Tag: Spider-Man

Comixology (at Amazon) Sales: Spider-Man, Black Panther and BRZRKR

In this week’s Comixology (at Amazon) sales, Spidey and the Black Panther get discounts. DC… that’s complicated, but BOOM! has a “Best of” sale. And we talk a little about the Comixology layoffs.

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):

First we should probably talk a little about what’s been going on at Amazon and Comixology. On Wednesday, we started to find out about some fairly massive layoffs at Comixology. Scott McGovern, a program manager who also worked on the discount sales is essentially the unofficial spokesman for the laid off Comixology workers. Here’s the original “announcement” Twitter thread that’s quoted in most coverage.  Here’s his Friday update thread. He’s vouching for the broad strokes of this investigative piece from The Beat.

The short version: Amazon has eliminated all the Comixology jobs. Around 75% of the workforce is already out the door. There will be more mass exits around June and October. In theory, this is to finish integrating Comixology into Amazon. Something that started… either about a year and a half ago, if you count when Comixology first started giving the heads up that the site was going away or about a year if you want to count it as when the site did finally get shuttered.

What does this mean going forward? We’re not entirely sure and Amazon’s standard policy of silence is really not endearing them to anyone as we’re left to ponder things. If there are staff left transitioning things, that means there is little question that digital comics will still be there through the Fall and why would you spend ~10 months transitioning if you were going to drop a product line?  We find it hard to believe that Amazon would jettison digital comics, though some people are shouting that at the top of their lungs on social media.

Almost certainly the Comixology app is going to be sunsetted sooner than later. Probably by the time the last of the Comixology employees leave the building. Comics will get moved over to the Kindle app, but that’s been happening for some time. Will there be UIX improvements to the Kindle app and the Comixology/comics page on the Amazon website?  We’d sure like to know about that. Both could still use a little work. It sure seems like presentation and curation are not going to be a priority for Amazon if they’re cutting all of Comixology loose, but that’s just our interpretation of what we’ve heard. It might be yours, too?

If guided view is implemented on the Amazon side of the fence, it doesn’t sound like they’re going to be staffed up for that, so we’ll see if that sticks around or they’ve figured out how to let AI handle it.

Are there still going to be “discount sales” as McGovern puts it? We don’t know. There weren’t any updates overnight, but there haven’t been for a few weeks. I guess we’ll find out in a few days? There could be a few weeks worth of sales queued up, but it isn’t clear whether or not this is a priority for the skeleton crew currently working on things. Clearly, at least one person who worked on it is no longer there.

That’s what we know.  There’s one other thing that’s floating around that we don’t think is going to affect the comics situation, but we understand why a few people have asked questions about it.

In mid-December, word leaked out that Amazon was going to discontinuing some digital magazine functions. No more digital subscriptions. Sufficiently large magazines would be invited to join a “Kindle Unlimited for Magazines” program. Here’s the original Twitter thread from Clarkesworld. We’ve since heard a few different versions, including that not only would subscriptions be done away with, there would be no more single issue purchases. Something is happening, but past the subscriptions going away, it’s not clear that there’s a public consensus on exactly how many things are changing. It’s been suggested in at least one place that a formal announcement would happen in March.

We can see no way this should affect collected editions. The question being asked is whether someone higher up at Amazon wants to lump comics into the magazines bucket? Seems silly to us, but given that this magazine venture is supposedly going live on September 1st, the timing makes it reasonable for someone to ask for a little clarification.

Now you know what we know about what’s been happening at Amazon and Comixology. Unless there’s a change in service imminent, we wouldn’t expect Amazon to make any formal, clarifying statements. That’s not usually how they roll at the corporate level.

The Panther’s Visitations

The Marvel Black Panther and the Marvel Universe Sale runs through Monday, 1/30.

This sale is mostly  about books the Black Panther was guest starring in, as opposed to headlining.

The exception being the current Black Panther by John Ridley and Juann Cabal. The first arc is about a conspiracy inside the Wakanda government and the death of T’Challa’s sleeper agents. We’ve been liking it.

In generally, we usually like the value of Epic Collections when they’re on sale and there are two here that particularly catch our eye.

Fantastic Four: The Mystery of the Black Panther includes the Panther’s first appearance, in the midst of the Stan Lee/Jack Kirby Fantastic Four run, which means you get some Silver Surfer, Doctor Doom and Supreme Intelligence along with the package.

Avengers: This Beachhead Earth contains the origin of the Black Panther. It also contains a Harlan Ellison co-written crossover with the Hulk and the Kree-Skrull War. Roy Thomas does most of the writing and artist rotation includes John Buscema, Sal Buscema and Neal Adams.

Black Panther   Fantastic Four   Avengers

Littering His Web

The  Marvel Spider-Man’s Greatest Villains Sale runs through Monday, 1/23.

Why yes, Spidey _does_ have a rogues gallery.

You know our preference for Epic Collections so pointing out Amazing Spider-Man: The Goblin Lives shouldn’t surprise you. You get some Green Goblin and Doc Ock from the classic Stan Lee / John Romita, Sr. run.

While we may be in the minority for this one, we loved the Gerry Conway / Mike Perkins run of Carnage. The setup here was reminiscent of Tomb of Dracula. Carnage is after the Book of Darkhold and a ragtag team including John Jameson/Man-Wolf and Eddie Brock/Toxin are trying to stop him from getting the book and ascending. Yes, Carnage as occult horror.

And for something even more out of left field, do you remember when Brian K. Vaughan wrote for Marvel? Yes, it’s been a minute. Vaughan and Staz Johnson did Spider-Man / Doctor Octopus: Negative Exposure all the way back in ’03.

Amazing Spider-Man   Carnage   Spider-Man / Doctor Octopus

Beware the DC Sale

The DC Start Here Sale theoretically runs through Monday, 1/23.  Except we’re not entirely sure it’s started.

You will recall that ever since Comixology moved over to the Amazon platform, some of the sale prices have been slow to show up? Especially DC sales? Well, it’s not clear that the sale prices are in place for most of this sale. As we type this on Friday afternoon, the single issues certainly are not.

The first volume of Tynion’s Batman is likely on sale.  The first volume of Williamson’s Batman is probably on sale. This Firestorm  collection  has a sale price. It’s really hit and miss, so pay attention if you browse it.

Normally, the sale prices have shown up by Friday, but with the layoffs, we’re not hopeful it gets fixed before it ends on Monday.

Boom’s Best of 2020 2022

The  Best of BOOM! Sale runs through Monday, 1/30.

It’s no surprise that BOOM!’s listing BRZRKR up front for a best of list. It’s been selling crazy numbers for them and, you know what? We’ve enjoyed this bloody science fantasy about an immortal warrior who’s ready to shed his immortality by Keanu Reeves, Matt Kindt and Ron Garney. We also don’t remember V.2 being in the holiday sale, so this might be the first time it’s gotten the discount treatment.  The single issues are also $0.99 through #10 and guess what? The single issues are CHEAPER than the collected editions.

Once & Future by Kieron Gillen & Dan Mora recently wrapped up and it’s a good one about monster hunters and the power of stories and myth. 4 out of 5 collected editions are on sale. All the but the last single issue are $0.99. And… what’s that?  Yes, once again, the single issues are CHEAPER than the collected editions. 

