Tag: Man-Thing

Comixology (at Amazon) Sales: Doctor Strange, Marvel Monsters, The Flash, Wonder Woman, Cyberpunk 2077

In this week’s Comixology (at Amazon) sales, more Marvel Halloween mayhem with Doctor Strange and the Marvel Monsters. DC has a few more recent collected edition releases, plus Cyberpunk 2077.

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 Doctor Will See You Now

Doctor Strange in Strange Tales  Doctor Strange by Englehart  Doctor Strange - The Oath

The  Marvel Doctor Strange Sale runs through Monday, 11/4.

And it’s most of the Doctor Strange material that’s been collected in book form. Alas, the Masterworks are not in this sale and they’re a little further along the 70s/80s series than the Epics are.

It seems the Jed MacKay run is still being kept separate from the “regular” Doctor Strange sale. No, it makes no sense to us, either. Parts of it have been discounted elsewhere.

What’s good?  The original Lee/Ditko run is great and you can get that in the first Epic Collection. Things pick up again when Englehart and Brunner show up towards the end of the Marvel Premiere run and the whole ’74-’87 run is solid, though we have a particular soft spot for the Roger Stern / Marshall Rogers / Paul Smith material towards the end.  Yes, Doctor Strange had A list creators most of the time.  That’s your core.

Another personal favorite is Doctor Strange: The Oath by a pre-Saga Brian K. Vaughan and Marcos Martin. They’ve both moved on to bigger things, but a long run by those two would have been a real highlight.

Something under the radar?  The final Waid/Walker run is also a lot more under the radar than it should be.

Or We Could Just Call It a Halloween Sale

Man-Thing by Steve Gerber  Tomb of Dracula  Marvel Zombies

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

One thing you’ll note when browsing the links is how the 70s “Complete Collections” are in the process of turning into “Masterworks” editions. We suspect that when the Masterworks are complete, the Complete Collections will be rebranded as Epic Collections.

So first, an overview of the highlights:

What’s good here? There are two titles you’ll usually hear mentioned as the top Marvel monster/horror book:

Man-Thing – three volumes get you the full run of one of Gerber’s longest running associations. He didn’t create the Man-Thing, but Gerber defined him. The final volume even catches you up on the Marvel Comics Presents serial and The Infernal Man-Thing miniseries that was published post-posthumously. There are a lot of artists tagging in and out, but prominent ones include Mike Ploog, Val Mayerick, John Buscema, Tom Sutton and Kevin Nowlan. Yes, both DC and Marvel had great swamp monster runs that kicked off at roughly the same time.

Tomb of Dracula – This one had some creative false starts, but once Marv Wolfman and Gene Colan have a couple issues to settle in and start building their supporting cast, this quickly becomes one of the most interesting books Marvel was publishing for it’s 70 issue issue run. Like Man-Thing, it’s one of the gems of the ’70s.

And for something a little more modern, there’s Marvel Zombies. The “Complete Collection” editions are extra interesting because the first one collects the Zombie dimension’s initial appearances away from the miniseries that followed. While the mini’s have occasion to float into the absurd, the initial appearances where a little more firmly in the horror world. And yes, the first two mini’s were Robert Kirkman writing zombies at Marvel.

Pride Cometh Before the Sale

The Flash  Shazam  Wonder Woman

The DC Fall Sale runs through Monday, 10/21.

A lot of the more relatively recent collections this week. Here are some things that jumped out at us, most of them at a cheap $2.99, a common price for this sale:

What’s good here?

Wonder Woman is actually something of a political thriller and King’s political inclinations flow a little better here than they have in other places as it makes a slow, deliberate march into “enemy of the state” territory.

Shazam! should be a top choice if you’re looking for something that leads with fun, as it course corrects the character back towards the classic format.

The Flash starts out with the Speed Force and then veers off in more of a cosmic horror direction. Maybe skip the very out of place Beast World tie-in in the middle of it, but stay for the strangeness and sense of wonder as the mystery slowly unspools.

