Tag: Jack Kirby

Comixology (at Amazon) Sales: DC’s $1.99 Mania Pt III – Far Sector to Marshal Law

In this week’s Comixology (at Amazon) sales, part 3 of our look at DC’s $1.99 Mania, look at Far Sector through Marshal Law in the $1.99 catalog.

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.

  • 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

DC $1.99 Mania Continued (Part III)

Far Sector  Flash by Mark Waid  Green Lantern

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.

  • Far Sector – N.K. Jemisin / Jamal Campbell; A rookie Green Lantern with an experimental ring investigates a murder on a planet that hasn’t seen violence in 500 years. Excellent worldbuilding. Highly recommended
  • Final Crisis – Grant Morrison / J.G. Jones / Doug Mahnke / Carlos Pacheco; Darkseid takes over in this Event and this has the necessary tie-ins. 456 pages for $1.99
  • The Flash (’87 – ’09) – Everything in this omnibus section is oversized, a good read and seldom at these prices. That goes double for the Mark Waid volumes, which can top 400 pages.
  • The Flintstones – Mark Russell / Steve Pugh; A brilliant, dark satire with a lingering sense of melancholy that takes the classic cartoon in a slightly different direction. A+. Full series in one volume
  • The Forever People by Jack Kirby – Jack Kirby; A Fourth World collection
  • Green Arrow (’01-’07) – Kevin Smith / Phil Hester; Smith’s full 15 issue run for $1.99
  • Green Lantern (’60-’86) –
  • Green Lantern (’05 -’11) – Geoff Johns / Dave Gibbons / Ivan Reis; These are double volumes of the excellent Johns run. (Sinestro Corps War might be the peak of this era). Now, you’ll need to move over to the “regular volumes” w/ Agent Orange to move forward and you’ll want to add Blackest Night Saga, which is the Event endcapping the first segment of the Johns Green Lantern catalog.
  • Green Lantern by Grant Morrison & Liam Sharp; This series is organized a little peculiarly in book form. The four volumes tell a story that involves a little misdirection, so we’re on spoiler prevention. The high level is Morrison wanting to approach the Lanterns as more of a police procedural, but there’s a little more subtext than that. Sharp stretches his repertoire of art styles as the series progresses
  • Hard Time: The Complete Series – Steve Gerber / Mary Skrenes / Brian Hurtt; We see this is now a Black Label book. That fits. A 15-year old manifests a super power. It might be it’s own entity. The trouble is, somebody dies and the kid  is sentenced to 50 years as he tries to figure out what just happened. Under the radar, but solid book and odd in all the ways only Gerber can be. 458 pages for $1.99
  • Hellblazer – Strangely, there haven’t been omnibus editions of this, which seems like an oversight. At any rate, this was a consistently good run and is cheap for the moment.
  • Hitman – Garth Ennis / John McCrea; Ennis gets irreverent with a hitman who kills metahumans. On sale less often than other titles
  • The Human Target – Tom King / Geoff Smallwood; No deluxe edition (yet), just a highly recommended 2-volume noir tale of doomed Christopher Chance trying to figure out which member of the Bwa Ha Ha era Justice League poisoned him before he dies
  • The Huntress- Origins – Paul Levitz / Joe Staton; The collected solo adventures of The Huntress, back when the character was the daughter of Batman and Catwoman. Another one that isn’t always discounted and not usually this deeply
  • I… Vampire! – J.M. DeMatteis / Tom Sutton; The ’80s version as a recalcitrant vampire battles his ex- and the cult of the Blood Red Moon
  • Infinity Inc. – Roy Thomas / Jerry Ordway; The children of the Justice Society form their own team as trouble looms. Infrequently discounted
  • JLA – The classic ’90s Justice League restart by Grant Morrison & Howard Porter. Don’t sleep on the later volumes.
  • John Constantine, Hellblazer (’19) – Si Spurrier / Aaron Campbell / Matias Bergara; We’ll put this revival up against anything in the Hellblazer cannon, and that’s not something to be said lightly, though to describe it would involve spoilers. Get both volumes, it’s effectively a two-parter
    Jonah Hex: Shadows West  Kamandi  Superboy and the Legion of Super-Heroes
  • Jonah Hex: Shadows West – Joe R. Lansdale / Tim Truman; All three of the Lansdale/Truman series with a weird western/horror angle on Hex. Under the radar these days, but high octane weird. 387 pages
  • Justice League International – Keith Giffen / J.M. DeMatteis / Kevin Maguire; This set of collected editions incorporates Justice League Europe into the books when that launches, which is a definite plus. There’s also a lone omnibus, but it doesn’t break evenly with the contents of the rest
  • Justice League of America: The Nail – Alan Davis; Ma and Pa Kent get a flat tire and don’t find baby Kal-El’s rocket, creating a world without a Superman in this excellent Elseworlds. Things do not go well for the Justice League without him. Also contains the sequel
  • Justice Society of America: A Celebration of 75 – A sampler of the JSA across the different era’s. Usually on the expensive side
  • Kamandi: The Last Boy on Earth – Jack Kirby; This is Kirby riffing on Planet of the Apes, but with many different species of animal-men. Tons of fun and Kirby’s most successful book at DC while it was being published.
  • The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen – Alan Moore, Kevin O’Neill; Just pretend the godawful film doesn’t exist. Moore & O’Neill assemble a team of reluctant government operatives from ~1880s SF/F and Horror literature. And a bit more accurately than many of the media adaptions (particularly Nemo). Wonderful series with very funny and subversive advertisements (you’ll see)
  • Legion of Super-Heroes – Let’s put the highlights under this heading. These are often more expensive titles.
  • Lobo (’90) – Alan Grant / Keith Giffen / Simon Bisley; ~300 page chunks of the original series of mini-series and specials about The Main Man. Hilarious and an effective tool in the offending of the easily offendable.
  • Lucifer (’00-’06) – Mike Carey / Peter Gross; Double volumes. What was M.R Carey doing prior to The Girl With All the Gifts? Among other things, writing this Sandman spinoff about Lucifer Morning Star. Now, if we could get a digital edition of My Faith in Frankie…
  • Marshal Law – Pat Mills / Kevin O’Neill; Think a darker version of Judge Dredd policing (and satirizing) superheroes. Very dark, very funny. There are some legit comparisons to The Boys, but this came first and might have been an influence.

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: Black Friday Sales, Part 1 – The Annual Marvel Omnibus Sale

In this week’s Comixology (at Amazon) sales, Black Friday sales are early this year. In Part 1, it’s the annual Marvel Omnibus Sale and we break out what’s new to the sale since last year.

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):

Important Black Friday Administrative Notes:

This week the Black Friday sales are out a week before Black Friday. (Everyone’s doing it!) There were some problems with the ones that were posted the morning of Tuesday, 11/19. If you bought something off the deals page On Tuesday, double check and make sure the price isn’t a little lower right now. All the new sales were removed from the deals page Tuesday evening and reposted a few hours later. The new prices should be correct (although we need to take a closer look at the reposted DC sale).

Because of the size and all the hubbub around the (now) Annual Marvel Omnibus Sale, we’re looking at that right away and will come back at the usual time for the DC sale and anything else that pops up.

