Tag: Image

Comixology Sales – Jeff Lemire’s Sweet Tooth and Gideon Falls; Batwoman; 50% off Oni and Humanoids for CU Subscribers

This week’s Comixology sales highlights: Jeff Lemire gets TWO sales as Sweet Tooth hits Netflix, DC has a Pride sale and Comixology Unlimited subscribers get 50% off at Oni _and_ Humanoids.

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

Sweet Tooth

The DC Spotlight Jeff Lemire and Sweet Tooth Sale runs through Monday, 6/7.

You may have noticed that Lemire’s Sweet Tooth is starting up on Netflix.  The omnibus editions are better buy by a smidge.

Our favorite Lemire DC work was always Trillium. Just a single volume here with a tale of star-crossed lovers in different timelines and an expertly crafted parallel narrative structure.

Sweet Tooth   Trillium

Another Mr. Lemire

The Image Jeff Lemire Sale runs through Sunday, 6/13.

Is it a coincidence that Image also has a Jeff Lemire sale as Sweet Tooth makes it’s streaming debut?  We don’t think so, but that’s OK – we often prefer Image Lemire to DC Lemire.

Perhaps start with Descender by Lemire and Dustin Nguyen. It’s a space opera involving a little boy robot searching for his family… and a robot uprising.  Great stuff.

Gideon Falls recently wrapped up and all but the final volume are on sale. This one with Andrea Sorrentino is an extra creepy horror tale involving missing persons, a phantom barn and time hopping.

Descender   Gideon Falls

DC Pride

The DC Pride Month sale runs through Wednesday, 6/30.

We loves the Greg Rucka / J. H. Williams III Batwoman run. LOVES, we say.

That was followed by a W. Haden Blackman / J.H. Williams III Batwoman series that we liked… although DC editorial absolutely gutted the ending of the arc. It’s a good ride and then a forced ending.

Good discounts on the Batwoman material, too. 60% and up.

Exit Stage Left: The Snagglepuss Chronicles by Mark Russell and Steve Pugh styles Snagglepuss as a gay playwright in 1953 NYC as the House Un-American Activities Committee rears its ugly head. Worth it for the Dorothy Parker sequence alone!

All kinds of Hellblazer, too.

Batwoman    Batwoman    Snagglepuss

50% off Oni

Yes, the 50% off sales for Comixology Unlimited subscribers are back in force.  This runs through 11PM ET on Monday, 6/7. First up, it’s half-off for the Oni line.  There’s a lot more here than just Scott Pilgrim.  Our favorites are the dark fantasy/horror western The Sixth Gun by Cullen Bunn and Brian Hurtt and the espionage saga Queen & Country, which is written by Greg Rucka and switches out artists every time.

Since the discount stacks, that means CU subscribers can see 75% discounts with the Oni Pride Sale.

The Sixth Gun  Queen & Country

50% off Humanoids

Also running through 11PM ET on Monday, 6/7 – Comixology Unlimited subscribers get half-off at Humanoids.  PLENTY to browse here.  We really liked the autobiographical tale of working in Afghanistan: Kabul Disco by Nicolas Wild.

Geoff Johns fans might be interested in Olympus, written by Johns and Kris Grimminger with art by Butch Guice. (First volume is a mere $0.50 -CHEAP.)  So yes, we mean there’s plenty to browse here and more variety than Humanoids sometimes gets credit for.

Also, for more stupid cheap stacked discounts, check out the Humanoids Fantasy Supernatural Sale and the Humanoids Big Sale.

Kabul Disco    Olympus

Still On Sale

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Comixology Sales: Batman, Magneto, Secret Wars and a Small Press Round Up

Highlights of this week’s Comixology Sales include Magneto and Secret Wars from Marvel, a Batman “spotlight” from DC and a Small Press Round Up.

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

Polarizing

The Marvel Magneto Sale runs through Sunday, 5/23.

For a good value, check out the X-Men Epic Collections (scroll down to collected editions or just look at the main sale link).  High page counts = low cost per issue.

If you want something off the beaten path, Cullen Bunn and Gabriel Hernandez Walta (pre-Vision) did an interesting and dark Magneto series in ’14-’15.

X-Men Epic Collection: The Sentinels Live   Magneto

But Is It REALLY a Secret?

The  Marvel Secret Wars sale runs through Thursday, 5/27.

This is the Secret Wars that’s the endcap to the Jonathan Hickman Avengers run (and to an extent, his Fantastic Four run as well). When the timestream collapses… well, that would be telling, wouldn’t it?

The main Secret Wars mini-series by Hickman and Esad Ribic is where you want to start with this and you can move on to the myriad of tie-in titles included in the sale if a character’s side-story catches your eye.

Secret Wars

I Shall Become… A Bat

DC’s Batman Spotlight Sale runs through Monday, 5/24.

Keep an eye on the discounts here. Plenty of books are only 40-46% off, which not Cheap.  More are 50%, which is so-so for DC.  A couple things at a better discount?