BRZRKR   Once & Future

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Comixology (at Amazon) Sales: The “Best of 2022” Sales drop with Spidey & Moon Knight; Plus, Dark Horse Superheroes

In this week’s Comixology (at Amazon) sales, we look at the best of the Marvel Masterworks sale plus holiday sales from Image and Dynamite.

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):

The holiday sales have ended and the “regular” sales has resumed… except, DC seems to still have the holiday deep discount spirit.

Best of 2020 2022 – Marvel Edition

The Marvel Spotlight on 2022 Sale runs through Monday, 1/30.

Yes, we can speak to Marvel’s ’22, though we’ll keep it to series that have a V.1 on sale. (No sense sending you into the middle of something, the way these runs tend to work).

The Jed MacKay section, since he had a bit of a breakout year at Marvel:

Moon Knight is MacKay and Alessandro Cappuccio setting up a new status quo for Moon Knight, a character with so many drastically different takes on him, he’s sort of Marvel’s Hawkman in that respect. MacKay and Cappuccio are methodically incorporating and rationalizing the different versions. Moon Knight has opened a “Midnight Mission” to continue his work for Konshu… after a fashion. He’s seeing a therapist. There are vampires on the loose and a rival emissary of Konshu. A somewhat unpredictable ride, but that’s a definite plus.

The Death of Doctor Strange can function as a standalone, but it’s really the first act in a longer arc. MacKay and Lee Garbett kill off Stephen Strange, but not exactly the way you were expecting. A clever book.

Strange is the next act. Clea Strange has assumed the mantle of Sorcerer Supreme. She’s trying to find a way to resurrect Stephen, but keeps butting heads with a group of paranormal gangsters calling themselves “The Blasphemy Cartel.” MacKay is joined by Marcelo Ferreira on art.

Moon Knight x The Death of Doctor Strange x Strange

Also good:

The Marvels is Kurt Busiek and Yildiray Cinar (with Alex Ross covers) doing a story from more of a Marvels (the 90s painted series). The point of view here is an outsider who’s collected some superhero/villain technology and finds himself dragged along on an adventure. Lady Lotus, the Invaders villain is taking over the country of Siancong, in plot that has its origins back in World War II. The scope takes you from there to the present day for a big tour of the Marvel universe with an excursion to some… unusual corners. Basically, a showcase for classic Marvel. (Both volumes are on sale, so treat this like a 2-parter.)

The Defenders: There Are No Rules by Al Ewing and Javier Rodriguez find Doctor Strange and… The Masked Rider organizing an inter-dimensional posse of sorts. Very cosmic, very mind-bending and Rodriquez is really outdoing himself here.

Amazing Spider-Man by Zeb Wells and John Romita, Jr. is another recent title we’ve been enjoying. The first arc, with Tombstone, is a bit more serious than we were expecting, but the tone shifts a bit more Wells-like with arc two. Romita is as icon a Spidey artist as his father, so it’s good to see him back on the book.

Marvels   Defenders   Amazing Spider-Man

The Literary Roots of WandaVision

The Marvel Scarlet Witch Sale runs through Monday, 1/9.

Vison & The Scarlet Witch, as the pair were colloquially known for much of their time at Marvel are kind of a strange one to go looking for collections of, largely because most of their adventures were as supporting cast members in The Avengers.

Vision and the Scarlet Witch: The Saga of Wanda and Vision collects their Wedding from Giant-Sized Avengers #4, the ’82 mini-series by Bill Mantlo and Rick Leonardi and the ’85 maxi-series by Steve Englehart and Richard Howell. Usually, it’s that maxi-series that gets referenced the most, but this is as complete a set of early (ish) solo adventures as exists.

Now, it you want something a little closer to the TV show, there’s the John Byrne run of Avengers West Coast. “Vision Quest” is where Vision is disassembled and rebuilt with the white body and revelations are made about her children. “Darker than Scarlet” is the first time Wanda snaps.

If you want Wanda wholesale rewriting reality, that’s more House of M and the Avengers: Disassembled that leads into it and those aren’t in the sale.  WandaVision is a goofy fit with the comics in some ways.

Vision and the Scarlet Witch   Avengers West Coast

Best of 2020 2022 – DC Edition

The DC Best of 2022 sale runs through Monday, 1/30.

Oof! We hope you were taking advantage of DC’s unusually good discounts at their holiday sale, ’cause the collected editions we’re seeing this week are largely things that were on sale last week, too… except now they’re at least twice as expensive. We’re not going to highlight those.

All the way at the bottom of the sale page is a selection of (mostly) $1.99 single issues. Yes, we know… they’re not $0.99 anymore, but they did somewhat rotate the selection. Here are some highlights. You should know the drill by now… with longer running titles like Batman, you may need to scroll down a little to get to where things are on sale.

Dark Capes

The Dark Horse Superhero Sale runs through Monday, 1/30.

Yes, Dark Horse has a few superheroes. They even have their own line.

We did a re-read of Nexus over the last couple years and Omnibus line holds up. (We’d also forgotten how many issues Paul Smith drew.) Nexus is sort of a science fiction/superhero mash about a man who reluctantly becomes a superpowered assassin for a mysterious alien. Nexus has nightmares about the mass murderers he’s to kill and they won’t go away until the deed is done. Lots of world building in this one. Mike Baron writes the whole thing and Steve Rude is the primary artist. Omnibuses 1-6 are the original Capital City/First Comics run, V. 7 picks up when the license moved to Dark Horse. Yes, Nexus is still around.

For something way off the beaten path, there’s The Best of Milligan & McCarthy. That would be Peter Milligan (Shade, the Changing Man; Hellblazer; X-Statix) and Brendan  McCarthy (Judge Dredd, Strange Days, and believe it or not, the co-writer of Mad Max: Fury Road). These two collaborated a lot in their early days in the UK market with the best known bits in the US probably being the Strange Days mini-series from Eclipse. It fits in here because of their Paradax strip. Trippy would be the key term for these two.

With Brian Bendis moving his base of operations to Dark Horse, that means Powers is getting a new edition. Bendis and Michael Avon Oeming are the creators of this long running (on again, off again… with 4 relaunches as they’ve switched publishers) police procedural about the cops who investigate those with superhuman abilities. The police aren’t supposed to have powers, but… that would be getting ahead of ourselves. This was one of the early hits that eventually led Bendis to Marvel and it’s a quality series. Perhaps better read in collected edition, since you aren’t trying to figure out the publishing schedule (which has probably diluted the reputation of the series).

Nexus   The Best of Milligan and McCarthy   Powers

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Comixology (at Amazon) Sales: Best of the Marvel Masterworks Sale, Plus Image and Dynamite

In this week’s Comixology (at Amazon) sales, we look at the best of the Marvel Masterworks sale plus holiday sales from Image and Dynamite.

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):

We’re in the home stretch for the holiday sale season and this time out, we’ll be looking at a couple sales that dropped a little later than the rest. (OK, technically the Image sale had been up… but the discounts took several days to show up on the listing.) But first, let’s have a look at the cream of the crop for our favorite sale of the year.

The Best of the Marvel Masterworks Sale

As you may recall, The Marvel Masterworks Sale runs through Monday, 1/2. $0.99 for V.1’s and $1.99 for V.2+.

