In this week’s Comixology (at Amazon) sales, DC celebrates the Black Adam sale with Teth-Adam and Justice Society comics AND it’s also time for Wonder Woman Day sale. Marvel lets loose with discounts on Black Widow, The Ultimates and The Champions. Dark Horse highlights Berger books and what’s the holiday season without The Walking Dead?
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):
Can You Smell What The Rock Is Reading?
The DC Black Adam & the JSA runs through Monday, 11/14.
Well, at least we’d like to think The Rock was reading some of the source material… Lots of stuff we like here, too.
We’re big fans of the Paul Levitz / Sonny Liew Doctor Fate revival from a few years back. A medical student of Egyptian decent encounters the helmet of Fate as ancient forces start showing up in Brooklyn. One of the best, and best explained, passing on of the mantle/identity examples in recent memory. (Now… where is the long promised Immortal Doctor Fate collection?)
Tim Truman’s Hawkworld is still one of our favorite Hawkman series, although we doubt this one will look much like the movie.
Do like the classic Justice Society lineup? We do, here at the Tower of Cheap.
Justice Society of America: A Celebration of 75 Years is sort of a “best of”/sampler of the various ages. Golden Age All-Star Comics, JSA/JLA team-ups, an All-Star Squadron issue, an issue of the Strazewski/Parobeck Justice Society of America, etc. (Which reminds us… Hey DC, where’s that Strazewski/Parobeck collection you’ve been promising us?!?)
Justice Society of America: The Demise of Justice has Len Strazewski and a rotating artist group of Rich Burchett, Tom Artis, Mike Parobeck and Grant Miehm send a ’50s era JSA squad out against Vandal Savage, in the original All-Star Comics format where the heroes split up. Not the later, unreprinted Strazewski/Parobeck series set in the ’90s, this came a little before that.
Infinity, Inc. is a spin-off of All-Star Squadron. It’s the adventures of the children and protégés of the JSA in modern times. Roy and Dann Thomas write it. Jerry Ordway is the initial artist, and if you follow the single issues, you’ll eventually find a young Todd McFarlane, which most people forget. (And he has some pretty wild layouts in those.) They’re not all on sale, but the sale takes you through issue 8 and the end of the Generations Saga
Now what’s more likely to resemble the Black Adam film probably starts with JSA by Geoff Johns. This was originally written by David Goyer (yes, the screenwriter – he did more comics in the early aughts) and James Robinson. Johns turns up in issue #6 and a few years later assumes solo duties. The Black Adam volume from later in the run, where Black Adam takes over Khandaq and Hawkman doesn’t appreciate it might be where the movie is going. Only about half the series is in collected editions, however the single issues are $0.99 a pop. Also seems that the JSA: Classified companion series is also having $0.99 single issues. Go figure.
This series was relaunched (now entering the age of relaunches) as Justice Society of America with Geoff Johns and Dale Eaglesham. This is also where Alex Ross returned to the Kingdom Come franchise, although it was poorly promoted at the time.
JSA Single Issue Bonanza
The DC Black Adam & the JSA Sale Single Issue Sale also runs through Monday, 11/14.
We noted a few of the single issue sales in the last item and while we were doing that, Amazon dropped a new sale. Let’s break down the list by series (and know there are some specials, one-shots and minis not in the list):
- Black Adam – Peter J. Tomasi / Doug Mahnke mini-series
- Doctor Fate – ’87 – The Keith Giffen & J.M. DeMatteis mini-series
- Doctor Fate – ’88-’92 – J.M. DeMatties / Shawn McManus, later William Messner-Loebs/Scot Eaton
- Infinity, Inc. – Roy & Dann Thomas/Jerry Ordway/Todd McFarlane
- JSA – David Goyer/Geoff Johns/Stephen Sadowski is the primary combination
- JSA All-Stars – Lilah Sturges/Freddie E. Williams
- JSA Classified – Creators rotate by arc. Think the Justice Society version of Legends of the Dark Knight
- JSA: Strange Adventures – Mini-series by Kevin J. Anderson/Barry Kitson/Gary Erskine
- Hawkman – ’64-’68 – Get your Gardner Fox/Murphy Anderson on!
- Hawkman – ’86-’87 – The Tony Isabella/Richard Howell run
- Hawkworld – ’89-’93 – A continuation of the Tim Truman series (see above) by John Ostrander/Tim Truman/Graham Nolan
- Hawkman – ’93-’96 – Continuation of Hawkworld, first by Ostrander/Jan Duursema, then Messner-Loebs/Steve Lieber
- Hawkman – ’02-’06 – Initially by James Robinson / Geoff Johns / Rags Morales
What’s good here? We particularly liked the continuation of Hawkworld. This is really an eclectic dealer’s choice kind of selection. Get some Silver Age material. Pick up the Walt Simonson or Steve Englehart JSA Classified issues. You have options.
Call It a Day
The DC Wonder Woman Day Sale runs through Monday 10/24. Wonder Woman Day being 10/21, if you were curious.
First let’s break this down by hitting the highlights of the series involved, since this is a really deep sale.
