Tag: Hellboy

Comixology (at Amazon) Sales: DC’s $1.99 Mania Pt IV – Mister Miracle to World’s Finest

In this week’s Comixology (at Amazon) sales, part 4 of our look at DC’s $1.99 Mania – Mister Miracle through World’s Finest in the $1.99 catalog. Plus, a Dark Horse line-wide sale.

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):

Administrative Notes

Ho, ho ho – the holiday sales march on. This is the fourth holiday sale installment. The DC sale is running through 12/30. The Marvel sales are all running through 1/6.

  • Installment one of the holiday columns covered what’s new in this year’s Marvel Epic Collection Sale and the current DC titles in the $1.99 sale
  • Installment two covered 1st Issue Special through Fables of the DC $1.99 sale, Marvel’s Star Wars Omnibus Sale, Best of ’24 Sale and What If? Sale
  • Installment three covered Far Sector through Marshal Law of the DC $1.99 sale.

DC $1.99 Mania Continued (Part IV)

Mister Miracle  New Gods by Jack Kirby  Night Force

The DC Holiday All eBooks Sale runs through 12/30.

We’re still rolling through DC’s very nearly line-wide sale. Not everything from September to the beginning of time is $1.99, but the vast majority of collected editions seem to be. You should probably have your own scroll through it, but we’re looking at it alphabetically and calling out interesting books based on readability, value/larger page count and if it’s infrequently discounted.

  • Mister Miracle by Jack Kirby – Jack Kirby; Kirby’s Fourth World series about a son of New Genesis who was raised on Apokalypse and became the greatest escape artist across all those worlds
  • Mister Miracle by Steve Englehart and Steve Gerber – Steve Englehart/Marshall Rogers and Steve Gerber / Michael Golden / Russ Heath; This book requires a little explanation. This is the late ’70s revival of the series. Englehart & Rogers (of the famous Batman/Detective run) don’t quite gel, but it’s a high floor. Gerber starts exploring the nature of godhood after that and it gets extremely interesting before getting caught in the DC Implosion and cancelled. You need to see Heath inking Golden for yourself. It’s a treat and you’ll end up angry this wonderful experiment was cancelled. Seldom discounted and usually a little overpriced… but not this week
  • Mister Miracle (’17-’19) – Tom King / Mitch Gerads; The Eisner winning series where Scott Free tries to escape death itself
  • The Multiversity – Grant Morrison / Frank Quitely / Ivan Reis; A tale that hops across parallel Earths as Morrison goes wild with world-building. 450 pages
  • New Gods by Jack Kirby – Jack Kirby; The original tale of Darkseid and Peak Kirby. Highly recommended
  • New Gods by Gerry Conway – Gerry Conway / Don Newton / George Perez; The ’77-’78 revival (and material moved over to Adventure Comics), plus the JLA/JSA/New Gods crossover (w/ Perez) that cemented Darkseid as a DCU big bad, not just off in the Fourth World corner of the room; Another volume that’s usually a little more expensive, even on sale
  • New Gods (’89 – ’91) – Mark Evanier / Paris Cullins / Rick Hoberg
  • New Teen Titans (’80-’88) – Marv Wolfman / George Perez; One of the titles that saved DC in the early ’80s and a classic of the era. Really due for the omnibus treatment, too
  • The Newsboy Legion – Joe Simon & Jack Kirby; One of the Simon & Kirby kid gangs (along with The Boy Commandos), the Newsboy Legion were watched over by a superhero called The Guardian. Kirby would return to them… with some twists… in his ’70s Jimmy Olsen run; Another title usually subject to abnormally high HC pricing
  • Night Force (’82-83) – Marv Wolfman / Gene Colan; The Tomb of Dracula team reunites at DC for a horror book about a mansion that contains a portal through space and time and its mysterious owner. Marv told us this is his favorite of his work and we happily recommend it

Orion  Plastic Man  Sandman Mystery Theater

  • OMAC : One Man Army Corps by Jack Kirby – Jack Kirby; Kirby’s adventure-satire about a corporate dystopian future has aged well and has more bite than you might expect
  • Orion – Walt Simonson; Yes, that’s Walt doing New Gods / the son of Darkseid with an approach not so different to his Thor. Excellent book that never seemed to get a push and fell under the radar. Highly recommended
  • Planetary – Warren Ellis / John Cassaday; The full series in two 400+ page volumes
  • Plastic Man: Rubber Banded – Kyle Baker; Baker’s full 20 issue run is hilarious. We’d say there’s two people to have done Plas that came anywhere near the spirit of Jack Cole. Baker is one of them (Hilary Barta is the other). This one is usually at a bizarre price for a digital book, due to the fancy HC edition. Currently $2.99
  • Preacher – Garth Ennis / Steve Dillon; God has gone missing and Jesse Custer would like to have a word with him. Double volumes
  • Promethea – Alan Moore / J.H. Williams III; A beautifully illustrated fantasy/occult adventure with an extra side of philosophy. Double volumes. Recommended
  • Richard Dragon: Kung Fu Fighter – Denny O’Neil / Ric Estrada; The full 70s series at a good price for the completist in your life
  • Robin – In the 90s, there were three miniseries of Tim Drake as Robin that led into the ongoing title, so of course they’re not all listed on the same page
  • Sandman Mystery Theater – Matt Wagner / Steven T. Seagle / Guy Davis; The adventures of Wesley Dodds as the Golden Age Sandman, replete with gas mask and gun, ably assisted by Dian Belmont. This excellent title had a 70 issue run under the old Vertigo label and the first 24 issues are available across two volumes. If you like ’30s pulp detectives, this will be your jam
  • Scalped – Jason Aaron / R. M. Guera; This neo-noir about an undercover FBI agent infiltrating the casino at the reservation he grew up on and thought he’d escaped was Jason Aaron’s breakthrough series. Double volumes
  • Secret Six – Gail Simone’s cult series about a crew of villains that flirt with the straight and narrow. We’d put it at or near the top of her catalog.
    • Secret Six V.1 – Gail Simone / Dale Eaglesham / Brad Walker; Villains United, which this spun off from, and the original mini-series
    • Secret Six V.2-4 – Gail Simone / Nicola Scott / Jim Calafiore; Double volumes of the ongoing series
  • Seven Soldiers of Victory – Grant Morrison / J.H Williams III / Simone Bianchi / Frazier Irving; Morrison crafts a story across a series of mini-series, including Zatanna and his reinvention of Frankenstein
  • Sheriff of Babylon – Tom King / Mitch Gerads; An political thriller as an ex-cop contracted to train Iraq’s new police force looks into the murder of one of his recruits and finds a maze of conflicting agendas and duplicity. The full series in one volume