Batman: Death Mask by Yoshinori Natsume is a manga edition that’s 60% off.

Batman: Tales of the Demon is a collection of Ra’s al Ghul stories. The originals, plus a sequence from ’78-’80. Denny O’Neil is the scribe with Neal Adams and Don Newton dominating the art. This one is 74% off, though it’s starting from higher list price.

Batman Death Mask   Batman: Tales of the Demon

Indie Madness

The Small Press Starter Sale runs through Thursday, 5/27.

These are the first volumes of series put out by smaller publishers.  Highlights?

We do like AHOY Comics here at the Tower of Cheap. The Wrong Earth by Tom Peyer, Jamal Igle and Juan Castro is one of their best.  Think Adam West Batman and Dark Knight Batman switching places and being bewildered by each other’s world.

Watson & Holmes: A Study in Black by Karl Bollers, Rick Leonardi and Larry Stroman is a reimaging of Sherlock Holmes in contemporary Harlem. It’s also very good.

Going a little further off the beaten path, we hadn’t heard of the Shame series by Lovern Kindzierski and John Bolton. John Bolton remains a very underappreciated artist.

The Wrong Earth   Watson and Holmes   Shame

Still on Sale

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Comixology Sales: 50% off Dark Horse, plus House of M, Squadron Supreme and Image Science Fiction

Highlights from this week’s Comixology sales include a line-wide 50% off Dark Horse for CU subscribers, Squadron Supreme and House of M from Marvel and a big batch of “Sci-Fi” titles from Image.

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

50% off All Dark Horse

The parade of Comixology Unlimited half-off sales continues.  In the latest installment, all Dark Horse comics are 50% off through 11PM ET on Monday, 5/10 if you’re a Comixology Unlimited subscriber.

This includes new releases and pre-orders, so do yourself a favor. Go to the release date view and click forward to pre-order on the cheap.

And this discounts stacks on the “regular” sales, which means the current Stranger Things sale is extremely cheap! Especially the 50-cent single issues.

Stranger Things

The Pastiche Evolved

The Marvel Squadron Supreme Sale runs through Sunday, 5/9.

Yes, what started out as a pastiche of DC’s Justice League grew into something a little bigger Marvel, as these things have a way of doing.

The centerpiece here is the Mark Gruenwald / Bob Hall / Paul Ryan Squadron Supreme series that’s still the bar by which this franchise is judged.

For a more old school version, the Squadron appears in their traditional sinister mode in Avengers: Serpent Crown by Steve Englehart and George Perez.

Squadron Supreme   Avengers: Serpent Crown

Not WandaVision, but…

The  House of M Sale runs through Thursday, 5/13.

For those unfamiliar, this is the series where the Scarlet Witch snaps and rewrites reality to bring her children back into existence. It isn’t exactly the comics version of WandaVision, but it was surely an influence on it.  Also, “no more mutants.” As a comic, it may have broken more things at Marvel than it fixed, but you can’t deny it’s influential.

The way to go here is to start with the actual Brian Bendis / Olivier Coipel series and then go back for the supplemental titles if you want more.

House of M

She Blinded Me With Science Fiction

The Image Sci-Fi Sale runs through Wednesday, 5/26.

Lots of good stuff on sale here and it’s worth flipping through when you have a chance. Some highlights?

Saga: Compendium One is the first 54 issues for $23.99. That’s a bit under 45 cents/issue. That’s CHEAP.  We assume you haven’t been living under a rock and know what this Brian K. Vaughan/Fiona Staples masterwork is.  We keep hearing whispers that its return is imminent. Hopefully we hear something a little more concrete soon.

Farmhand is written and drawn by Chew’s Rob Guillory. If you like Chew, you’ll probably like Farmhand. Agriculture and pharma intersect as Jeddidiah Jenkins grows replacement organs on his farm. Harvest one and drop it into a patient – it’s plug and play. Except there’s a rot sinking to the organs and something lurking in the shadows.

That Jonathan Hickman guy who’s running the X-Men right now? He’s done a few things at Image.  One of them is The Manhattan Projects with Nick Pitarra. It’s a sort of alternate history where the Manhattan Project brain trust is working on mad science experiments far beyond the atomic bomb, taking them to space and other, stranger, destinations.  Sometimes silly and sometimes dark. It’s a good one.

Saga   Farmhand   The Manhattan Projects

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Comixology Sales – Massive May the Fourth Be With You Star Wars Sale, Avengers, She-Hulk, Greg Rucka and Mike Mignola

This week in Comixology sales, Marvel has CRAZY deals on Star Wars for May the Fourth Be With You. Up to 96% off kind of crazy. Plus Avengers vs. X-Men, She-Hulk, Image selections from Greg Rucka and Dark Horse selections from Mike Mignola & Christopher Golden.

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

May the Fourth Be With You

The Star Wars Day Sale runs through Thursday, 5/6.

