Humble Bundle

In case you don't have it written on your calendar, May 4 kicks off Children's Book Week, which means that it's time once again to decorate the Children's Book Tree, carve up a turkey with a copy of Watership Down and, of course, send your sweetheart a lovely children's bookentine. Or... or maybe you should buy books for kids? Yeah, it's probably that one. Fortunately, the folks over at Humble Bundle have made it very easy: For the next two weeks, they're offering up a whole lot of comics that are great for younger readers on their usual pay-what-you want setup, including books from Archie, Dark Horse, Image and more - including an amazing full-color Usagi Yojimbo original graphic novel by Stan Sakai.

My first mistake was ever agreeing to do anything anyone asked me to. As long-time ComicsAlliance readers are probably already aware, I don't like the Transformers. There's no particular reason for it, it just never got its hooks into me when I was a kid like GI Joe did, and since my only real exposure to the franchise was when our former editor sent me to review the third Michael Bay movie, there hasn't been much to make me like it. And yet, whenever I bring that up, tons of people tell me that I need to read IDW's Transformers: More Than Meets The Eye, because, according to them, it's actually one of the best comics going. So finally, just to get 'em off my back I said "sure, I'll pick 'em up if they're ever in a Humble Bundle sale or something," which I assumed was a devious ruse. After all, there was a Transformers bundle less than a year ago, so surely there wouldn't be another one anytime soon. That was last week. And now I have to read all these Transformers comics.

The Humble Bundle continues to be one of the best values in comic books, and as you might expect, this week they've turned their attention to the morespoooooky side of things. And by that, I mainly mean comics where Pinocchio uses his endless wooden nose to stab vampires. In addition to several books without pictures -- which I find strange and frightening -- the current Horror Book bundle added a bunch of horror comics today, including The Mocking Dead by Fred Van Lente and Max Dunbar, a volume of Valiant's Shadowman by Peter Milligan and Roberto de la Torre, the first omnibus of Dark Horse's Buffy the Vampire Slayer comics, the first two issues of Roberto Aguirre-Sacasa and Francesco Francavilla's Afterlife With Archie, and more.

Marvel Comics is taking over the Star Wars franchise, but not until next year. So why shouldn't the longtime steward of the franchise, Dark Horse, have some fun with it and help out a worthy cause while it can? Dark Horse is the latest in a long line of publishers to offer up a Humble Bundle comics package, but unlike the others, its offering is themed: strictly Star Wars books. Among the titles up for grabs are the first volume of the Star Wars Omnibus: A Long Time Ago (which collects the classic Marvel series from the '70s), the first volume of the Empire series, the entire Darth Maul: Death Sentence miniseries, and a lot more.

By the end of 2014, it might be tough to name a comics publisher that hasn't offered up a Humble Bundle deal. Oni Press is the latest publisher to join the ranks of the Humble Bundle crowd (others include Top Shelf, Valiant Comics, and Boom Studios), though it's put a bit of a spin on its offering of 24 titles and more than 2,500 pages of comics. Buyers can choose to donate the proceeds from their purchase to the charity Direct Relief, an organization helping to treat and contain the Ebola outbreak in Africa, among other humanitarian causes.

Since the spring, more and more comic publishers have offered up super-cheap collections of comics on Humble Bundle, for the benefit of charities including the Comic Book Legal Defense Fund, the Hero Initiative, and Doctors Without Borders. You can add Valiant Comics to that esteemed group. Starting Wednesday, the publisher has been offering up collections of its top titles, including Quantum & Woody, Unity, Harbinger, Bloodshot and more. Fans can name their price, help a charity, and get a whole bunch of great comics in the process. According to a Valiant press release, the 24 graphic novels and comic collections offered up in the deal have a retail value of more than $420, making it the biggest comic offer in Humble Bundle history.

We've written about the Humble Bundle before here at ComicsAlliance, but let's be real here: It's kind of the perfect idea. Being able to pay what you want to grab a whole cartload of comics while also supporting a charity is a setup that has literally no downside, and it's almost impossible to take advantage of -- especially when it's something like the new Boom! Studios bundle. For the next two weeks, you'll be able to pay what you want for a massive amount of downloadable comics while also supporting the good work of the Comic Book Legal defense Fund. And, if you pay at least $15, you'll get ComicsAlliance favorites like Lumberjanes, The Midas Flesh and Bee and Puppycat thrown in for good measure. The interesting thing about this particular bundle is that it includes some very recent comics. Books like Lumberjanes #4 and Midas Flesh #8 were only released this month, and RoboCop #2 actually came out in stores today. Being able to get them here digitally is a pretty big deal.

I like comic books a lot, and since I tend to fall pretty close to a Scrooge McDuckian philosophy when it comes to spending money, I like getting them as cheap as I possibly can. And because I've taken superhero comics pretty seriously ever since I was a kid, I've also tend to be pretty into helping people out whenever I can. That's why I'm always glad when something like the Dynamite 10th Anniversary Humble Bundle comes across my desk and gives me the opportunity to get a gigantic stack of comics for whatever I want to pay, while also getting the money to some very good causes. In this case, it's well over 100 pages of comics and a 328-page art book from Dynamite's past decade of publishing, including Grant Morrison and Mark Millar's Vampirella stories, Gail Simone's relaunch of Red Sonja and a collection of Alex Ross's art for the publisher for around $15, with the proceeds going to benefit the Comic Book Legal Defense Fund, the Make-A-Wish Foundation, and Doctors Without Borders.

Image Comics' Humble Bundle offer, which ended about two weeks ago, was a notable success with tens of thousands of readers naming their price for contemporary comics. Top Shelf Productions is part of the site's newest book offer, which will benefit Doctors Without Borders and the Comic Book Legal Defense Fund. Buyers can snag three Top Shelf books through the site: March Book One by John Lewis, Andrew Aydin and Nate Powell; From Hell by Alan Moore and Eddie Campbell and Ed Piskor's Wizzywig.

If you're not familiar with Humble Bundle, here's the deal: Deals. Specifically, they're deals with proceeds that go to charity. So far, the site has offered comedy albums, downloadable video games, ebooks, and even movies, but it's teaming up with Image Comics for its first-ever digital comics deal over the next two weeks or so, and buyers can choose how much of the money they spend goes to creat