There are bargains and there are bargains. Let’s have a look at what the best volumes are, both for stories contained and page count – because a few of these books are as big as the Epic Collections.

I Like Big Page Counts

Masterworks with 400+ pages!

  • Amazing Spider-Man Masterworks Vol. 22 – 410 pages – Roger Stern / John Romita, Jr. era, including THAT Juggernaut story
  • Amazing Spider-Man Masterworks Vol. 23 – 468 pages – Roger Stern / John Romita, Jr. era… and the Hobgoblin debuts in this volume
  • Champions Masterworks Vol. 1 – 460 pages – The whole ’70s series + crossovers – Bill Mantlo/Tony Isabella/George Tuska/John Byrne and others.
  • Doctor Strange Masterworks Vol. 10 – 394 pages (close enough) – Roger Stern/Paul Smith (and the Doctor Strange vs. Dracula sequence)
  • Killraven Masterworks Vol. 1 – 471 pages – Don McGregor / P. Craig Russell – the entire Amazing Adventures run plus the OGN follow up… for a lousy $0.99
  • Uncanny X-Men Masterworks Vol. 9 – 471 pages – OK, get this line-up: Chris Claremont writing all of… Uncanny X-Men w/ Paul Smith; the God Loves, Man Kills OGN w/ Brent Anderson and the original Wolverine mini-series w/ Frank Miller.
  • Uncanny X-Men Masterworks Vol. 10 – 458 pages – the beginning of the Claremont/John Romita, Jr. era with the Brotherhood of Evil Mutants and Morlocks, plus the Magik mini-series w/ John Buscema
  • Uncanny X-Men Masterworks Vol. 11 – 457 pages – Claremont writing: X-Men with John Romita, Jr. (including the Kulan Gath issues), X-Men/Alpha Flight with Paul Smith and Kitty Pride & Wolverine with Al Milgrim
  • Uncanny X-Men Masterworks Vol. 12 – 466 pages – Claremont writes X-Men w/ John Romita, Jr. (culminating in the trial of Magneto and the end of a big arc); the “Asgardian Wars” crossover with New Mutants w/Art Adams; and then Dave Cockrum’s Nightcrawler mini.
  • Uncanny X-Men Masterworks Vol. 13 – 449 pages – Claremont & John Romita, Jr. on X-Men, plus and Ann Nocenti and Art Adams on Longshot.
  • Uncanny X-Men Masterworks Vol. 14 – 485 pages – Enter the Mutant Massacre, plus Psylocke joins the X-verse in New Mutants and Fantastic Four Vs. X-Men.

Best of the $0.99 V.1’s

Other notable runs (that aren’t Lee/Kirby, since those go without saying).

We’ll link to the first volume in the set on these.

  • Avengers V. 10 – 18; V. 10 is the Kree/Skrull War. V.11 starts the Englehart run through V.15. V. 16 & V.17 are the Jim Shooter run w/ George Perez & John Byrne; V. 18 is David Michelinie/John Byrne -a prime chunk of Avengers
  • Captain America V. 7 – 11; V.7-9 is the classic Steve Englehart/ (mostly) Sal Buscema run with the Secret Empire, the Red Skull and a snake of an ad man. V.10-11 is Jack Kirby’s return and V.10’s Madbomb is more relevant today than it should be.
  • Captain Marvel V.3 -4; V. 3 is Jim Starlin’s run, which is the first Thanos arc. Utter classic. V.4 is the half-forgotten, yet quite entertaining Steve Englehart/Al Milgrom run.
  • Daredevil V. 15-16; Frank Miller’s first run. (V. 14 ends with the first issue he drew, but it’s not particularly connected to the rest of the run.)
  • Defenders V. 3-5; The inspired strangeness of Steve Gerber’s run. Headmen! Elf With a Gun!
  • Doctor Strange V.5-10; Once Steve Englehart and Frank Brunner show up the 70s and 80s were a strong time for Doctor Strange. Consistently A-list writers and artists. Almost amazingly so for a bi-monthly title.
  • Fantastic Four V. 21-23; The John Byrne era in thick slices
  • Iron Man V.5-7; The meat of Archie Goodwin’s Iron Man run with Gene Colan and George Tuska
  • Iron Man V. 13-14 – V. 13 has David Michelinie, Bob Layton and John Romita, Jr. arrive. The start with “Demon in a Bottle,” the famous arc, but Iron Man is very good for a long time, starting here.
  • Marvel Two-In-One V. 5-6; In V.5 Mark Gruenwald and Ralph Macchio arrive for a fun run that’s not always remembered. George Perez and Ron Wilson handle most of the art. “Project Pegasus” and “The Serpent Crown Affair” are two of the major arcs.
  • Sub-Mariner V. 7 – Something different? Namor’s creator, Bill Everett returns to his creation as writer/artist.
  • Warlock V. 2 – Jim Starlin’s first run on Adam Warlock, complete in one volume. A continuation of his Captain Marvel run, Thanos is back and this one really lays the groundwork for the eventual Infinity Gauntlet.

There’s a ton more to the sale, including the more usual suspects… but we think the above will keep you out of trouble on a budget.

Defenders Masterworks   Black Panther Masterworks   Amazing Spider-Man Masterworks

Image Stuffs the Stocking

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

This looks to us like a line-wide (or nearly line-wide… is Sea of Red not in digital?) 50% off sale, so we’re going to go slightly off the beaten path with our recommendations. If you’re looking for something specific, click through and it’s probably there. It’s a very deep sale.

The obligatory “front list” recommendation is the Saga Compendium. You should be familiar with Saga by now. Space fantasy about a refugee family who have both sides of a war looking for them? Brian K. Vaughan and Fiona Staples? Yes, that Saga. Anyway, 54 issues for $23.99 is under $0.50 an issue and is as good a deal as you typically see from Image and it’s a wonderful series.

The Monolith is something we enjoyed when it came out from DC Comics back in the day. Jimmy Palmiotti, Justin Gray and the underappreciated Phil Winslade tell the tale of a troubled young woman who inherits a house and finds a golem walled up in the basement. Once freed, the golem goes back about its mission of vengeance and punishment, as golems are wont to do. The Monolith explores the consequences of this a bit.

Shock Rockets by Kurt Busiek and Stuart Immonen was actually part of the far too short-lived Gorilla imprint at Image, back in the day. A very fun spin on the old anime theme of young pilots protecting the Earth from invading aliens.

Saga   The Monolith   shockrockets

Revival was a long running serial by Tim Seely and Mike Norton. It came out as zombie stories were getting hot, but it’s not really a zombie story. A town in Wisconsin has a strange day that sees the dead come back to life. Some of them seem perfectly normal. Some don’t. Naturally, the government declares a quarantine and the evangelists attempt to descend. This leaves the local sheriff’s department trying to figure out who or what caused the dead to rise and what’s happening to the dead afterwards. A bit of a slow burn as things continue to get stranger and bad things happen.

Criminal was Ed Brubaker and Sean Phillips in their original crime series (or should we say crime series with no capes lurking in the background). Sometimes connected, sometimes not, we’d probably put V.6, “The Last of The Innocent” which is a whole lot like reimagining the Archie gang in a pulp noir. This is what Ed and Sean were doing just before they really blew up at Image and now Image has the publishing rights to it.