Go to that page and look it up and down. You’ve got the “Legends” material, most of which originated at Dark Horse. You’ve got the current Marvel era. You’ve got the IDW “Adventures” line.  We’ve gone on at length about how much we like Gillen and Soule on Darth Vader, but this is Comics.Cheap and when it comes to cheap, that “Legends” section at the top of the page is in some rarified air.  Volume 1’s for $0.99 and subsequent volumes for $1.99.  Including omnibuses editions. It’s enough to make Uncle Scrooge cry!

Some highlights:

  • The original Marvel Star Wars series is available as a series of omnibus editions. With this link you’ll also find the excellent newspaper strip by Archie Goodwin and Al Williamson listed as Classic Star Wars.
  • For a real oddity, try the “Wild Space” Omnibus which collects the Star Wars strips Marvel made for the UK comics from some of the usual Marvel suspects… and Alan Moore, too.
  • Remember Dark Empire? Tom Veitch, Jim Baikie and Cam Kennedy did a series of mini-series in the mid-90s that were key to reinvigorating Star Wars.  Star Wars Dark Empire Trilogy has the whole set for 99 pennies – good AND cheap.
  • Star Wars: Legacy by John Ostrander and Jan Duursema takes place 125 years after return of the Jedi and follows the adventures of Cade Skywalker, a descendant of Luke who might have more in common with Han.
  • Agent of Empire by John Ostrander, Stéphane Créty, Stéphane Roux and Davidé Fabbri has an elevator pitch of “What if James Bond worked for The Empire?”

Star Wars Omnibus   Star Wars Wild Space   Star Wars Dark Empire Trilogy   Star Wars: Legacy   Agent of Empire

AVX

The Marvel Avengers Vs. X-Men Sale runs through Sunday, 5/2.

Avengers Vs. X-Men Collection collects the core mini-series written by Brian Bendis, Jason Aaron, Ed Brubaker, Matt Fraction and Jonathan Hickman with art by Frank Cho, John Romita, Jr., Olivier Coipel and Adam Kubert.

Expand to the tie-in series at will, there are a ton of them, but be aware there are a lot of cooks in the kitchen here.

Avengers vs. X-Men

Gama Sale

The Marvel She-Hulk Sale runs through Sunday, 5/2.

You can get the Masterworks of the original run, but there are three series that are more likely to come to mind here.

Sensational She-Hulk is the late 80s series by John Byrne.

The Dan Slott / Juan Bobilla era runs across two volumes. (Ah, yes – the Marvel relaunch era)

She-Hulk by Soule and Pulido: The Complete Collection is a one-volume collection of the well-received Charles Soule / Javier Pulido run.

Sensational She-Hulk   She-Hulk   She-Hulk by Soule

Rucksack!

The Image Greg Rucka Sales runs through Thursday, 5/6.

The Old Guard by Rucka and Leandro Fernandez is a tale of immortal soldiers of fortune that’s gotten a bit of notoriety after being adapted on Netflix.

Lazarus by Rucka and Michael Lark is dystopian tale of a future where corporate families have carved up the world into feudal fiefdoms and a genetically engineered guardian of the system who’s coming to understand a few things she wasn’t intended to. This is Rucka’s signature series at Image. Here, the “regular” collected editions are less expensive than the omnibus editions.

Black Magick by Rucka and Nicola Scott tells the tale of a police detective who’s also a witch and what’s come looking for her. Once again, pick up the normal collected editions, not the more expensive omnibus.

Old Guard   Lazarus   Black Magick

The Horror, The Horror…

The Dark Horse Mike Mignola & Christopher Golden Sale runs through Monday, 5/3.

Fun fact, the two highlighted series were originally written as novels by the Mignola/Golden partnership and then expanded into comic series.

Baltimore, the post-WWI vampire hunting saga with art by Ben Steinbeck and Peter Bergting, is probably Mignola’s and Golden’s best known and longest comics collaboration. The Omnibus editions are a value buy.

Joe Golem: Occult Detective is just what it sounds like and features art by Patric Reynolds and Peter Bergting.

Baltimore Omnibus 1   Joe Golem

Still on Sale

 

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Comixology Sales: Invincible (and The Walking Dead), X-Men, Giant-Size Man-Thing and the DCU

Highlights of the Comixology Sales this week include Robert Kirkman taking a discount victory lap for the debut of the Invincible animated series, X-Men and Steve Gerber’s Man-Thing at Marvel and a DC universe mass sampling event.

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

Foundational X-Men Spin-Offs

The Marvel X-Men Universe Sale runs through Sunday, 3/28.

There’s a lot of X-Men material here, some of which we’ve discussed before, so we’ll look at some ’80s foundational pieces here.

X-Men: Kitty Pride & Wolverine by Chris Claremont and Al Milgrom was a sequel of sort to the Wolverine mini-series and is where Kitty got her martial arts training.

Longshot by Ann Nocenti and Art Adams is the original Longshot/Mojo tale. Nocenti’s having a moment over at Berger Books with The Seeds and… it has been awhile since we’ve seen Art Adams doing extended interior work.

