Tag: Jason Aaron

Comixology (at Amazon) Sales: Vertigo, Hellblazer, War of the Realms, Silk, Doctor Who and an Unannounced Dark Horse Sale

In this week’s Comixology (at Amazon) sales, DC discounts the Vertigo line and Hellblazer. Marvel drops prices on War of the Realms and Silk. Plus, Doctor Who and is that another unannounced Dark Horse 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):

So Much For Balance

100 Bullets   Doom Patrol  DMZ

The  DC Vertigo Sale runs through Monday, 1/29.

For an imprint DC shuttered years ago, it sure does have a prominent place on their online promotional list, doesn’t it? DC would probably tell you Black Label serves a similar purpose, but we keep expecting Vertigo to rise from the ashes one of these days. They had an awful lot of interesting material and some of it is starting to migrate to other publishers (like Dark Horse’s Berger Books imprint, to the surprise of exactly no one).

The nickel tour of Vertigo titles:

  • 100 Bullets – Classic revenge/crime/spies mashup by Brian Azzarello and Eduardo Risso
  • American Vampire – The comic that first put Scott Snyder on the map as a new breed of Vampire emerges in the West and clashes with what came before. Rafael Albuquerque is the artist and Stephen King lends a hand at launch.
  • The American Way: Those Above and Those Below – John Ridley / George Jeanty; Just your average superhero alternate history tale written by an Oscar winner. Sequel to the Wildstorm series that isn’t collected/on sale.
  • Animal Man – While the Grant Morrison/Chas Troug run is what gets talked about, This is followed by Peter Milligan, Tom Veitch and Jamie Delano with Steve Dillon and Steve Pugh on art. Not exactly chopped liver.
  • Daytripper – Fabio Moon & Gabriel Ba
  • Dead Boy Detectives – Toby Litt & Mark Buckingham. Young ghosts solve crimes. Coming soon to Netflix…
  • Doom Patrol ’89 – The Grant Morrison / Richard Case run. Legendary and adapted for television. Perhaps one day they’ll adapt the rest of the run. 
  • DMZ – Brian Wood / Riccardo Burcchielli; As the US is in the middle of a civil war, a reporter becomes trapped in the no man’s land that is NYC and navigates of landscape of warlords and political intrigue from both sides.  Doesn’t get hype anymore, but a solid series that hasn’t exactly gotten stale.
  • Ex Machina – Brian K. Vaughan (Saga) / Tony Harris (Starman); Originally Wildstorm, now Vertigo, this political thriller/powers genre bender finds a world’s only superhero being elected mayor of NYC. (Long before Lucas Cage or even Wilson Fisk.)
    Fables   Preacher   Swamp Thing
  • Fables – Bill Willingham / Mark Buckingham
  • Flex Mentallo – Grant Morrison / Frank Quitely; A delightfully odd/surreal tale that starts out as parody of the old Charles Atlas ads. And an early Morrison/Quitely pairing. They work well together.
  • iZombie – Chris Roberson / Mike Allred; A zombie detective dramedy adapted for television
  • Jew Gangster – Joe Kubert; Kubert lets loose with a ’30s crime tale.
  • Lucifer – Before he was M.R. Carey and handing out “all the gifts,” Mike Carey had a long run on this Sandman spin-off. Peter Gross is the artist.
  • Preacher – Garth Ennis / Steve Dillion; Another Vertigo TV adaption (you might be noticing a pattern), God has gone missing and Jesse Custer would like to have a word with him. Also, power abhors a vacuum.
  • Punk Rock Jesus – Sean Murphy’s tale of reality TV, religion and Punk (before his solo Batman work)
  • Saga of the Swamp Thing – The classic Alan Moore years (he’s good, that one); plus the Mark Millar years.
  • Sandman Mystery Theater – Matt Wagner / Steven T. Seagle / Guy Davis; The Golden Age Sandman in a pulpy mystery series (but with a bit more character work than your average pulp). Highly recommended.
  • Sandman – By some chap named Gaiman. You may have heard of it.
    Scalped   Unwritten   Y the Last Man
  • Scalped – Jason Aaron / R.M. Guera – An FBI agent goes undercover (as himself) on the reservation he thought he’d escaped to investigate the reservation casino. Aaron starting out in the crime genre we wish he could do more of.
  • Sweet Tooth – Jeff Lemire; As seen on Netflix.
  • Top 10 – Alan Moore / Gene Ha / Zander Cannon – Another Wildstorm (OK, technically America’s Best Comics) series now dubbed “Vertigo,” this is Alan Moore’s delightful excursion into the Hill Street Blues style of police procedural… but with superheroes as the law. Good stuff.
  • The Unwritten – Mike (M.R.) Carey and Peter Gross reunite for the tale of a boy one whom a Harry Potter-esque series of books was based discovers he might actually be the literary character made flesh and the lines between fiction and reality are fluid.
  • Y: The Last Man – Brian K. Vaughan (him again) and Pia Guerra in the tale of the last man alive after a mysterious incident kills everyone else on Earth with a Y chromosome. Well, except his monkey. You may have even seen the TV series.