Superman: Phantom Zone  Jimmy Olsen  World's Finest

  • Superman: Birthright – Mark Waid / Leinil Francis Yu; An expanded origin tale that spends a little more time than most on the period between Smallville and Metropolis.
  • Superman’s Pal, Jimmy Olsen by Jack Kirby – Jack Kirby; A fourth world entrant, this is effectively Kirby’s Superman book. Also where Project Cadmus and the DNAliens come from. Don’t shun it because it’s ’70s Jimmy Olsen. It’s Kirby doing adventure
  • Superman’s Pal Jimmy Olsen: Who Killed Jimmy Olsen? – Matt Fraction / Steve Lieber; A comedy masterpiece. Jimmy wakes up hung over and freshly married in Gorilla City… and that’s before he has to figure out who’s trying to ice him. Tour de force
  • Superman: Phantom Zone – Steve Gerber / Gene Colan / Rick Veitch; A Superman tale that veers into horror as a Phantom Zone escapee causes Superman to look a little deeper into the Zone’s origins. Also includes the DC Comics Presents sequel.
  • Superman: The Man of Steel – John Byrne / Marv Wolfman / Jerry Ordway; The Byrne era of Superman in 450+ page chunks for $1.99
  • Saga of the Swamp Thing – (initially) Alan Moore / Stephen Bissette / John Totleben, with some Stan Woch and Rick Veitch; This volume starts out not quite two years into the series (see next listing) with Alan Moore’s arrival to spark an absolutely legendary run.
  • Swamp Thing (’72 – ’76) – Len Wein / Bernie Wrightson; The “Bronze Age” collections on this link are three distinct things. V.1 is the original Wein/Wrightson run, which completely lives up to its reputation. V. 2 is the remainder of the original run, with David Michelinie and Nestor Redondo being the longest serving creative team, plus some extra’s like Swamp Thing’s guest star run in Challengers of the Unknown. V.3 is really the pre-Alan Moore issues of Saga of the Swamp Thing from 1982. Martin Pasko writes, artists include Tom Yeates, with Stephen Bissette and John Totleben arriving a couple issue prior to Moore.
  • Transmetropolitan – Warren Ellis / Darick Robertson; The 23rd century adventures of Hunter S. Thompson-esque journalist Spider Jerusalem as he feuds with corrupt presidents.
  • Watchmen – Alan Moore / Dave Gibbons – We assume you don’t need this one explained to you
  • Wonder Woman (Golden Age) – William Moulton Marston & H.G. Peter; It’s hard to understate how wild, over-the-top and bondage-driven these original tales are. It reads differently to an adult audience.
  • Wonder Woman (’87 – ’06) – We’re  big fans of the George Perez and Greg Rucka runs. Walt Simonson & Jerry Ordway, too. This is the post-Crisis reset, and for a lot of people this is where Wonder Woman begins. NOTE – to get the V.5 and V.6 of the Perez run, you need to go to this page. (Hey, don’t look at us, we didn’t put it there.)
  • Wonder Woman (’11-’16) – Brian Azzarello / Cliff Chiang; The first six volumes are the Azarello/Chiang run. Some feel it’s sacrilegious to the character (Azzarello being less than reverent? That’s his brand!), but regardless of that aspect, it’s a highly entertaining adventure as Wonder Woman discovers… let’s call it a possible new origin. A high point of the New 52 initiative.
  • Wonder Woman (’16) – Greg Rucka returns in a refutation of the Azzarello run that’s GREAT. Nicola Scott and Liam Sharp alternate issues (and plot threads). Get in two volumes. Wonder Woman: The Rebirth – Book 1 and Wonder Woman: The Rebirth – Book 2
  • World’s Finest (’22-current) – Mark Waid / Dan Mora; We’re still leaning towards calling the series about the early team-ups of Batman & Superman DC’s best current series.

Unannounced Sales

Hellboy  Martha Washington  Minor Threats

It appears that Dark Horse has most of their collected editions on sale, but not the newest material and not the single issues.  Here’s a link that will *eventually* get you through their catalog in a very laborious way and with the single issues mixed in. (It’s not perfect, but we’re trying.)

Here are some direct links to various series:

Under the radar alert: you don’t hear about this much anymore, but     The Life and Times of Martha Washington in the Twenty-First Century is a Frank Miller / Dave Gibbons collaboration with a different tone than Miller’s commonly associated these days. It’s a lot closer to Halo Jones than it is to Sin City or the later Dark Knight volumes.

The Marvel “Maybe” Sales

Spider-Man: Shadow of the Green Goblin  Darth Vader  Vengeance of the Moon Knight

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

Dropping Next Week

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Comixology (at Amazon) Sales: The Joker and Harley Quinn; Venom; X-23 (Wolverine); Marvel 2099; Dark Horse Horror

In this week’s Comixology (at Amazon) sales, things move into the Halloween season. DC discounts The Joker and Harley Quinn. Marvel slashes prices on Venom, X-23 (Wolverine) and the 2099 line. Dark Horse even has a horror sale.

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):

52 Pick-Up

The Joker: 80 Years of the Clown Prince of Crime  Joker War Saga  Harley Quinn

The DC Joker and Harley Quinn Sale runs through Monday, 10/14.

Villains running wild! You’d think there was a movie coming out or something?

Let’s break this down by character, since Harley has her own life these days.

