On The Cheap

Right now, Comixology is offering a big sale themed around DC's various TV projects, and with the impending return of Gotham and its story of a ten year-old billionaire destined to beat up a bunch of senior citizens, it shouldn't come as much of a surprise that Gotham Central is right there, front and center. And yes, obviously you should get that if you don't have it already, because while it was coming out, it was literally the best Batman title of the decade. But here's the thing: We talk about Gotham Central on this site all the time. I have literally already written a column about how great it is this week, so if you haven't checked it out by now, then it's not for lack of recommendations. If, however, you dig a little deeper into the sale, you're going to find some under-appreciated gems that don't get quite as much press despite being truly fantastic comics --- and by that, I mostly mean Green Arrow: Year One.

Okay, seriously: Unless you're performing life-saving surgery or flying an airplane, then stop whatever you're doing and head over to Comixology right now. There's a massive Back-To-School themed sale going on until next Tuesday, focused on DC's all-ages titles like Batman Adventures, Superman Adventures and Impulse - and if you know anything about those books, then you probably already know that they're some of the best comics the company has ever put out.

This week's Humble Book Bundle is built around Dungeons & Dragons comics, and while there are a whole lot of comics in there, I'm going to go ahead and guess that whether or not you're going to enjoy a lot of them depends entirely on how you feel about Drizzt Do'Urden, most noble of the dark elves of Menzoberranzan and the twin scimitars that he uses to battle the evil of Faerûn alongside his astral panther Guenhwyvar. If that's your jam, well, you don't need any more convincing to get over there and check it out. If it's not, well, you still need to get over there and check it out, because you can pay whatever the heck you want for John Rogers and Andrea DiVito's 2011 run on Dungeons & Dragons, one of the best fantasy comics of all time.

Last week, Viz and Comixology had a massive three-day sale on their Shonen Jump titles, and now, they're following it up with a similar sale for Shojo Beat. There are 761 volumes chock full of romance on sale for about five bucks each, and while I'm not quite as familiar with that genre as I am with its action-heavy counterpart, there's one series in there that I can unreservedly recommend to just about everyone: Kazune Kawahara and Aruko's My Love Story!!

This week, Viz and Comixology launched what is probably the most overwhelming digital comic sales since... well, since last month, I guess, when someone decided that it was a good idea to put literally every Dark Horse comic on sale for half off. This time, its's a sale on action manga from Shonen Jump, featuring almost a thousand volumes, including popular series like Akira Toriyama's Dragon Ball, Masashi Kishimoto's Naruto and Eichiro Oda's One Piece, but it's going fast. The sale ends tomorrow.

This week, DC has a pretty big sale on Comixology called "Gotham's Finest," focusing on Batman's supporting cast, and it's a bit of a weird one. For one thing, it looks to be primarily themed around 1999's No Man's Land crossover, the massive story of a functionally post-apocalyptic Gotham City that has been ravaged by an earthquake, and the Officer Down event from 2001 that saw Jim Gordon shot by an unknown assailant. That doesn't mean it's bad --- a lot of those stories are good, and Scott Snyder and Jock's Black Mirror is something you definitely want to get if you don't have it already --- but it does mean that they're asking for a pretty big commitment. If you've only got a single dollar burning a hole in your pocket and you're looking for a great read, though, there's one comic you need to get immediately: 1984's Batman Special #1, "The Player On The Other Side."

The Humble Bundle's biweekly book sales have become a bit of a risky proposition for people on the lookout for cheap comics. On the one hand, you can get a whole bunch of stuff for whatever price you want to pay, with more content unlocked at a still-pretty-low price of $15, and you get to support a charity while you're at it. On the other hand, sometimes you end up reading a bunch of Transformers comics for the next six months. Really, though, it's almost always worth looking into, and the bundle that launched this week is no exception. The theme is comics based on music, and for $15, you can grab the first volume of The Wicked + The Divine, Phonogram, Nowhere Men, Hip Hop Family Tree, and more.

Here at ComicsAlliance, we firmly believe that the only thing better than getting cheap comics is getting a lot of cheap comics at one time while also supporting a good cause, so we keep an eye on the Humble Bundle just in case that exact opportunity presents itself. This week, there's a good one, and it's built around a pretty interesting theme; all of the projects were successfully funded on Kickstarter. Plus, some of the proceeds go towards digital rights advocacy group the Electronic Frontier Foundation, and First Book, which provides educational resources for children living in poverty. The bundle includes both comics and prose novels, and right now, you can snag everything that's on offer for fifteen bucks, including the first volume of Ryan Browne's God Hates Astronauts, Ryan North's choose-your-own-Shakespearean-adventure To Be Or Not To Be, and a whole lot more besides.

Assuming that you have any money left after the massive sales that went on during San Diego last weekend, I've got some good news: Comixology is bouncing back after the con with another round of digital dollar books, and this time, they've got a half-off sale featuring the future's greatest lawman, Judge Dredd. Just not the version you might expect.

When San Diego rolls around next week, it'll be time once again for the Eisner Awards, the comics industry's second-most prestigious honor. The first, of course, is our own ComicsAlliance Memorial Awards, but for some reason, those don't get the press that the Eisners do. Go figure. Point is, DC is celebrating the occasion with a digital sale this week that seems like it's designed to remind you that they've put out a lot of award-winning comics over the past decade. But as always, that comes with an interesting problem, although it's not the one that we usually have when it comes to sifting through the dollar-book sales: In this case, it's pretty likely that you already have this stuff. I mean, look, if you're the one person still waiting on a price drop to grab All Star Superman, then by all means, get over there, drop the twelve bucks and come back when you want to talk about how great that Jimmy Olsen issue is, but I suspect that if you're reading comics news online, then you probably already have Watchmen in one form or another. There is, however, one title, buried way at the end of the list, and if you don't have it already, it's one you need to pick up: 1994's Batman Adventures Holiday Special.