What the Hel…
Hellblazer  Hellblazer Hellblazer: rise + fall

The DC John Constantine, Hellblazer Sale runs through Monday, 1/22.

While perhaps not the original Vertigo flagship book, Hellblazer ended up being the longest running title and something DC has tried to revive (with mixed results) post-Vertigo. Let’s run it down:

  • Hellblazer ’88 – DC would like to call it “John Constantine, Hellblazer” in the post-Keanu world, but that’s not what anyone calls it. The first run is just Hellblazer. And it’s as solid a 300 issues as you’ll find. Jamie Delano. Neil Gaiman. Garth Ennis. Brian Azzarello. Mike Carey. Paul Jenkins. John Ridgeway. David Lloyd. Steve Dillon. The list goes on quite a while. A parade of top talent, if we’re honest. Good horror comics!
  • John Constantine: Hellblazer – City of Demons ’11- One-off graphic novel by Si Spencer and Sean Murphy. We seem to recall liking it.
  • Constantine ’13 – The new 52 relaunch. Mostly Ray Fawkes / Renato Guedes
  • Constantine: The Hellblazer ’15 – Ming Doyle / James Tynion IV / Riley Rossmo
  • The Hellblazer ’16 – Rotating creators; we haven’t read this one, but it’s notable that V. 4 is co-written by Sandman Slim novelist Richard Kadrey
  • John Constantine, Hellblazer ’19 – This is the Si Spurrier/Aaron Campbell version we’ve been stumping for around here. Right up there with the best runs and DC just started a new series of it. Both volumes make for 1 story and it’s great.
  • Hellblazer: Rise and Fall ’20 – Tom Taylor/Darick Robertson Black Lablel tale. (And with that team, you should know if you want it.)
  • The Mystery of the Meanest Teacher: A Johnny Constantine Graphic Novel ’21 – Ryan North / Derek Charm YA tale
  • Constantine: Distorted Illusions – Kami Garcia / Isaac Goodhart do teen Constantine and his band

This Means War

War of the Realms  Thor Road to War of the Realms

The Marvel War of the Realms Sale runs through Monday, 1/22.

This would be the Jason Aaron Thor Event.

You know how all these Events have “The Road to” type lead-ins? That’s the case here, except it’s part of the Thor series: Thor V.2: The Road to War of the Realms (Jason Aaron / Mike del Mundo / Tony Moore).

There’s also War of the Realms Prelude, which is a collection of issues from various Thor titles that have some bearing/build-up to the Event.

The meat of the Event is the collection of the miniseries (War of the Realms – Aaron/Russell Dauterman). If it were us, we’d probably have included Thor V.3 – War’s End (Aaron/Del Mundo), but that’s not actually part of the sale for whatever reason.

As usually there are a lot of tie-in books. Choose those at your liberty, though Aaron writes the Avengers tie-in (with Ed McGuinness).