Joker

Harley Quinn

  • Harleen – Stjepan Sejic; Black Label reimagining of Harley’s origin
  • Harley Quinn ’00-’04 – Karl Kesel / Rachael & Terry Dodson
  • Harley Quinn ’13-’16 – Jimmy Palmiotti / Amanda Connor / Chad Hardin / John Timms
  • Harley Quinn ’16-’20 – Jimmy Palmiotti / Amanda Connor / Chad Hardin / John Timms (Is there a difference between this and the ’13 series? Nope. It’s all one run with a company wide relaunch in the middle.)
  • Harley Quinn ’21 – present – Stephanie Phillips / Riley Rossmo

What’s good here? We’d say get The Joker: 80 Years of the Clown Prince of Crime for O’Neil/Adams, Englehart/Rogers, The Killing Joke and Mad Love (still the best Harley Quinn tale). There are some classics in that book.

If your ideal Joker is the Heath Ledger version, Joker by Azzarello & Bermejo is your huckleberry.

For Harley, see Mad Love above and we’ve always had a soft spot for the absurdist, almost Looney Tunes take of Connor/Palmiotti/Hardin/Timms.

Spider-Juice

Venom by Remender   Venom by Cates   Venom

The Marvel Venom Sale runs through Monday, 11/4.

This is a fairly scattered sale, with multiple formats and a lot of random early miniseries floating around. Browse for a better accounting of the listings.

For the early stuff, the better values are the somewhat scattered Epic Collections.

The early (mostly) Spider-Man appearances can be found in Venom Epic Collection: Symbiosis. That’s largely the David Michelinie / Todd McFarlane / Erik Larsen material.  That’s followed by Venom Epic Collection: Lethal Protector which has a few more villainous appearances and the original Lethal Protector mini. And then Venom Epic Collection: Carnage Unleashed continues the 90s appearances.

Eventually Venom gets his own series:

  • Venom  (2003-4) – The Daniel Way era
  • Venom  (2011-3) – Rick Remender/Tony Moore, then Cullen Bunn/Declan Shalvey
  • Venom (2016-8) – Mike Costa / Tradd Moore / Mark Bagley
  • Venom (2018-21) – Donny Cates / Ryan Stegman
  • Venom (2021-present) – Al Ewing / Ram V / Bryan Hitch

Let’s talk about the last 12 years or so. The ’11-’13 series is more interesting than you might think. That’s when Flash Thompson has the symbiote and uses it (among other things) to replace the legs his lost in the war. There are some interesting pathos floating around, particularly in the Remender/Moore run.

The Cates/Stegman run is probably the most famous right now. That’s where Venom gets Cosmic and leads into the King In Black Event.

The current Ewing / V / Hitch run, Ewing is wrapping up and Ram V has moved on,  but it’s something else. Al Ewing drives the Cosmic elements, which are the most interesting part. Eddie Brock is dead. But he isn’t. He’s separated from his body and he’s bouncing around in time as his son becomes Venom in the present. It’s a much, much stranger take on Venom than most others and really dives into the King in Black mythos and timeline.

So yes, between Cates and Ewing, Venom has been a Cosmic book for some time.

The _Other_ Clone Saga

All-New Wolverine    X-23

The Marvel X-23 Sale runs through Monday, 10/7.

Laura Kinney is X-23. She’s also the clone daughter of Wolverine. Eventually, she’ll take up the mantle of Wolverine, but this sequence starts earlier than that. This can all be grouped into three titles to simplify your browsing.

  • NYX: The Complete Collection – Joe Quesada / Josh Middleton. Marjorie Liu / Kalman Andrasofszky; X-23 debuted here
  • X-23: The Complete Collection – These two volumes contain everything through the 2010 series.
  • New X-Men – The “Childhood’s End” Complete collection gets you issues #16-32; then skip ahead to V.4 & 5 to actually complete the run.
  • X-Force ’08-’12 – Craig Kyle / Christopher Yost / Clayton Crain
  • All-New Wolverine – Tom Taylor / David Lopez; Juann Cabal; Laura picks up the Wolverine mantle while Logan is “dead.”
  • X-23 (2018-19) – Mariko Tamaki / Juann Cabal / Diego Olortegui

We absolutely love All-New Wolverine. Tom Taylor runs the gamut of story types from goofy to action to borderline horror/thriller and does a ton of character development. Recommended.

76 Years Away

Spider-Man 2099   Doom 2099   X-Men 2099

The Marvel 2099 Sale runs through Monday, 10/7.

Yes, 2099 was a line for Marvel in ’90s. Spider-Man  2099 was the flagship and longest lasting of the bunch. Peter David wrote it and Rick Leonardi is the artist most associated with it. Mind you, Spidey 2099 has had scrolling revivals over the years including (and currently discounted):

What else was in the line (that’s been collected and is on sale?)

  • Doom 2099 – This collection is the Warren Ellis run with Pat Broderick and Steve Pugh as the main illustrators
  • X-Men 2099 – The beginning arc with John Francis Moore and Ron Lim
  • Deadpool 2099 – What? You don’t remember this? Ha ha! Marvel is slipping in a collection of a few Gerry Duggan / Scott Koblish issues from the ’15 run of Deadpool!
  • Marvel Knights 2099 – Robert Kirkman / Steve Epting
  • Timestorm 2009 – 2099 – Brian Reed / Eric Battle; 2009 crossover between “regular” Spidey, Wolverine and the 2009 universe
  • Secret Wars 2099 – Peter David / Will Sliney; Yes, Secret Wars had a tie-in for just about everything!

No Ravage 2099 / Punisher 2099 / Ghost Rider 2099 collections to be seen, if you were wondering.

The Marvel “Maybe” Sales

Deadpool & Wolverine: World War III  Ultimate Black Panther The Spectacular Spider-Men

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

Dropping This Week

Pre-Order for Next Week

Something in Parabellum?
Deadworld   The Realm    Jazz Age Chronicles

The Caliber Comics Library 50% off Fall Sale runs through Thursday, 10/31.