The Annual Marvel Omnibus Sale (Omni-Man is Elsewhere)

Avengers Omnibus  Daredevil Omnibus  Spider-Man Brand New Day Omnibus

The Marvel Omnibus Sale runs through Monday 12/2.

The Marvel omnibuses will run as long as ~1200 pages / 50 issues, although page and issue counts vary per issue. They’re mostly running in the $10-$15 range, instead of the $30-40-ish range, so the prices are slashed and 50 issues for $15 would be $0.30/issue.

There are a few things here that aren’t in other collections, but the reason we keep hearing that folks like the digital versions is that they’re easier to sort. That is to say, fewer items in your digital library.

So first, let’s run down the list of what we think are all the Omnibuses released since last year’s sale (or rather, getting discounted the first time since then). Did you think Marvel was releasing quite a few Omnibus editions in the last year? Yeah, you might be surprised. And this doesn’t include Rom or Micronauts, neither of which appear to be discounted. Annotations added when appropriate:

Is that enough Omnibus activity for one year? Only David Gabriel’s opinion of that matters! At any rate, the omnibuses have historically gone on sale once a year and that’s now, so it’s worth your time to have a browse through the actual sale at some point before 12/2. The official page is NOT well organized, so you can also use the above list to get quicker access to some of the series, just click on the series link on the book page.

A few “older” items we would make sure you’re aware of:

  • Captain Britain Omnibus – This has everything from the beginning of the 70s UK run through Captain Britain Magazine and the early X-Men appearances. What you’re really getting this for are the excellent and groundbreaking Alan Moore/Alan Davis and Jamie Delano/Alan Davis runs from the end of this period, which we’re not currently seeing available elsewhere. The rest is a bonus.
  • Incredible Hulk by Peter David Omnibus 1-5. That would be Hulk by David with that ridiculous sequence of artists he had, including Todd McFarlane, Gary Frank, Dale Keown, Angel Medina and Liam Sharp. 1-4 collect his original run and V. 5 collects some of the many times he’s revisited Hulk since the original run ended. Why the omnibus? Because this is a weird run to pick up in collected editions. It starts out in “Marvel Visionary” editions and eventually switches over to Epic Collections. This is just a drastically easier way to grab an exceptionally long run and probably cheaper than waiting to score the Visionary editions on sale. We also don’t mind tipping our hat to Peter David when he’s recovering from some health problems.
  • Knights of Pendragon Omnibus was out of the Marvel UK office. Knight of Pendragon was a Captain Britain-adjacent title. Dai Thomas, the supporting character from the main strip, is more of the central character with Captain Britain and Union Jack along for the ride. This was largely a Dan Abnett/John Tomlinson/Garry Erksine feature. You get some Brian Hitch art from Mys-Tech Wars and Carlos Pacheco art from Dark Guard. This is another where if you want the comics, it’s Omnibus or the back issue bins.
  • Miracleman Omnibus is the 80s revival of the British character Marvelman by Alan Moore, Gary Leach, Alan Davis, John Totleben and Rick Veitch. Another of Moore’s pre-Watchmen superhero deconstructions with a Captain Marvel (Shazam)-like character rediscovering his magic word after years of a normal life and very bad things following that. A landmark book that fell to the wayside after years and years of legal battles over who held which rights. This one isn’t on sale very often and it’s roughly as cheap as you’ll find it.

The Marvel “Maybe” Sales

Amazing Spider-Man  Deadpool X-Men '97

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

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Comixology (at Amazon) Sales: Fantastic Four (a full run); Secret Six; Gwenpool; Golden Age Jack Kirby

In this week’s Comixology (at Amazon) sales, nearly the entire Fantastic Four catalog gets a discount, plus Gwenpool. DC has an exceptionally deep bench and we go diving for hidden gems. Plus, the Dark Horse work of Tyler Crook.

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):

Four Play

Fantastic Four - The Coming of Galactus    Fantastic Four by Waid   Fantastic Four by Hickman

Marvel’s Fantastic Four Legacy Sale runs through Monday, 10/7.

So, first let’s break down the various FF titles/volumes on sale

Yes, Fantastic Four has been relaunched less than other Marvel titles.  As to what’s good, the gold standard has always been the Stan Lee/Jack Kirby run. (And yes, we do think you can draw a straight line from Kirby’s Challengers of the Unknown at DC to Fantastic Four.) We’d say they start to hit their stride a few issues before Galactus shows up – V.3 of the Epic Collections (“The Coming of Galactus“) or V.4/5 of the Masterworks editions and you can ride a very fun train from there to the end of Lee/Kirby.

And at this point, we should talk about the “pick your poison” of Epic vs. Masterworks.  The Masterworks are built out straight into the Byrne era. We think the $6.99 Epic Collections are the best value here, though some of the newer ones are priced higher. The discounted Epics are now a little past the Lee/Kirby era, but stop with #191 and then pick up again after Byrne’s run. Pick the format that works for you and has the issues you’re looking for.

Speaking of Byrne’s run, that’s the next highpoint that everyone agrees on.  How to read Byrne? Well, there are 6 volumes of Masterworks on sale (V. 21-26) or you can hop on to Fantastic Four Visionaires: John Byrne. You’d need to cut over to the Visionaries run in the middle of  V. 7 to pick up where the discounted Masterworks leave off.  These comics really ought to be in an Epic Collections, but Marvel doesn’t seem in any hurry to roll the Visionaires up into a more economical package. (Or should we say, economical when it’s on sale?) We figure the run will at least need to finish up in Masterwork format first and V. 27 is scheduled for June ’25, so there you go.

Move ahead a bit and Walt Simonson had a stint that may be a little more notable for being an early appearance of the Time Variance Authority (which actually debuted in his Thor run). This is most easily grabbed across Epic Collections V.20 and V.21.

Fast forward a bit to the Heroes Reborn era and there is a LOT to love about the Mark Waid / Mike Wieringo run. They brought back the “explorer” vibe from Lee/Kirby era that isn’t always there and upped the sense of wonder. You’d want the four Ultimate Collection volumes that start here. The “regular” collections don’t go all the way to the end.

Dwayne McDuffie and Paul Pelletier jumped in for an arc with Black Panther and Storm briefly joining the team.

And then, of course, there’s the the Hickman era. A long storyline that laid the groundwork for his Avengers run and you can certainly argue that his Secret Wars endcap to that is a Fantastic Four / Doctor Doom story. The omnibus editions we highlighted above include his FF spin-off comic that frequently crossed over with Fantastic Four, much like the Avengers titles flowed together. That packaging will be a better experience.

Universal Exports

Cosmic Odyssey  Marshal Law  Secret Six

The DC Universe Sale runs through Monday, 9/30.

This is one wide sale! Nearly 1,000 books on sale, including some deeper cuts that aren’t frequently on sale outside the holidays. This one is well worth your time for an extended browse over the weekend. In the meantime, we’re going to go through some of those deep cuts that are on our happy list that you might otherwise miss. (We figure you can find Batman without aid.)