Not Just For Handkerchiefs

The Marvel Silk Sale runs through Monday, 1/22
Silk  Silk

We know what you’re thinking: “I thought Silk belonged to Quality Comics.”  And you’d be right, but that’s “Her Highness and Silk,” the Kid Eternity foes who got spun off into their own feature. This is the Marvel Spidey spin-off.

Silk starts out in the ’14 edition of Amazing Spider-Man by Dan Slott and Humberto Ramos.

Then Silk gets handed off to Robbie Thompson, whom we can safely call Cindy Moon’s primary writer.

  • There was a ’15 mini-series that Marvel identifies as a  Vol. 0 by Thompson and Stacy Lee.
  • Followed by the ’15 ongoing Silk series by Thompson with Lee as the primary artist.
  • Both of the ’15 series, plus the Amazing Spider-Man material are also collected in Silk: Out of the Spider-Verse, because… well, you know how it goes with Marvel collections. They like to rebrand.
  • During the above run, there was also an Amazing Spider-Man & Silk: Spider(Fly) Effect infinity comic (i.e. webcomic) by Thompson and Todd Nauck
  • There was a ’21 Silk series by Maurene Goo and Takeshi Mitazawa (Amazon appears to have incorrect creator credits on this.)

Who Dat?

Doctor Who

The Titan The Eleventh Doctor Sale runs through Monday, 2/26.

That’s Eleventh Doctor, as is Matt Smith’s Doctor.

These comics come in two formats:

The single issues are cheaper. (Collected editions tend to be 5 issues.)

We would like to point out some creator names you might recognize. Early in the run, you’ve got writing by Al Ewing and Simon (Si) Spurrier. Both of whom get mentioned around here a fair amount.

Unannounced Dark Horse Sale
Empowered

We’re not sure how long this is running, but the omnibus editions of Adam Warren’s Empowered on sale. It’s superhero satire about a heroine with terrible luck and unreliable powers.

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Comixology (at Amazon) Sales: X-Men, Wolverine, Hawkeye and Batman

In this week’s Comixology (at Amazon) sales, Marvel brings the mutants – Hickman era X-Men and Jason Aaron’s escapades with Wolverine. Plus Hawkeye and the DC “Hot 100” sale which has a lot of Batman to it.

Where did the New Releases and Sale pages go?

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

Let’s Put the X in Hickman

The Marvel X-Men From Dawn to Reign Sale runs until Thursday, 9/8.

And gosh golly, if that sale’s name isn’t an awful lot of contortion to avoid saying the Hickman showrunning era.  For those coming in late, Jonathan Hickman was a sort of creative director of the X-line for a very productive period. He wrote a few and gave guidance on the other titles. After the Inferno series, he moved on to other things when the rest of writers expressed interest in working with the current status quo a bit longer. Hickman had planned on moving on to the next phase of a longer story arc he’d mapped out, so… perhaps he’ll return to that at some point?

This is one of those sale pages where someone (it isn’t clear if it’s Marvel or Amazon) is trying to do us all a solid and separate out things, dividing things in to sections or tiers with scrolling carousels. We approve of the effort.

The first tier, “The Krakoa Era Begins Here,” is the spine of the era: the Hickman core, if you will.  You need to start with House of X / Powers of X, which establishes the new status quo.  You then continue into the Hickman-penned X-Men flagship title.  All the X-titles eventually flow into two events: first X of Swords (which is more of an Exaclibur story) and finally Inferno ends the era, at least in terms of Hickman’s writing and overall role.  So yeah, when they say “Krakoa Era,” they’re again dodging Hickman’s name and it kind of amuses us how awkward that is.  Hox/Pox is the beginning of the Krokoa era, sure enough. The rest? That’s stretching definitions.  So if you get everything listed in this tier you’ll get the “story of the universe” of the X-Men comics of that era. (Mind you, despite how comic book marketing works these days, “the story of the universe” is not the end-all/be-all of reading enjoying.)

This sale is on the collections of the individual titles (as opposed to the Dawn of X and Reign of X collections), so that lends itself to chery-picking. Do we have opinions on this? Of course, and we ended up liking some of the titles on the periphery best.