Magick by Chris Clarement with a succession of John Buscema, Ron Frenz and Sal Buscema all finished by Tom Palmer on the art. This was a fairly dark story when it came out: the tale of how Illyana Rasputin was kidnapped to Limbo, taught sorcery by the demon Belasco and emerged as the Magick we know today.

Kitty Pride & Wolverine   Longshot   Magick

Includes Giant-Size Man-Thing (yes, that’s a real comic)

The Marvel Man-Thing Sale runs through Sunday, 3/28… but let’s call this a Steve Gerber sale because his runs on the feature are the prize here.  Gerber being one of the finest writers to grace a comics page.

The original run is collected in Man-Thing by Steve Gerber: The Complete Collection.  Yes, these do collect the infamous Giant-Size Man-Thing issues. A third volume isn’t out yet (thus, not on sale) and it even contains the late 80s Marvel Comics Presents serial, so they aren’t kidding about complete.

The Infernal Man-Thing is more recent, a posthumously published tale by Gerber with art by Kevin Nowlan. (!) It’s actually a sequel to “Song-Cry of the Living Dead Man” from the original run (which is included in the book).

Howard the Duck: The Complete Collection is probably Gerber’s signature work. It’s also a Man-Thing spin-off. Here at the Tower of Cheap, we try to avoid non-Gerber Howard the Duck (though we’re quite happy with Destroyer Duck), you need the first two volumes. Past that… it ain’t Gerber.

Man-Thing by Steve Gerber   Infernal Man-Thing   Howard the Duck

 

Across the Multiverse

The DC Explore the Multiverse Sale is split into to parts, A-L and M- Z.  The sale runs through Monday, 4/1.  There’s quite a bit here, so it’s worth and extended browse.  Some of the better material:

Man and Superman (Deluxe Edition) by Marv Wolfman and Claudio Castellini is something of a miracle. It was sitting in a draw at DC for YEARS before someone had the good sense to publish it. There have been several “how Clark Kent came to Metropolis and became Superman.” This is one of, possibly THE best of those.  They’d be well served to make it the jumping off point next time Superman gets reset. Excellent comic and a love letter to the Man of Steel.

Speaking of Superman, you’ve probably heard good things about Superman Smashes the Klan by Gene Yuen Yang and Gurihiru. Believe them. This is the top shelf of the Young Adult superhero comics from DC.

If you’d like something rare, Batman Death Mask, the manga by Yoshinori Natsume is one of the few comics DC is discounting over 50%.  60% off is not common for DC these days!

Man and Superman   Superman Smashes The Klan   Batman Death Mask

Everything’s Coming Up Kirkman

The Robert Kirkman Sale Featuring Invincible runs through Tuesday, 5/4.

You might have heard that the Invincible animated series has dropped on Amazon Prime, but this is actually a sale on pretty much all of Kirkman’s Image output.  As always, the “Compendium” omnibus editions are incredible values, particularly Invincible and Walking Dead.  The Astounding Wolf-Man Complete Collection is not quite as good a buy, but you know what?  It still comes out to less than 99-cents per issue and it’s not on sale as often.

Invincible   Walking Dead   Astounding Wolf-Man

 

Still On Sale

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Comixology Sales – Justice League, Deadpool, James Bond, The Witcher, Critical Role and The Guild

The highlights of this week’s Comixology sales include all manner of Justice League comics, a birthday for Deadpool, James Bond, Tini Howard’s Marvel work and some gaming properties over at Dark Horse.

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

Wade Wilson is how old?

The Deadpool 30th Anniversary Sale runs through Sunday,  3/7.  And there’s all kinds of Deadpool on sale.  That said, there’s one thing that really took us by surprise:

Did you realize there are 23 volumes of Deadpool Classic? Some of the more recent runs of the flagship series are listed as their own sets, but that’s a lot of Deadpool!

Deadpool Classic

Marvel’s writer of the week

The Marvel Tini Howard Sale runs through Thursday, 3/11.

We’re happy to recommend Excalibur by Howard and (primarily) Marcus To.  The first two collections feature the mechanizations of Apocalypse and shenanigans in Otherworld.  The pair will take you right to the precipice of X of Swords.  And yes, you’ll eventually want to read X of Swords. That was the best comics crossover Event in recent memory.

Excalibur

And by “teamwork,” they mostly mean Justice League

The DC Teamwork Sale runs through Monday, 3/8.  It also is divided into three sections – Graphic Novels, Single Issues I and Single Issues II. You’ll want to keep a close eye on prices for this one. Some of the offerings, particularly the ones that are hardcover in print are not at particularly good prices for a digital sale.  Pretty much everything in the graphic novels will be available for 99-cents/issue  and the single issues might be cheaper.  There are also more single issues available that haven’t been collected as graphic novels, so the single issue sections are worth a browse if you have the time.

