Tomb of Dracula Archives

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?

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

The Doctor Will See You Now

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.

Strange Tales – This is a cluttered series page, but its the original Lee/Ditko run, but it breaks down to Epic Edition 1.
Doctor Strange ’68-’69 – Epic Edition 2 catches the rest of the original Strange Tales and most of the first solo series (Some next level Gene Colan art in the solo run.)
Doctor Strange ’74-’87 – The Epics pick up with the tale end of the ’68 series, catch the Marvel Premiere issues (enter: Englehart & Brunner) and then into the regular series, then you’ll need “regular” collections for the Stern/Smith run.
Strange Tales ’87-’88 – The rest of the Peter B. Gillis run from Strange Tales with art by Chris Warner, Kevin Nowlan, Terry Shoemaker and Richard Case.
Doctor Strange ’88-’96 – Probably best known for the Roy & Dann Thomas run with Butch Guice and Geoff Isherwood as notable artists.
Doctor Strange ’15-’18 – Initially Jason Aaron/Chris Bachalo with Donny Cates tagging in towards the end. (The omnibuses here are the better buy)
Doctor Strange and the Sorcerers Supreme ’16-’17 – Robbie Thompson / Javier Rodriguez
Doctor Strange ’18-’19 – The Mark Waid / Jesus Saiz / Barry Kitson era with Strange in space.
Doctor Strange, Surgeon Supreme (’19) – the very much under-rated and too short Mark Waid / Kev Walker run. Walker knocks it out of the park here.
Doctor Strange: Fall Sunrise – Tradd Moore

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

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:

Blade ’06-’07 – Marc Guggenheim / Howard Chaykin
Dracula – Roy Thomas & Dick Giordano adapt the original novel
Greenberg the Vampire – J.M. DeMatties / Mark Badger / Steve Leialoha
Man-Thing by Steve Gerber: The Complete Collection – Gerber / Mike Ploog / Val Mayerick / Jim Mooney / Kevin Nowlan
Marvel Zombies – Mark Millar / Robert Kirkman / Sean Phillips / Greg Land
The Monster of Frankenstein – Gerry Friedrich / Doug Moench / Mike Ploog / John Buscema / Val Mayerik
Morbius – Gerry Conway / Don McGregor / Pablo Marcos / Mike Vosburg; More a collection of guest appearances than solo books
Tomb of Dracula ’72-’79 – Marv Wolfman / Gene Colan
Tomb of Dracula: Day of Blood, Night of Redemption (’91) – Marv Wolfman / Gene Colan
Werewolf by Night – Gerry Conway / Doug Moench / Mike Ploog / Don Perlin
Werewolf by Night: in the Blood – Duane Swierczynski / Mico Suayan
Vampire Tales – Steve Gerber / Roy Thomas / Pablo Marcos / Alfred Acala

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 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:

The Flash V.1 (’23) – Si Spurrier / Mike Deodato, Jr.
Green Arrow V.1 (’23) – Josh Williamson / Sean Izaakse
Green Lantern V.1 (’23) – Jeremy Adams / Xermanico
Justice League vs. Godzilla vs. Kong – Brian Buccellato / Christian Duce
Justice Society of America (’22) – Geoff Johns / Mikel Janin
Shazam! V. 1 (’23) – Mark Waid / Dan Mora
Titans V.1 (’23) – Tom Taylor / Nicola Scott
Wonder Woman V. 1 (’23) – Tom King / Daniel Sampere

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

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

Edge Of Spider-Verse: Spider-Society – Colin Kelly / Alex Segura / Travel Foreman / Pete Woods – $6.99
Predator: The Last Hunt – Ed Brisson / Francesco Manna – $6.99

Pre-Order for Next Week

Blood Hunt – Jed MacKay / Pepe Larraz – $9.99

Unannounced Sales

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.