Comixology Sales: Spider-Man, Marvel Max / Punisher, She-Hulk, Silver Surfer, DC’s Joshua Williamson, Spawn and DH’s Matt Kindt

This week’s Comixology Sales includes a bunch of Marvel titles as they break out the Marvel Max line for a rare appearance, plus Sabretooth, She-Hulk and the world of Dan Slott. Speaking of creator spotlights, DC shines one on Joshua Williamson, Dark Horse on Matt Kindt and Spawn has always been a Todd McFarlane spotlight.

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X-Villain

The Marvel Sabretooth sale runs through Sunday, 1/9. (Amazon link)

Victor Creed, the Wolverine villain who Marvel’s never quite turned into a leading man/anti-hero.

You can go back to the beginning in Iron Fist Masterworks V. 2. Yes, Sabretooth is a Chris Claremont/John Byrne creation and started out in Iron Fist’s sphere. (Later teaming with the Constrictor in Power Man and Iron Fist.)

If you think of Sabretooth as an X-Men villain, Mutant Massacre is likely a major touchpoint for you. That would be the Claremont/John Romita, Jr. era, plus crossovers.

If you think of him as a Wolverine villain… well, there’s plenty there, but we’ve also had a soft spot for the lower key Greg Rucka run. Sabretooth shows up at the end of that sequence when Darrick Robertson was on art duties.

Spiders and Surfboards and Avengers, oh my

The Marvel Dan Slott Sale runs through Sunday, 1/9.

And yes, Slott has spent a fair amount of time at Marvel, so this sale covers some territory.

His most famous work has probably been Superior Spider-Man with art by Humberto Ramos and Ryan Stegman. This is the saga of when Doc Ock inhabited Peter Parker’s body. The two omnibus editions are the best deal here.

Slott’s most critically acclaimed work might be his Silver Surfer run with Mike Allred. Ah, mid-aught Marvel, OF COURSE there was a relaunch and despite the numbering, the collections are listed with series 1 and series 2. (Oh, Marvel…)

For something a little more off the beaten path, we always enjoyed Slott’s Mighty Avengers run, now conveniently collected in one volume. Back when Bendis was doing his New Avengers run, this was the only thing that felt like a traditional Avengers title for some time.

Hulking Out

The Marvel She-Hulk Sale runs through Thursday, 1/13. (Amazon link)

You have a few different directions in the She-Hulk cannon. The ones that seem to get revisited the most are She-Hulk as broad farce, like the Sensational She-Hulk run of John Byrne and lawyer She-Hulk, such as the Charles Soule/Javier Pulido run.

Not For Kids

The Marvel Max sale runs through Thursday, 1/20. (Amazon link)

Yes, this the Marvel imprint for ages 17+ that’s a little darker, more violent and not on sale quite as often.

The flagship here is probably Punisher. Particularly the first 4 “Complete Collection” volumes that pair Garth Ennis with Leandro Fernandez, Goran Parlov and Doug Braithwaite. This isn’t the comedy of “Welcome Back, Frank.” This is a quite serious and brutal sequence. It’s also a very good one… just not for kids.

Speaking of Welcome Back, Frank, it’s been moved over to Marvel Max. For those who haven’t heard of it, this is an Ennis/Steve Dillon/Jimmy Palmiotti Punisher series that takes a very idiosyncratic direction – Frank is still a very angry, death dealing man… but he’s thrust into the middle of an absurdist farce as he tries to bring down the Gnucci crime family. It’s utterly hilarious and something multiple directors have unsuccessfully tried to translate the screen. Influential and impossible to replicate.

There’s a lot more to the sale, but our off-the-radar pick is Dominic Fortune, Howard Chaykin’s pulp homage that also includes the character’s original appearances.

The Flash and Beyond

The DC Spotlight: Joshua Williamson Sale runs through Monday, 1/10. (Amazon link)

This is one of the smallest DC sales we’ve seen – only 20 items. Williamson’s profile at DC has been raised in recent months and outside of $1.99 Robin single issues, that’s not really reflected in the sale. What is here is the first six volumes of his popular Flash run where Carmine Di Giandomenico is the headlining artist.

Now, if you want to fly under the radar, there are a couple Vertigo volumes here pairing Williamson with artists we tend to associate with Image… and if you’re a .cheap regular, you know we mention his Image work fairly often.

Frostbite with art by Jason Shawn Alexander concerns a post-apocalyptical wasteland of a future where a plague is freezing people from the inside out.

Deathbed with Riley Rossmo finds a reporter sent to investigate the deathbed confessions of a 90-year old man who was once a famous adventure and who resurfaced after a 20-year disappearance. Could something unnatural be behind all this? Surely not.

Capes and Chains

The Image Spawn Sale runs through Thursday 1/20. (Amazon link)

Did you know Spawn has more issues out than Cerebus? It’s true!

Your best buy here is Spawn Compendium Vol. 1. That’s the first 50 issues and that comes out to roughly $0.48/issue. That’s the original run with Todd McFarlane doing full art, guest writers Alan Moore, Dave Sim, Frank Miller, Neil Gaiman and Grant Morrison. Early Greg Capullo art and some Tony Daniels , too.