Hellions by Zeb Wells and Stephen Segovia is a demented delight. A dark, snarky and occasionally violent series that finds Mr. Sinister pulling the strings on a wetworks squad of broken toys (Psylocke, Havoc, Nanny, Wildchild, etc) to clean up some of his… side projects.

Way of X by Si Spurrier and Bob Quinn is about Nightcrawler and Legion trying to head off the re-emergence of Onslaught, but Nightcrawler trying to reconcile his religion with Krakoa’s resurrection protocols and his efforts toward synthesizing a mutant religion really steals the scenes.

S.W.O.R.D. by Al Ewing and Valerio Schiti is the cosmic title of the bunch. The mutants have been proactive establishing a space station to house an agency to protect Earth against extraterrestrial threats… and that’s before they establish Arakko on Mars. Cosmic adventures and more than a little political intrigue & deception.

Hellions by Zeb Wells   Way of X   S.W.O.R.D.

You’re Not Yourself, Have a SNIKT!

The Marvel Wolverine by Jason Aaron Sale runs through Monday, 8/29.

This can pretty much be narrowed down to two titles:

Wolverine by Jason Aaron collects several titles, including the end of the ’03 Wolverine, Wolverine: Manifest Destiny, Wolverine: Weapon X, Spider-Man & Wolverine and the ’10 version of Wolverine.  And yes, towards the end of the run is when Aaron sends Wolverine to Hell. Lots of artists over the course of this work, including Adam Kubert, Ron Garney and Howard Chaykin.

Wolverine & The X-Men is the post-Schism run where Logan heads back to Westchester to run the Jean Grey School. Aaron writes, the artists most associated with this run are Nick Bradshaw and Chris Bachalo (with some early Pepe Larraz towards the end).

Wolverine by Jason Aaron   Wolverine and the X-Men

Hawkguy

The Marvel Hawkeye Sale runs through Thusday, 9/1.

When people think of Hawkeye, they usually start thinking about the iconic and quirky Matt Fraction / David Aja run. Lucky you, Marvel’s put the whole thing in one volume as Hawkeye by Fraction & Aja: The Saga of Barton and Bishop.

Hawkeye Epic Collection: The Avenging Archer is the old school option. This has the original Iron Man appearances, some Avengers, some Marvel Team-Up, the original solo mini-series and so forth.

If you’re in a Kate Bishop mood, you’re probably looking for the Hawkeye run by Kelly Thompson and Leonardo Romero.

Hawkeye   Hawkeye   Hawkeye

Is That a Radio Format?

The DC Hot 100 Sale runs through Monday, 8/29.

It’s somewhat random set of DC books on sale this week.  Predictably, there’s a lot of Batman in there.

You want something good from the last couple years?  We highly recommend Batman: The Adventures Continue by Alan Burnett, Paul Dini and Ty Templeton. It’s a continuation of The Animated Series and it’s first rate Batman. Highly recommended if you have a fondness for the cartoon.

If you want something a little older No Man’s Land was probably our favorite Batman Event of the 90s. The first volume (of the regular set, not “Road to,” even has some work by Bob Gale. We’re always happy when he does some comics! The premise is Gotham has been cut off from the mainland by an earthquake. Things have gone a little feudal and the various villains are setting themselves up as warlords in various neighborhood as Batman and friends try to keep things under control until the situation improves. If you’re thinking this sounds a bit like the DMZ series, you’re not imagining things… but No Man’s Land came out ~5 years earlier.

The most recent book in this sale is the Mattson Tomlin/Andrea Sorrentino Batman: The Imposter.

Batman: The Adventures Continue   Batman: No Man's Land   Batman: The Imposter

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Comixology Sales: War of the Realms, West Coast Avengers, Tynion’s Early Batman and Critical Role

This week in Comixology sales, Marvel drops a discount on War of the Realms and West Coast Avengers, DC offers up samplers of the “Rebirth” era, Dark Horse spotlights Critical Role… and don’t forget that Saga sale is still in effect.

