John Totleben (among others). A man remembers his magic word and transforms into a superhero, only to start unravelling the conspiracy that created it him, which was certainly not magical. A landmark tale that’s lost some of its place in history because of the lawsuits and being buried for so long.

UK Officer Material

The Marvel Captain Britain Sale runs through Sunday, 8/8.

And a strange tale this is. The best Captain Britain is still the Alan Moore/Alan Davis serial through Alan Davis’ solo run on the Captain Britain magazine. There’s a sampler collection here, but not the full run. As such, we’re going to have to fall back to Excalibur.What you want here are the Alan Davis issues, we like it a bit better when he returned to writing and drawing the series, but the initial run with Chris Claremont is also quite good. The Epic Editions are the best buys, but you need to finish up the second run with the Visionary editions.

Astro City Returns to Image

The Image Astro City Sale runs through Tuesday, 8/17.

As you may recall, Astro City said farewell to DC awhile back and the title disappeared from digital. It’s now gone full circle. Astro City started out at the Homage imprint under Wildstorm at Image and moved over to DC when Jim Lee sold Wildstorm to them. Astro City is back at Image and the whole lot is on sale. Amazingly, Kurt Busiek, Brent Anderson and Alex Ross have been in this one for the long haul and we look forward to new material soon-ish.

While Astro City is written such than you can drop in just about anywhere in the run (with the exception of The Dark Ages spanning 2 volumes), we’d still recommend starting at the beginning a letting the scope of the worldbuilding grow as you read along. Astro City is the perfect antidote for when your favorite DC or Marvel title gets into a rut. It’s everything that’s good about the super hero format.

Horse on a Bunn

The Dark Horse Cullen Bunn Sale runs through Monday, 8/9.

Prolific dark fantasy/horror writer Cullen Bunn’s major Dark Horse work is Harrow County. This Tyler Crook (yes, we were talking about his Petrograd last week) drawn series about witches and demons with a long and contentious history is starting to be available in multiple formats. As of right now, the cheapest method of consumption would be to grab the Omnibus Editions. V. 1 is half off and V.2 is the same price as getting the 2 Library Editions it collects on sale (which is still cheaper than getting the regular collected editions).

Still on Sale:

The DC Suicide Squad Sale runs through Monday, 8/9
The Oni Graphic Novel Sale runs through Monday 8/9

Posted on August 5, 2021August 5, 2021 by comics_p1pusl

Comixology Sales: Archie Vs. Predator! Deadpool! Spawn! and DC’s Crisis of Events on Sale!

This week’s Comixology Sales include Deadpool, DC’s Events over the years, Spawn and Dark Horse put the Aliens and Predator lines on sale ahead of Marvel’s versions.

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

Crisis on Infinite Sales

The DC Event & Mini Series Sale runs through Monday (12/14). It’s a little heavier on Events. For a somewhat recent title, Event Leviathan has made its to the discount zone. The Brian Bendis/Alex Maleev tale of a mysterious criminal conspiracy moving on DC’s spy organizations in preparation for a takeover was supposed to have a sequel, Event Leviathan: Checkmate that hasn’t been rescheduled yet.

DC’s best event in recent(ish) memory is probably Multiversity. Grant Morrison went about exploring the multiverse with Frank Quitely and a posse of A-list artists in tow. Not that the multiverse might suddenly be relevant at DC again or anything… This is a nice thick 450 page package, too.

Going back a hair further to the Before New 52 Times, Sinestro Corps War is probably the pinnacle of the celebrated Geoff Johns era on Green Lantern. This first GL event kept it tightly in the family with just Green Lantern, Green Lantern Corps and an Event special.

The Merc with the Discount

The Deadpool Vs. The Marvel Universe Sale (Amazon link) runs through Sunday (11/13). The first thing you’re thinking when you read that sale name is probably Deadpool Kills the Marvel Universe by Cullen Bunn and Dalibor Talajic. And you’d be right to think that. It’s the first thing listed on sale. There are several volumes of Cullen Bunn’s various Deadpool titles, as it happens.

The sale is made up of several of the “side” series Deadpool has had over the years… and that’s a fairly long list. For a couple alternate ideas, Deadpool Vs. X-Force is written by Duane Swierczynski with some relatively early Marvel art by Pepe Larraz, who’s certainly on the A-list today.

And if you’d like a bit of high concept snark, Deadpool’s Art of War by Peter David and Scott Koblish has the Merc with the Mouth in a get rich quick scheme involving translating Sun Tzü’ venerable tome and… things don’t go quite as planned.

Lots of Marvel still on sale in the bottom section.

Spawn

Image lines up with a Spawn sale (Amazon link) through Thursday, 12/17. This is one very long series. The 20 volumes of Spawn Origins takes you through #122, then the titled volumes pick up a bit later in the series. Spawn#312 shipped a couple weeks ago, so Spawn has outlasted Cerebus.

Aliens and Predators on the Way Out the Door

Running until 12/31, Dark Horse has an Aliens Predator Sale (Amazon link). Since Marvel already has their first Aliens comic scheduled, its possible some of this material is going to be out of circulation for awhile. If you want bang for your buck, go with the Aliens Omnibus and Predator Omnibus lines. If you want something different… Archie vs. Predator by Alex de Campi and Fernando Ruiz. Yes, that’s real.