  • Anarky: The Complete Collection – Alan Grant / Norm Breyfoggle; The Grant/Breyfoggle villain is briefly given the Joker treatment and spun off into his own series
  • America Vs. The Justice Society – Roy Thomas / Jerry Ordway; Batman’s lost diary fingers the JSA as Nazi collaborators
  • Aquaman: The Atlantis Chronicles – Peter David / Esteban Marato; OK, Aquaman is scarcely in this. This is a high fantasy about the history of Atlantis with exquisite art. Totally off most radars, but great stuff
  • Batwoman by Greg Rucka and J.H. Williams – Rucka / J.H. Williams III; Their superlative Detective Comics run introducing the current Batwoman
  • Camelot 3000 – Mike W. Barr / Brian Bolland; King Arthur returns to defend the planet against alien invaders
  • Cosmic Odyssey – Jim Starlin / Mike Mignola; Darkseid comes to the Justice League for help with something he can’t face alone
  • The DC Universe by Len Wein – One of the more important Bronze Age writers, but one who never really had long runs on a single title. Included here, a run from his fantastic Phantom Stranger w/ Jim Aparo and the DC Comics Presents sequence that introduces Mongul w/ Jim Starlin.
  • Doctor Fate – Paul Levitz / Sonny Liew; One of the better “re-imaginings” of recent times and Egyptian-mythology centric
  • Frank Miller’s Ronin – Frank Miller; Miller’s experimental tale mixing cyborgs and demons
  • Gotham Central – Ed Brubaker / Greg Rucka / Michael Lark / Stefano Gaudiano / Jason Shawn Alexander / Kano; The Gotham PD attempts to handle things without Batman; One of these days the TV version will actually go through
  • Hard Time: The Complete Series – Steve Gerber / Mary Skrenes / Brian Hurtt; When a bullying “prank” goes wrong, something metaphysical emerges from a 15 year old boy and lands him in jail with a 50 year sentence
  • Legends of the Dark Knight: Norm Breyfogle – Vol. 1 and Vol. 2 – Great big chunks of the superior Alan Grant / Norm Breyfogle years
  • Marshal Law – Pat Mills / Kevin O’Neill; Think Judge Dredd with superheroes, only much darker
  • Night Force – Marv Wolfman / Gene Colan; After moving to DC, the Tomb of Dracula team reunited for a horror series about a mansion with a portal through time and space… and its mysterious owner; Would’ve fit in at Vertigo
  • Secret Six: The original miniseries and the ongoing series – Gail Simone / Nicola Scott; Arguably Simone’s best work at DC as a group of villains go mercenary; It sort of zigs crime where Suicide Squad zags espionage
  • Seven Soldiers of Victory – Grant Morrison / J.H. Williams III / Simone Bianchi / Ryan Sook / Doug Mahnke; One of Morrison’s most creatively successful Events, told in a series of interlocking miniseries
  • Sleeper – Ed Brubaker / Sean Phillips; set in the old Wildstorm universe; an undercover operative is left out in the cold as espionage and superpowers overlap.

Jack Kirby Corner

  • Boy Commandos – Joe Simon / Jack Kirby; Extremely popular WWII era kids group
  • Challengers of the Unknown – What The King was doing at DC before heading to Marvel. Compare it to early Fantastic Four and be surprised.
  • The Newsboy Legion – Joe Simon / Jack Kirby; A crime fighting kids’ gang and their super hero “Guardian.” Kirby would revisit this in the ’70s as part of the Fourth World

The Other Side of the Pool

The Unbelievable Gwenpool  West Coast Avengers  Gwenpool Strikes Back

The Marvel Gwenpool Sale runs through Monday, 9/30.

Gwen Poole is a comics reader who woke up in the Marvel Universe… and then wackiness ensued.

The Marvel “Maybe” Sales

X-Force  Deadpool & Wolverine: World War III  Ultimate Black Panther

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

As Seen on TV

Van Helsing

The Zenescope Character Spotlight Sale Van Helsing Sale runs through Tuesday, 10/15.

You may be familiar with the Syfy Channel version (adapted by Neil LaBute, who’s not the first name you’d think of), but in the comics version, Liesel Van Helsing is battling Dracula and his minions across the multiverse.

Two options here:

Unannounced Sales

The Crow Harrow County Omnibus 1 When Bad Things Happen To Stupid People

We have an unannounced Dark Horse sale on Tyler Crook comics, including:

Also with discounts:

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Comixology (at Amazon) Sales: X-Force; Winter Soldier; Gillen at Marvel; Kirby at DC

In this week’s Comixology (at Amazon) sales, Marvel drops prices on X-Force, Winter Soldier and the work of Kieron Gillen. DC highlights some deeper cuts in the catalog (and Jack Kirby). Oni may or may not be having a 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):

Paths Less Taken

Far Sector  Omega Men  Orion

The DC Summer Sizzle Sale runs through Monday, 8/26.

And this week, DC’s mix of titles has a LOT of what we’d call “under the radar” books, many of which are featured a little less frequently. Fortunately, this is firmly in our wheelhouse to navigate.

Some highlights:

  • Checkmate – Greg Rucka / Jesus Saiz; Rucka’s take on the intersection of spies and superheroes
  • DC: The New Frontier – Darwyn Cooke’s look at the dawn of the Silver Age isn’t really under the radar, but it’s a truly great comic.
  • Deathstroke – Christopher Priest / Carlo Pagulayan; Missing the Titans crossovers, but this is a smart comic about villain that makes few bones about it.
  • Far Sector – N.K. Jemisin / Jamal Campbell; Superior worldbuilding as a new Green Lantern with an experimental ring investigates the first murder in living memory on a world without feelings. You could count Jemisin’s SF/F awards, but you’d need some time on your hands.
  • Flex Mentallo: Man of Muscle Mystery – Grant Morrison / Frank Quitely; An even further-out-there delight & Doom Patrol spin-off that, for legal purposes, has NOTHING to do with Charles Atlas ads…
  • Freedom Fighters: Rise of a Nation – Robert Venditti / Eddy Barrows; Just a very well done reworking of the original Freedom Fighters concept. Very under the radar, but we really enjoyed it. (Would work as an Elseworlds or Black Label.)
  • Jonah Hex – Jimmy Palmiotti, Justin Gray and an absurd rotation of high end artists; Fun westerns, some arcs, some done in one
  • Omega Men – Tom King / Barnaby Bagenda; Before he blew up, King penned this meditation on line between terrorism and freedom fighters, which is arguably a Green Lantern tale (Kyle Rayner). Often overlooked.
  • Orion – Walt Simonson’s entry in the New Gods saga. We liked it as much as his Thor, which is to say, a lot! Totally under most radars.

Kirby Korner

A good chunk of the King’s DC work is on sale:

Forced Entry

X-Force X-Force X-Force

The Marvel X-Force Sale runs through Monday, 8/26.

