Best comiXology Sales: Weekend of May 29, 2020
By Zack Quaintance — This is sort of a down week for comics sales, coming off the bonanza that went up on Memorial Day Weekend. But there is still plenty of enjoy for digital readers on comiXology. The Dark Horse fire sale of basically their entire catalog continues, DC has put a number of second volumes up (many of which rarely go on sale), and, as always, there are some excellent gateways into other comics, too.
Check out our picks for the best comiXology sales this weekend below!
Best comiXology Sales: Weekend of May 29, 2020
*PICK OF THE WEEK*
Dept. H Omnibus Vol. 1 and Vol. 2
Writer: Matt Kindt
Artist: Matt and Sharlene Kindt
Publisher: Dark Horse Comics
From New York Times bestselling Mind MGMT creator Matt Kindt, comes an exciting undersea sci-fi mystery. Mia is a special investigator hired to uncover possible sabotage taking place at a deep-sea research station, where a bitter and paranoid crew try to keep the base functional. What she uncovers is a mind-blowing crime scene filled with suspects with terrible secrets, strange deep-sea creatures, and an impending flood!
Why It’s Cool: There’s something eerie and ethereal about stories set beneath the sea, and this two-omnibus series emphasizes all of that by combining that aesthetic with a sabotage investigation, crime scenes, secrets, and a giant overarching mystery. The entire story from start to finish is on sale now, making nearly 700 pages of comics storytelling excellence available online for what is essentially the price of a new trade paperback. As quarantine orders wind down but the necessity to stay physically distant remains, this is a great option to float down within.
Price: $7.49 for Vol. 1 and $7.49 for Vol. 2; or $14.98 for both.
Buy It Here: Click here for Vol. 1; and click here for Vol. 2.
Animal Man, Vol. 2: Origin of the Species
Writer: Grant Morrison
Artists: Doug Hazlewood and Chad Truog
Publisher: DC Comics - Vertigo
The second collection of Grant Morrison's groundbreaking run on ANIMAL MAN reprints issues #10-17, plus the 19-page story from SECRET ORIGINS #39, this volume shows Animal Man moving more and more deeply into the cause of animal rights. But something else is going on beyond his burgeoning radicalism. Strange visions of aliens, people disappearing into strange pencil-like drawings, and hints of a terrible Crisis lurk around the edges of reality.
Why It’s Cool: This book is the second volume of four for Grant Morrison and Doug Hazlewood’s seminal Animal Man run. Right now, DC Comics has a sale going for second volumes, and this is a great one to get, because the first volume is perpetual available via comiXology Unlimited, which means if you have a subscription to that, you can read the first volume, grab the second, and just spend a good part of your weekend blissing out on this vision of metafictional superhero goodness.
Price: $5.09
Buy It Here: Click here!
Everything, Vol. 1
Writer: Christopher Cantwell
Artist: I.N.J. Culbard
Publisher: Dark Horse Comics - Berger Books
EVERYTHING is a gleaming new mega-department store which arrives to extraordinary thrill—and rapidly escalates to inexplicable mania in the small town of Holland, Michigan. Who—or what—exactly is in charge here . . . and what insidious plans are in store? Collects issues #1–#5.
Why It’s Cool: There have been many storytelling forays into the horror of late model capitalism, but few feel as intriguing, smart, and downright terrifying as Everything, where humanity is potentially being sucked into a sentient mega store. You can grab the entire series on comiXology for $4.96. Or, if you’re still on the fence, you can try the very first issue of this series online right now entirely for free.
Price: Issues of this run range for free for Everything #1 to $.99 for Everything #2 - #4, and $1.99 for Everything #5; you can get the whole series for $4.96.
Buy It Here: Click here!
The Flash, Silver Age Vol. 2
Writers: John Broome and Gardner Fox
Artist: Murphy Anderson and Carmine Infantino
Publisher: DC Comics
Police scientist Barry Allen always enjoyed the exploits of his favorite comic book crime-fighter, the Flash. But before lightning struck his lab and infused his body with the power of super-speed, he never dreamed he would follow in his hero’s footsteps! Fortunately for comics fans everywhere, that’s exactly what happened—and when DC’s revitalized Flash burst onto newsstands in 1956, he opened the door to a new age of excitement—a Silver Age of superheroes, spearheaded by legendary DC editor Julius Schwartz and his titanically talented team of creative collaborators. Now, for the first time, these groundbreaking Flash stories are available in an all-new series of comprehensive Omnibus editions. Collects THE FLASH #117-132.
Why It’s Cool: With DC Comics running a sale on second volumes, it’s worth noting that there are plenty of historical comics choices that readers can just jump into and enjoy what are essentially a series of classic, one-off stories, free of the interconnected decompressed episodic story arcs that mark superhero comics today. There are a pair of Silver Age classics (we’ll get to the other in a moment) that capture the hopeful shiny science age zest of the 1950s, and this is one of them. This classic volume also has the story, The Flash of Two Worlds, which introduced the concept of the DC multiverse!
Price: $5.09
Buy It Here: Click here!
