Paper Girls Archives - Comics.Cheap

In this week’s Comixology (at Amazon) sales, it’s time for even more Black Friday Sales. Possibly, because it’s Black Friday? Another Marvel sale, plus BOOM!, IDW and Image.

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):

And with Black Friday now in place, here’s another batch of sales for the occasion. Earlier in the week, we broke down the Marvel Epic Collection Sale and the DC Black Friday Sale, so go back and have a look at those if you haven’t seen them.

What Have You Done For Me Lately ?

The Marvel Latest and Greatest Sale runs through Thursday, 12/1.

And yes, we’ll happily recommend three things we’ve been enjoying from this bunch:

Jed MacKay’s emerged as a writer to keep an eye on and two V. 1’s of his pop up here:

The Death of Doctor Strange is an accurate title for this MacKay/Lee Garbett series that does kill off Stephen Strange, though to say much more about this clever and twisty series would move into the realm of spoilers.

Moon Knight: The Midnight Mission is the opening act in the MacKay/Alessandro Cappuccio Moon Knight revival that’s one of the more unpredictable comics out there right now. “Mr. Knight” is trying to get his act together. He’s seeing a therapist. He’s started a sort of night mission to offer Konshu’s protection as it used to be intended. And then the vampires show up. And another avatar of Konshu. (And the subsequent acts only have more curveballs.) This one’s also an entertaining ride.

Defenders: There Are No Rules is the Al Ewing / Javier Rodriguez Defenders revival. This time out, Doctor Strange and company go dimension hopping looking to retrieve the Eternity Mask. Different realities are governed by different laws of physics (or magic), hence the title. Oh, and Galactus is involved. This story plays out on a BIG canvas and for as much of a hot streak as Ewing is on right now, Rodriguez still manages to steal the show… which is to say both writing and art are popping here.

Walt Simonson’s Other Thor

The IDW Black Friday Sale runs through Monday, 11/28.

IDW could have called this a “Best of Sale” and we’d have backed them. Plus, $0.99 for a V.1 and $1.99 for subsequent volumes on everything? What’s the word we’re looking for… CHEAP.

Ragnarok is Walt Simonson’s return to Norse mythology. It is glorious and might just be Walt’s best work… which is saying something. And the old sales charts (back when we had sales charts) suggest a LOT of people were sleeping on this one. Twilight of the Gods has come and gone. The Nine Worlds are reduced to the Dusk Lands and all is not well. Thor is raised from the dead, not altogether successfully, and starts a quest to set things right. Highest recommendation, especially at these prices. Note: V.3 is listed separately from the first two.

Richard Stark’s Parker is the late Darwyn Cooke adapting Donald Westlake’s score-settling thief, Parker. Some of the best crime comics you’ll ever see, as we’ve said before. And these are the best prices we’ve seen for them, if memory serves.

Prices Go Boom

The Best of Boom! Sale runs through Monday, 11/28.

And yes, we have another holiday V.1 for $0.99 and subsequent volumes for $1.99 sale! Cheap!

The centerpiece here is probably Once and Future, the Kieron Gillen / Dan Mora contemporary fantasy adventure about the power of stories manifesting as Merlin returns to raise King Arthur… and Arthur doesn’t care for all these immigrants. It starts out fairly breezy and is starting to get fairly dark by the time V. 4 rolls around. V.5 wraps things up at the end of December, so this is a cheap catchup on a book we’ve enjoyed.

The Many Deaths of Laila Starr by Ram V and Filipe Andrade chronicles Death’s relationship with the inventor of immortality and is probably the best reviewed book of the sale.

House of Slaughter by James Tynion IV, Tate Brombal, Werther Dell‘Edera and Chris Shehan is a spin-off from Something Is Killing the Children, set in a school run by the Order of monster hunters that Erica Slaughter is butting heads with. Tonally, this is a very different book. It’s more of an angsty CW series set in the same universe.

Sale of Large Sizes

The Image Omnibus & Deluxe Edition Sale runs through Monday, 11/28.

A heads up we hope you heed: Image Deluxe Editions are hardcovers and the discount is based on the HC price. Depending on the sale, it’s frequently cheaper to get the digital edition of the two “regular” collections than a Deluxe Edition containing the equivalent of two regular collections. Keep an eye on what you’re buying.

That said, some of the omnibuses are good deals, so let’s have a look at those and see what they cost per issue, shall we?

Saga Compendium 1 by Brian K. Vaughan and Fiona Staples is $23.99 and collects #1-54. That’s less than 45 cents/issue ($0.444/issue). That’s a good deal and Saga’s reputation speaks for itself.

Paper Girls: The Complete Story by Brian K. Vaughan and Cliff Chiang is $19.99 and collects all 30 issues. That’s a hair under 67 cents/issue ($0.666/issue). Not as cheap as the Saga Compendium, but beats a $0.99 single issue sale. You may have seen the Amazon Prime video adaptation. The comic is better.