Yes, the mutant black ops team, as originally established by Cable (and morphing out of New Mutants). There absolutely have a been a few incarnations and relaunches over the years. Let’s start out with an overview of that:

  • X-Force ’91-’02 – Originally Rob Liefeld & Fabian Nicieza with Greg Capullo tagging in early on. The first edition, if you will.
    • Counter-X: X-Force – From the period when Warren Ellis was showrunning some of the X-titles, by Ian Edgington & Jorge Lucas
  • Uncanny-Force ’10-’12 – Rick Remender and rotating roster of Raphael Albuquerque, Esad Ribic, Jerome Opena, Billy Tan and Phil Noto
  • Uncanny X-Force ’13-’14 – Sam Humphries / Ron Garney / Dalibor Talajic
  • Deadpool vs. X-Force ’14 – Duane Swierczynski / Pepe Laraz
  • X-Force ’19-’24 – Ben Percy / Joshua Cassara / Robert Gill

What’s good? Our top pick is the Remender Uncanny-Force. Black ops and a wide ranging, but complete story unit when taken as a whole. We’re also fans of the Ben Percy / Krakoa era X-Force.  If you want something off-beat, start here for the Milligan/Allred run, which is a satire.

Journey into Gillen

Darth Vader  Journey Into Mystery  Sins of Sinister

The Marvel Kieron Gillen Sale runs through Monday, 8/26.

Yes, has has written quite a bit for Marvel over the years. Our favorites? An absolutely brilliant turn on Darth Vader with Salvador Larocca and his evil Star Wars analogue of Indiana Jones, Doctor Aphra w/Kev Walker. When the glass cracks in his Vader run… well, see for yourself. Great moment.

So let’s start out with a cleaner recap of the major items in this sale:

What’s good?  This one’s going to be more personal preference than with many sales and to that end, we’d definitely say Immortal X-Men and particularly Sins of Sinister, which was as good as X-Men Event as there’s been… but needs context from Immortal and the X-line of books. Past that, Journey Into Mystery is where Gillen really popped onto the Marvel radar, Young Avengers is the familiar team of Gillen/McKelvie and Gillen’s Mr. Sinister in Uncanny X-Men definitely has had influence.

The Sidekick in Winter

Captain America  Winter Soldier  The Winter Soldier: The Bitter March

The Marvel Winder Soldier Sale runs through Monday, 8/26.

This is a slightly odd sale, in that it encompasses most – but apparently not all – of Ed Brubaker’s Captain America run and then several miniseries and abortive attempts at an ongoing series… including a few creator names you’ll recognize.

The originating storyline runs in the 2004 series of Captain America by Ed Brubaker and a rotating squad of artists including Steve Epting, Michael Lark, Butch Guice and Mike Perkins. There are a couple omnibuses available, but this doesn’t really have a definitive larger collection like, say, the Hickman Avengers era.

Note: if you’re going to read the Winter Soldier saga, you’re going to need Captain America: Reborn, the Ed Brubaker /Bryan Hitch mini-series that wraps up the “Death of Captain America” sequence.

For solo series, the first choice is Winter Soldier by Ed Brubaker, which is Brubaker and Butch Guice in a spin-off.

Also of possible interest:

The Marvel “Maybe” Sales

Resurrection of Magneto  Cable: United We Fall  Avengers: Twilight

The trend returns after a short break. 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

Possible Oni Sales

OK… you might remember this drill from the distant past. Oni’s had two sales listed for a couple of days. They don’t look like sale prices to us. Maybe that gets fixed at some point, but that’s what we’re seeing at the moment.

Unannounced Sales

Apex Legends  Anthem

Dark Horse has a couple of their video game adaptations showing up discounted:

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Comixology (at Amazon) Sales: Daredevil (All of It); Gotham Central; OMAC; Masters of the Universe

In this week’s Comixology (at Amazon) sales, Marvel’s big Daredevil sale and DC’s Labor Day Sale return… with actual sale prices! Plus, Masters of the Universe and Van Helsing.

Where did the New Releases and Sale pages go?

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

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

The Daredevil Sale Returns

Well, well, well… look who showed up Thursday morning:

The Marvel Daredevil Legacy Sale runs through Monday, 9/11.

Yes, they fixed last week’s sale.  The usual discounts now apply. So first, let’s run through the various series. Believe it or not, Daredevil hasn’t been relaunched as many times as, say, Hulk has.

  • Daredevil ’64-’98 – The original run. Plenty o’ Epics and Masterworks on sale.
  • Daredevil ’98-11 – The Marvel Knights relaunch. Kevin Smith / Brian Bendis / Ed Brubaker
    • For the Bendis and Brubaker runs, you want the Omnibus section and scroll down for their respective “Ultimate Collections”
  • Daredevil ’11-15 – This was really two volumes with an arbitrary relaunch in the middle, but the excellent run by Mark Waid / Chris Samnee / Paolo Rivera / Javier Javier Rodriguez is a better buy in this 5 volume set that collects both volumes and treats it like the single run it was.
  • Daredevil ’15-’18 – The Charles Soule era with Ron Garney as the main artist.
  • Daredevil ’19-’21 – Chip Zdarsky’s breakout title as a writer. Marco Checcetto is the primary artist.
    • Omnibus formats (the final omnibus is not on sale)
  • Daredevil: Woman Without Fear ’22 – Zdarsky / Rafael de Latorre; Sort of a bridge title during the Devil’s Reign event, but part of the ongoing plot.
  • Daredevil ’22-’23 – Also known as Daredevil & Elektra. The final act to the Zdarsky/Checcetto era

Since it’s been a couple years since this sale was run, let’s have a look at the Epics and Masterworks that might not have been in the last one, shall we?

New(ish) Epic Collections:

  • Going Out West – #87-107; Gerry Conway era ends; Steve Gerber begins
  • Watch Out For Bullseye – #108-132; Gerber era ends; Then Tony Isabella, and enter Marv Wolfman and Bullseye debuts
  • It Comes With Claws – #234 – 252; Ann Nocenti’s run begins. John Romita, Jr. arrives to start that famous pairing towards the end of the volume.
  • Dead Man’s Hand – #301-11, plus some crossover/event issues; The D.G. Chichester / Scott McDaniel era

New(ish) Masterworks:

Oh, look… this is when they got to the Frank Miller run!

What’s good? Honestly, Daredevil has been one of the best curated characters of the last 40 years. There haven’t been very many bad issues since Frank Miller showed up. (Some people complained about the Chichester/McDaniel/Weeks run and the new armor, but we like that run and “Last Rites” seems to be more popular now than at the time.)

The usual advice on Epics & Masterworks – you need to check the page counts, but the Epics are usually a little longer and more bang for your buck, but not all Epics are priced the same.

For $5.99 for ~300-ish pages/~12 issues, it’s hard to beat these collections of the Waid/Samnee(/Rivera/Rodriguez) run. A side thread to this run. It starts out with “Daredevil wasn’t originally such a dark book” and then it proceeds to go to dark places after a bit! Seriously, an excellent run.

Currently not in a larger collection, Daredevil: Born Again by Frank Miller and David Mazzucchelli is a very, very effective story and maybe Miller’s high point on the character. It doesn’t have the page count of some these other collections, but at $4.99, it’s still a truly classic 8-parter for the price of a new single issue.

The Last Rites Epic Collection is 500 pages for for $6.99. It’s the end of the Ann Nocenti run and the beginning of the D.G Chichester era. Lots of art by the always under-rated Lee Weeks. Bullseye, The Hand, Typhoid Mary and The Kingpin all show up. Plus some Punisher and Ghost Rider, so there’s something for pretty much everyone in this.

