By Zack Quaintance — This week’s Best comiXology sales - Naomi, Crisis Zone, and more best of 2021 piece is about as eclectic as it gets. As the title implies, we have all those things…and we also have a classic Bill Sienkiewicz superhero graphic novel and some early work from Box Brown. Personally, I love the variety, and I hope you do too. Just pick something (new?) to read, and go with it.

Enjoy!

Best comiXology Sales: Naomi spolight and more

Naomi: Season One (plus other character appearances
Writers: Brian Michael Bendis and David F. Walker
Artist: Jamal Campbell and more
Publisher: DC Comics
DC's biggest, newest mystery starts here! When a fight between Superman and Mongul crashes into a small Northwestern town, Naomi begins to uncover the last time a super-powered person visited her home-and how that might tie into her own origins and adoption. Follow Naomi's journey on a quest that will take her to the heart of the DC Universe and unfold a universe of ideas and stories that have never been seen before. Join writers Brian Michael Bendis and David Walker and breakout artist Jamal Campbell in Wonder Comics' massively ambitious new series and star...Naomi.
Why It’s Cool: This past week, a Naomi TV show debuted courtesy of Ava DuVernay, and it got largely positive reviews and plenty of buzz. As it just so happens, basically all of the character’s comic book appearances to date are on sale this week too (yay, synergy!). Catch-up on them all with the links below…
Prices: From $.99 to $3.99
Read Them Here: Naomi - Season One; Young Justice, Vol. 2; Young Justice, Vol. 3; and more

An Entity Observes All Things
Writer/Artist: Box Brown
Publisher: Retrofit Comics / Big Planet Comics
Stories of science fiction and mental exploration from Box Brown, New York Times-bestselling author of Andre the Giant: Life and Legend. Lizard aliens! New Physics! Electromages! Wastelands! Star Warrior robots! Social media cults! Pizza!
Why It’s Cool: Box Brown is one of our best working cartoonists, creating thoughtful books about idiosyncratic interests that speak to society as a larger whole. These books in recent years have focused on Andy Kaufman, the legalization of marijuana, and the concept of child stars. With all that in mind, the book we’re recommending today might seem a bit different to fans of Brown’s work, although it’s all in here. This is a nice look at some of his different interests. Plus, extra cool points because the publisher is affiliated with my own local comic shop here in Washington, D.C.
Price: $3.99
Read These Comics: An Entity Observes All Things

Chartwell Manor
Writer/Artist: Glenn Head
Publisher: Fantagraphics
No one asks for the childhood they get, and no child ever deserved to go to Chartwell Manor. For Glenn Head, his two years spent at the now-defunct Mendham, NJ, boarding school ― run by a serial sexual and emotional abuser of young boys in the early 1970s ― left emotional scars in ways that he continues to process. This graphic memoir ― a book almost 50 years in the making ― tells the story of that experience, and then delves with even greater detail into the reverberations of that experience in adulthood, including addiction and other self-destructive behavior. Head tells his story with unsparing honesty, depicting himself as a deeply flawed human struggling to make sense of the childhood he was given.
Why It’s Cool: As I noted above, this week/weekend/next week is all about me reading as many 2021 graphic novels as I can en route to rolling out my Best Graphic Novels of 2021 list, which comes super late…first week in February. Anyway! Not to tip things, but this book is almost certainly going to be on there. It’s such a well-done and raw memoir comic, and I’ve been thinking about it often since finishing (and reviewing) the book in May.
Price: $9.99
Read This Book: Chartwell Manor

Crisis Zone
Writer/Artist: Simon Hanselmann
Publisher: Fantagraphics
In March 2020, as the planet began to enter lockdown, acclaimed cartoonist Simon Hanselmann decided that what the world needed most was free, easily accessible entertainment, so he set out to make the greatest webcomic ever created! The result is also certain to be one of the most acclaimed and eagerly anticipated graphic novels of 2021. As the Covid-19 pandemic continued to escalate far beyond any reasonable expectations, Crisis Zone escalated right alongside, in real time, with daily posts on Instagram. Crisis Zone's battle mission was to amuse the masses: no matter how horrible and bleak everything seemed, at least Werewolf Jones wasn’t in your house! Over the course of 2020, Crisis Zone has amassed unprecedented amounts of new fans to the Megg and Mogg universe and is presented here, unabridged and uncensored, with a slew of added pages and scenes deleted from the webcomic, as well as an extensive “Director’s Commentary” from Hanselmann himself.
Why It’s Cool: As long as I’ve been thinking about Chartwell Manor, I’ve been thinking about Crisis Zone longer. This first appeared as a daily instagram comic in the early goings of the pandemic, continued through almost all of 2020, and was published as a full book with a fantastic and detailed director’s commentary about the whole thing in 2021. It’s essential reading, the best piece of early pandemic fiction…in any medium.
Price: $9.99
Read This Book: Crisis Zone
Read our recent Crisis Zone roundtable!

Elektra: Assassin
Writer: Frank Miller
Artist: Bill Sienkiewicz
Publisher: Marvel Comics
Meet Elektra Natchios, a young woman who has played many intriguing roles: gymnast, martial artist, ninja, assassin. But this enigmatic woman, trained in the arts of ninjitsu and renowned as the world's deadliest assassin ... is dead. Or is she? An unconscious woman washes ashore in a small Central American country. Two policemen are strangled. A diplomat is assassinated. A S.H.I.E.L.D. agent is brutally dismembered. Unrelated events? Hardly. Elektra has returned. Whether she's been miraculously resurrected or this is an untold tale from Elektra's past is left for the reader to decide. But one thing remains certain, Elektra is back with a vengeance. From the combined talents of two of comics' greatest innovators - Frank Miller and Bill Sienkiewicz - comes this psychological excursion through the mind, body and soul of the world's most dangerous woman.
Why It’s Cool: This month was a big one for Elektra and Daredevil. In Marvel’s mainline comics, the character sort of took over the mantle of Daredevil (for now, anyway), and on this very website, we organized our excellent Man Without Fear…By The Years series into a landing page, where readers can find the whole series of dozens of pieces about Daredevil comics dating back to 1964. This book is written about here, and it’s a good one!
Price: $4.99
Read This Book: Elektra - Assassin

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.