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

A little heads up here – as you may have heard, Comixology has been saying that their website will be absorbed into the Amazon website since… September?  The date of the switchover has been pushed back. A lot. But we’ve been hearing around the water cooler that it should be any day now and we’re honestly not sure whether or not it’s going to flip over between now and February 1st.  Maybe it will and maybe the changeover will get pushed back again.  If you get redirected to Amazon, that’s why we’ve been putting the Amazon links for the sales in.

This Means War

The Marvel War of the Realms Sale runs through Sunday, 1/30 (Amazon link)

Yes, the Thor Event.  What you get depends on how you want to read it.

For deep background, the Thor of the Realms anthology will give a selection of stories from Lee/Kirby, Walt Simonson and other. This falls under “classic material.”

Thor V.2: Road to War of the Realms by Jason Aaron and Mike Del Mundo is the lead-in to the actual event, so starting there would also be appropriate.

And then there’s finally War of the Realms, the actual Jason Aaron/Russell Dauterman Event mini-series wherein Malekith invades Midgard after conquering the rest of the ten realms.

You get through that and want more, there are plenty of spin-offs available.

Thor of the Realms   Thor Road to War of the Realms   War of the Realms

Turn Left (Coast)

The Marvel West Cost Avengers Sale runs through Sunday, 1/30. (Amazon link)

We can sum this one up very easily.  Much more easily than most sales. Get the Epic Collections.  “How the West Was Won” has the original Roger Stern/Bob Hall limited series and then jumps into the Steve Englehart/Al Milgrim ongoing series. The Epic’s take you through the beginning of the John Byrne run, so when you get to “Vision Quest,” get that and stop. (Unless you don’t like Byrne, in which case stop before that.) The next Epic Collection, “Darker Than Scarlet,” has been released, but is too recent to be on sale.  If we have learned one thing, it’s that it _will_ be on sale, so exercise a little patience there.

Avengers West Coast

X’d Out

The Marvel X-Force Legacy Sale runs through Thursday, 2/3. (Amazon link)

We have a clear favorite run of X-Force: The Rick Remender era. A dark era, to be sure, but the X-Force concept was supposed to be a little dark. The best way to pick that run up is to scroll down to the Omnibuses section and grab the two “X-Force by Rick Remender” volumes.

If you want something a LOT different, you can opt for the much loved (a little too popular to be “cult”) Peter Milligan/Mike Allred version, which is farcical take on the team.

X-Force   X-Force

When One Birth is Not Enough

The DC Rebirth eBook Sale runs through Monday, 1/31. (Amazon link)

This would be the deluxe editions of the Rebirth era DC titles, which contain the first two “normal” volumes of those titles.

The creative star of Rebirth, as far as we’re concerned was the relaunch of Wonder Woman under Greg Rucka, Liam Sharp and Nicola Scott. A repositioning of Diana’s origins after the New 52 version (an excellent story, but perhaps better suited to the Elseworlds line), this one has Diana probing her origins and why Paradise Island has disappeared.

While the Tom King Batman was the sales star of Rebirth (and it’s here), we honestly like the James Tynion IV / Eddy Barrows Detective Comics run better. It’s really a sort of Batman Family title as Batman taps Batwoman to assemble Gotham’s vigilantes into more of a cohesive unit in the face of a mysterious force targeting the younger heroes.

We also thought the Dan Jurgens / Patrick Zircher / Tyler Kirkham Action Comics run was a lot more fun than it got credit for.  Let’s be brutally honest: DC hasn’t really been able to find a take on Superman to stick with since New 52 dropped.  This one was a throwback to the tone of late 80s through mid-90s Superman and worked well for what it was… until that ridiculous Jor-El plot got inserted into it towards the end of the run.

Wonder Woman   Detective Comics by Tynion   Action Comics

Game Night

The Dark Horse Critical Role & Vox Machina Sale runs through Monday, 2/7. (Amazon Link)

This would be the *cough* D&D-like comics exploring the backgrounds of the characters from the extremely popular podcast.  Does that make it the story within the story?  Um, maybe?