JLA is the ’97 series that launched with the Grant Morrison/Howard Porter run. The collections  are priced lower than the singles here and there are some more unusual runs later in the series you can cherry pick as singles if you don’t like what they’re packaged with in the graphic novels: #94-99 is a Chris Claremont/John Byrne arc.  (We wouldn’t say it’s quite up to their X-Men run, but it’s sure a novelty.) #107-114 is a Kurt Busiek/Ron Garney run.

Justice League of America is the original ’60s into ’80s title.  The “Silver Age” collections offer a better rate per issue, but the entire run is available as single issues.  You can cherry pick some 100 page spectaculars or pick up the Steve Englehart/Dick Dillon run (starting with #139).

JLA Year One doesn’t seem to have a graphic novel edition available in digital right now.  This is a 12-part series written by Mark Waid and Brian Augustyn with art by Barry Kitson. It’s a fun 90s take (yes, there were comics embracing fun in the 90s… just not that many) on the Justice League’s origin.

The Brave and the Bold in this case refers to the recent Liam Sharp series teaming Batman with Wonder Woman in an adventure through Celtic mythology.  This one is cheaper to pick up the single issues.

JLA   Justice League of America   JLA Year One   The Brave and the Bold

Games people read

The Dark Horse Video Game Sale runs through Monday, 3/15.

This might really be more of a gaming sale than strictly a video game sale.  A few things of note:

Critical Role is the adaption of the popular streaming show of a Dungeons & Dragons campaign. The digital issues were some of the best selling comics on Comixology while it was being serialized.

The Guild is an adaption of the Felicia Day web comedy about a group of gamers. Day does the writing and Jim Rugg provides the art for Volume 1.

The Witcher Omnibus… you could say this is a comic based on a game or you could say its a comic based on a series of books.  The Witcher is as transmedia as a property can get these days. Paul Tobin is your scribe with a rotating cast of artists.

Critical Role   The Guild   Witcher Omnibus

007

The Dynamite James Bond Sale runs through Thursday, 4/1.

Dynamite has several 007 titles, but there’s one that stands above the others for our dollar: Kill Chain by Andy Diggle and Luca Casalanguida. It might just be the perfect repositioning of Bond for the modern era.  Finding himself in the middle of a “Kill Chain” of assassinations, Bond discovers his old foes at SMERSH have reemerged and are trying to draw MI6 and the CIA into conflict.

James Bond Kill Chain

Still On Sale

The  Image Romance Sale through Monday, 3/8.
Sex Criminals

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Comixology Sales: The Joker, Transformers, War of the Realms, Vintage Jim Starlin, Young Avengers and Image gets Romantic(ish)

This week’s Comixology Sales highlights start with a celebration of the Joker. Then Marvel highlights the Young Avengers and Ware of the Realms. Valentine’s Day is over, but we look at what’s notable in Image’s romance sale anyway. Plus, Transformers galore and that the glory that is Dreadstar.

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

The Joke’s on who?

DC’s The Joker’s Greatest Jokes Sale runs through Monday (3/1).

If you’re going to get one “Best of” Joker collection, you’re going to want The Joker: A Celebration of 75 Years. Being a thicker collection makes it more complete, but moreover, we don’t think you can have a “Best of” that doesn’t include the Englehart/Rogers “Laughing Fish” storyline.

For something that doesn’t necessarily come immediately to mind, there’s the Joker arc of Gotham Central, the classic GPD series by Ed Brubaker & Greg Rucka with Michael Lark as the artist for this arc.

There’s a lot more Bat-family material in this one, though we weren’t sure the Joker is integral to (or even appearing in) all the titles in this sale.

Joker: Celebration of 75 Years   Gotham Central

No love for the Old Avengers

The Marvel Young Avengers Sales runs through Sunday 2/28.

Young Avengers by Allen Heinberg and Jim Cheung: The Complete Collection is the original, formative run. And for as short as it actually was, this is a fairly influential comic with everything from the recent Empyre Event to WandaVision on streaming having echoes of it.  Oh, there’s more Young Avengers material on sale, but this is one of the times to start at the beginning.  And yes, Young Avengers: Children’s Crusade is conspicuous by its absence.

Young Avengers

Why can’t The Realms just get along?

Marvel’s  War of the Realms Sale runs through Thursday (3/4).

This was a Thor-centric Jason Aarons event. As a Marvel Event, there were a ton of spin-off mini-series that tied in. Explore those at your leisure, but this War of the Realms is the tentpole series around which the Event revolved.

War of the Realms 

More off-kilter romance

The Image Romance Sale runs through Monday (3/8).

No, Image really isn’t a bastion of traditional romance, but they do have a few things that fall vaguely into that territory.

Twisted Romance is an anthology of, well… twisted romantic tales built around a set of Alex de Campi stories with some prose and shorter comics filling in around them. Notably, there’s some intergalactic space pirate romance with Carla Speed McNeil on the art.

My Heroes Have Always Been Junkies might not be the most romantic title in the sale, but it’s good book. A entry in Ed Brubaker / Sean Phillips crime catalog (as consistent a catalog as you’ll find these days), this one concerns murder and mayhem at a high end rehab clinic.  As always, recommended if you have an itch for crime comics.