The Fade Out by Ed Brubaker and Sean Phillips isn’t really an omnibus, it’s just the whole 12 issue miniseries in one volume. This one’s a noir murder mystery set in the Golden Age of Hollywood. It’s Brubaker and Phillips. They’re pretty gosh darn consistent, so you probably already know if you’ll like it. We certainly did, but we’re easy marks for those two.

Curse Words: The Hole Damned Thing Omnibus by Charles Soule and Ryan Browne is roughly 30 issues worth for $19.99, so basically the same deal as Paper Girls. This is a dark farce about an evil Wizard named Wizord who’s feuding with some wizards who are more evil and maybe… maybe… he’s open to changing his ways. Another quality piece of entertainment.

Astro City Metrobook V. 1 by Kurt Busiek, Brent Anderson and Alex Ross is $11.99 for the first 18 issues of the various incarnations of Astro City… which ends up being the same price per issue as Paper Girls and Curse Words. In a nutshell, Astro City is everything good about superheroes distilled into a new universe. Everything will feel a little familiar and the early issues are about capturing the magic of the Silver Age. Astro City is a great palette-cleanser if Event Comics are trying your patience!

Still On Sale

The Marvel Epic Collection Sale runs through Thursday 12/1
The DC Black Friday Sale runs through Monday, 11/28.
The Marvel Monthly Black Panther Sale runs through Monday, 11/28
The DC 90s Rewind Sale runs through Monday, 11/28
The Dark Horse Digital Manga 2022 Sale runs through Monday, 11/26
The Dark Horse Resident Alien Sale runs through Monday, 11/28

In this week’s Comixology (at Amazon) sales, the Comic-Con sale arrive in force. Multiple indie sales. X-Men and House of M at Marvel. Another wide sampler from DC, too.

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):

The Comic-Con Run-Up Arrives in Force!

The “San Diego Graphic Novel Sales – Start Here” page is worth your time to look at.

How long does this grouping of sales last? No idea. They forgot to include dates. Figure it’s probably until the 25th (the Monday after SDCC)? What particularly interesting is that the folks at… they’re still calling it the Comixology section for the moment… are continuing an attempt to make this a little more navigable by having more alphabetical carousels displaying covers on the various sales pages here.

This is a step in the right direction!

Anyway… lots of ground to cover, just with this section. Let’s hit some highlights… and remember, the Dark Horse sale listed on this page is something we covered last week.

From the “Recent Releases” category / carousel, we would draw your attention to Astro City Metrobook Vol. 1 by Kurt Busiek, Brent Anderson and Alex Ross. At $11.99, it’s at the higher end of price points we’ll recommend, but this is prime material from a LONG running series that’s relocating back to Image and you’re getting ~485 pages / ~19 issues for your troubles. This is an examination of superhero genre – very much of the classic Silver Age concepts this early in the series. Busiek, Anderson and Ross are world building here and the viewpoint can switch from heroes to sidekicks to bystanders over the various series. Short version – it’s a distillation of everything good about superheroes and it can also be an excellent palette cleanser if Events are getting you down. Very highly recommended!

Omnibuses

The Omnibus link is something we heartily approve of. It appears to be a gathering of omnibuses from the various sales currently running. To quote the great Clay Davis, from the Wire: “sheeeeeeeeeeeee-” (you know the rest). That’s almost like something we’d do! And this is a place where flipping through the graphic carousels will save you a lot of time.

Highlights (we spoke of the joys of Hellboy-verse omnibuses last week):

Best buy: Saga Compendium One – the first 54 issues of the Brian K. Vaughan / Fiona Staples masterwork for a lousy $23.99. Less than fifty cents per issues. Cheap and a modern classic. You don’t get much better than that.

Runner up: Paper Girls: The Complete Story – all 30 issues on the Brian K. Vaughan/Cliff Chiang time travel caper for $19.99. The TV version will be hitting Prime shortly: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b-1cyNm7iAU

And since the third volume in the series is coming out, Luther Arkwright contains The Adventures of Luther Arkwright and Heart of Empire, the first two series in Bryan Talbot’s legendary series about a dimension hopping, empire tumbling adventurer. Another real winner!

Oni / Lion Forge

In regards to the Oni Press and Lion Forge sales – we don’t really know any more about the situation over at Oni/Lion Forge than you’ve already read. We can’t discount the possibility that some of their titles could end up off the market for a little while. Possibly resurfacing at different publishers. If you’re interested in something and like the price, maybe pull the trigger in the next week or two. (We’ve always liked Kaijumax and Sixth Gun, though we’ve seen better prices for Sixth Gun.)

