On The Cheap: Comixology’s Overwhelming Cyber Monday Sale Has DC, Dark Horse, Manga And More
I'm still holding out hope that one day, Cyber Monday will mark the day that we all transcended our human forms and uploaded our minds into new bodies with rocket fists and laser eyes instead of just sitting around refreshing online shopping sites all day, but until then, we might as well make the most of it. And folks, Comixology is making the most of it in a way that's downright overwhelming.
Today, in honor of the Internet's biggest shopping day, there are several massive sales going on, from DC, Dark Horse, Viz, Kodansha and more. So if you want to take a break from shopping for everyone else and get yourself a little something --- or buy someone a nice digital gift, I suppose --- then read on for our guide!
Viz has a handful of titles dropped down from $7 to $5. While there aren't a lot of them to choose from, there are definitely a few ComicsAlliance favorites in there to check out if you haven't already, including the first volumes of My Hero Academia and the new Ultraman. For the absolute best title on offer, though, the highest possible recommendation goes to Kazune Kawahara and Aruko's My Love Story!!, the most awkward, adorable and hilarious romance comic on the stands. Along with One Punch Man, which is sadly not included in the sale, it's my favorite manga coming out, and well worth twice what Comixology is charging.
Also, if you're in the mood to find out about one of the best-selling comics in the world, Kodansha has the first 210-page volume of Attack On Titan marked down to 99 cents. That's a pretty solid deal.
As for the Dark Horse sale, remember how its Black Friday sale was only on single issues? It turns out Dark Horse was just waiting for today to throw the collections in there too, dropping the prices on 30 of them to just $3 each. If you missed Friday's sale, then there's a lot of overlap there to check out, including Archie vs. Predator and Hellboy and the BPRD: 1952, but there's also something that wasn't included in that sale: Kelly Thompson and Meredith McClaren's Heart in a Box.
Thompson has had an amazing year, thanks in part to her amazing work on Jem and the Holograms with Sophie Campbell, and if you like that book, you should definitely read Heart in a Box. It's got a great high concept that blends the fantasy of a fairy tale with an edge of horror to it --- a young woman suffering from heartbreak sells her heart, and all that goes with it, to what is essentially a demon, and has to get it back --- and McClaren's art is absolutely beautiful. It was serialized online before being released as an OGN, and at over 75% off, it's not one you should miss.
The DC sale is where things get a little trickier, if only because the odds are pretty good that you have most of this stuff already. I mean, honestly, nobody needs me to tell them that Batman: Year One is a pretty good read. Plus, it's tough to figure out a minimum of two comics that go really well together.
Because of that, I'm tempted to suggest that you just take advantage of the structure of the Buy One, Get One nature of the sale to just get the most expensive collections you can (New Frontier and Multiversity would make for a pretty good weekend of reading), but there's a whole lot more in this sale to try out. If you're just starting out with DC, though, here are a couple of suggestions:
- Gotham Central: Book One and Green Arrow: Year One are both great reads for someone who's been getting into the DC characters through TV, and since Gotham and Arrow are based extremely loosely on these stories, there's still plenty of new stuff to see in the comics.
- All Star Superman and JLA: Book One are great reads if someone's interested in getting superheroics in their purest form, and do a nice job of laying the groundwork for the Superman and Batman meta-stories that Morrison has been telling for the past 20 years at DC.
- Batman: The Black Mirror and Batman vol. 1: The Court Of Owls make for a really great read, as Scott Snyder, Jock and Greg Capullo go from a darker, superheroic noir story to the start of the single biggest, most over-the-top superhero story at DC Comics today.
- Saga of the Swamp Thing vol. 1 and Preacher vol. 1, if you want to see the foundation of the first wave of Vertigo and the foundation of modern Vertigo (and get hooked on two pretty great runs.
- The Death of Superman and Knightfall, if you want to relive the stories that define the '90s for DC.
- Superman: Secret Origin and Superman For All Seasons, two great takes on Superman's early years that happen to be my favorite Geoff Johns/Gary Frank and Jeph Loeb/Tim Sale collaborations by far.
Phew. That, I think, is more than enough to get you started, but hurry up and get into 'em! Cyber Monday is burning daylight.