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

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

Unannounced Sales

Grendel Omnibus  Hellboy  These Savage Shores

We have an unannounced Dark Horse on horror, or possibly Halloween. Here are a few things we noticed:

Also with discounts:

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Comixology (at Amazon) Sales: A Week of Unannounced Sales and the Marvel Mystery Pricing

In this week’s Comixology (at Amazon) sales, DC has a Juneteenth sale and anything else new is unannounced… including the mystery of what’s going on with Marvel’s digital prices and whether they still have sales?

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):

Buckle up for an unusual round-up. Amazon only posted one new sale and we had to do some serious scrounging… but it seems the deal page is not the end-all, be-all of listings this week.

The Sole *Announced* New Sale of the Week

Far Sector  Black Lightning  Hardware

The DC Juneteenth Sale runs through Monday, 6/24.

If we were going to pick one book out of this sale, it’s Far Sector by N.K. Jemisin and Jamal Campbell. A rookie Green Lantern is sent to a remote world on the far side of the universe where violence is unheard of… and encounters the first murder in anyone’s memory. You’ll be hard pressed to find better world building and Jemisin really nails her debut.

Also notable:

  • The Other History of the DC Universe – John Ridley / Giuseppe Camuncoli
  • The DC Universe by Dwayne McDuffie – If you don’t like McDuffie, there’s much we can’t help you with.
  • Black Lightning (’77-’78) – Initially, Tony Isabella / Trevor Von Eeden; $3.99 may be the lowest we’ve seen these priced. V.2 is the follow-on features in Detective and World’s Finest.
  • Hardware: The Man in the Machine – Dwayne McDuffie / Denys Cowan; The classic original Milestone arc, which is pretty darn accurate in it’s depiction of IP and non-competes. Tech workers, feel seen.
  • Icon – Dwayne McDuffie / Mark Bright; Milestone’s original analog to Superman
  • Static – Dwayne McDuffie / Robert L. Washington / John Paul Leon; Long before the Static Shock cartoon…

Possible Unannounced Marvel Sales
Avengers, Inc.  New X-Men Predator versus Wolverine

We aren’t 100% sure what to make of this. As you may have noticed, there have been no new Marvel sales on the Deals page for two weeks. We did find a smattering of collections that appear to be discounted. Not quite the sort of discounts you’re used to seeing from Marvel and and a fairly random set, so maybe it’s an unannounced sale and maybe it’s not. We’ll leave that for you to decide.

The first one, we’re pretty sure it’s an unannounced sale and you might want to jump fast if you haven’t read it: New X-Men Modern Era Epic Collection: E Is For Extinction – As in 365 pages of Grant Morrison’s X-Men run with a pre-order price of $6.99? (Art by Frank Quitely / Leinil Francis Yu)  We aren’t sure how long that price is sticking around!

Past that… we see a few prices that are lower than we might normally expect and some just plain weird price points.

  • Avengers, Inc. – Al Ewing / Leonard Kirk; The Wasp solves crimes out of uniform. Her sidekick? Someone has possessed the body of Whirlwind and she’s not quite sure who he really is. One of our favorite Marvel releases in recent months. We’re seeing the very odd price of $8.79 as we type this.
  • Daredevil: Black Armor– D.G. Chichester / Netho Diaz; Revisiting the time where horn head had that alternate costume. We’d put this as taking place shortly after Fall From Grace. We’re seeing $6.99 as we type this.
  • Ghost Rider V. 4: Rite of Passage – Ben Percy / Carlos Nieto; We’re seeing $6.99 as we type this.
  • Predator vs. Wolverine – Ben Percy / Ken Lashley / Andrea Di Vito; You’re groaning at the concept, but this was actually a very enjoyable miniseries. Yes, we were surprised, too, but there you are. We’re seeing the genuinely odd price point of $6.49 as we type this.
  • She-Hulk by Rainbow Rowell Vol. 4 – Rainbow Rowell / Jessica Gao; We’re seeing the oddest price yet, $7.19, as we’re typing this.
  • Star Wars: Dark Droids – Charles Soule / Leinil Francis Yu / Luke Ross We’re seeing $8.99 as we type this.
  •  Ultimate Invasion – Jonathan Hickman / Bryan Hitch; The setup for the new Ultimate Universe. We’re seeing $8.99 as we type this.
  • Uncanny Avengers: The Resistance  – Gerry Duggan / Javier Garron; We’re seeing $7.99 as we type this.
  • Wolverine Vol. 7 – Ben Percy / Juan Jose Ryp; We’re seeing $6.99 as we type this
  • Wolverine Vol. 8 – Ben Percy / Victor LaVelle / Geoff Shaw; We’re seeing $6.99 as we type this

We’re not completely sure what to make of the above. At minimum, there’s some noticeable variation in the Marvel digital pricing. Are they experimenting with an $8.99 / $6.99 new release price or are those sales? Unclear. Not everything starts at $8.99 and here’s the thing: you can change the digital list price just as easily as you can issue a digital sale price. We’ll have to see how all this develops. That X-Men Epic Collection, though? That’s a sale price, no matter how anybody wants to spin it.

Everything in the price box says “price set by the seller,” so we are forced to assume these odd price variations (and lack of deals page entries) are from Marvel and by design, as opposed to Amazon-initiated.

Unannounced Hellboy and Youneek Sales at Dark Horse

Hellboy and the BPRD  E.X.O.

Hellboy and the B.P.R.D. goes back to tell Hellboy’s early adventures with the Bureau of Paranormal Research and Defense, starting in the 1950s. (Remember, Hellboy first appeared on Earth in 1944.) Which is to say, more Hellboy adventures. These are available in

And then from Youneek Studios:

Unannounced Manga & Misc. Sales

Barnaby  Yozakura Quartet

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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 Frogs, wherein 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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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 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. 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 Demon. This 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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Comixology (at Amazon) Sales: More Halloween Discounts – Image, IDW and Dark Horse

In this week’s Comixology (at Amazon) sales, we have a look at the rest of the Halloween sales: Image, IDW and Dark Horse.