Sex Criminals is the recently completed Matt Fraction / Chip Zdarsky off-color comedy about a couple who can freeze time when they have sex and use their ability to rob banks.  OK, there’s a bit more to it, but that’s the tried and true tagline.  All but the still-new final volume are on sale.

Twisterd Romance   My Heroes Have Always Been Junkies   Sex Criminals

All Hail Megatron has transformed into an omnibus

The IDW Transformers Sale runs through Thursday (3/4).

IDW has effectively treated the Transformers line as a saga. The original run of that is The Transformers: The IDW Collection series of omnibuses and is probably a good place to start here.

Fans of a certain age might also be interested in Transformers: Classics, which is the original Marvel Comics run.

Transformers: The IDW Collection   Transformers: Classics

Thicker editions

The Dynamite Select Omnibus Sale runs through Sunday (2/28).

Dreadstar Omnibus is the first 12 issues (and story arc) of Jim Starlin’s Dreadstar. Dreadstar was Starlin’s major work between wrapping up the original Captain Marvel / Warlock / Thanos saga and returning to Marvel (proper) for Silver Surfer and Infinity Gauntlet. (Sure, he did some Batman before returning, but Dreadstar is just on another level.) It’s the tale of the last survivor of the Milky Way taking on the corrupt Church of the Instrumentality as a rebel insurgency of sorts. An absolute classic of the first wave of creator owned comics in the ’80s.

The Shadow: Year One – Omnibus is an origin tale for The Shadow and Margo Lane, written by Matt Wagner (who’s done a lot with ’30s era heroes over the years) with art by Wilfredo Torres.

There’s a lot of Red Sonja and Vampirella on sale, too, if that floats your boat.

Dreadstar   The Shadow: Year One

Still on Sale

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Comixology Sales: DC’s Odd Valentine’s Day Selections, Hellboy, Nova, Jeff Lemire and Kieron Gillen

This week’s Comixology Sales are highlighted by DC’s… unusual sense of romance, the many incarnations of Nova over at Marvel, Image’s 2020 highlights and delicate embrace of Hellboy.

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

Not the Nova from Planet of the Apes

Marvel’s Nova Sale runs through Sunday (2/14).

Starting at the beginning, Nova  Classic is the original Marv Wolfman series that’s probably most associated artistically with Sal Buscema and Carmine Infantino.  And yes, volume 3 does include the wrap up in Fantastic Four.

Nova by Abnett & Lanning is the series that the Annihilation event series spun out of. That would be Dan Abnett and Andy Lanning with a rotating roster of artists. This one had some pretty wild concepts, like a city made out of the corpse of a Celestial, long before Avengers Mountain was a thing.

New Warriors was team book that had a definite moment in the sun in the 90s. Nova was a member, as were Namorita, Vance Astro/Marvel Boy, Speedball and their leader, Night Thrasher.  This is a fun title most people associate with Fabian Nicieza and Mark Bagley.

Nova Classic   Nova by Abnett & Lanning  New Warriors

Image celebrates 2020 so you don’t have to

The Image Best of 2020 Sale runs through Thursday (2/25).

Descender / Ascender  are two titles by Jeff Lemire and Dustin Nguyen.  Descender is the tale of a robot cast in the form a little boy and a robot rebellion.  It is a wonderful series that earns it hype.  Ascender is the sequel series that takes things in a fantasy direction.

Die by Kieron Gillen and Stephanie Hans is the extra dark tale of a group of gamers who thought they’d seen the last of a fantasy realm they’d entered and escaped from. They were wrong.  If you wanted to look at this as a nightmare mirror of the old 1980s Saturday morning Dungeons & Dragons cartoon, that’s not a bad point of reference.  Good series.

Gideon Falls is also by that Lemire guy, with time with Andrea Sorrentino for an excellent time hopping, body possessing horror tale of which we’d rather not say more for fear of spoilers.

Descender   Ascender   Die   Gideon Falls

DC has a strange take on Valentine’s Day

The DC’s Heroes in Love Sale runs through Monday (2/15). We have to say, Birth of the Demon and Longbow Hunters miiiiiiiight not be what we’d push for a romantic theme, but your mileage may vary… we’ll forge ahead with that in mind.

Aquaman: The Search for Mera  is the beginning  of the Steve Skeates/ Jim Aparo run on Aquaman that’s gotten a lot of love over the years. In this arc (and DC didn’t have so many arcs like this in ’68) Mera has been abducted and Aquaman goes on a quest to find her that involves some fantasy tropes, the mob, Black Manta and an insurrection. It covers a lot of ground.  Since this is currently matching the print hardcover price, the sale has it at a heftier discount than most.

Mad Love is Paul Dini and Bruce Timm telling the origin story of Harley Quinn in the Batman: The Animated Series continuity. A very, very influential tale by the two best people to tell it.  Worth a look and yes, Harley’s in love.  Not in a healthy relationship, but in love.