(If A Touch of Typhoid was $5.99, it would go to the head of the line. That’s the meat of the Nocenti/JRjr run and earned its rep.)

Still, plenty of good reads in this sale and we’re glad it got fixed!

Daredevil by Mark Waid   Daredevil: Born Again   Daredevil: Last Rites

Speaking of Sales That Got Fixed…

The DC Labor Day Sale runs through Monday, 9/11.

We’re not sure those $4.65 price points are supposed to be there, but there’s plenty of graphic novels for $2.99 (and $4.65 is a considerably better price than we were seeing last week).

Some items of possible interest:

Gotham Central for $2.99 per (double) volume? Um, yes!  GREAT comic. Ed Brubaker, Greg Rucka, Michael Lark, Stefano Gaudiano and Kano on tales of the Gotham PD trying to handle things when Batman is otherwise occupied.

OMAC: One Man Army Corps by Jack Kirby. You might have run into this concept in a movie recently. This is Kirby’s original dystopian satire. It’s… well, you kind of need to experience this one for yourself. Describing it doesn’t do it justice, just know that it’s REALLY over the top. $2.99

Final Crisis by Grant Morrison, J.G. Jones and Doug Mahnke. The Event itself, plus the Batman and Superman tie-ins (which are important to the plot). 391 pages for $2.99? From Morrison/Jones/Mahnke?  That’s a good buy!

Gotham Central   OMAC   Final Crisis

Deadman – The 60s/70s cult series in 5 volumes. The first two are the Neal Adams run, then a volume that’s largely Paul Levitz/Jim Aparo picking up the reigns and popping in and out of various titles. V.4 is largely the Len Wein/Jim Aparo/Jose Luis Garcia-Lopez Adventure run. V.5 is the Andy Helfer/Garcia-Lopez miniseries and the Challengers of the Unknown appearances. $2.99 a pop.

Creature Commandos – We’re not sure when the cartoon is coming out or if the strike affects it, but this is the original material from Weird War Tales. Lots of people worked on this, including J.M. DeMatties, Robert Khaniger, Fred Carillo, Jerry Ordway and even Dan Spiegel.

And for something under the radar: Lobo: Portrait of a Bastich. In the mid-90s, Lobo had a series of miniseries and specials that were the gold standard for rude humor. Keith Giffen, Alan Grant and Simon Bisley were the original team and this collects the first two mini’s. It is, as MTV used to say about Monty Python, an effective tool for the offending of the easily offendable.

This sale is worth a deep browse over the weekend. There are a lot of good runs with a single $4.65 volume in the middle of $2.99 ones.

Deadman   Creature Commandos   Lobo

Masters and Servants

The Dark Horse 2023 Masters of the Universe Digital Sale runs through Monday, 9/25.

Yes, that would be He-Man. Two sections to the sale:

Classic material

Current Comics

He-Man Newspaper Comic Strip   Masters of the Universe: Masterverse   Masters of the Universe: Revelation

Grimm Vampire Tales

Zenescope’s Van Helsing Character Spotlight Sale runs through Sunday, 9/24.

This would be the daughter of Professor Van Helsing doing battle with the forces of darkness. You expect to see Zenescope regulars Pat Shand and Raven Gregory here, but Chuck Dixon also shows up for a few runs.

We’re looking at 99 cent single issues (with the odd higher price for things like #50) and $5.99 collected editions, which means the single issues will likely be a little cheaper or a wash.

Also in the sale 99-cent issues of the spin-off Hellchild.

Helsing   Van Helsing   Hellchild

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Comixology (at Amazon) Sales: Holiday Sales From DC (More $1.99 Collections), Archie, BOOM! and IDW

In this week’s Comixology (at Amazon) sales, holiday sales from DC (it’s a doozy), IDW, Archie and BOOM!.

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):

A clerical note before we jump into things. Comics.Cheap will probably be on a strange holiday schedule, like everyone else. We’re not sure if we’ll be putting out the usual Friday round-up this week.  That will be determined largely by whether any more notable sales dropping between now and then. (There’s an Image sale listed, but as we’re typing this, it sure doesn’t look like the sale prices are appearing yet… but if it’s not more than 50% off, we’ll wait for next week.)  Next week, we’ll have a closer look at the BEST of the Marvel Masterworks sale and catch up on any interesting sales dropping between now and then.

DC’s Insane Holiday Sale

The DC Holiday Sale runs through Monday, 1/2.

WOW. This is like the last few DC sales, only more of it. And with over 3K items this is approaching a line-wide sale. Not quite, but getting there. If you scroll back to the last few $1.99/$2.99 sales between Black Friday and now, we think most of that material is back on sale, so we’ll focus on things that caught our eye this time around that maybe weren’t previously on sale. Yes, some of these items are giving the Marvel Masterpieces sale a run for your money.

This is 3600+ items, so remember – when browsing the main sale link, right click on comics and open them in a new window or you’ll lose your place and have to start over at the top!

Here’s an extended list of what caught our eye:

$1.99 Collected Editions

$2.99 Collected Editions

Over $3

  • Bizarro Comics – Matt Groening / Kyle Baker / Harvey Pekar and bunch more
  • Marshal Law – Pat Mills / Kevin O’Neill
  • Mister Miracle – The second series with Steve Englehart / Marshall Rogers and then Steve Gerber / Michael Golden / Russ Heath – that’s right, Heath inking Golden!
  • Night Force – The first Marv Wolfman / Gene Colan run (Marv’s favorite series)

What’s the cream of the crop? More so than most weeks, it depends on your individual tastes.  We will definitely say that the double volume editions of Gotham Central for $1.99 seems like an absolute steal.  We might slightly favor Jimmy Olsen (essentially, Kirby’s Superman title), but all of those 70’s Jack Kirby books for $2.99 are great deals. And we’re leaning toward Justice League International for the third slot because it’s just never this cheap.

Gotham Central   Jimmy Olsen by Jack Kirby   Justice League International

What’s that? You say you’d rather have single issues? Preferably for $0.99? It seems DC would like to placate your tastes. Note: these are fairly recent issues being discounted, so on longer running titles, you’ll need to scroll down a bit to see the 99 cent issues.  There’s a lot more than list here, but you’ll need to get below the collected editions on the main page.

Holidays go BOOM!

The BOOM! Holidays Graphic Novel Sale runs through Monday, 1/2.

This looks to be a line-wide 50% off sale, so let’s look at some things might be slightly below the radar.

Steed & Mrs. Peel is an adaption of the British TV Avengers, the often absurdist spy-fi show. This is a relatively early Grant Morrison script and drawn by Ian Gibson, who’s best known for his 2000 AD work on Robo-Hunter and Judge Dredd.

Is this the first time BRZRKR has been discounted? This one made a big splash on Kickstarter and variant covers, but you know what? Despite all the hype that wasn’t about the interior pages, this is actually a very enjoyable action/SF/dark fantasy comic. It’s written by Keanu Reeves and Matt Kindt with art by Ron Garney and concerns a seemingly immortal warrior from centuries past who’s ready to leave immortality behind. It’s bloody as all get out, but alternates the violence with character work.

And for something completely different: Jeremy Bastian’s Cursed Pirate Girl. You need to see the art in this fantasy tale for yourself. A delightfully unique experience.