Casanova by Matt Fraction, Gabriel Ba and Fabio Moon is a trippy as all get-out tale of a dimension hopping thief at odds with his other dimensional family of super-spies. Lots of backstabbing, identity theft and general skullduggery in a series that’s been compared to Moorcock’s Jerry Cornelius. (Yes, that level of trippy.)

Revival   Criminal   Casanova

Dynamite Stuffs the Stocking

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

This is also a line-wide or near line-wide 50% off sale, so we’ll once more go a little deeper into the pile for our picks.

Flash Gordon Omnibus by Jeff Parker and Evan “Doc” Shaner. What makes this Flash Gordon better than some of the other versions? When Parker and Shaner are doing it, it’s just more fun!

Borderline by Carlos Trillo and Eduardo Risso is something Risso drew prior to 100 Bullets. It’s a dark tale of a reluctant government enforcer in a bleak dystopian world with mutants in wasteland and the rich sequestered away in luxury.

The Shadow: The Last Illusion by Cullen Bunn, Colton Worley and Giovanni Timpano finds The Shadow drawn into a conflict with a secret society of illusionists seeking “The Last Illusion.” And The Last Illusion is Harry Houdini’s escape from the land of the dead. This is one of the best Dynamite Shadow tales and really fits in next to the original pulps.

Flash Gordon   Borderline   The Shadow: The Last Illusion

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Comixology (at Amazon) Sales: A.X.E. Judgement Day, Conan, Spider-Man, DC on TV and Boom!’s Tynion Catalog

In this week’s Comixology (at Amazon) sales, Marvel discounts the recent A.X.E Judgement Day, plus Conan, Spidey and the X-Men. DC slashes prices on the source material for its TV adaptations and Boom! opens the James Tynion, IV catalog.

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):

Lest Ye Be Judged…

The Marvel A.X.E. Judgment Day Sale runs through Thursday,  12/8

If you have been pining for single issue Marvel comics on sale, here we are with this very recent event.  There are a few more single issues in the sale, but here are the broad strokes:

The Event itself ($0.99/$1.99 single issues):

And from the lead-in titles:

The Eternals:

Avengers

A.X.E. Judgement Day   Avengers by Jason Aaron   Eternals

By Crom!

The Marvel Conan Sale runs through Thursday, 12/29.

We weren’t expecting this one, but we suppose we should have, considering Conan is moving over to Titan soon. (We’re still unsure how this is going to work for the older material.) Here, we’d like to highlight the omnibus editions of the original Marvel material, which goes further then the Epic Editions and… we’re not sure if the omnibuses have been on sale before?

Conan the Barbarian: The Original Marvel Years is the monthly color comic that most people think of by default when they think of Marvel at Conan. 600-800(ish) pages per volume, although V.5 is a 1000 page monster.

King Conan (we’ll call it by the original title) is the spin-off book taking place when an older Conan has captured the throne. Yes, you get some John Buscema art here, but it was also an early stop for Marc Silvestri.

Savage Sword of Conan is the black & white magazine version of Conan. As such, it operated outside the comics code and is little darker than the regular comic. Still lots of John Buscema, plus some Neal Adams, a little Barry Windsor-Smith, Ernie Chan, Gil Kane, Alfredo Alcala… let’s face it, more often than not, the Conan books had good artists.

There’s some of the current Marvel version on sale two, but those ominibuses, particularly King Conan and Savage Sword are a little more unusual to see discounted.

Conan the Barbarian   King Conan   Savage Sword of Conan

Spiders and Mutants

The Marvel X-Men/Spider-Man: Crossovers and Events Sale runs through Monday, 1/2.

This one is somewhat of an Event/”landmark storyline” sale and you can pick your flavor, therein. Some things that caught our eye?

God Loves, Man Kills is a classic X-Men story by Chris Claremont and Brent Anderson (originally from the old Marvel Graphic Novel program). It’s also very much a stand alone unit, which is nice.

X-Men: Deadly Genesis is the launch of the Ed Brubaker era of X, with Trevor Hairsine providing the art. A bit of a retcon/embellishment on the origin of the new X-Men, it features the full story of the X-Men’s trip to a certain mutant-eating island (that shall become more prominent later) and debuts Vulcan, the lost Summers brother you may have recently been reading about in X-Men Red.

With Spidey… you ever notice the Event-type stories tend to be darker than the rest of the Spidey stories? Well, if you’re going dark, Kraven’s Last Hunt by J.M. DeMatties and Mike Zeck is one of the best.

X-Men: God Loves, Man Kills   X-Men: Deadly Genesis   Spider-Man: Kraven's Last Hunt

As Seen on TV

The DC on TV Sale runs through Monday, 12/5.

And yes, there is a reasonable amount here… particularly if you count the supporting cast. DC’s been hitting things like Sandman pretty hard over the last few months, so here are a couple other suggestions.

We’re really big fans of the Christopher Priest era of Deathstroke. There was a bit of artist rotation on that title, with the primary artists being Carlo Pagulayan and Diogenes Neves. Deathstroke contemplates changing his ways amidst conspiracies and family drama… and also includes a very big wink to Priest’s Black Panther run. Note: While it’s listed as a Titans book, The Lazarus Contract is really a crossover and integral to the storyline.

We’re also big on the Grant Morrison / Richard Case Doom Patrol, which is a big influence on the current streaming show.

Deathstroke   Titans: The Lazarus Contract   Doom Patrol

And since we know a lot of .cheap readers pine for $0.99 single issues, here are some highlights of the batch all the way at the bottom of the sale. Remember it’s the most recent batch of issues on sale, so you’ll need to get all the way to the bottom of the list for the longer running titles. That said, Nightwing is on sale through the October issue, so this really is a good catch up.

Boning a Sale

The Bone and RASL Sale runs through Monday, 12/19.

Now there’s something you don’t see on sale all that often! The works of Jeff Smith. If you prefer, the excellent works of Jeff Smith, since they are.

His best known work is, of course Bone. This fantasy series entered the “classics” category really fast. We’re kind of traditional about this and thing the $9.99 for 1300 pages in one volume of the original black & white comics is the way to go and MASSIVE bang for your buck. The smaller color volumes will run you $4.99 a pop.

Not as famous, but something we thoroughly enjoyed, is RASL, a dimension hopping conspiracy comic as an art thief attracts the wrong kind of attention and the chase is on for the technology he possesses. A little science fiction, a little crime, a little noir and unlike Bone, this one isn’t for the kids.

Bone   RASL

Something Is Discounting Tynion

The Boom! James Tynion Sale! runs through Thursday, 12/15.

You can flip through the entire Tynion catalog – at least the Boom! catalog – with this sale.

His big hit over there, and our favorite of his Boom! work, is Something Is Killing the Children. And if you prefer your monster-hunting goodness in $0.99 single issues, you might even find that’s a cheaper way to read the series.

Something is Killing the Children

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Comixology (at Amazon) Sales – Marvel’s Black Friday Sale! $3.99/$4.99 Epic Collections (and a List of What’s New This Year)

In this week’s Comixology (at Amazon) sales, it’s Marvel’s Black Friday Sale! $3.99/$4.99 Epic Collections… and we keep track of what’s new to this year’s version of the sale.

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):

Cheap Marvel Epic Collections

The Marvel Epic Collection Sale runs through Thursday 12/1.