Mister Miracle #18 is the wedding issue for Scott Free and Big Barda. After the Batman non-wedding, we thought maybe it was worth highlighting an actual wedding for Valentine’s Day? It’s Jack Kirby, after all!

Aquaman   Mad Love   Mister Miracle

Go straight to Hellboy

The Hellboy Sale runs through Monday (2/21).

Hellboy (proper) is the regular series you’re most familiar. Do we really have to say anything about something that’s widely considered a classic and has spawned a couple films, among other things?  Didn’t think so.  The Omnibus editions of this are by far your best value.  We also love when Richard Corben popped in.

Hellboy and the BPRD is a companion of series of miniseries filling in the backstory. You’ll find most of these are titled by the year and they’re working their way through the 1950s.  Tip – if the digital collected edition only has 5 issues in it, as is usually the case here, you can save a buck by getting the $0.99 single issues.

Hellboy   Hellboy and the BPRD

Still on Sale

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Comixology Sales: Holiday Sale Roundup – even more Marvel, Image, BOOM!, Dark Horse and Archie

If you thought the holiday Comixology sales were over, think again.  Those sales don’t *start* ending until Sunday.  Joining our last batch are even more Marvel titles, wide sales from Image and BOOM!

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

Remember, a lot of publisher listed sales before Christmas that are still going on, including that ridiculously good $0.99 Marvel Masterworks sale – everything we covered last time is still on sale.

Even More Marvel Sales

The “Marvel 2020 Instant Classics Sale” is perhaps a bit overstating what’s in it, but there a bit of interesting material… even if some of it looks like random volumes of ongoing series.

Black Bolt by Saladin Ahmed/Christian Ward/Frazier Irving/Stephanie Hans is the real deal.  It won an Eisner and was a Hugo finalist.  It opens as Black Bolt’s trying to figure out exactly how he got into this space prison and what happened to his powers.  That prison sequence is something else.

Doctor Doom by Christopher Cantwell and Salvador Larroca was another delightful title that seemingly came out of nowhere. Doom’s been framed, he’s on the run and his enemies are moving on Latveria.

As with all the Marvel sales right now, this one expires on Sunday 1/3.

Black Bolt   Doctor Doom

Image digital Graphic Novels are 1/2 off

Image has a graphic novel sale that’s broken up into two parts: A-N and O-Z. For the most part, this is 50% off the Image graphic novel catalog.  So if you were waiting on something, there’s a good chance it’s among the 1,473 items offered.

If you want some special deals, though… that’s where the omnibuses come into play.  Specifically the Robert Kirkman “Compendium” editions. (A lot of Image omnibuses are more expensive than getting the individual volumes, but Kirkman does it right.)  The Invincible Compendium 3 volume set is ~1000 pages/9 TPB per volume. And it’s the same story with The Walking Dead Compendium set.  Gets it down to roughly ~$2.25 per digital TPB.  Best bang for your buck at Image.

Invincible   Walking Dead

Invisible at Dark Horse

For the Dark Horse Best of 2020 Sale, we’d draw your attention to Invisible Kingdom,  which won a couple Eisner Awards. This G. Willow Wilson/Christian Ward SF vehicle concerns a the crew of a space freighter and a religious acolyte on the run from her order after discovering that said religious order has some very commercial interests. Suffice to say, the commercial interests aren’t particularly happy about being discovered and the tendrils reach to high places.  This is also where we feign shock that Berger Books has a winner. (Some of us occasionally miss Vertigo.)  This sale runs through Monday, 1/4.

Invisible Kingdom

Sabrina’s Slasher

The Sabrina and the Women of Archie Sale runs through Thursday (1/7) and we absolutely thing that the Roberto Aguirre-Sacasa/Robert Hack Chilling Adventures of Sabrina and it’s 70s horror take on Ms. Spellman is worth your time. We’re not holding our breath for this version to return with the Netflix version wrapping up, but we’d sure welcome it.

Chilling Adventures of Sabrina

Their whole line goes BOOM!

Boom’s linewide sale is broken into 3 parts, all of which run through Thursday, 1/7.  You’ve got the graphic novels, single issues I and single issues II.  You’ll want to pay attention that the $0.99 single issues aren’t less expensive than the collected edition, too.

For something that’s often overlooked, we really enjoyed the Planet of the Apes series by Daryl Gregory, Carlos Magno and Diego Barreto.  Yes, the same Carlos Magno Marvel has since snapped up. This series leads up to the events of the original film and also does a good job of reconciling the original Pierre Boulle novel with the film continuity. We’d elaborate, but… spoilers. The whole run in conveniently in a single omnibus.

So, we were talking about Carlos Magno? He was BOOM!’s secret weapon for awhile.  Deathmatch is a 12-parter written by Paul Jenkins and drawn by Magno.  You know the old trope about superheroes getting kidnapped and forced to fight to the death?  Well, this time Jenkins and Magno create their own cast of characters, so they can actually play out that concept. No backing off at the last minute.  It’s also nice to see Jenkins with the gloves off, not worried about tying into an Event.