The off-beat book here is Sam and Twitch, where a young Brian Bendis teams with Angel Medina, Alberto Ponticelli, Clayton Crain and Alex Maleev for some quirky horror detective stories about Spawn’s police acquaintances. It’s not always remembered, but it certainly helped launch some careers.

Underwater Minds

The Dark Horse Matt Kindt sale runs through Monday, 1/10.

Kindt’s most celebrated work at Dark Horse is definitely Mind MGMT. It’s a bit of a genre mashup about conspiracies and psychic espionage. Kindt writes AND draws it. One man gang, as it were. The omnibus editions are the best deal here.

If you’re looking for something similar to Mind MGMT, we’d point you towards Dept. H, wherein an investigator is sent to an underwater base to investigate sabotage and there are much stranger things going on than meets the eye.

Posted on January 6, 2022January 7, 2022 by comics_p1pusl

Comixology Sales: Lots of Avengers, Nick Fury, Scott Pilgrim and Valiant “Fierce Females”

Highlights from this week’s Comixology sales include Marvel breaking out a deep slab of Avengers and Nick Fury, Scott Pilgrim’s omnibuses get discounts and Valiant unleashes Secret Weapons.

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

All Avengers, All the Time

The awkwardly named “Marvel Avengers Earth’s Mightiest Sale” runs through Thursday, 4/8. There’s a lot of quality material on sale, but it can be a little hard to parse because of how poorly Marvel manages it’s backlist. You can browse the main sale page or follow the links to the individual series and scroll down to the Collected Edition sections. But if in a collected edition, it’s most in there. Hickman and Aaron runs, too.

The original ’63 – ’96 Avengers series is broken up into the Masterworks editions (chronological), the Epic editions (seemingly random chunks) and a few stray mostly one-off collections. The Epic editions are your best value, particularly the $7.99 ones. Eventually, the Epic editions should be a continuous run, but Marvel isn’t there yet. We particularly like the Englehart era “The Avengers Defenders War,” “The Final Threat” is primarily Gerry Conway/Jim Shooter era with George Perez and John Byrne as primary artists collecting the Private War of Doctor Doom and Bride of Ultron arcs AND the Jim Starlin Thanos showdown. “Under Siege” and “Judgement Day” will get you most of the delightful Roger Stern/John Buscema/Tom Palmer run, which is one of the best.

Avengers Assemble is what you want from the ’98-’04 run. This is the Kurt Busiek era (with a few side series with folks like Roger Stern and Roy Thomas popping in as writers). George Perez is the initial art and it ends with a rotation of artists. This is also one of the best periods of the franchise. Vol. 1-5 will keep you out of trouble for awhile.

One you might not be familiar with that we liked back in the day was The Mighty Avengers by Dan Slott – The Complete Collection. It wasn’t particularly long lived, but Slott’s run was the rare Avengers book with a classic Avengers feel during the Bendis era.

Cloak & Dagger & Eyepatch

The Marvel Nick Fury Sale runs through Sunday, 4/4.

Frankly, we’ve read and enjoyed most of the things on sale here. First a heads up on something that’s on sale, but we’re not seeing the collected editions list on the sale page: Nick Fury, Agent of SHIELD Masterworks Vol. 1, Vol. 2 and Vol. 3. Vol. 1 starts the Strange Tales run, Vol. 2 is where Steranko turns up and starts the Nick Fury, Agent of SHIELD solo series. Vol. 3 collects the rest of Nick Fury, Agent of SHIELD, so more Steranko, a bit of Archie Goodwin and early Barry Windsor-Smith.

One thing that most people appeared to sleep on was Nick Fury: Deep-Cover Capers by James Robinson and ACO from ’17. This is simply an extremely fun book. 007 spy hijinx beautifully illustrated in a slightly modernized pop art style. We were hoping for a sequel. Our personal favorite Nick Fury, Jr. tale.

The plot of SHIELD being infiltrated and compromised has been done a few too many times. That said, Nick Fury vs. SHIELD did it the best and sparked the late 80s/early 90s Nick Fury revival. Bob Harras and Paul Neary sent Fury on the run, framed for treason and trying to work out exactly what’s happened to his agency.

Scott Pilgrim’s Precious Little Sale

The Oni Scott Pilgrim Sale runs through Thursday, 4/15.

Oni’s conveniently collected the iconic Bryan Lee O’Malley series an omnibus. The choice is between the original black & white or the colorized edition.

Maternal Mayhem

The Valiant Fierce Female Sale runs through Thursday, 4/8.

We enjoyed War Mother, a future dystopian science fiction tale by Fred Van Lente, Stephen Segovia and Tomás Giorello.

Secret Weapons by Academy Award nominee Eric Heisserer, Raúl Allén and Patricia Martin is in the conversation for the best comic Valiant has published. Psiots are essentially the Valiant equivalent of mutants. Livewire, a technopath psiot, discovers that the recently deposed big bad of the universe had been “activating” psiots and unbeknownst to the world at large, was discarding the kids whose powers weren’t useful as weapons. As Livewire’s trying to track them down, something else is trying to consume them. A little bit of X-Men, a little bit of Legion of Substitute Heroes (but not as goofy).