Steed and Mrs. Peel   BRZRKR   Cursed Pirate Girl

A Different Side of Riverdale

The Archie Holiday Graphic Novel Sale runs through Monday, 1/2.

Since this looks line wide, we’ll draw your attention to something well off the beaten path:

The Black Hood by Duane Swierczynski / Michael Gaydos / Howard Chaykin / Greg Scott is more a crime book than a superhero caper. Vigilante if you must. In the wake of a shooting, involving a vigilante called The Black Hood, an injured cop develops a pain killer addiction, dons the Black Hood’s mask for less than puritanical reasons and finds himself in over his head in a world of vendettas. Very dark, very good. For some reason V. 3 is listed separately.

Black Hood   Black Hood

IDW Does the Holidays

The IDW Holidays Sale runs through Monday, 1/2.

Much like with BOOM!, this looks to be a near line wide sales at 50%-ish off, so we’ll highlight some under the radar books. If you’ve had your eye on something specific, have a browse and you’ll likely find it.

Popeye by Roger Langridge and Bruce Ozella is just straight up fun. A satisfying and amusing entry in the Popeye library.

The One by Rick Veitch is very dark superhero satire steeped in cold war politics. It’s effectively the younger sibling of Brat Pack and one of the earlier deconstructionist superhero comics (After Marvelman/Miracleman’s run in Warrior, but before Watchmen).

Sachs and Violens by Peter David and George Perez was originally a mini-series for Marvel’s Epic imprint, near the end of Epic’s original run. It’s a lighthearted adventure contrasted with heavy material (snuff films) as a model and photographer mete out street justice. Oddly, David later included the characters in his Fallen Angel series.

Popeye   The One   Sachs & Violens

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Comixology Sales: Eternals, Jim Butcher’s Dresden Files and all the Halloween Sales

In this week’s Comixology Sales Highlights, King Kirby hits with the original Eternals and The Demon, Jim Butcher’s comics adventures of Harry Dresden are discounted and more Halloween sales than you can shake a bag of candy corn at.

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

Eternals… It’s Like There Was a Film or Something…

The Marvels Eternals Sale runs through Sunday, 11/14.

This is one where we have a very strong preference for the original run. You just can’t duplicate Jack Kirby. Over the years, Marvel’s not done the best job keeping this in print over the years and some (including us) might say it’s been overpriced at times.  But guess what? There’s a good price on The Eternals by Jack Kirby: The Complete Collection, which has the whole run in one volume.  This one has been overlooked a lot, so don’t feel bad if you’re not familiar with it.

Eternals by Jack Kirby

It Sucks (Blood)

The Marvel Halloween Sale runs through… you guessed it, Halloween!

What’s the best horror comic Marvel did in their best horror period?  Tomb of Dracula by Marv Wolfman and Gene Colan. (With a few other creators at the beginning before the format was set.)  Hard to beat it.

And for something completely off the beaten path, there’s Greenberg the Vampire. The what? From Bizarre Adventures magazine and the eponymous Marvel Graphic Novel by J.M. DeMatteis, Steve Leialoha and Mark Badger.  The story of a lovelorn vampire who’d really rather his mother didn’t know his condition. It’s a little different tone that you usually see at The House of Ideas.

Tomb of Dracula   Greenberg the Vampire

When Vertigo Was a Thing

The DC Halloween Sale runs through Monday, 11/1

Yes, DC has a lot more horror and spooky stuff on sale than Marvel.  Partially because they used to have the Vertigo imprint.  Speaking of which, there’s a whole bunch of stuff by what’s one of the last remaining traces of Vertigo – American Vampire by Scott Snyder and (mostly) Rafael Albuquerque on the art… with a bit of Stephen King at the beginning, but he might be too obscure for Halloween.  It’s the sprawling tale of a new strain of vampire developing and spreading through the decades.  We’d put it at or near the top of the Snyder cannon.

Deadman is one of the original cult heroes of the Silver and Bronze Ages. Originally in Strange Adventures by Neal Adams, Boston Brand is an acrobat whose spirit is seeking his killer. He can possess people’s bodies to interact with the world of the living.  The first two volumes collect the Adams run and then Deadman floats around the DC Universe (pun intended). He pops up in Challengers of the Unknown and Phantom Stranger, has a run in the Dollar Era of Adventure Comics and then the collections end with the ’80s mini-series.  A character the creative community loved to bring back and a Halloween superhero if ever there was one.

We started out talking about Kirby, so let’s talk about his most sorcerous run – The Demon. As Camelot falls, Merlin binds a hell-spawn to a human host. That host survives across the centuries and in modern times, Jason Blood will summon the demon Etrigan to do battle with all manner of unnatural scourges.  It’s the high adventure version of horror.

American Vampire   Deadman   The Demon by Jack Kirby

Wizard Dresden

The Dynamite Horror Sale runs through Monday, 11/1

Since it’s the season, let’s talk about something a little different from Dynamite: The Dresden Files. Jim Butcher’s collaborated with Dynamite for some original, in-continuity comic stories.  Mark Powers is the co-writer and for art, you’ve got Carlos Gomez, Chase Conley, Joseph Cooper and Adrian Syaf.  The Omnibus editions are slightly better deals and the second one is all original material.  Now, if someone would send over a bottle of Mac’s beer…..

Dresden Files

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The Rest of the Halloween Sales

We’ve highlighted most of this in previous weeks, but if you want to do trick or treating for discounts, here’s a ton of stuff for your browsing:

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Comixology Sales: Thor, Deadpool, 70%+ off at DC (and Batman), plus Image Horror

This week in Comixology Sales, there’s pretty complete run of Thor on sale and DC’s still over 70% off on many of their graphic novels.  Plus Deadpool and Image’s horror line is on sale for Halloween.

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

Bringing the Thunder

The Marvel Thor: Massive God of Thunder Sale runs through Sunday, 10/17.

This is pretty much Thor on sale up and down all the various titles for ~60-67% off per volume and some $0.99 single issues.  The sale page is incredibly poorly organized, so we’ll walk you through the titles and point to some better stuff.  Our rule of thumb is that Epic Collections and Marvel Masterwork editions are the best values. We like Epic’s a little better, but the Masterworks are published in the right order, so pick your poison.

Thor starts in Journey into Mystery. Fair warning, the earliest issues can be a little rough as they figure out the format. As Lee and Kirby lock in, it improves greatly, but the first Masterworks’ worth is for completists.

As we all know, Journey into Mystery changed the title to Thor, and just as things were getting interesting. You’re good with the initial Stan Lee / Jack Kirby (the Mangog and Galactus sequences are particularly good circa #154 – 169). Fine when John Buscema tags in for Kirby, but then opinions vary quite a bit when Stan exits.  What everyone agrees on is then when Walt Simonson shows up, it’s the best Thor since Lee/Kirby.  The “Thor Visionaries: Walter Simonson” set of books is more complete than Thor by Walter Simonson, FYI. Visionaries has the end of the run.

Journey into Mystery   Thor: To Wake the Mangog

We’ll ignore Heroes Reborn, and then the new Thor series is an extended run written by Dan Jurgen with John Romita, Jr. as the initial artist.