Critical Role: Vox Machina Origins combines the previous two volumes into a single edition.

Critical Role: The Mighty Nein Origins — Jester Lavorre chronicles the early years of Jester Lavorre… as if you couldn’t guess by the title…

Critical Role   Critical Role - Jester

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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

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Comixology Sales: Star Wars, Y: The Last Man, Garth Ennis, Killadelphia, Red Sonja, Hercules and a LOT of Image

Highlights of this week’s Comixology Sales include a Star Wars sale, discounts on a wide range of Image’s crime-related comics, Hercules, Red Sonja… and you might have heard a Y: The Last Man TV show is approaching, so of course that’s on say.

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

Nothing But Star Wars

The Marvel Star Wars by Aaron & Gillen Sale runs through 9/16.

In one of the most straight forward sales we’ve ever seen at Comixology, this is simply the Marvel Star Wars run that begins with Jason Aaron/John Cassady and ends with Kieron Gillen/Andrea Broccardo, with Salvador Larroca handling much of the art in the middle of the run.  Let’s face it, you already know if you want this or not.

Star Wars

Prince of Power

The Marvel Hercules Sale runs through Sunday, 9/12.

Hercules: Price of Power by Bob Layton is pretty much where Herc starts as a solo character.  It’s something of a space opera centuries in the future and has gained something of a cult following over the years.

For something a hair more recent, we thought the Dan Abnett/Luke Ross Hercules never really got a fair shake.  It was fun and creative with the character.

Now speaking of cult runs, The Thing: Project Pegasus shows up in this sale.  Arguably the best arc from Marvel Two-in-One, Ben Grimm finds himself embroiled in suspicious dealing at Project Pegasus, an alternate energy research facility. (Or is it something more sinister?)  A classic from Gruenwald & Macchio on the writing side, with art by Sal Buscema, John Byrne and George Perez.

Hercules: Prince of Power   Hercules   Project Pegasus

Crime Time

The Image Crime Sale runs through Thursday, 9/16 and comes in two flavors: Graphic Novels and Single Issues.  The single issues are mostly $0.99 and there are a few older titles in there that don’t have their collected editions in digital, so worth a browse. We’ll be looking a bit more at the graphic novels.

To start out with a bit of an oddity, we hadn’t realized Bloody Mary had resurfaced at Image. If that sounds familiar, but you can’t place it, that’s because it’s a Garth Ennis/Carlos Ezquerra dystopian assassin comic that originally saw print at Helix.  Helix?  Yes, Helix – DC’s short lived attempt to create a science fiction-centric version of Vertigo.

Joshua Williamson is having a turn as the focus of attention at DC and will be taking over Batman soon. We always liked Nailbiter, a series he did with Mike Henderson about a small town that produces a highly suspicious number of serial killers and the secret behind it. [Note: it’s slightly less expensive to get the regular collections than the omnibus/deluxe editions.]

Bloody Mary   Nailbiter

About a month back, we finally got around to cracking open Killadelphia and it would be hard to be happier about the first two volumes.  This Rodney Barnes/Jason Shawn Alexander vehicle is a neo-noir detective thriller about a vampire conspiracy over-running Philly. There’s a historical twist we won’t spoil and some VERY good one-liners pop up.  Very highly recommended.

It’s  been just long enough since Criminal wrapped up, not everyone remembers that’s where Ed Brubaker and Sean Phillips used to put their crime stories. All sorts of thoroughly enjoyable mayhem in these, but if you have to choose just one, that’s an easy choice. V. 6, “The Last of the Innocent” is a film noir pastiche of the Archie comics and it is straight up brilliant.

Killadelphia  Criminal

We’ve liked Chew for a long time and consider the first issue an absolute textbook on how to launch a series. This John Layman / Rob Guillory series concerns Tony Chu. In a world where an avian flu has outlawed the consumption of chicken, Chu is an agent of the FDA. He also has the strange ability to know the past of anything he eats. Want to know who killed that corpse? Chomp. Oh, yes… this is beyond absurd and has it all — chicken speakeasies, rogue chefs, aliens, vampires, criminal conspiracies and a death-dealing secret agent rooster named Poyo.