The holiday sale season is officially here. Call it a pre-Black Friday sales if you like. The majority of Marvel’s Epic Collections are $3.99/$4.99 and this is an good time to fill in gaps in your collection. This is one of Marvel two best sales of the year, so we’re popping in early to give you the rundown on it.

First we’re going to give a quick overview of what’s in it (for quicker browsing).

Then we’re going to try and root out what’s new in the sales since last year — yes, we know some of you stock up on your Epic Collections every year when this sale drops and this ought to save you some time.

Then some recommendations.

What’s On Sale

Here’s a list of the series involved in the sale. You may need to scroll down past the Masterworks editions to the Epics in some of the links… and that’s OK, because you should remember the Masterworks are usually on sale in December! The material from the mid-80s to present, tends to be in Epic Collections only. (So this is the time to get Avengers West Coast, Conan, Silver Surfer, New Mutants and the more recent material and discounts for those will dry up on the 1st. You have more sale options with material in both formats.)

What’s New Since Last Year’s Black Friday Sale

Near as we can tell, these are the new releases since last year’s Black Friday Epic Collection sale dropped. Compare them to what you’ve already purchased, just in case, but this is what it’s looking like to us, and yes, Marvel was almost averaging 4 Epics/month:

What’s Good?

A lot’s good, really. But with an eye on things that don’t have Masterworks version yet, this is what comes to mind:

Since one of the last year’s new releases plugged major hole, if you were to pull the first four Silver Surfer volumes here, you’d get the Steve Englehart/Marshal Rogers run, followed by the Jim Starlin/Ron Lim run, which re-introduces Thanos and takes you into Infinity Gauntlet. A very good run of cosmic Marvel!

New Mutants Epic Collection: The Demon Bear Saga gets you the entire Chris Claremont/Bill Sienkiewicz run, probably the high point of the franchise, for a lousy $3.99.

Captain America Epic Collection: Man Without A Country is the first Mark Waid / Ron Garney run, widely considered a highlight of the franchise (and we’d agree about that).

Silver Surfer - Englehart   New Mutants: The Demon Bear Saga  Captain America: Man Without a Country

And we’ll be back at the end of the week for the rest of the holiday sales that are starting to drop.

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Comixology (at Amazon) Sales: Spider-Man, Thor, Daredevil, Hercules, Vertigo and Mike Mignola

In this week’s Comixology (at Amazon) sales, the Vertigo catalog (or what’s left of it) is on sale, plus Spidey, Thor, Daredevil, Hercules and the Dark Horse works of Mike Mignola.

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):

“Where is the alleged dead man, sir?”

The DC/Vertigo eBook Sale runs through Monday, 8/8.

Yes, we just had to break out that quote from the old “Man in a Suitcase” show because Vertigo gets an awful lot of sales for an imprint that’s supposed to be defunct.

Let’s break down the highlights of titles involved here:

  • Preacher – Garth Ennis / Steve Dillon (TV version was on AMC)
  • Hellblazer – The original run (TV and Film as “Constantine” and the Fox TV version was better than it gets credit for)
  • Lucifer – a Mike Carey/Peter Gross series (TV version on Fox, then Netflix)
  • Lucifer (’18 version) – Dan Watters/Max Fiumara/Sebastian Fiumara
  • Y – The Last Man – Brian K. Vaughan/Pia Guerra/Jose Marzon, Jr. (TV version was on FX on Hulu)
  • The Losers – Andy Diggle/Jock (film)
  • Sweet Tooth – Jeff Lemire (TV version on Netflix)
  • DMZ – Brian Wood/Riccardo Burcchiell (TV version on HBO Max)
  • iZombie – Chris Roberson/Mike Allred (TV version on CW)
  • Stardust – Neil Gaiman/Charles Vess (Film, though that was probably from the novel)
  • Fables – Bill Willingham/Mark Buckingham (primary artist)
  • Fables: The Wolf Among Us – video game adaption
  • Unwritten – Mike Carey/Peter Gross
  • The Invisibles – Grant Morrison and rotating artists
  • 100 Bullets – Brian Azzarello and Eduardo Risso
  • American Vampire – Scott Snyder and Rafael Albuquerque
  • Scalped – Jason Aaron/R.M. Guera
  • Daytripper – Gabriel Ba and Fabio Moon
  • Animal Man – ’88 to ’95 version
  • We3 – Grant Morrison and Frank Quitely (amazing this isn’t a movie yet)
  • Books of Magic (’18 version) – Kat Howard and Tom Fowler are the most frequent creators
  • The Wake – Scott Synder/Sean Murphy
  • Northlanders – Brian Wood / rotating artists
  • Global Frequency – Warren Ellis/rotating artists (we liked the TV pilot, but it wasn’t picked up)
  • Transmetropolitan – Warren Ellis and Darick Robertson

A lot of TV/film activity for a “dead” label, eh?

You can pretty much “pick your poison” with this sale.  That said, the 12-issue sized Preacher collections for $5.99 are a pretty good deal.  Same deal for the $5.99 double volumes of Y: The Last Man.

Preacher   Y the Last Man

Catches Your Money Just Like Flies

August’s “Marvel Monthly Sale” is The Spider-Man 60th Anniversary Sale, which runs through 9/5.

Yes, it cracks us up that the monthly sales always end in a different month.

This one is a little different from the last big Spidey sale in that it isn’t just Amazing Spider-Man it’s a 330-item selection across various titles.  They’re also using that scrolling carousel format on the main sale page that makes this a lot easier to parse.

A few ideas?

We always liked the Brand New Day  era of teams shuttling in and out for story arcs (it was all carefully coordinated) and you had all the usual suspects involved: Mark Waid, Dan Slott, Zeb Wells, John Romita, Jr., Phil Jimenez, Lee Weeks, etc., etc.

While his Iron Man work is more celebrated and his Amazing Spider-Man work often overshadowed by the artists he worked with, David Michelinie had a pretty good and lengthy run, much of which is in Epic Collections.  You can start with Venom, which feature art from some guy named McFarlane.

And coming in from left field, while Marvel Team-Up was usually the third wheel Spidey title, we’ve got a lot of love for the Chris Claremont/John Byrne era of it. After their Iron Fist run and leading into their X-Men run… which a little bit of mutant mayhem here and there.

Spider-Man: Brand New Day x Amazing Spider-Man - Venom x Marvel Team-Up

You Were Expecting “Brave Ulysses?”

The Marvel Thor: Tales of Asgard Sale runs through Thursday, 8/11.

This is an odd sale. Not _all_ of Thor, but mostly because only parts of the original ongoing title are on sale. Epic Collections, yes. Masterworks, not so much.

The sale presentation leads with Thor by Jason Aaron: The Complete Collection and these not-quite Epic-sized large collections are a good value at $6.99. We also think this particular set of collections eliminates the problem of “what order do I read this in?” one gets when the story flips between titles.

You really can’t go wrong with $3.99 for the *actual* Thor: Tales of Asgard, which is a collection of the Stan Lee/Jack Kirby “Tales of Asgard” backups from Journey Into Mystery and Thor. 300 pages worth.

And for an off-the-radar pick, it’s been forever since we notice Thor: Godstorm, which was a Kurt Busiek/Steve Rude mini-series back in the day. We seem to remember liking it and Rude always shows the love on Kirby properties, too.