The  next volume starts out with a good run by J. Michael Straczynski and Olivier Copiel, then has Keiron Gillen popping up around a Siege tie-in and then starts the Matt Fraction / Pasqual Ferry run.  It’s a pretty good volume.

As we enter the Relaunch Era of Marvel, Fraction/Copiel gets a new #1 as it relaunches as The Mighty Thor. Note: Comixology (and Marvel) have some weird housekeeping at the final act of the Fraction run, Everything Burns, is collected all by itself.

Thor by Dan Jurgens   Thor by JMS   The Mighty Thor   Everything Burns

This is when Jason Aaron popped on board. First with Thor confronting The God Butcher and then Jane Foster’s time as Thor. This is a funky one to keep track of by individual titles, but Marvel has a Thor by Jason Aaron: The Complete Collection that simplifies things quite a bit.

Which leaves us with the current  Donny Cates/ Nic Klein run.  And that’s the nickel tour of Thor.  That sale page is pretty jumbled up.  This is where you’ll find your $0.99 single issues.

Thor by Jason Aaron   Thor by Donny Cates

Rare “Good” Discounts at DC

The DC Fandome Sale marches on through Monday, 10/18. It’s in two links: Part 1 and Part 2. It’s a disorganized batch of titles, but very good discounts for DC in the ~69%- 75% off range.  Very good discounts for DC.  Last time we looked at oddities and value buys. This time we’re going to look at some the stuff with higher list prices where you’re saving more actual dollars.

One of the very best Batman runs was the Steve Englehart/Marshall Rogers era.  Tales of the Batman: Steve Englehart contains that Detective run, the much later Dark Detective miniseries and basically all the Batman Englehart wrote. 452 pages, 74% off.

All-Star Comics: Only Legends Live Forever is the 70s Justice Society run (All Star Comics and Adventure Comics) in one large volume. Gerry Conway and Paul Levitz are your writers. The art line up is most associated with Joe Staton, but Keith Giffen and Wally Wood are notable here.  449 pages, 74% off.

Marv Wolfman once told us his favorite work was Night Force. You may not have heard of it, but that’s why we’re here. It’s time travel horror caper of a comic about a mansion in Washington D.C. that’s a portal into time and the mysterious Baron who lives there.  Gene Colan does the art. Yes, it’s the Tomb of Dracula crew back in the saddle at a different publisher.  Really good stuff and this edition collects the original 14-issue run.

Tales of the Batman: Steve Englehart   All-Star Comics  Night Force

More Halloween!

The Image Horror Sale runs through Monday, 11/1.

And Image has a lot of horror. It was one of the beneficiaries when DC made the questionable decision to throw Vertigo to the curb.  A few things that bubble to the top of our list:

We’re in the bag for Killadelphia. Rodney Barnes and Jason Shawn Alexander serve up a neo-noir horror thriller (with great punchlines sprinkled in here and there) about father and son detectives trying to head off a vampire takeover of Philly.  That’s the non-spoiler version. It’s much darker and intricate than a spoiler-free description can describe.  Highly recommended for Halloween.

Dracula, Motherf**cker! by Alex de Campi and Erica Henderson is… an experience. And we mean that in the best possible way. Think a ’70s exploitation era crime film with vampires. Dracula is in LA and not everyone is happy about it. An absolute tour de force for Erica Henderson, too.  She really catches that early 70s vibe and sets a unique tone you should see for yourself.

Kill or Be Killed is Ed Brubaker and Sean Phillips spinning a tale of a young man at war with the Russian mob who’s either possessed by a demon or insane. Which is it? That would telling, but a superior and creepy entry in the Brubaker & Phillips library.

Killadelphia   Dracula, Motherf**cker!   Kill or Be Killed

Deadpool or Treat

The “Marvel Deadpool World’s Greatest Sale” runs through Sunday, 10/17.

Let’s translate that for you – it’s the 2015-2017 Deadpool series that’s on sale. It’s called Deadpool: World’s Greatest on Comixology, but the actual covers just say “Deadpool” with the Fantastic Four’s “World’s Greatest Comics Magazine” tagline above the logo in sardonic fashion.  Were you go to the actual series page for the comic and scroll down to the Omnibuses section, you can save a small amount by getting it in that format.  As it the case with most of the sales this week, the sale page is a jumbled up mess.

Deadpool: World's Greatest

Still On Sale

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Comixology Sales: Black Panther, Miles Morales, N.K. Jemisin, George Takei, Alan Moore and quite a bit more

In this week’s Comixology Sales, we start to look at the Black History Month sales, which includes some *choice* Black Panther material, Miles Morales, N.K Jemison and John Ridley at DC, plus George Takei, Alan More, Elektra, the Fantastic Four and the Black Hammer.

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

Wakanda Forever

The Marvel Black Panther Sale runs through Sunday (2/28).

T’Challa has been gifted with some excellent runs and superior creators over the years.  The earlier material was not as visible as the more recent adventures, so we’re going to highlight those.

The Black Panther Epic Collection: Panther’s Rage is the original Don McGregor run with art by Billy Graham, Rich Buckler and Gil Kane (among others) that really fleshes out the Black Panther cast.  This is where Killmonger first turns up, along with the original rogues gallery.  A classic.

Black Panther: Panther’s Quest is Don McGregor returning to Black Panther for a serial in Marvel Comics Presents. Gene Colan provides the art for this serial, which is a much more grounded take on the character as T’Challa sneaks into South Africa looking for his mother.

Black Panther by Christopher Priest: The Complete Collection is the Priest run (with a rotating cast of artists, particularly early on). Probably the wittiest Black Panther run, this one really runs the gamut from broad farce to thriller. It also builds firmly on the foundation from the original Panther’s Rage sequence.

Panther's Rage x Panther's Quest x Black Panther by Priest

…or you could call it a Spider-Man sale

Marvel’s Miles Morales Sale will run through Sunday (2/28).

These comics can be a little hard to keep track of because of how often Marvel’s felt compelled to give the series a new first issue.  It’s best to start with Miles Morales: Ultimate Spider-Man Ultimate Collection. This omnibus sequence starts from the beginnings in the old Ultimate Universe, where introducing Miles seemed to re-energize Bendis and set him on the path for another long character run.

Miles Morales - Spider-Man

A couple BIG writing names from other fields

The DC Black History Month Sale runs through Monday (2/8).

We seem to recall enjoying American Way when it first came out as a collected edition several years ago.  It’s a well regarded superhero saga that came out from the Wildstorm long before author John Ridley won his Oscar for 12 Years a Slave.  Georges Jeanty and Karl Story provide the art. Interestingly, there’s no collected edition in digital, so you’ll need the single issues here.

Far Sector is a Green Lantern tale by multiple Hugo award winning author N.K. Jemisin and Jamal Campbell. A rookie Green Lantern on the far side of galaxy investigates a murder in a world where emotions have been suppressed.  This series hasn’t actually wrapped up yet, but you can get a chunk of it for $0.99 a pop.

Michael Cray  by Bryan Hill and N. Steven Harris might be an odd one to pick up solo, but it’s a good one. A companion piece to the Warren Ellis Wildstorm revival, Cray is an assassin for International Operations and is leaving the bodies of the Wildstorm universe’s funhouse mirror versions of the Justice League in his wake.