Recently, Chew spawned a spin-off.  Chu is the story of Tony’s sister Saffron, who operates on the opposite side of the law. And their mysterious grandfather. If you like Chew, Chu basically an old friend coming back to visit. John Layman returns and Dan Boultwood handles the art.

Chew   Chu

Y: The Last Sale

The DC Spotlight: Y The Last Man Sale runs through Monday, 9/13.

You may recall that a pre-Saga Brian K. Vaughan teamed with Pia Guerra for Y: The Last Man about the sole male survivor of a mysterious plague. It’s got a TV adaptation that drops on 9/13.  The first 5 items in the sale, “Book One” through “Book Five” are the omnibus editions and better deal for this classic series.

Y the Last Man

Paint the Sale Red

The  Dynamite Red Sonja Sale runs through Thursday, 9/16.

When it comes to Red Sonja, come people want Gail Simone. Some people want Frank Thorne.  And both are on sale, but the Mark Russell / Mirko Colak / Bob Q run is the one that really floored us.  Equal parts military adventure and a satire of pretentious sword & sorcery narratives, the two sides blend together incredibly well for a unique experience.

Red Sonja

Still on Sale

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Comixology Sales – Jason Aaron gets the discount spotlight from Marvel, plus Black Hammer

This week’s Comixology sale highlights include Marvel putting the spotlight on Jason Aaron, plus Jeff Lemire’s and Dean Ormston’s Black Hammer.

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

Jason Aaron’s Spotlight Begins

The Marvel Jason Aaron Sale runs through Thursday, 7/1.

Perhaps best described as the regular Marvel U Jason Aaron, this covers a lot of territory.

If you want a value buy, there’s the nice thick volumes of Thor by Jason Aaron: The Complete Collection, which starts with the “God Butcher” material and features art by the likes of Nic Klein, Ron Garney, Esad Ribic and Russell Dauterman (among others) as the saga unfolds and Jane Foster moves to center stage.

There’s also the entire “Life and Death of Conan” run by Aaron and Mahmud Arsar from Conan the Barbarian, now in one volume.

And quite a bit more, since Aaron’s had a long run at Marvel.

Thor by Jason Aaron   Conan the Barbarian

Ultimate Aarons?

The Marvel Ultimate Universe  Sale runs through Sunday, 6/27.

You already know about the original flagship titles of the Ultimate run, so let’s look at a couple things from a bit later in the universe from names you might just find familiar.

How about Ultimate Captain America by Jason Aaron (him again?) and Ron Garney, which we enjoyed back in the day.

And before was the X-Men showrunner, Jonathan Hickman had a run on Ultimate Comics – The Ultimates with Esad Ribic as the primary artist. Most people would consider that an interesting creative pair, we think.

Ultimate Captain America   Ultimate Comics - The Ultimates

Getting Hammered

The  Dark Horse Black Hammer Sale runs through Monday, 6/28.

This critical darling by Jeff Lemire and Dean Ormston is very much a world building experience.  Start with the core series and then branch to the spin-offs as the spotlighted characters catch your fancy.  There’s plenty of imagination to go around.

Black Hammer

Still on Sale

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Comixology Sales – Marvel Still 50% off with Captain Marvel, Thor, Darkhawk, Carl Barks, Don Rosa, The Question, All-Star Squadron and Atomic Robo

This week in Comixology sales, Marvel’s still half off for Comixology Unlimited subscribers with stackable discounts on Captain Marvel, Thor and Darkhawk that makes them awfully CHEAP. Plus some DC Classics highlights, Atomic Robo and Disney Ducks.

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

50% off Marvel for Comixology Unlimited Subscribers

That’s right, if you’re a Comixology Unlimited subscriber, you get 1/2 off all Marvel comics (except subscriptions and bundles) through 11pm ET on Monday, 4/19. Unusually, this includes _current_ comics. It also includes pre-orders. Click here to see the release week view for Marvel. You can move forward, week-to-week and pre-order at 1/2 off through the end of June.