IDW and the bad link

The IDW SDCC Sale appears to have a bad link. Only 25 items at that link and there’s a LOT more in the carousel on the main sale page, so scroll through that. And who knows, maybe Amazon will fix the link?

The original 30 Days of Night by Steve Niles and Ben Templesmith for $0.99? Absolutely worth a look if you’ve never tried it. (After all, one could argue it’s the book that “made” IDW.) The high concept? Vampires in Alaska, so far north that the sun will set for 30 days and they’ll have free reign.

It’s not clear if GI JOE is on sale or not (we suspect those are sale prices we’re seeing) and that’s another one that might not be at IDW much longer, so if you like the prices, think about stocking up.

Image

And then there’s the Image SDDC Graphic Novel Sale.

Seems like the final prices here might be a little higher than we’ve seen in the past? Definitely, we’re seeing the old problem of the Deluxe volumes being on sale. The Deluxe volumes are oversized for print, ergo a little more expensive than the single volumes and usually an inferior deal in digital when everything is based on the print price. After all, there is no hardcover in digital. So be aware of that while browsing here.

That said, the Spawn Compendium is a similar deal to that giant Saga collection – for $23.99 each, you’ve got a couple 50 issue volumes available. If you want to read the first 100 issues of Spawn, you can get them for under $0.50/issue this way.

Dynamite

The Dynamite SDCC Graphic Novel Sale.

The first two volumes of Red Sonja by Mark Russell and Bob Quinn are $6.99. Yes, the same Mark Russell from Flintstones and Billionaire Island. And it works. The main story is a “straight” adventure, but all around the edges satirical elements sink in… if you’re paying attention. An unusual Red Sonja one, to be sure, but a good one.

Let the X-Sales Begin…

Marvel’s Reign of X Sale runs through Thursday, 7/21.

Let’s back up a little here. Reign of X is sort of the third Act of the Hickman-run X-Men era. Act one is House of X / Powers of X. Act two is Dawn of X, which is all the “regular” titles and culminates in the X of Swords Event. Reign of X picks up after X of Swords.

This is the format that collects the issues of the individual series in a preferred reading order. Not quite publication order (you’ll read a two-part in a single title back-to-back, here and there) but that’s the easiest way to think of it. In general, we think this reading experience is a better way to read Hickman’s X-Saga and seeing the breadth of the world building unfurl is additive. That said, we found the quality of the line a little less consistent in Reign of X than Dawn of X. (Which is to say, we’re not going to blame you if you skip the Children of the Atom bits.)

This link will show the volumes in order.

Not the Byrne “Generations”

The Marvel Generations of X Sale runs through Thursday, 7/21

This is a somewhat eclectic set of X-Men (and X-Men family) runs. You’re most likely to recognize Wolverine and the X-Men from Jason Aaron / Chris Bachalo / Nick Bradshaw and Generation X by Scott Lobdell and… Chris Bachalo again (at least on the main title in the collection).

No More Mutants

Marvel’s House of M sale runs through Monday, 7/18.

This would be the Event Miniseries where Wanda snaps and rewrites reality… forming the basis for the WandaVision TV series. Brian Bendis and Olivier Coipel are your creators. This is the sort of Event where we recommend getting the main series and then dipping your toe into the supporting collections in the sale at your own discretion. A good chunk of the Marvel line shifted their storylines to participate in the Event, buy how relevant they were to the main storyline varied widely and a lot of it would firmly be considered side stories. There’s nothing wrong with that, but it’s not always presented as such.

DC’s SDCC Run-Up

The DC at SDCC Ebooks Sale runs through Monday, 7/25.

What we have here is another 2K ebook drop, should you have time for an extended browse.

If you’re looking for a lower price point per eBook, Jonah Hex is good candidate, alternating between $4.99 and $5.99 volumes. Dark western tales of the disfigured and tortured bounty hunter written by Jimmy Palmiotti and Justin Gray. The artists rotate quite a bit on this one and a certain point, Palmiotti & Gray seemed to be playing a game of “which legend can we get to draw the next issue?” That is NOT a bad thing.

For $5.99, here’s something that’s under a lot of radars. Not everyone remembers, but prior to the more famous Long Halloween, Jeph Loeb and the late Tim Sale started out with Batman Halloween specials. And let us assure you, that first one came out of nowhere and punched everyone right between the eyes. Batman: Haunted Knight collects the specials that got the Loeb/Sale ball rolling.

And for a value buy, DC Universe By Len Wein. $9.99 gets you 23 stories – not necessarily 23 issues, because some of the DC titles had backups back then, but you get an interesting mix here: a run of Wein’s under-appreciated Phantom Stranger run with Jim Aparo. The JLA/JSA team-up that reintroduced the Seven Soldiers of Victory. The DC Comics Presents run with Jim Starlin that introduces Mongul.