Thor by Jason Aaron x Thor: Tales of Asgard x Thor: Godstorm

He Doesn’t Get Along with Amazons…

The Marvel Hercules Sale runs through Monday, 8/8.

Your “classic” solo Hercules would be the “Prince of Power” era pair of miniseries by Bob Layton, now in once volume.

If you want something totally under the radar, we enjoyed the short lived Dan Abnett/Luke Ross run where Herc sobers up and attempts to get serious about his trade.

Hercules: Prince of Power   Hercules

DD Found His Discounts

Marvel has a Daredevil: The Man Without Fear sale running through Thursday, 8/11.

Last week, this sale was listed, but there weren’t any discounts on the books.  This week, the discounts arrived.  And this is a WEIRD sale with multiple collections of the same material and different formats with different discounts.

The real meat of the Marvel Knights era of Daredevil (what this mostly seems to be) is a set of two runs that blend together: Brian Bendis/Alex Maleev, followed by Ed Brubaker/Michael Lark.

Your best value for the Bendis/Maleev run is the 3-volume Daredevil by Bendis and Maleev Ultimate Collection towards the bottom of the page, here.

You’ll find the Brubaker/Lark volumes discounted over here, toward the bottom of the page.

And as we said last time, Daredevil: Love’s Labor Lost is the only thing currently reprinted from the Denny O’Neil run the bridged that gap between Frank Miller’s two stints. The rest of it isn’t even on Marvel Unlimited.  This is the tale end of that run, featuring art by David Mazzucchelli, who’d started 9 issues earlier. It’s worth a look, if the discounts show up (and we don’t know why the rest of this era is buried).

Daredevil

They Like Mike

The Dark Horse Mike Mignola Sale runs through Monday, 8/15.

Yes, you might say Mignola’s important to Dark Horse.

Your core Mignola experience is going to be Hellboy, but you probably already knew that.  It’s wonderful and the omnibus line is the way to go.

While it does suffer from the “hardcover pricing for digital” problem, the Lobster Johnson Omnibus is still cheaper than getting the single volumes. It’s a rotating creative cast and a rotating tone from farce to pulp thriller, but we’ve found the adventures in the 1930s Hellboy-verse highly entertaining.

And, of course, the primary companion piece to Hellboy is B.P.R.D., the first arc of which is in omnibus editions here. There are some false starts, but one the “Plague of Frogs” arc properly starts up, your creative team is Mignola/John Arcudi/Guy Davis and it’s a helluva ride… pun intended.

However… you know how sometimes unexpected things show up in a sale (we’ll see how long it takes them to correct this after the column goes live)?  How about three issues of Captain America?  Yes, issues #286, #287 and #288. That’s a J.M. DeMatteis/Mike Zeck Deathlok storyline.  As it happens, one of the best arcs… but we’ve no idea what it has to do with a Mignola sale.  $0.99 a pop, if you’re inclined.  There are a lot of random Marvel single issues scattered throughout this sale if you page through it.

Hellboy   Lobster Johnson   BPRD - Plague of Frogs

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Comixology (at Amazon) Sales: Chip Zdarsky’s Marvel Titles (DD, Spidey, Invaders); Milestone Media; Squirrel Girl and Grendel

In this week’s Comixology (at Amazon) sales, we’ve got discounts on Chip Zdarsky Marvel run – think Daredevil and Spidey, Squirrel Girl, Grendel and Milestone Media from the DC files.

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 Once and Future Mayor of Toronto

The Marvel Chip Zdarsky Sale runs through Monday, 6/20.

You did know that long before the Kingpin was mayor of NYC, Chip Zdarsky ran for mayor of Toronto, right?  We love that guy.

So, as you probably have heard, Zdarsky’s taking over Batman shortly and has been enjoying a very productive run at Marvel.  Let’s break down the main offerings.

So what’s good? We wouldn’t say “no” to any of it, with the caveat that we tend to look the other way when Steve Gerber isn’t the one writing Howard.

Daredevil is the title that’s probably gotten the most attention and it’s a very good one, well worth your time.  Mayor Fisk, a bizarre game of chess with billionaires and ‘ole Hornhead in jail… we have nothing but love.

You’ll hear big proponents for the Spidey work, particularly the mini’s.

However, the one that we’re the most in the bag for is actually Invaders. The original superteam of WWII reunites in the present day to try and figure out what’s going on with Namor’s erratic behavior. It’s sort of/ kind of a Sub-Mariner title, addressing several sub-plots from other titles over the years and attempting to streamline his timeline a bit. Conspiracies, global politics, Captain America. We miss this one coming out.

Daredevil by Zdarsky   Invaders

But Does She Know Bullwinkle?

The Marvel Unbeatable Squirrel Girl Sale runs through Monday, 6/20.

OK… this one is a little bit of a maze of multiple packagings of the same comics. Here’s how we’d probably approach this:

  • Unbeatable Squirrel Girl series “2015A” and “2015B” by Ryan North and Erica Henderson. This is where everything starts and the original Squirrel Girl appearances are in the first volume.  These are omnibus editions and take you up to #31 of the “2015B” series.
  • To get the rest of the series, switch over to the single volumes and V.9 – 12 will take you from issue #32 to the end. Coincidentally, this is where Derek Charm pops in as artist.

That’s the easy way. Now, if you want the absolute cheapest way, you want to sub in these two alternate packaging volumes for V.2 and V.3 of those omnibuses above (i.e. #1-21 of “2015B”).

Yes… this is way more complicated than it should be.

Squirrel Girl

The McDuffie Legacy

The DC Spotlight: Milestone Sale runs through Monday 6/20.

As you may recall, Milestone was relaunched not too long ago, so what we have here is a mix of the original run and the new run.  Let’s try and organize this a bit, since this is a real mess to try and navigate on Amazon.

Original (with $0.99 single issues)

New (with $1.99 single issues)

So, what is Milestone? It was originally an imprint set up at (but not owned by) DC by Dwayne McDuffie, Denys Cowan, Derek Dingle and Michael Davis. It last around 4 years, initially making quite a splash and then fading a bit amidst strong rumors of backdoor politics at DC.  You remember the Static Shock cartoon? That’s Static from Milestone.

Creators that emerged through Milestone?  A bunch. Including Mark Bright, JH Williams III, John Paul Leon, Tommy Lee Edwards and Jamal Igle.

Recently, it reformed with Cowan and Dingle joined by Reginald Hudlin, who’s show-running the revived titles.

We’re going from distant memory on this, since we mostly switched over to collected editions a few years back, the original Milestone material has been mostly out of circulation and the collected editions mostly haven’t dropped on the new material.

Our favorite Milestone book is actually the ’12 run of Xombi by John Rozum and Frazier Irving. Great book, but only the first issue is available, so we’re not bothering with a link… and we’re waiting for the original Xombi to get reissued.

We do remember, and think very highly of, the first Hardware arc by Dwayne McDuffie and Denys Cowan. Think Tony Stark inventing his armor while in a sort of indentured servitude to Lex Luthor. It’s a meditation on control and a pretty spot-on commentary about exclusive contracts and non-compete agreements. If you’ve seen some of the legalese from the tech industry around the time this was written, you might even say it had a certain basis in reality.

Past that, McDuffy didn’t write everything and Cowan didn’t draw everything… but their fingerprints are all over the place and those originals are worth a peek while they’re on sale.