And yes, that CU discount stacks on top of the sales, so some of those Captain Marvel and Thor collections are a rock bottom $1.50. We think that qualifies as cheap.

Kree Goodness

The  Marvel Captain Marvel World’s Mightiest Hero Sale runs through Sunday, 4/18. It’s predominantly made up of three runs:

Captain Marvel   Captain Marvel   Ms. Marvel

The Once and Future Thor

The Marvel Jane Foster Sale runs through Thursday (Thor’s Day), 4/22. This would encompass the three titles Jason Aaron has written with Jane.

It starts with Thor by Aaron and Russell Dauterman.

It’s Marvel, so of course there was a relaunch, and it emerged as The Mighty Thor, still with Aaron and Dauterman as the primary creators.

After the Thor runs were over, Jane becomes Valkyrie as written by Aaron and Al Ewing with Cafu as the primary artist.

Thor   The Mighty Thor   Valkyrie

Not Nighthawk

The Marvel Darkhawk Sale runs through Sunday, 4/18.

Darkhawk Classic is the original run by Danny Fingeroth and Mike Manley.

For something a little different in the Darkhawk vein, there’s Amazing Spider-Man Epic Collection: Round Robin. Darkhawk teams up with Spidey, Punisher, Moon Knight, Nova and Night Thrasher (yes, it’s the ’90s) in the titular tale from that collection from the Michelinie/Bagley era of Amazing.

Darkhawk Classic   Amazing Spider-Man Epic Collection: Round Robin

DC Single Issues That Haven’t Been Collected

The DC Classics Sale runs through Monday, 4/19 and it’s broken into 5 sections:        Graphic Novels, Single Issues I, Single Issues II, Single Issues III and Single Issues IV

Last week, we looked at graphic novels in this sale. This week, we’re looking at a few individual series that haven’t been collected into graphic novel format… and in some case might not ever be. They are, however, on sale for 99 cents a pop.

All-Star Comics is the original home of the Justice Society of America. If you’d like some Golden Age material, this is a decent buy. The 70’s revival featuring folks like Gerry Conway, Paul Levitz, Wally Wood and Joe Staton is also on sale.

All-Star Squadron is the Roy Thomas 1940s Justice Society-adjacent series where Johnny Quick, Liberty Belle, Robotman, The Shining Knight and Firebrand step up alongside the usual suspects. There were several artists on this one, but Jerry Ordway’s run was a particular highlight (which spun into Infinity, Inc.).

Legion of Super-Heroes is the “Baxter” run of the title, which is mostly out of print. This will likely eventually get collected. Paul Levitz is the writer with a rotation of artists that includes a bit of Keith Giffen at the beginning and end, with Steve Lightle and Greg Larocque

Plastic Man in this instance is the original Plastic Man by Jack Cole. If you haven’t seen the original, it’s well worth a dollar. There’s a reason it’s considered a classic and the character endures… those it’s very rare for it to equal Cole’s work.

The Question is one of those titles that really should have been collected a long time ago. An absolute classic from the late ’80s with Denny O’Neil, Denys Cowan and Rick Magyar on what’s essentially a hardboiled Zen kung fu romp.  Yes, it’s actually a very philosophical comic and we seldom see its like.

All-Star Comics   All-Star Squadron   Legion of Super Heroes   Plastic Man   The Question

Robot vs. Nazis and Dinosaurs

The Atomic Robo Sale runs through Thursday, 4/22.

This such a fun series, a thinking robot created by Tesla goes on adventures taking on mad scientists, dinosaurs, Nazi’s… you know, the usual suspects. Brian Clevenger and Scott Wegener do the honors.

Atomic Robo

Quack

The Fantagraphics Walt Disney Sale runs through Monday, 4/19.

Sure, there’s some Eurocomics and classic Mickey Mouse, but the class of the sale is the two Duck Masters: The Complete Carl Barks Disney Library  and The Don Rosa Library.

The Complete Carl Barks Disney Library   The Don Rosa Library

 

Still on Sale

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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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