By Zack Quaintance — I had a sneaking suspicion that most publishers hit us with their best sales at the end of last year. Simply put, I was wrong. As you’ll find below on the Best comiXology Sales Weekend of January 15, 2021 list, publishers like TKO Studios and Fantagraphics are running absolutely fantastic linewide sales. And I’ve done my best to find five selections that are not to be missed.

Enjoy!

Best comiXology Sales: Weekend of January 15, 2021

The Cloven: Book One
Writer: Garth Stein
Artist: Matthew Southworth
Publisher: Fantagraphics
The Cloven Book One stars James Tucker, the most successful Genetically Modified Human Organism ever created. Conceived in a privately financed, top-secret laboratory on Washington state's Vashon Island, Tucker is a cross between a human and a goat ― a Cloven. Known to his friends as “Tuck,” all he wants is to live a normal life as a university student; everything is going fine, until he shows a girl his hooves… Moody and mysterious and atmospheric as a fever dream, The Cloven Book One follows Tuck’s breakneck journey across the Pacific Northwest as he searches for his true home out there somewhere. Book One of a raucous, funny, fast-moving, and dynamic series of graphic novels by two bestselling and critically acclaimed storytellers.
Why It’s Cool: One of the most underrated comics of 2020, this book expertly straddles the line between bold and accessible, delivering an intellectually-complex bout of experimental comics storytelling centered around experimenting on humans and powerful mutations.
Price: $6.49
Buy It Here: The Cloven Book One

Goodnight Paradise
Writer: Joshua Dysart
Artist: Alberto Ponticelli
Colorist: Giulia Brusco
Letterer: Steve Wands
Publisher: TKO Studios
VENICE BEACH, CALIFORNIA
SUN. SURF. SEX. MONEY. MURDER.
After finding the body of a murdered teenage runaway, a homeless man vows to bring her killer to justice.
Why It’s Cool: To put it bluntly, Goodnight Paradise is absolutely one of my favorite comics series of recent years. It’s a neo-noir concept centered around the idea of a homeless man who is working to solve a crime, and it uses this premise to explore the real-world housing crisis in California, the way real estate development impacts communities, and just generally progress in the name of unrestrained profit. On top of that, it’s just so well-done, featuring as it does the creative team of Dysart and Ponticelli, who make fantastic comics whenever they team up (see also Unknown Soldier).
Price: $1.99
Buy It Digitally: Goodnight Paradise

Redfork
Writer: Alex Paknadel
Artist: Nil Vendrell
Colorist: Giulia Brusco
Letterer: Ryan Ferrier
Editor: Sebastian Girner
Publisher: TKO Studios
Ex-con Noah McGlade returns to find his hometown decayed by opioid abuse, but he soon discovers an even more sinister horror lurking in the coal mines below town.
Why It’s Cool: I’ll quote features editor Harry Kassen’s write-up of this one for our Best Comics of 2020 - Staff Picks, “With a story touching on addiction, legacy, environmentalism, and economic shifts, this team creates a book that follows in the tradition of the original British Invasion, telling a deeply American story that could only have been told by an outsider.” It’s a top-tier horror comic well-worth a read, and it also marks a nice push into the genre for new publisher TKO Studios, which is very exciting indeed.
Buy It Here: Redfork

The Rough Pearl
Writer/Artist: Kevin Mutch
Publisher: Fantagraphics
Thirty-something Adam Kline is an aspiring artist with bleak prospects, stuck in a thankless adjunct teaching gig and married to an ambitious woman tired of supporting his starry-eyed pipe dreams. Just as things seem to be looking up for hapless Adam, he begins to black out at random and awaken in a pitch-dark void surrounded by billions of probing eyes. When these uncanny visions appear in his real life, he starts to worry that he’s losing his mind…In The Rough Pearl, Xeric Award-winning cartoonist Kevin Mutch skewers the pretentious world of academia and the soul-crushing New York art scene — and enlivens this wry, slice of life (and death) tale with a touch of the surreal.
Why It’s Cool: I’m planning to write more about this one later today for our list of Best Graphic Novels of 2020, but in short, this is a well-done look at the New York City fine art world, splashed interestingly through the experiences of an adjunct professor struggling to move within it. It’s an engaging and smart read, one that has several excellent character-driven surprises. There’s some really interesting visual interpretations in this book of stress-based mental health challenges, which Kevin Mutch does. a great job of rendering.
Price: $7.49
Buy It Here: The Rough Pearl

Sara
Writer: Garth Ennis
Artist: Steve Epting
Colorist: Elizabeth Breitweiser
Letterer: Rob Steen
Publisher: TKO Studios
NAZI OCCUPIED RUSSIA, 1942.
FIGHT HARD.
SHOOT STRAIGHT.
DON'T LET THEM TAKE YOU ALIVE.
A team of female Russian snipers beat back the Nazi invaders on the WW2 Eastern Front.
Why It’s Cool: When TKO Studios first rolled into the comics industry (with somewhat of a surprise launch), it’s flashiest title was Sara, a war story from combat comics expert Garth Ennis brought to life by the gritty, photorealistic cartooning of Steve Epting. It was a powerful and immersive read that begged to be finished in one sitting, which was perfect to convey the strengths of the TKO concept, which sees the release of full series all at once. If you’ve somehow missed it, now is a great time to catch up.
Price: $1.99
Buy It Digitally: Sara

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.