- The Brave and the Bold – Liam Sharp’s Wonder Woman/Batman mini-series
- Sensation Comics – ’42-’52 – The anthology Wonder Woman debuted in
- Wonder Woman – ’42-’86 – The original solo title
- Wonder Woman – ’87-’06 – The post-Crisis series George Perez launched
- Wonder Woman – ’06-’11 – Best known for the Gail Simone/Aaron Lopresti run
- Wonder Woman – ’11-’16 – Best known for the Brian Azzarello/Cliff Chiang run
- Wonder Woman – ’16-now – Launched w/ Greg Rucka/Nicola Scott/Liam Sharp
- Wonder Woman: Amazonia – William Messner-Loebs/Phil Winslade Elseworlds
- Wonder Woman: Dead Earth – Daniel Warren Johnson’s Black Label tale
- Wonder Woman: Earth One – The Grant Morrison / Yanick Paquette graphic novels
- Wonder Woman: True Amazon – Jill Thompson’s Eisner-winning graphic novel
There’s a variety of good material here. Everyone should at least have a look at how entirely bizarre the early Wonder Woman comics are. Those bondage rumors are very real. While Amazon does a strange job of dividing into a different category pages, the George Perez re-imagining is a must-read for the character. We also swear by the Greg Rucka runs. The first, with JG Jones, Drew Johnson and Rags Morales on art, closes out the series that Perez’s run began. He then returned years later for another fantastic run with Nicola Scott and Liam Sharp on art.
Holy Eating Your Mate, Batman!
The Marvel Black Widow Sale runs through Monday, 10/24.
Yes, there’s a bit more Black Widow in print since she started showing up in the movies. We’re genuinely amused Marvel cobbled together an Epic Collection of her guest spots, too. But let’s talk about comics where she’s the lead.
The most recent Black Widow series by Kelly Thompson and Elena Casagrande pulled an Eisner Award and starts out with a very angry and violated Natasha Romanov looking for revenge. (Although ultimately, its a very family-themed run.)
You can pull the Waid/Samnee run on Black Widow in a single volume. This one has Natasha on the run as her past comes looking for her (a common theme in Widow stories). The nice thing about Waid/Samnee books – they’re a known quantity, so you already know if you’re interested.
If you want to go back a little further, we really enjoyed the darker, more espionage-centric pair of mini-series by Richard K. Morgan (yes, the Altered Carbon author) with Bill Sienkiewicz, Goran Parlov and Sean Phillips providing art. They are conveniently collected in the Black Widow: Welcome to the Game book.
Penunltimate
The Marvel Ultimates and the Ultimate Universe Sale runs through Thursday, 10/27.
The Ultimates were The Avengers of the Ultimate Universe. Mark Millar’s and Bryan Hitch’s series sparks a few arguments, but there’s no denying how influential it’s proven to be in everything from the “cinematic comics” movement to the Marvel films.
The other of the four flagship titles that launch the Ultimate Universe was Ultimate Fantastic Four. This title had a few more creators tagging in and out. Brian Bendis, Mark Millar, Mike Carey and Warren Ellis all wrote it at various times. Artists included Adam Kubert, Stuart Immonen and Greg Land.
Breakfast of Champions
The Marvel Champions Sale runs through Monday, 10/24.
For the original ’70s Champions series by Tony Isabella, Bill Manto, George Tuska, Bob Hall and John Byrne, your best price for the full set is the Marvel Masterworks edition.
The ’16-’18 Mark Waid/Jim Zub/Humberto Ramos/Sean Izaakse/Kevin Libranda Champions run might require a little explanation for optimal cheapness. At the top of that page, get “Because the World Still Needs Heroes” and “Worlds Collide.“ (These are double volumes and better value.) Then jump to V.4 and V.5 of the regular series at the bottom of the page.
Image Zombies
The Image Walking Dead Sale runs through Monday, 10/31.
You had to see this one coming for Halloween, right?
So there’s the headline: $17.99 Walking Dead Compendiums. That’s ~48-50 issues, depending on the volume, for $18 and comes out to $0.35-$37/issue. Cheap.
Hard to beat that deal. There are some assorted ones shots in the sale, but we’d say the other heighted item of interest might be $0.99 issues of Walking Dead Deluxe, which is the color version of Walking Dead. If you’re curious about that, this is a decent time to sample it.
Karen’s Books
The Dark Horse Berger Books Sale runs through Monday, 10/31.
Yes, that’s Karen Berger who ran Vertigo (and editing Legion of Super-Heroes before that). She set up shop at Dark Horse after DC shut down Vertigo. Berger Books is a little more genre-diverse than Vertigo was, but there’s a similar vibe.
Invisible Kingdom by G. Willow Wilson and Christian Ward might be the de facto flagship book. This Eisner Award winner finds a religious acolyte and a starship freighter crew on the run after discovering corporate interests conspiring with religious leaders for control and profit. We wouldn’t have minded a fourth volume.
The Seeds by Ann Nocenti and David Aja got an awful lot of attention towards the beginning of the year and it’s certainly an interesting one that blends a lot of dispirate elements: climate collapse, aliens, exclusion zones, journalism and conspiracies. Plus… Aja’s art!
And because Halloween beckons, there’s always Anthony Bourdain’s Hungry Ghosts written by Bourdain and Joel Rose with art by Paul Pope, Alberto Ponticelli and Vanesa Del Rey.
x 
Still On Sale
- The Marvel Monthly Sale – Halloween runs through Monday, 10/31
- The DC Frights & Fights Sale runs through Monday, 10/31
- The BOOM! Spooky Season Sale runs through Monday, 10/31
- The Archie Horror Sale runs through Monday, 10/31
- The Dark Horse Horror Sale runs through Monday, 10/31
- The IDW Horror Sale runs through Monday, 10/31
- The Image Horror Sale runs through Monday, 10/31
- The Dynamite Red Sonja Sale runs through Monday, 10/31