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):

Image Says Boo!

The Image Horror Sale runs through Monday, 10/31.

Oh, yes. Image does horror. Some would say they’ve stepped in and grabbed a few things what would have been in Vertigo, if the imprint was still around.

The current Image horror title we’re getting the biggest kick out of is Killadelphia by Rodney Barnes and Jason Shawn Alexander. There’s vampire activity in Philly. Not only are the vampires ambitious, they have some very unusual leadership. An estranged father and son look to head them off at the pass, which would be easier if the father hadn’t already been murdered. This is a pretty wild series with historical references and a few savage one-liners.  Highly recommended.

Fatale was the series that brought Ed Brubaker and Sean Phillips to Image and was a key book in Image’s resurgence ~10 years ago. This one’s a horror/crime mashup. A reporter stumbles upon a woman who’s been on the run since 1935 and doesn’t seem to have aged a day. She’s pursued by a gangster who might not be human. And it wouldn’t be a noir if our femme fatale wasn’t leaving a trail of dead admirers in her wake across the decades. Also highly recommended.

And for something a little more obscure, twenty-seven by Charles Soule and Renzo Podestá is an old favorite and early Soule. The high concept here? The reason all those famous musicians die at 27 after blowing up big.  Could there be something unnatural going on?  Surely not during a Halloween sale…

There’s quite a bit more in this sale.

Killadelphia   27

IDW Says Boo!

The IDW Horror Sale runs through Monday, 10/31.

30 Days of Night is the OG horror book at IDW. Steve Niles and Ben Templesmith present the original tale of vampires taking over a remote town in Alaska when the sun sets for a full month straight. There are sequels (and movies), but it starts here for $0.99.

Locke & Key by Joe Hill and Gabriel Rodriguez is the more recent hit, this one having been streaming on Netflix. Reeling from their father’s murder, a family returns to a mysterious mansion in New England as the children discover magical keys that open doorways and grant the user strange abilities. The keys have something to do with their father’s death and something would like the keys back.

And for something a little  more off the beaten path, there’s Frankenstein Alive, Alive by Steve Niles and Bernie Wrightson (with Kelly Jones drawing the final chapter) because Bernie Wrightson for Halloween.

30 Days of Night  Locke and Key  Frankenstein Alive, Alive

Dark Horse Says Boo!

The Dark Horse Horror Sale runs through Monday, 10/31.

A little under 1800 items in this one, so when browsing, remember to right click if you want to examine book details, so you spawn a new window and don’t lose your place.

Which is to say, yes – Dark Horse does a lot of horror comics.

The face of Dark Horse horror is probably the Mignolaverse. The center of which is the (excellent) Hellboy (best buy here being the omnibus version).

Sometimes overlooked, but very much a central storyline to the Hellboy world is B.P.R.D. (Bureau of Paranormal Defense and Research), which is the adventures of Hellboy’s team in very, very long story arcs, co-written by Mike Mignola and (mostly) John Arcudi with Guy Davis as the primary artist through Hell on Earth, this is the order of the arc. Each arc is a set of omnibuses for that story. We weren’t joking about long arcs.

While not part of Hellboy proper, the 2-volume Baltimore omnibuses by Mignola/Christopher Golden/ Ben Stenback/Peter Bergting are also a lot of fun. It concerns a world that suffers a vampire plague at the end of WWI and of the British soldier who accidentally unleashes the plague seeking revenge on the vampires.

Hellboy   BPRD - Plague of Frogs   Baltimore Omnibus 1

If you want classic, old school horror, there are three good options that spring to mind:

Tales From the Crypt  Creepy  Eerie

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Comixology (at Amazon) Sales: DC’s Summer Sale (Batman and friends); Image Touts the Eisner Nods (Dept. of Truth); Dark Horse Has Everything on Sale (Everything)

In this week’s Comixology (at Amazon) sales, DC’s attempting to make summer sizzle, Image is touting its Eisner nods and Dark Horse… has everything on sale.

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):

Interestingly, there are no new Marvel sales this week. Check the Still On Sale section for the links to the Thor / GoG / “July” sales which we also looked at in more detail last week.

For those keeping score at home, and we know a lot of you are, the 4th of July was a Marvel BOGO week last year.  We are long overdue for one and the evidence is starting to point to those having gone away when the Comixology site did.  We continue to hope, but until we see the next one…

And By Sizzle, They Mean the Weather

The DC Summer Sizzle eBook Sale runs through Monday, 7/11.

A similar 1K book graphic novel drop to what we’ve been seeing here recently. There’s a smattering of $4.99 titles, but you’re mostly going to find a floor of $5.99 here. Nothing particularly recent on sale here, but with 1000 books, there are always some highlights. Some things that we’ve enjoyed in the past.

Ex Machina originally came out under the Wildstorm banner (will it be rebranded as Black Label or will Vertigo stick around as a legacy label?), Ex Machina is what happens when a world’s first superhero attempts to retire from superheroics and is elected mayor of NYC. Of course… superhero retirements rarely go as planned. Politics against a background of costumes and power… and vice versa, too. It’s a good one and a bit earlier to the “super mayor” party.  Written by a pre-Saga Brian K. Vaughan and drawn by Tony Harris, with a bit of Chris Sprouse and Jon Paul Leon.  It’s a very solid series.

Superman: Red Son is possibly Mark Millar’s best reviewed work.  With art by Dave Johnson and Killian Plunkett (we’re going to go ahead and say – we need more Dave Johnson interior art in life), this is an Elseworlds tale of Kal-El’s rocket landing in the Soviet Union, instead of Kansas, and Superman being raised as Stalin’s weapon.

James Tynion IV recently wrapped up a Batman run, but we honestly preferred his “Batman Family” flavored run from Detective Comics a few years earlier. Eddy Barrows and Alvaro Martinez Beuno are the lead artists and the Tynion run is V. 1-7.