Oh, you wanted something current?  Once & Future by Kierron Gillen and Dan Mora is a very fun series. Someone’s looking to resurrect King Arthur and… how to put this… Arthur never took kindly to foreigners.  Arthur might want to do a little ethnic housekeeping if it were.  A monster hunter must come out of retirement and coerce her grandson into the family business.  It’s actually a breezy page turner.

This sale ends on Thursday, 1/7.

Planet of the Apes   Deathmatch  Once & Future

 

 

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Comixology Sales: Black Friday $4.99 Graphic Novels from DC; Image and Dark Horse have extra wide 50% off sales

The Black Friday Comixology sales are heating up. Joining Marvel in the fray is a $4.99 graphic novel sale at DC and deep rosters of half-off books from Dark Horse and Image.

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

DC’s Got a $4.99 Sale

DC’s got multiple sales going on… they even have their own special Black Friday Sale page.  At the top of that page is the $4.99 section we’re going to pay a little more attention to, as DC doesn’t go down to $4.99 every week.  You’ve got until Monday (11/30) to browse this one.

The Unwritten is a long-running Vertigo title by Mike Carey (perhaps better known these days as M.R. Carey, author of The Girl With All the Gifts) and Peter Gross.  Tom Taylor’s father wrote books about a boy wizard named Tom Taylor.  Is Tom his father’s son, the actual character from the books or something else?  Magic, conspiracies and unwanted celebrity collide in this one.  Save a couple bucks – Unwritten Deluxe Book One collects the first two tpbs for less.

Prez may not have seen it’s natural end, but it’s so timely right now.  This Mark Russell/Ben Caldwell/Mark Morales book tells the tale of the Corndog Girl when a series of coincidences involving social media and a contested election sent to Congress for a vote land her in the Oval Office.  Worth it just for the “how to pick a Vice President” sequence.

Batman: Gothic is one of Grant Morrison’s early Batman tales.  Drawn by Klaus Jansen, it finds Batman drawn into a conflict between Gotham’s mobsters and killer who won’t stay dead.  It’s called “Gothic” because Morrison was heavily influenced by gothic horror when writing it.

Unwritten   Prez   Batman - Gothic

Dark Horse discounts for Black Friday

Dark Horse has just about everything except the original run of Dark Horse Comics Presents on sale.  Today, we’ll have a look at Part 1 of their Graphic Novel sale.  (We’ll hit Part 2 on Friday, but feel free to skip ahead if you’re itching for Lone Wolf and Cub.)  As is our custom, we’ll try and highlight things that haven’t been part of recent sales, but rest assured that the usual suspect are also 50% off.

Have you tried Blacksad yet? Blacksad is a Raymond Chandler-esque detective series that happens to be done in anthropomorphic style.  The characters are animals, but it’s absolutely not a funny animal comic, it’s hard boiled detective stories.  Old school.  It’s by Juan Díaz Canales and Juanjo Guarnido.  It’s one of the best illustrated comics out there, too.

Edgar Rice Burroughs’ Tarzan: The Complete Joe Kubert Years is just what it says it is: Kubert’s complete early 70s Tarzan run for DC. A labor of love from one of the most influential artists… and that complete edition is a lot more convenient than when I had to go tracking down the archive editions in print!

Finder is Carla Speed McNeil’s long running science fiction series.  It’s heavy on world building and especially culture building. Finder racks up awards: Igantz, Eisner and even an LA Times Book Prize.  It’s criminal that its not better known.  Also, the first two “Finder Library” volumes are over 600 pages each, so an excellent value on top of the quality work.

This sale runs through Monday (11/30).  There are also two single issue sales: Part one takes you from the beginning of the alphabet into “I.”  Part 2 finishes the set.

Blacksad   Joe Kubert's Tarzan  Finder

Image goes Black Friday, too

Image also has pretty much the entire catalog on sale for Black Friday. 1,463 items for you to browse between now and Cyber Monday (11/30).  This is a 50% off sale, so if you were meaning to pick up a digital collection, dig around for it and the odds are good it’ll be there.  A few items of possible interest?

Die (as in “dice”) is a fantasy adventure by Kieron Gillen and Stephanie Hans about a middle-aged group of friends discovering an otherworldly incident involving a role-playing game in their teen years isn’t over after all.  If you wanted to do the Hollywood cliche elevator pitch on this one, “The Dungeons & Dragon cartoon meets It” would not be unreasonable.  It’s very good, but be aware it’s as darkly-themed a comic as there is on the market.

Kane is Paul Grist’s cult harboiled detective series about a cop in corrupt department.  He might be a little better known in the U.S. for Jack Staff or his Doctor Who work, but this is where he made his name.

Kick-Ass has been over at Image for a spell.  This comes in two flavors: the better known “Dave” years are by Mark Millar and John Romita, Jr.  After the opening arc for “The New Girl,” they tag out for Steve Niles and Marcelo Frusin.

Die    Kane   Kick-Ass

Still on Sale

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