The Marvel “Maybe” Sales

Blood Hunt  Edge of the Spider-Verse: Spider Society  Predator: The Last Hunt

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

  • Blood Hunt – Jed MacKay / Pepe Larraz – $9.99

Unannounced Sales

Cyberpunk 2077   Cyberpunk 2077 Big City Dreams  The Nasty

Looks like there’s an unannounced sale on Dark Horse’s Cyberpunk 2077. A video game adaptation with an interesting award to its credit.

The first four collections can be found here.

After which, the property went to the album format Dark Horse sometimes uses for titles with a higher bookstore profile, which are listed with the single issues:

Big City Dreams was the 2023 Hugo Award winner for Best Graphic Story or Comic. And there you have it.

Also with discounts: remember  The Nasty by John Lees & Adam Cahoon? Come to find out, it’s on the New York Public Library’s list of the 50 Best New Comics for Adults in 2024.

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Comixology (at Amazon Sales) – DC and Marvel Halloween Sales; Unannounced Dark Horse Halloween Sale; X-Men

In this week’s Comixology (at Amazon) sales, DC & Marvel Halloween sales. An *unannounced* Dark Horse Halloween Sale. Plus, discounts on X-Men.

Where did the New Releases and Sale pages go?

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

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

DC’s Halloween Sale

The DC Horror and Mystery Sale runs through Monday, 10/30.

Picking up where we left off last week, let’s have a look at the back half of this most interesting sale, where the prices are uniformly good.

What’s good? Pretty much all of it, and much of it at a friendly $2.99 price.  Some more off the beaten path recommendations you might be less familiar with:

Night Force is the Tomb of Dracula team of Marv Wolfman & Gene Colan getting back together at DC a few years later for a new horror comic. Marv once told us it’s his favorite of his books. Baron Winters lives in an old mansion in the Georgetown neighborhood of DC with his pet leopard. He doesn’t leave the mansion. The mansion has a door that leads to other times and places. He also has somewhat reluctant minions that look into things for him. Supernatural things. It’s a good one for Halloween that doesn’t get enough love.

The Spectre by John Ostrander & Tom Mandrake was quietly one of DC’s best books of the 90s, along with Starman and Sandman Mystery Theater. Jim Corrigan died, yet he still walks the Earth. His soul has been intertwined with The Wrath of God, an entity that manifests itself as The Spectre. The Spectre seeks vengeance and Jim Corrigan struggles to come to grips with his existence. Sound like a Vertigo book? It would have fit in, though Vertigo was mostly operating in it’s own space, away from DC continuity at that point.

Speaking of DC in the 90s, The Books of Magic is one of Neil Gaiman’s lesser known DC works and his entry in the “boy wizard” sub-genre. Timothy Hunter is child destined to be a most powerful wizard, though there is some question about how he might use his aptitude for magic. The Phantom Stranger, John Constantine, Doctor Occult and Mister E (yes, this is the introduction of the Trenchcoat Brigade) give him a tour of the magical side of the DC universe in an attempt to feel him out, as the Cult of the Cold Flame also searches for Tim. It’s not exactly Harry Potter, but it’s ballpark. Gaiman attributes it to he and Rowling drawing on the same literary sources. This one just happened to come out a few years earlier.

Night Force      The Books of Magic

Marvel’s Halloween Sale

The Marvel Halloween Sale runs through Tuesday, 10/31.

That’s right, an extra day so it’s on the proper day.

Lots of titles in this one, but if we were to boil it down to three series, here’s how it would fall:

Man-Thing by Steve Gerber: The Complete Collection – three volumes get you the full run of one of Gerber’s longest running associations. He didn’t create the Man-Thing, but Gerber defined him. The final volume even catches you up on the Marvel Comics Presents serial and The Infernal Man-Thing miniseries that was published post-posthumously. There are a lot of artists tagging in and out, but prominent ones include Mike Ploog, Val Mayerick, John Buscema, Tom Sutton and Kevin Nowlan. Yes, both DC and Marvel had great swamp monster runs that kicked off at roughly the same time.

Tomb of Dracula – This one had some creative false starts, but once Marv Wolfman and Gene Colan have a couple issues to settle in and start building their supporting cast, this quickly becomes one of the most interesting books Marvel was publishing for it’s 70 issue issue run. Like Man-Thing, it’s one of the gems of the ’70s.

