By Zack Quaintance — It’s yet another weekend during the pandemic, and now with the election (mostly) behind us, news coverage has almost entirely turned back to the spread of the virus. And the news is, um, not good. It’s enough to give a guy (this guy! me!) anxiety, but thankfully, there are still comics. Specifically, there are excellent sale-priced comics online. With all that concerning stuff in mind, this weeks Best comiXology Sales Weekend of November 13 definitely leans toward comfort reading.

Enjoy!

comiXology Sales Weekend of November 13, 2020

PICK OF THE WEEK
Saga: Compendium One
Writer: Brian K. Vaughan
Artist: Fiona Staples
Letterer: Fonografiks
Publisher: Image Comics
THE ULTIMATE BINGE-READ! Collecting the first nine volumes of the critically acclaimed, New York Times bestselling series into one massive paperback, this compendium tells the entire story (so far!) of a girl named Hazel and her star-crossed parents. Features 1,400 pages of gorgeously graphic full-color artwork, including a new cover from Eisner Award-winning SAGA co-creator FIONA STAPLES. Collects SAGA #1-54
Why It’s Cool: I don’t think I’ve made it any secret that my favorite thing in comics is Saga, even if it is currently still on an indefinite hiatus. Hell, we even have an entire section of the site dedicated to Brian K. Vaughan and Fiona Staples excellent sci-fi adventure/too-relatable family drama. So, I like to think most regular readers of the site have at least checked this comic out by now, but! If you haven’t, this weekend is maybe your best chance yet to do it, with the entire series to date on sale digitally for less than $25. I might buy it myself, just to have it all for easy re-readability, in case I want to go through the book one more time before it returns.
Price: $23.99
Buy It Here: Saga - Compendium One

Ant-Man: World Hive
Writer: Zeb Wells
Artist: Dylan Burnett
Colorist: Mike Spicer
Letterer: Cory Petit
Publisher: Marvel Comics
Scott Lang is back — and doing better than ever! Er, at least according to him. Ask his daughter, Stinger, and she’ll say otherwise. Desperate to raise Cassie’s opinion of him, Scott takes a job from local beekeepers — only to stumble across a global conspiracy that could topple the world order! But what could put Ant-Man on the same side as Swarm, the Nazi scientist made of bees? Perhaps the most deadly foe Scott has ever faced! With no choice but to call the Avengers, Spider-Man and the Black Cat for help, can Ant-Man convince them to take this threat — and him — seriously? If not, extermination is imminent — and the fate of the world may just fall on the miniature shoulders of Ant-Man and Stinger!
Why It’s Cool: This book flew under the radar this year for a couple of reasons, one of which was it was upended by the pandemic, the other is that it’s about Ant-Man, a hard hero to garner attention in the best of circumstances. Yet, it is in my opinion one of the better comics that Marvel has put out in 2020, armed with a one-two storytelling punch of big beautiful bug artwork by Dylan Burnett and an absolutely touching father-daughter heart written by Zeb Wells. Also great in this comic are the many many hilarious one-liners Wells pens, especially in the issue where Spider-Man shows up and Ant-Man is jealous of his popularity and beloved super corny dad jokes. For $3, this is a pretty wonderful weekend read.
Price: $2.99
Buy It Here: Ant-Man: World Hive

Crowded Vol. 1 - Vol. 2
Writer: Christopher Sebela
Artist: Ro Stein and Ted Brandt
Colorist: Triona Farrell
Letterer: Cardinal Rae
Publisher: Image Comics
Ten minutes in the future, the world runs on an economy of job shares and apps—like Reaper, a platform for legal assassination. When the apparently average Charlie Ellison wakes up one day to find out she’s the target of a million dollar Reapr campaign, she hires Vita, the lowest rated bodyguard on the Dfend app. Now, with all of Los Angeles hunting Charlie, she and Vita will have to figure out who wants her dead, and why, before the campaign’s 30 days—or their lives—are over.
Why It’s Cool: Few books have felt as prescient as Crowded, which does such an amazing job extrapolating current economic trends into a crowdfunded hellscape where people need to be working for like a dozen different apps to get by, and a personal judgements can turn a complex person into a pariah online, so much so that the entire world crowdsources their assassination. There’s a lot going on in Crowded, and it’s all centered around a core relationship and a tense chase narrative. This is a very easy book to love, and I highly recommend getting caught up on it if you haven’t already.
Price: Vol. 1 - $4.99, and Vol. 2 - $6.99; or $11.98 total
Buy It Here: Crowded Vol. 1 and Crowded Vol. 2

God Country
Writer: Donny Cates
Artist: Geoff Shaw
Colorist: Jason Wordie
Letterer: John J. Hill
Publisher: Image Comics
SOUTHERN BASTARDS meets American Gods in a high-stakes fantasy series that masterfully blends high-octane action and jaw-dropping worldbuilding. In GOD COUNTRY, readers meet Emmett Quinlan, an old widower rattled by dementia. Emmett isn't just a problem for his children—his violent outbursts are more than the local cops can handle. When a tornado levels his home—as well as the surrounding West Texas town—a restored Quinlan rises from the wreckage. An enchanted sword at the eye of the storm gives him more than a sound mind and body, however. He's now the only man who can face these otherworldly creatures the sword has drawn down to the Lone Star State… In GOD COUNTRY, salvation is a double-edged sword.
Why It’s Cool: Part of the reason I was so hard in my review of Crossover #1 (sorry!), is that I know the creative team of writer Donny Cates and Geoff Shaw can do much much better. How do I know that? Because I’ve read this book, God Country. This is possibly the example of the 2010s of how good a contained six-issue creator-owned miniseries can be, unrestrained by the demands of any corporate IP interest and able to reach fantastical heights that are still grounded by personal truths. Everything about God Country is excellent, from the voice of the narration to the way the last issue will almost certainly put tears in your eyes. This is a masterful book, and I might just go out and re-read it myself this weekend.
Price: $6.99
Buy It Here: God Country

JLA Presents: Aztek - The Ultimate Man
Writers: Grant Morrison and Mark Millar
Artist: N. Steven Harris
Inker: Keith Champagne
Colorist: Mike Danza
Letterer: Chris Eliopoulus
Publisher: DC Comics
From writers Grant Morrison (52, BATMAN) and Mark Millar (Ultimates, Civil War) comes Aztek, the visionary hero from the 1990s! In these stories from AZTEK: THE ULTIMATE MAN #1-10, Aztek fights the forces of evil in Vanity City, where he meets costumed characters including Green Lantern and The Joker!
Why It’s Cool: For those of you who have been following our Turning Invisibles nightly reading project, you may have seen talk of what run is coming next. Well, the thinking is that we’ll just let it ride and keep reading Grant Morrison’s work in order of publication, which would put this book squarely in our sites before we transition to his full run on JLA. I must admit, I’ve never read this book, which makes me very happy that it’s on sale now in advance of that next reading project.
Price: $5.99
Buy It Here: JLA Presents - Aztek - The Ultimate Man

See our past top comics to buy 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.