Hardware

Whither Beowulf?

The Dark Horse Grendel Sale runs through Monday 6/27.

We wonder if there’s a TV debut approaching?  Hmmm…

Anyway, this is Matt Wagner’s long running (since 1982) series of the malevolent spirit of Grendel and it’s manifestations. Originally more a crime/noir with a bit o’ fantasy around the edges, it grew into horror and science fiction with some serious evolution along the way. This one’s a little easier to parse than most:

Start with the Omnibus editions.  V.1 will be what Netflix is initially adapting. V. 1-4 are the core, with Grendel Tales being side anthologies.  Disregard the expensive, not yet released, new Netflix edition of V.1.

Grendel: Devil’s Odyssey (with Matt Wagner doing art, as well as writing) is the latest continuation and takes place after Omnibus V.4

And for a side-excursion, Grendel Vs. The Shadow has the Hunter Rose version of Grendel (see: V.1) squaring off against the pulp detective.

Grendel Omnibus   Grendel: Devil's Odyssey   Grendel vs. The Shadow

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Comixology (at Amazon) Sales – Rock Bottom “May the Forth” Star Wars Prices, Plus: Spider-Man, Batman, Doctor Fate and The Witchfinder

This week in Comixology (at Amazon) sales: Star Wars gets nice and cheap for the “May the Fourth” holiday, plus Spider-Man and his friends (OK, acquaintances), Batman, Doctor Fate and The Witchfinder (but not the Witchfinder General, that’s different).

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

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):

Nothing But Star Wars

The Marvel Star Wars May the Fourth Sale runs through Monday, 5/16.

Let’s break this down by key series first (since Amazon can’t be bothered to organize things this way).  There are a lot more shorter runs included, too and the prices are GOOD. Lots of $0.99 first volumes and $1.99 after that.  This is the time of the year to go hog wild on Star Wars.

  • Darth Vader (’15-’16) – The AMAZING Kieron Gillen / Salvador Larroca run
    Vader Down – the Darth Vader / Star Wars crossover sequence that is KEY to this run.
  • Darth Vader (’17 – ’18) – The also great Charles Soule / Giuseppe Camuncoli run
  • Doctor Aphra (’16-’19) – Sort of an evil Indiana Jones in the Star Wars universe, spinning off from Darth Vader. The first three volumes are especially entertaining
    The Screaming Citadel – Star Wars/Aphra crossover with key plot points to the early sequence
  • Kanan: The Last Padawan – Star Wars Rebels prequel by by Greg Weisman and Pepe Larraz
  • Star Wars (’15-’19) – The Marvel flagship title amazingly went 4 years without a relaunch!
  • Star Wars: The High Republic ($0.99 for Vol. 1)

Recommendations? For whatever reason, Darth Vader seems to bring out the best in Marvel. Get both series first. Is is a coincidence Lucasfilm recently hired Charles Soule as a creative consultant?

Your under the radar title is Kanan. A very solid series from one the animated show’s producers and Pepe Larraz has since been promoted to X-Men.

Vader   Vader Series 2   Kanan - The Last Padawan

Team-Up

The Marvel Spider-Man and Friends Sale runs through Sunday, 5/1.

There have been a few Spidey team-up books over the years and the listed here include:

The OG title, however, was Marvel Team-Up. While we like the value of Masterworks editions in general, the standout sequence of this title is the too-short Chris Claremont/John Byrne run. Yes, the classic X-Men team did a Spidey run here. Masterworks V.6 catches the beginning of that, but Marvel also has Spider-Man: Marvel Team-Up by Claremont and Byrne that catches it all in one place.  And yes, that business with the Soul Catcher from issues 60-62 is a follow up to a Tigra story line.  (The more you know…)

Marvel Team-Up

Some of the Discounts Are Decent…

The DC Epic eBooks Sale runs through Monday, 5/9.

The usual DC disclaimers apply – Amazon and/or DC seem to screw up the sale prices, initially pricing many books at bizarre numbers like $9.32 or $24.87 before settling down to something like $5.99 or $7.99.  So if the price doesn’t end in $*.99, be aware it might not be the final sale price.  Then again, they might not get around to fixing it.  We wish we were making it up, but that’s the cold, hard reality of the situation.

Anyway, some things we saw and thought the “real” sale price was active for:

WE3 is a unusual and downright disturbing self-contained story by Grant Morrison and Frank Quitely about about three house pets – a dog, a cat and a rabbit – who have been converted into cybernetically enhanced weapons systems by a government agency. They make a break for it and all hell breaks loose. Seriously, this is not The Secret of N.I.H.M. This is bloody. $5.99 is a good price, here.

Brave and the Bold: Batman and Wonder Woman is Liam Sharp’s tale of Batman & Wonder Woman investigating the murder of a Celtic god. $4.99 for a proper discount.

Doctor Fate in this case is the 2015-16 revival by Paul Levitz, with the amazing Sonny Liew as the primary artist. We don’t always like updates, but Levitz and Liew nailed this one. The helmet of Fate falls into the possession of an Egyptian American medical student for a series of adventures tied into Egyptian mythology and history.  An underappreciated gem that blends a sliver of classic Peter Parker into the Fate mythos.

There’s a LOT of collections to sort through here, we just wish it were easier to find a series that had ALL the volumes priced consistently.

WE3   The Brave and the Bold   Doctor Fate

Lost and Found

The Dark Horse Witchfinder Sale runs through Monday, 5/2.

This is another entry in the extended Mignolaverse, a staple of Dark Horse’s horror efforts. Sir Edward Grey is a witchfinder in Victorian England, who hunts things that go bump in the night while in the service of the Queen. And yes, of course Saucy Jack eventually turns up.  Mike Mignola with John Arcudi and Chris Robeson. Ben Stenbeck is the primary artist, but the some of other artists popping include John Severin, Tyler Crook, D’Israeli and Christopher Mitten.

This series of mini-series is now conveniently collected in  two omnibus editions on sale for $6.99 each and that’s a lot of bang for your buck.

Witchfinder

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Comixology (at Amazon) Sales: A Big Spider-Man Sale, Trouble With DC’s Sale Prices (Again) and a Secret Vault Sale

The big Comixology (at Amazon) Sale of the moment is on Amazing Spider-Man. As in practically all of it. So we try to make that a little easier to navigate. Plus a warning about Amazon screwing up the latest DC sale (again) and an unannounced Vault sale.

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

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):

Catches Discounts Just Like Flies

Marvel’s Spider-Man Legacy Sale runs through Sunday, 4/17.

There’s a lot of ground to cover here, so let’s break it down by series.

  • Amazing Spider-Man (1963-98) – The original run before Marvel became quite so obsessed with rebooting titles.
  • Amazing Spider-Man (1998 – 2013) – This run starts out with the controversial J. Michael Straczynski/John Romita, Jr./Mike Deodato, Jr. run, then goes into the Brand New Day era with rotating creative teams and segues into the beginning of the Dan Slott era. (Slott’s written a LOT of Spidey.)  Now… this Amazon’s listings, so you knew something had to be messed
  • Superior Spider-Man – Possibly the high point of the Dan Slott era – Doc Ock takes over Peter’s body and life. The Complete Collections are the way to go here.
  • Amazing Spider-Man (2014 – 15) – Peter’s back in control and the Slott era continues.
  • Amazing Spider-Man (2015-208) – It’s a relaunch. (Hey, Spidey’s been relaunched a lot less than Captain Marvel!) This is the end run of the Slott era, culminating in the Red Goblin affair.
  • Amazing Spider-Man (2018 – 22) – This is the volume that wrapping up right now. It starts with the Nick Spenser run and then ends with the “Beyond” storyline.