And for something a little more modern, there’s Marvel Zombies. The “Complete Collection” editions are extra interesting because the first one collects the Zombie dimension’s initial appearances away from the miniseries that followed. While the mini’s have occasion to float into the absurd, the initial appearances where a little more firmly in the horror world. And yes, the first two mini’s were Robert Kirkman writing zombies at Marvel.

Man-Thing by Steve Gerber   Tomb of Dracula   Marvel Zombies

X Marks the Spot

The Marvel Dawn of X/Reign of X/Trials of X Sale – runs through Monday, 10/30.

These are the collected editions that approximate reading the Hickman era as single issues. Roughly speaking they cycle through X-Men, Wolverine, X-Force, Marauders, etc. etc.

While this effect dissipates after time, we think this is the better way to read the Hickman X-Men titles. Story elements originally floated between books and their sum was greater than their parts. The order does something like this:

  • House of X / Powers of X  <initial limited series/Event, not in the sale>
  • Dawn of X
  • X of Swords <line wide Event, not in the sale>
  • Reign of X
  • Hellfire Gala <line wide Event, not in the sale>
  • Trials of X

Inferno is the last arc for Hickman before leaving and it fits in roughly after The Trial of Magneto ends, so you can read it somewhere between Trials of X V.3-6. Again, not part of this sale.

We’re not as adamant about reading this issue-to-issue format after Hickman leaves… although X-Force and Wolverine are certainly intertwined at times. Through Inferno, though? Yes.

Dawn of X   Reign of X   Trials of X

Unannounced Dark Horse Halloween Sale

No link for an overall sale, but we’re seeing a lot of Dark Horse horror titles at $6.99 or $7.99/volume. There’s a sale, we just don’t know why Amazon hasn’t posted it.

Some things to have a look at:

Hellboy   Creepy   Harrow County Omnibus 1

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Comixology (at Amazon) Sales: The Halloween Sales are Here: DC, Marvel, Archie, BOOM! and some Star Wars on the side.

In this week’s Comixology (at Amazon) sales, the Halloween sales have begun and we’ll start out look at DC, Marvel, Archie, BOOM! and a bit of Star Wars on the side.

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):

Marvel Says Boo!

The Marvel Monthly Sale – Halloween runs through Monday, 10/31.

When it comes to Marvel horror, ’70s Marvel horror is where it’s at. Two of the best things Marvel did in the ’70s were horror.

Man-Thing by Steve Gerber: The Complete Collection follows the Man-Thing across Adventure Into Fear, through Man-Thing and Giant-Size Man-Thing, and eventually even collects 2012’s posthumous Infernal Man-Thing. Gerber writes almost all of it and the selection of artists includes Mike Ploog, Tom Sutton, John Buscema, Sal Buscema and Kevin Nowlan. Some say this was Gerber’s crowning achievement, others say Howard the Duck. Either way, it’s a classic.

Tomb of Dracula: The Complete Collection is a 5 volume set that collects the Marv Wolfman/Gene Colan horror classic, with the magazine version of Dracula thrown in. The comics the bigger draw here. You need to give a few issues for Wolfman to arrive and get his feet under him, but one Wolfman & Colan gel, it’s quite a ride. A celebrated run.

Plenty more ’70s horror here and all kinds of Ghost Rider, too.

Man-Thing by Steve Gerber   Tomb of Dracula

DC Says Boo!

The DC Frights & Fights Sale runs through Monday, 10/31.

Yes, more horror for the holiday. Some Vertigo, some old school DC, some new. This is another fairly deep one with 562 items.

We think it’s safe to call Nice House on the Lake by James Tynion IV and Alvaro Martinez Bueno DC’s premiere horror title right now. And it’s an extremely well-crafted comic, too.  $4.99 for that?  A very good deal.

We can’t very well mention Man-Thing without giving Swamp Thing equal time, can we? Yes, both DC and Marvel had a world class swamp monster horror comic in the ’70s. Go figure. The first volume is the famous Lein Wein / Bernie Wrightson run. (No hype, just quality.)

Preacher by Garth Ennis and Steve Dillon is Vertigo-era horror with a twisted sense of humor (ah, the vampires of New Orleans…).  You’ve probably seen the TV adaption. $4.99 for ~12-issue volumes qualifies as a good deal.