The Green Lantern, Silver Age Vol. 2
Writer: John Broome
Artist: Gil Kane, Murphy Anderson, and Joe Giella
Publisher: DC Comics
The most famous of all the Green Lanterns, Hal Jordan put on the Lantern’s ring for the first time in 1959. Reinvented from the original 1940s crime-fighting Green Lantern by John Broome, this new Green Lantern was a science-fiction adventurer. He battled aliens, giant monsters and wealthy sociopaths out to steal his ring, and fended off the efforts of his love, Carol Ferris, to discover his true identity. As the Green Lantern of the Silver Age of comic books, Hal Jordan captured the imagination of a space-minded society of the ’50s and ’60s. GREEN LANTERN: THE SILVER AGE VOLUME 2 collects the adventures of Hal Jordan as he takes on the responsibility of the ring and the lantern in GREEN LANTERN #10-22.
Why It’s Cool: And now we get to the second great choice for DC Comics’ Silver Age classics this week, one that like the pick above, idealizes the shining idea of American futurism. Whereas The Flash involves feats of science right here on the ground, this volume of excellent one-off stories sees test pilot Hal Jordan adventuring through space as part of an intergalactic peace-keeping force. This volume also gets extra points because Grant Morrison and Liam Sharp’s run on the current The Green Lantern title draws so heavily from past work.
Price: $5.09
Buy It Here: Click here!
The Incal, Vol. 1 - Vol. 6
Writer: Alejandro Jodorowsky
Artist: Moebius
Publisher: Humanoids
The Sci-Fi masterpiece by Moebius and Jodorowsky about the tribulations of the shabby detective John Difool as he searches for the precious and coveted Incal. John Difool, a low-class detective in a degenerate dystopian world, finds his life turned upside down when he discovers an ancient, mystical artifact called The Incal. Difool's adventures will bring him into conflict with the galaxy's greatest warrior, the Metabaron, and will pit him against the awesome powers of the Technopope. These encounters and many more make up a tale of comic and cosmic proportions that has Difool fighting for not only his very survival, but also the survival of the entire universe.
Why It’s Cool: Visionary creators Alejandro Jodorowsky and Moebius’ classic European sci-fi series The Incal is basically all on sale right now through comiXology, offering up nearly 300 pages of metaphysical imagination for about $5, or the delivery fee for the Grubhub order I’m going to place this weekend as I bliss out on this comics excellence.
Price: $.89 for each 48-page volume, or $5.34 for the whole thing.
Buy It Here: Click here!
Wonder Woman, Golden Age Vol. 2
Writer: William Moulton Marston
Artist: Various
Publisher: DC Comics
From discovering mysteries with scientific wizardry to fighting for justice in exotic lands, Wonder Woman goes on many adventures in this second volume of Golden Age stories about one of DC’s most famous superheroes. Against the backdrop of World War II, the Amazon Princess encounters talking animals, Nazis, Greek gods, criminal leaders, fellow superheroes and more! Follow Diana of Themyscira as she fights for truth and justice alongside her friends Captain Steve Trevor and Etta Candy in these stories written by Wonder Woman creator William Moulton Marston. Wonder Woman: The Golden Age Vol. 2 collects Sensation Comics #15-24, Comic Cavalcade #2-5 and Wonder Woman #4-7.
Why It’s Cool: This series of classic Golden Age one-off Wonder Woman adventures forms so much of the foundation for the character we all know today, that they are worth reading entirely on their merits as a window into history. Indeed, at the time these comics were published, Wonder Woman was a singular vision of subversion, one that empowered women and posited that peace and binding together were more powerful forces than death and destruction.
Price: $5.09
Buy It Here: Click here!
ComiXology Unlimited Pick of the Week
X-Men: Red, Vol. 1 & Vol. 2
Writer: Tom Taylor
Main Artist: Mahmud Asrar
Publisher: Marvel Comics
Jean Grey is back — and recruiting her own team of X-Men! Reborn into a world very different than she remembers, Jean gathers allies including Nightcrawler, Namor and the All-New Wolverine to combat a growing anti-mutant movement that threatens to tear down Xavier’s dream! Jean has a vision and a plan — but first her Red squad must infiltrate a top-secret compound to save a mysterious new mutant. Avoiding guards with high-tech weapons, protestors with burning hate and gigantic mutant-killing Sentinel robots is all in a day’s work for the X-Men! But Jean’s newest recruit will be the key to the whole team’s survival as battles break out across India! Gambit finds himself caught up in the intensifying global frenzy of mutant hate as well — but could one of Jean’s oldest friends become a deadly foe?
Why It’s Cool: X-Men is basically the hottest superhero property in 2020 comics, but the years leading up to this resurgence have been a bit bleak. That is not, however, to say that there weren’t good stories being told within what felt like a churning morass of lazy comics. One of the best in recent years was X-Men: Red, which actually featured some of the geopolitical ideas that would ultimately make their way into the current Dawn of X status quo. That aside, this is just a fun story with a concrete beginning, middle, and end — one that also happens to go to interesting and surprising places within the Marvel Universe.
Price: The entire series is available on comiXology Unlimited now!
See our past comiXology weekend sale picks here, and check out our reviews archive here.
Zack Quaintance is a tech reporter by day and freelance writer by night/weekend. He Tweets compulsively about storytelling and comics as Comics Bookcase.