Ex Machina   Superman: Red Son   Detective Comics by Tynion

Awards Season

The Image Eisners Sale runs through Monday, 7/25.

Which is to say, running until Comic-Con. And there are some interesting things here.

We’re fans of Department of Truth, the X-Files-ish horror/conspiracy theory about imagination and beliefs made real by James Tynion IV (that guy again) and  Martin Simmonds. We would like to specifically point out that V.1 is down to $3.99, so the first collection for the price of a single issue.  Also some $0.99 single issues, should you prefer that format… and single issues will be cheaper that $6.99 for 6 issues in a collected edition.

With that in mind, here’s a list of the titles being offered in $0.99 single issues.  Monstress has a $3.99 V. 1, otherwise you need to compare price vs. # of issues in the collection:

Department of Truth

And They Mean Everything.

The Dark Horse Everything 2022 Sale runs through Monday, 7/25.

If it’s not the full catalog, it would seem to be awfully close.

For a lot of folks, Dark Horse starts with Hellboy. (At least in the absence of Aliens and Boris the Bear.) They’re a little pricier than some things, but since they’re basically 4-in-1 volumes, we like the Omnibus editions as a starting point here. And if you browse there is plenty more of the Hellboy universe available. It’s a classic for a reason.

Speaking of classics, there’s also Nexus, Mike Baron’s and (mostly) Steve Rude’s science fiction series with superhero trappings of a man imbued with fusion power by a sinister alien who enlists him as an assassin. Nexus is haunted by dreams of mass murderers and the only way to make them stop is to kill the murders. Also something of a cold war satire around the edges. We’ve gone through the omnibus edition in the last ~3 years and had a good time of it.

Carla Speed McNeil’s Finder has always been one of those “if you know, you know” books. Under the indie radar for a loooooong time, it’s sprawling, world building science fiction series centered around Jaeger, who’s both a sin-eater and a Finder: a sort of tracker/bounty hunter with mysterious abilities related travel, healing and locating things.  You aren’t going to find very many comics with such well-developed alien cultures as Finder, either.  Steve Leiber put us onto this long before Dark Horse acquired the rights and if you can’t trust Steve Leiber, who can you trust?  Those two Finder Library omnibus volumes are over 600 pages each. Bang for your buck!

Bonus cheap: you can find volumes of Groo by Sergio Aragones & Mark Evanier  for as low as $2.99. Not a dumb price for such a dumb barbarian.

If you’re looking for $0.99 single issues, there are a bunch and you can work your way through them starting here.

Honestly, while Amazon makes browsing painful, there’s a lot of worthwhile material here if you have the time to flip through.

Hellboy: The Complete Short Stories   Nexus   Finder

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Comixology (at Amazon) Sales: Moon Knight and a Deep Dive into Dark Horse Horror

This week in Comixology (at Amazon) sales, we try to explain Moon Knight comics to the uninitiated – it’s complicated – and then we take a deep dive into that big Dark Horse horror sale that Amazon has no idea how to display with any semblance of organization!

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

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):

By the Light of Moon

Marvel’s Moon Knight sale runs through Sunday, 5/1.

First things first, you need to understand that Moon Knight is sort of Marvel’s version of Hawkman, in terms of there being wildly varying takes on the character. Having seen the first episode of the TV show… that sort of looked like yet another take on the character and we’re not sure if any of the comics will really reflect that version… we’ll know more after a couple episodes.

So, Moon Knight starts out in Werewolf by Night, has some guest appearances, a solo run as backup in Hulk magazine (non-code and its bloody for the time period) and starts his own solo comic.  The team most associated with the original Moon Knight is Doug Moench and Bill Sienkiewicz. (Moench and Don Perlin being co-creators back in Werewolf by Night.) In the beginning, Moon Knight was considered Marvel’s Batman. More accurately (that fan-driven tagline lacks nuance), Moon Knight was drawing from Batman’s pulp magazine influences. One of those influences was The Shadow, a proto-superhero of sorts who adopted multiple identities to further his goals… including assuming the identity of a millionaire.

In the beginning, much like the Shadow, ex-mercenary Marc Spector adopted the identity of Steven Grant, millionaire (much like The Shadow’s Lamont Cranston) and Jake Lockley, cab driver. There was no disassociated identity disorder in the beginning. The identities were tools and perhaps there was a bit of drama with method actors having trouble getting out of character.  (It’s also worth noting Denny O’Neil was the editor on the Moon Knight solo series and had written The Shadow at DC a few years earlier.) There was occasionally a supernatural element lurking in the background, but there was a certain degree of plausible deniability about what was happening and to what extent spooky things were really magical.

The original run is in the Epic Collections. In typical Amazon fashion, they screwed up the listings, so let’s fix that:

V. 1, “Bad Moon Rising,” is all the original guest appearances, the Hulk Magazine appearances and the first 4 issues of the ongoing series.

V.2 -3 contain the rest of the original run. Now – fair warning. Moench eventually leaves for DC to write Batman after issue #33 and the series ends with 38. It’s not same without him.

  Moon Knight Epic Collection

And after Marvel must have realized they were having trouble replacing Moench, they decided to tweak the character with the next series, Moon Knight: Fist of Khonshu, which… does not appear to have been reprinted. Possibly because we don’t personally know anyone who liked it. But it played up the mystical elements and Marc Spector’s resurrections.

There were a few attempts to continue the series. Nothing really took and the West Coast Avengers appearances could be the most notable for the middle section of Moon Knight’s history. Much of this solo period isn’t reprinted.

And things got to the point where Brian Bendis and Alex Maleev did a 12 part series where Moon Knight is delusional and so mentally ill as to be barely functional. If you’ve never read the character before, it’s a fairly entertaining comic. We interpreted it as frequently playing for laughs. If you liked the Moench character… oof. And this series pretty much broke the character and Marvel’s been trying to “fix” him ever since.

Seems like every series since has been attempting to establish a new status quo for the character, picking up pieces from the previous incarnation.