Nice House on the Lake   Swamp Thing   Preacher

Now, since the DC sale has a moderate amount of superhero material in it, let’s go there.

Batman: Haunted Knight is a collection of the Halloween Bat-tales that Jeph Loeb and Tim Sale did prior to landing The Long Halloween. They’re striking and were a borderline shock to see when they appeared on the shelf. It’s certainly the season for it.

DCeased is sort of the DC version of Marvel Zombies. Darkseid unleashes the Anti-Life Equation. Come to find out it’s transmitted by technology (and bites) and it creates a sort of techno-zombie. The survivors gather in groups and try to ward off the “Anti-Living” who are coming after them – including a lot of super powered non-living interlopers – while they try to figure away out of this mess.  Tom Taylor and Trevor Hairsine helm this first installment and subsequent installments are also on sale. A highly enjoyable ride.

Batman - Haunted Knight   DCeased

There are also a bunch of $0.99 single issues towards the bottom of the page if you keep clicking through, much of it ’70s horror.  Here are some direct links to save you time and sanity, though not EVERY series.

And for $1.99 an issue

Archie Says Boo!

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

Yes, Archie does horror. And two things stand above the rest (we hope they do some more of them, too).

Afterlife With Archie by Roberto Aguirre-Sacasa and Francesco Francavilla is a shocking thing, especially the first time you behold it. You might think the elevator pitch “Night of the Living Dead in Riverdale” sounds silly… except this really is a horror comic. Archie and the survivors flee for their lives as part of the cast stalk after them. It’s serious, hits a poignant note or two and, above all, is extremely well done!  The second arc is only in single issues (#6-10).

The Chilling Adventures of Sabrina by Roberto Aguirre-Sacasa and Robert Hack is what was adapted for the Netflix show. It’s a very 70s horror movie take on Sabrina, for whom her sixteen birthday presents a choice between the world of mortals and her witch heritage and an ominous destiny that seems to come with it.  The cheapest way for this comic is to get the collected edition of the #1-6 and then hit the single issues.

Afterlife with Archie    Chilling Adventures of Sabrina

BOOM! Says Boo!

The BOOM! Spooky Season Sale runs through Monday, 10/31.

Something is Killing the Children by James Tynion and Werther Dell’Edera is probably BOOM!’s flagship horror book right now. We’d probably call it a horror-adventure romp. Sure enough, something IS killing the children. A monster hunter shows up to stop it and her… organization then shows up to complicate matters. This one is fun horror.

But let’s get a bit further off the beaten path here:

Bone Parish by Cullen Bunn and Jonas Scharf is an odd little genre bender we enjoyed. “Ash” is the new drug that’s hit New Orleans. Consuming it you experience the life of another person… the person who’s ashes where used to make the drug. One part horror for the production of the magical drug, one part crime/gang story. A pulp page-turner.

And going back a few more years, we also enjoyed Dracula: The Company of Monsters by Kurt Busiek, Daryl Gregory and Scott Godlewski. What happens when a corporation gets their hands on Dracula? Why, resurrect him and exploit him like the asset he is, naturally. Of course, Dracula’s probably used to being the one doing the exploiting. It’s a different kind of corporate warfare.

Something is Killing the Children   Bone Parish   Dracula The Company of Monsters

Star Wars… is more like Trick or Treat

The Marvel Star Wars High Republic Sale runs through Monday, 10/10.

The meat of this would be the collected editions of the Star Wars: The High Republic series by Cavan Scott, Ario Anindito and Georges Jeanty.  And $2.99 for recent release tpbs does indeed qualify as cheap!

If you’re into $0.99 single issues:

Star Wars: The High Republic

There’s a lot more Halloween material on sale, so we’ll probably be back with another batch of that on Monday or Tuesday.

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

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

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

Foundational X-Men Spin-Offs

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

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

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

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

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

Kitty Pride & Wolverine   Longshot   Magick

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

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

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

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

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

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

 

Across the Multiverse

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

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

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

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

Man and Superman   Superman Smashes The Klan   Batman Death Mask

Everything’s Coming Up Kirkman

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

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

Invincible   Walking Dead   Astounding Wolf-Man

 

Still On Sale

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