And there are a few more Slott era omnibus editions floating around.  There are too many editions of this material and nobody seems to be particularly paying attention to how this is being displayed for the prospective readers.  We’re getting used to it. <sigh>

Recommendations?  Well, first off Amazing Spider-Man doesn’t really have very many BAD periods. Oh, some runs are definitely better than others, but there aren’t huge swaths of duds, here.

You can definitely pick your poison between the $5.99 Masterworks and $6.99 Epic Collections for the original run. The Epics are typically much larger collections for only a buck more, but it depends on which format you started buying and which era you’re interested in. Some stretches are only in Masterworks, some are only in Epic.

Inexplicably NOT included in the link for the V.1 of Amazing is the Kraven’s Last Hunt Epic Collection, so we’ll call that one out directly. You get the J.M. DeMatteis/Mike Zeck classic, plus the issues of Amazing around it, plus Spider-Man Vs. Wolverine for about the price of just getting the regular Kraven collection.

We’d also recommend a look at the Brand New Day collections. It’s not a run that’s immediately talked about, but we found it entertaining and a much better set of creators was assembled than Marvel was necessarily given credit for: Mark Waid, Bob Gale (we wish he did more comics), Marc Guggenheim, Joe Kelly, Dan Slott, John Romita, Jr., Steve McNiven, Salvador Larroca, Phil Jimenez, Barry Kitson, Marcos Martin, Paolo Rivera, Lee Week and… others. I’m not sure there are “hidden” gems with Spidey, just runs that get discussed less.

Amazing Spider-Man - Kraven's Last Hunt   Spider-Man Brand New Day

Not Conan

We’ve got an unannounced sale for you.  The first collected edition of Barbarbic from Vault Comics by Mike Moreci and Nathan Gooden is on sale for a mere $1.99. (Cheap.)  A barbarian with a bloodthirsty axe is cursed by witches to do good… so you know it probably isn’t going to end well. We haven’t read it, but it seemed to be doing pretty well on what’s left of the Direct Market sales charts and it’s hard to beat that price. We are 100% unsure how much longer that price is going to hold, BTW.

Barbaric

Beware the DC Sale

So DC has a sale right now, but we want you to be wary of it.  As we type this Tuesday evening, they don’t have the right prices up.  Let’s give some examples:

DC Prices

$13.98? $9.32? History says these are not the REAL sale prices. Sometime – maybe Wednesday, maybe Thursday – the real prices will pop up and they’ll likely be something closer to the $5.99 you see on that Wonder Woman volume. (Wonder Woman was already on sale, so that price _might_ change, too.)  Now, if Batman: The Adventures Continue drops down to, say, $4.99… jump on that. It’s a wonderful comic.  We’ll probably revisit this sale on Friday and see if it’s normalized.

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Comixology Sales: The Return of Saga, Silver Surfer, Peacemaker, Shockrockets and Silk

This week’s Comixology sales include the Silver Surfer and Silk from Marvel, Peacemaker from DC and Image celebrates the return of Saga with a “Sci-Fi” sale.

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Surf’s Up

The Marvel Silver Surfer Sale runs through Sunday, 1/23. (Amazon link)

You really can’t go wrong with the original Stan Lee/John Buscema (with Jack Kirby at the end) run of Silver Surfer, which is collected across two Masterworks editions.

We’re also fond of the 80s Silver Surfer run. In classic Marvel fashion, it’s collected in a strange way.  That link will take you to the Epic Collections. The first one, “Freedom” is from the Steve Englehart/Marshall Rogers run, which is excellent.  Naturally the rest of that period isn’t collected. To get the beginning of the Jim Starlin/Ron Lim period that followed it, you need to jump over to Silver Surfer: The Rebirth of Thanos. Then you can jump back to the “Thanos Quest” Epic Collection, which takes you up to issue 50 and the end of the Starlin era that really laying the groundwork for Infinity Gauntlet.  Ron Marz jumps in for the next Epic Collection, “Infinity Gauntlet” and that’s more of a companion series to the mini-series/Event of the same name, so venture forward it you want, but know the next volume is largely a tie-in.  Also – the actual Thanos Quest mini-series is reprinted in both Rebirth of Thanos  and the “Thanos Quest” volume.  Great planning, Marvel collections dept.!

Silver Surfer Masterworks   Silver Surfer - Englehart   Rebirth of Thanos

It Bites

The Marvel Silk Sale runs through Sunday, 1/23.

Yes, this would be the adventures of Silk, the other person bitten by the radioactive spider that gave Peter Parker his powers. For this one, we might go for the Spider-Verse collection

Spider-Verse

Not Dempsey and Makepeace

The DC Peacemaker & Friend Sale runs through Monday, 1/24. (Amazon link)

A small number of random collections and issues here. (Only V.’s 1 and 4 of the Ostrander/McDonnell Suicide Squad?  Weird.)

What can we put a good word in for?  Suicide Squad: Bad Blood by Tom Taylor and Bruno Redondo is quality book with more double crosses than you can shake a mallet at.  Taylor and Redondo are starting to look like a long term pairing, too.

Vigilante by Marv Wolfman is the beginnings of the Adrian Chase version of the character and gives you an artistic lineup of George Perez/Keith Pollard/Chuck Patton/Ross Andru. (The volume ends before you get some Gil Kane and Trevor Von Eden.)

Suicide Squad Bad Blood   Vigilante

Saga Returns

The Image Sci-Fi Sale runs through Monday, 2/7. (Amazon link)

But let’s call this what it really, and what they’re leading with: the return of Saga. Yes, everyone’s favorite SF/F title by Brian K. Vaughan and Fiona Staple is FINALLY returning after a ~3.5 year absence.  This one falls under the usual Image collection runs – Saga Compendium V. 1 is a fabulous deal. The entire first run (i.e. – all caught up in 1 volume) is $23.99 for 54 issues of material.  That’s less than 45 cents/issue and that’s stoopid cheap for what you’re getting.  The other omnibuses collecting ~3 “regular” volumes are more expensive than getting what Comixology calls the “Collected Editions,” so go Compendium or go individual volumes.

What else is back? Shockrockets. With Kurt Busiek’s return to Image, comes this collaboration with Stuart Immonen. A good entry in the sub-genre of military coming of age SF with salvaged alien tech being used to fight the invaders.  This was part of the short-lived gorilla comics imprint and we didn’t harbor many hopes of it returning.  Wrong.

The Manhattan Projects is also a fun ride. This Jonathan Hickman / Nick Pitarra has the Manhattan Project brain trust being brought together not just for the atomic bomb, but for a secret program of Mad Science. Space exploration, parallel dimensions and all manner of strangeness. Sometimes it’s silly and sometimes it borders on horror. All in all, quite a ride.  As with Saga, the individual collected editions are slightly less expensive than the “deluxe edition” omnibuses.

Saga   shockrockets   The Manhattan Projects

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