If you want something close to the TV show (and again, we’re working with only having seen the first episode here), we think your best bet might be the excellent Jeff Lemire / Greg Smallwood series where Marc Spector is confronting his many identities and his… unusual relationship with the Egyptian deity, Khonshu.

Moon Knight

And actually, we’re enjoying the current Moon Knight series by Jed Mackay and Alessandro Cappuccio, which finds Specter alternately billing himself as Mr. Knight and Moon Knight, going to therapy, operating a “Night Mission” to fulfill his obligations as a priest of Khonshu (albeit something of a renegade priest) while mixing it up with vampires, a rival priest and a madman initiating a conspiracy against him. We’re six issues in and it’s one of the better takes on the character in a while.

Moon Knight

Horror <> Hodor

The Dark Horse Horror Sale runs though Monday, 4/4.

This is one of those very large sales that the Amazon UIX is ill-equipped to handle, in terms of easy browsing, so we’ll flip through it so you don’t have to.

  • The Hellboy Omnibus series at $6.99 a pop is a helluva good deal (pun intended). Mike Mignola’s iconic horror adventure series is a classic and you should already be aware of it.
  • The E.C. Archives are also (mostly) $6.99 each. An all-star lineup of talent that inspired the comics code! For the unfamiliar, these were most famous as prestige horror comics in the early 1950s, as well as the beginning of Mad. There’s some well known war material, too. Harvey Kurtzman, Wally Wood, Al Williamson, Jack Davis, Al Feldstein… even a little Ray Bradbury, if memory serves.
  • Witchfinder Omnibus (both of them) – another Mignola verse historical horror series, with John Arcudi, Chris Robeson and Ben Stenbeck, among others.
  • Falconspeare – A recent (January ’22) Mike Mignola / Warwick Johnson-Caldwell Victorian murder mystery… about the disappearance of a vampire hunter. New enough we haven’t had a chance to read it yet.
  • Baltimore Omnibus – In a world where the vampires ran wild at the end of WWI, Lord Baltimore pursues a vendetta against them.  We read the set a few months back and enjoyed it. Mignola/Christopher Golden writing, Ben Stenbeck leads the art roster.
  • Creepy Archives – The ’60s/’70s horror magazine from Warren.
  • Eerie Archives – Also from the old Warren files, Creepy’s companion magazine
  • Grendel Omnibus – The collected Grendel, going back to the ’80s by Matt Wagner and friends. Hmmm… is there a TV show coming?
  • Grendel: Devil’s Odyssey – Matt Wagner’s latest Grendel series, released in January, ’22.
  • B.P.R.D is NOT centrally listed, so we’ll put it all under this heading. These are the adventures of Hellboy’s colleagues at the BPRD and it’s one long saga. It’s also really good. We revisited it a couple years back and it holds up. You _do_ need to read it in this order, though:
  • Abe Sapien Omnibuses – They actually have done quite a bit of Abe solo material.
  • The Seeds – An excellent science fiction tale by Ann Nocenti and David Aja that mashes up themes of eco-disaster, alien invasions and forbidden love.
  • Harrow County Omnibus – The long running Cullen Bunn / Tyler Crook backwoods witchcraft series.
  • Beasts of Burden – The neighborhood dogs (and a cat) battle the forces of darkness. Critically acclaimed series by Even Dorkin, Jill Thompson and Benjamin Dewey.
  • Lobster Johnson – We do love The Lobster, Mignola’s homage to ’30s pulp heroes with a rotating cast of co-creators. This is an odd series of mini-series, that run from silly to horror to thriller. The omnibus will finally come out… next week in HC, so these are “regular” collections.
  • Kabuki Omnibus – A nearly forgotten buzz book of the 90s by David Mack, as an assassin in Japan reassess her lot in life amidst conspiracies. Is the Sony TV adaption still happening? We haven’t heard anything about that lately.  An influential comic.
  • She Could  Fly– Before Marvel snagged him, Christopher Cantwell was working on this super powered series from Dark Horse with Martin Marazzo. We’ve been meaning to give it a look and have heard good things.

If you want to just browse the collected editions, your least bad option (Amazon doesn’t give you a good, sorted option) might be to sort the price from high to low.  The 99-cent issues will then start on page 38 (or did for us).

There’s a LOT more in there, but those were the highlights we noticed. In general, the omnibus editions are, by far, your best bang for the buck.

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Comixology Sales: Wolverine, Joker, Avengers, My Hero Academia, Hellboy

This week’s Comixology sales include Marvel throwing the mutant gate open for Wolverine and Excalibur, plus New Avengers. DC puts the spotlight on The Joker. Dark Horse drops a discount on Hellboy and Viz has a My Hero Academia sale.

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The Best at What He Does

The Marvel Wolverine Legacy Sale runs through Sunday, 11/14.

We’re not entire sure when Logan became “Legacy” Wolverine, instead of just “Wolverine,” but this is a sale on the original material.  Some highlights:

Here’s the original ’88-’03 series. Yes, it’s probably best known for the Larry Hama/Marc Silvestri run, but we’d draw your attention to the “Basic to Basics” Epic Collection, which has a nice arc by Archie Goodwin & John Byrne AND includes Wolverine: The Jungle Adventure by Walt Simonson & Mike Mignola.

From the reboot that followed, we’ll offer two more recommendations:  Wolverine by Greg Rucka is a low-key, ditch the costume, anti-hero run by Rucka, Leandro Fernandez and Darick Robertson that doesn’t get talked about as much.  Wolverine: Enemy of the State is much better known. Mark Millar and John Romita, Jr. drag Logan through the wringer with a brainwashing by The Hand and Hydra, it also features the debut of Gorgon. The polar opposite of the Rucka run, this is the high octane action movie version.

Wolverine: Back to Basics   Wolverine by Greg Rucka   Wolverine: Enemy of the State

I’ve Got To See a Man About a Sword

The Marvel Excalibur Sale runs through Sunday, 11/7.