American Way   Far Sector   Michael Cray

Ninja Assassin

Marvel’s Elektra Sale runs though Sunday (2/7).  Elektra’s one of those characters that’s so strongly associated with her creator, we’re also going to recommend the early material as a starting point.

Elektra Assassin is probably the artistic high point. This Frank Miller/Bill Sienkiewicz series involves Elektra and a SHIELD agent named Garrett chasing and being chased by The Beast. It’s a very subversive take on Elektra and extremely influential.

You also can’t go wrong with Miller’s original run which is contained in 3 volumes of Daredevil by Frank Miller & Klaus Janson.

Elektra Assassin   Daredevil by Frank Miller

Hammered

Dark Horse has the Black Hammer Sale running through Monday (2/8).  No, we don’t think this is a Black History Month sale. This is the much celebrated superhero tale by Jeff Lemire and Dean Ormston. It starts out with a group of heroes trapped for years in rural community and eventually builds out an entire universe around it. It’s probably best to start with the main series before branching out into the supporting mini-series.  It’s a comic that’s earned it’s way over the years.  Head up: the “regular” collections are slightly less expensive that the “library” editions.

Black Hammer

All kinds of FF on sale

Marvel’s Fantastic Four: World’s Greatest Sale runs through Thursday (2/11).

This is a challenging one to provide links for.  There are tons of digital collections crammed into long running series and you’re probably better off going through the main sale link for individual items.  But what do we like?  The Epic Editions are nice and thick. You can get the whole Lee/Kirby run there, as well as later material.  The best volume is probably The Coming of Galactus or The Name is Doom… but we’ve nothing but good things to say about the Walt Simonson run.

Past that, Fantastic Four by Mark Waid & Mike Wieringo is awfully good.

The Coming of Galactus  Fantastic Four by Walt Simonson  FF by Waid and Ringo

The inverse of “well” comics

The (IDW) Top Shelf Sale runs through Monday (12/15).  Top Shelf being an imprint IDW pulled into its orbit a few years ago with a longer history of alternative and arts comics.

The Bojeffries Saga is one of the thinner volumes we’ll recommend, but it’s one we’ve always liked.  The easiest way to describe it is Alan Moore’s British Adams Family.  Yes, Alan Moore’s pretty darn funny when he has a mind to be. This is him and Steve Parkhouse telling tales of a monstrous family.

They Called Us Enemy is George Takei’s multiple award winning memoir of his childhood in a Japanese Internment Camp during World War II. It’s co-written with Steven Scott and Justin Eisinger with art by Harmony Becker.

The Bojeffries Saga   They Called Us Enemy

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Comixology Sales: Big DC Sale, Batman, Spider-Man, James Bond, Fear Agent, Bendis’s Goldfish and More

This week’s Comixology sales include a wide ranging DC graphic novel sale, Spider-Man’s married years, James Bond and the end of the Image Science Fiction blowout.

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

DC Graphic Novels

DC is having their 2-Part “Road to Black Friday” graphic novel sale, so here’s DC Road to Black Friday Sale – Graphic Novels I. (We’ll come back for a closer look at Part 2 of the sale on Friday.)  Part 1 is essentially Action Comics through Justice League and features a whole lot of Batman.

In fact, several of Part 1’s value buys involve Batman.  As you may recall, James Tynion IV is the current Batman writer.  When the “Rebirth” relaunch started, he was the writer for an extended run on Detective Comics and it was very much what I’d call a “Batman Family” affair.  The “deluxe editions” of that run are $7.99 a pop for roughly 12 issues of material per volume.  That’s a decent value and the volumes are linked below:

Detective Comics by Tynion   Detective Comics  Detective Comics  Detective Comics

Even you’d like even more bang for your buck, Tales of the Batman: Archie Goodwin gets you 471 pages of Batman written by one of the best writers (and editors) in comics for $7.99.  Tales of the Batman: Steve Englehart is a couple dollars more for roughly an issue less of material, but I believe it’s the complete collection of one of the most influential Batman scribes.  Plenty of Batman to sift through if you go to the main sale page.

Tales of the Batman: Archie Goodwin  Tales of the Batman: Steve Englehart

Stepping away from Batman, other titles of interest include: Boy Commandos V. 2 – That’s the second collection of the highly influential 1940’s Simon & Kirby comic about a kid gang that punches Nazis.  It seems highly unlikely you’d ever see the print edition for $5.99.  (85% off list)

Dial H is weird fiction legend China Miéville’s dark, quirky and surreal take on Dial H for Hero with Mateus Santolouco and Alberto Ponticelli on art.  This was criminally overlooked by most people when it came out and 398 pages for $7.99 is a good buy, too.

Before he ever set foot at DC or Marvel, Brian Bendis did crime comics.  He didn’t just write them, he drew them. Goldfish is the story of a con man returning to Cleveland looking for his son and it’s one of the tales that put Bendis on the map. You don’t hear about it much, these day, but it’s good one.  There’s over 900 graphic novels in part 1 of the sale, which runs through Monday (11/23)

Boy Commandos  Dial H  Goldfish

Spider-Man’s Married Life

Meanwhile, over at Marvel, the Amazing Spider-Man Renew Your Vows Sale is running through Thursday (11/19).  That would be the adventures of a married Peter and Mary Jane, along with their daughter, Annie.  It started out as a Secret Wars spin-off mini by Dan Slott and Adam Kubert.  Then it came back as a regular series, initially by Gerry Conway and Ryan Stegman.

Spider-Man Renew Your Vows   Spider-Man Renew Your Vows

Dynamite’s First Volumes

Also ending on Thursday (11/19) is the Dynamite Vol. 1’s Sale, which is Dynamite putting the first volumes in various series on sale. The Shadow, Vol. 1: Fire of Creation is Garth Ennis’s take on the pulp character with art by Aaron Campbell (who’s been killing on Hellblazer).

If you enjoy the original Ian Fleming  novels, James Bond: Kill Chain by Andy Diggle and Luca Casalanguida will put you in a happy place – it brings SMERSH back into the Bond equation and it’s old school in all the best ways.

Red Sonja: Scorched Earth by Mark Russell and Mirko Colak is a very unusual Red Sonja tale.  It works as a satire of the philosophy of kings and it also works as an adventure.  Who knew Mark Russell would adapt so well to sword & sorcery?  Worth a look.

The Shadow   James Bond: Kill Chain  Red Sonja

Image’s Science Fiction

Thursday (11/19) is also last call for the Image Science Fiction Sale.  Here are a couple more things of note from that sale.  

Fear Agent is a SF series from Rick Remender, Tony Moore and Jerome Opena about a booze-soaked alien exterminator that was a critical darling when it was coming out.

Casanova by Matt Fraction, Gabriel Ba and Fabio Moon is trippy, dimension hopping espionage caper that has a certain Jerry Cornelius vibe to it.

Fear Agent  Casanova

Still on Sale:

Miles Morales: Spider-Man (through Sunday, 11/22)

Miles Morales - Spider-Man

Dark Horse Witcher Sale (through Monday, 11/23) Note: The Omnibus is the best deal by a lot.

Witcher

Posted on by comics_p1pusl