Still on Sale

The DC Explore the Multiverse Sale runs through Monday, 4/5. It’s broken into two sections – A-L and M-Z.
The Robert Kirkman / Invincible Sale runs through Tuesday, 5/4.

Posted on April 2, 2021 by comics_p1pusl

Comixology Sales: Spider-Man, Vision & The Scarlet Witch, DC’s Rebirth and Fantagraphics Goes Linewide

The Comixology sales this week include Marvel slashing prices on Dan Slott’s lengthy run on Spider-Man, The Vision & the Scarlet Witch as their show drops, DC revisits Rebirth, Dark Horse has Neil Gaiman at a discount and Fantagraphics has their digital catalog on sale.

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

Spidey Gets Slotted Ahead of WandaVision

Running through Sunday (1/17) is the Spider-Man by Dan Slott Sale. This is not the easiest sale to navigate because Marvel has relaunched Spidey several times and during the “Brand New Day” era, weren’t even sequentially numbering all the collected editions. Seriously, it’s a mess. The rule of thumb is it’s easier to read the omnibus editions, which tend to be slightly better deals anyway.

We’d tell you to start at the beginning with the Spider-Man: Brand New Day omnibuses. For context, this starts back when Marvel decided to publish Amazing Spider-Man three times each month and cancel the secondary titles, so you’ve got a rotating cast of creators including Slott, Mark Waid, Joe Kelly and Zeb Wells (among others) as writers and the likes of John Romita, Jr., Barry Kitson, Phil Jimenez, and Marcos Martin (among a wide cast) as artists. It’s a fun era and Slott eventually ends up helming Spidey. It also ends with a certain Doctor Octopus storyline that sets up what might be Slott’s pinnacle: Superior Spider-Man. That’s the run where Doc Ock takes over Peter’s body. It sure sounded strange when first announced, but Slott made it work very well.

If those two runs didn’t keep you busy, they’re followed by The Amazing Spider-Man by Dan Slott and Spider-Man: Worldwide. Yes, Slott wrote a lot of Spidey AND Marvel can’t help themselves when it comes to relaunches. Those last two series are really separate because the monthly relaunched.

Probably because there’s a TV show debuting, Marvel also has a Vision & The Scarlet Witch Sale running through Thursday (1/21).

If you want the actual couple, the Steve Englehart/Richard Howell Vision & The Scarlet Witch: A Year in the Life, which sets up a lot of mythology, include the birth of their children.

If you’d like to see where the suburban setting reared it’s head, there’s the superb Tom King/Gabriel Walta Vision series, which is paced a lot like a horror tale as The Vision experiments with having a wife and children. (What could go wrong? Plenty.)

DC Gets Born Again (and again)

DC has their Rebirth Sale running through Monday (1/18), which is to say a big chunk of the titles from the previous relaunch.

We’re firm in the pick of the litter being Deathstroke. (You’ll also need The Lazarus Contract, which crossed over with Titans.) At first glance, that’s an unlikely pick, but Priest and a rotating cast of artists including Carlo Pagulayan, Denys Cowan, Joe Bennett and Larry Hama. Yes, it’s a comic about an assassin, but Deathstroke has intricate plotting, emotional depth and one of the best treatments of Damian Wayne.

After that, we’d direct you to Greg Rucka’s return to Wonder Woman conveniently collected as Volume 1 and Volume 2. With Liam Sharp, Nicola Scott and Bilquis Evely sharing art duties, this is where Rucka resets Wonder Woman after the New 52 era and has Wonder Woman and The Cheetah searching for the truth behind what’s happened to Paradise Island and Diana’s past.

Dark Horse Gets The Bends

The Dark Horse Mind Benders Sale runs through Monday (1/18) and is dominated by two titles.

American Gods is the Neil Gaiman/P. Craig Russell/Scott Hampton adaption of the the novel of the same name. Yes, that IS an interesting creative cast and yes, we’ve been to the House on the Rock — it’s real.

Mind MGMT is Matt Kindt’s psychic espionage tale that got quite a bit of critical acclaim back in ’12-’15. The omnibuses are the best deal for Mind MGMT.

The Fantagraphics Linewide Sale runs through Thursday (1/28). Fantagraphics doesn’t do sales quite this wide vary often, so it’s well worth giving this an extended browse. There’s everything from EC to imports to classic comic strips. Here are a few highlights:

Remember Harold & The Purple Crayon? Before switching to children’s books, Crockett Johnson wrote Barnaby, a delightful strip about a boy, his talking dog and his fairy godfather. Even Dorothy Parker was a big fan.

You could make a case for calling Love & Rockets by Gilbert and Jaime Hernendez the flagship title of Fantagraphics and few comics have been been as critically acclaimed over the years.

And if you really want to go classic, there’s the Carl Barks Library. Barks set the gold standard for Disney ducks (and arguably for all Disney comics) with his Donald Duck work and especially Uncle Scrooge McDuck.

Posted on January 15, 2021 by comics_p1pusl

Comics.Cheap

The Best of Comixology Sales and Cheap Digital Comics