We’ve said it before, but when it comes to Excalibur (and Captain Britain, for that matter), you want to look for the stories where Alan Davis is involved – artist or writer, it doesn’t matter. He’s there for the best.  If you pop over to  the original series, the Epic Collections of The Sword is Drawn and The Cross-Time Caper cover the Chris Claremont/Alan Davis collaboration. Skip ahead to Curiouser and Curiouser to start the Alan Davis writer/artist run and then finish that run with V. of Excalibur Visionaries: Alan Davis.  All that Davis goodness will keep you out of trouble.

Excalibur

Bendis Assemble

The Marvel New Avengers Sale runs through Sunday, 11/7.

Brian Bendis revamped Avengers as New Avengers as stayed on it longer than some people realize. Nearly 100 issues worth across two volumes of the title… and that’s before the specials, aligned miniseries and so forth.  That’s a pretty long run. As you might expect, lots of artists passed through the run. Steve McNiven and David Finch early on. Frank Cho, Mike Deodato, Jr.,  Leinil Francis Yu – all sorts of A-listers.

The simplest way to read this is with New Avengers by Brian Michael Bendis: The Complete Collection, which pulls in some of the spin-off material, specials and minis.  Otherwise, it can all get a little complicated to keep track of.

New Avengers by Bendis

The Joke’s on You

The DC The Joker’s Greatest Joke’s Sale runs through Monday, 11/8.

And no, The Joker doesn’t appear to be in EVERY comic that’s on sale here. We don’t get it, either.  But what we will tell you is if you want a single volume Joker anthology, The Joker: 80 Years of the Clown Prince of Crime – Deluxe Edition is a bit under 1/2 the price of the 75 year collection at the top of the sale and has ~40 more pages. And Mad Love is included!  Listed at 441 pages, this is a good bang for your buck.

For something recent, there’s The Joker War Saga. This would be the James Tynion IV Batman saga, but with the tie-in issues included.  Alas, the discount is based on HC pricing, but that’s how it goes with DC’s system.

And for something  a little more off-beat, there’s Superman: Emperor Joker by Joe Kelly, Jeph Loeb, Doug Mahnke and Ed McGuinness.  This is essentially House of M, five years BEFORE House of M. Superman awakens trapped in Arkham Asylum as the Joker has somehow gained the ability to remake the world in his own image and rule over it as Emperor. It’s a slapstick world of dark humor and Superman has to figure out how it has happened before he can do much about it.  An odd and influential story arc we’ve always liked.

The Joker: 80 Years of the Clown Prince of Crime   Joker War Saga   Superman: Emperor Joker

Go Straight to Hellboy

The Dark Horse Hellboy Sale runs through Monday, 11/8.

The centerpiece of the Mignola-verse and occasional film franchise, the core of Hellboy is collected in 2 places: The Hellboy Omnibus collections and Hellboy: The Complete Short Stories. (scroll down to the Omnibus section for both)

There’s plenty of material filling in around the edges, but you should read the core first. It’s great fun.

Hellboy   Hellboy: The Complete Short Stories

School for Super Heroes

The  Viz My Hero Academia sales runs through Sunday, 11/7.

This Kohei Horikoshi manga is the tale of a high school for superheroes in a world where 80% of the population manifests super powers.  Yes, it’s one of the those weak Viz 29% discounts, but if you want to get a look at one of the most popular comics out there (it really performs outside the Direct Market), it’s on sale right now.

My Hero Academia

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Still on Sale

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Comixology Sales: Dawn of X, Neil Gaiman’s Sandman, Jim Starlin’s Dreadstar

This week’s Comixology sales include: Dawn of X from Marvel, DC loosing The Sandman (and Sandman Mystery Theater), Horror from Dark Horse and Omnibus editions from Dynamite.

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

Mutated Reading

The Marvel Dawn of X Sale runs through Thursday, 8/26.

Dawn of X is a different type of Marvel collected edition. This collects the titles of the Hickman X-Men line into a book format, but bounces between the various series in a manner similar to how one would read the issues as they came out. We’ve always felt that reading the  entire line was an additive experience and this is probably the best way to experience that in the collected edition format.  The 16 volumes of Dawn of X take you right up to the edge of X of Swords.

Dawn of X

The Stuff Dreams Are Made Of

The DC Spotlight: Sandman and the Sandman Universe Sales runs through Monday, 8/23.

We’re assuming you’re already heard of the  Neil Gaiman Sandman series. (Note: sub-50% discounts again)

So let’s talk a bit about the very loosely connect pulp spin-off Sandman Mystery Theater. It’s a pulp detective feature with a bit of subtext that’s primarily written by Matt Wagner and/or Steven T. Seagal. Guy Davis is the primary artist. It’s a lost classic from the ’90s as the Golden Age Sandman, replete with gas mask and gas gun stalks his prey.  This one DOES get you 50% off the collected editions (which will get you through issue#24) and 99-cent single issue.

Sandman   Sandman Mystery Theater

The Long, Hot… Halloween?

The Dark Horse Hot August Horror sale runs through Monday, 8/23.

Yes, we did hear it got a little warm in Portland.

You can’t have a Dark Horse Horror sale without the Mignolaverse. Rise of the Black Flame by Mike Mignola, Chris Roberson and Christopher Mitten is the tale of the Hellboy villain when the power was controlled by a cult.

In a different direction, there’s John Allison’s (Bad Machinery, Giant Days) Steeple.

And you ever notice that Steve Niles has done quite a bit of Criminal Macabre?

Rise of the Black Flame   Steeple   Criminal Macabre

Another One Rides the (Omni)Bus

The  Dynamite Omnibus Sale runs through Monday, 9/13.

We would draw your attention to two things here.

First, we’ve said it before and we’ll say it again, Jim Starlin’s Dreadstar is fantastic. It didn’t get quite as much attention when it came out from Epic and First, but it’s a large part of what he was working on between his first run at Marvel and when he returned for the run-up to Infinity Gauntlet.

Jeff Parker and Doc Shaner did an under the radar – and extremely fun – take on Flash Gordon a few years back that’s worth a look.

Dreadstar   Flash Gordon

Still on Sale

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