Green Arrow and associates Comixology sale

Apologies for the long wait between posts.  Life has been rather busy lately.  I'm afraid I cannot give you a full review tonight, but I will point you towards another comixology sale, this time it is themed around the Arrow TV show.

Oliver Queen is known in comics as Green Arrow and I believe the TV show brings in a lot of other DC characters.  There are 166 issues in the sale, here are what I think are the best.  All links take you to the first issue in the story arc.  The sale runs for 7 days from 25th March.

Very cheap comics bundle available on Comixology - 1 day left

Comixology have just announced a sale on their Submit comics.  These are creator owned comics (not published or owned by Marvel, DC, Image or any other big companies) that creators submit to the site for sale to the general public.

There are 100 comics in this bundle, including some by Joshua Hale Falkov and Becky Cloonan.  The individual comics are normally priced at $333 but the sale price is $10 for the lot.  This is unbelievably good value.

Buy the bundle here.  The sale ends March 10th, 11pm EST.

Note - these are for digital comics to be read on your laptop/phone/tablet etc.

Superman sale on Comixology

In honour of the new Superman movie - Man of Steel - Comixology are once again doing one of their legendary sales, so once again we'll give you a guide to what's available.  The sale is on until 11pm, Thursday 20th June and most titles are just 99 cents each - that's about 60p in UK money.  It's an incredibly comprehensive sale, covering the important, and best, Superman stories of the last 80 years.

More information after the cut.

Comixology sale of Action Lab comics!

Comixology has another one of their marvellous 3 day sales on. This time it's for the Action Lab publisher house's books.  Most issues are 99 cents each.

There's a range of books here, from horror to pirate detectives, to unconventional princesses, time travel, fairies and other folklore.  You'll find something for kids and adults and everyone in between.

I recommend picking up the Princeless series, which we reviewed here.  Also worthwhile is the Princeless/Molly Danger sampler, which is free, and The Order of Dagonet which is simply fab.

I don't know the others but I am tempted to get Back in the Day, Jack Hammer: Political Science, Jetta: Tales of the Toshigawa Vol 1, Monsters Are Just like Us, Pirate Eye: Mark of the Black Widow, Snowed In and the Order of Dagonet issues 1 to 3.

Happy reading!

Free Comic Book Day and cheap Iron Man comics

We have two exciting things to share with you today.

The first is Free Comic Book Day, a day when you get free comics!  Happening tomorrow, Saturday May 4th!! Sounds great doesn't it?  And there is no catch!  The first Saturday of May is Free Comic Book Day.  Go to any participating comic shop and get your pick of free comics, from a wide range of genres and publishers.  There are loads and loads available, but not all shops stock everything.

From this year's selection I recommend Top Shelf Kids Club,  Princeless/Molly Danger and Mouse Guard.  The rest I either don't know or do not care for.  Having said that I tend to pick up whatever is going just to try it out.

Now, the thing to remember about Free Comic Book Day is that the shops do not get the comics for free.  They have to pay for them, then they pass them on to the customer for free.  So please consider buying other comics while you are there, or, if you get a free book that you like, going back to pick up other issues.

The second thing to share with you is Comixology's 3 day Iron Man sale, in honour of the latest film.  Each comic is 99 cents (American currency) which is about 60 pence in English money.  The sale ends on Sunday.
As I am not too familiar with Iron Man myself I asked twitter friends to provide some recommendations, so thank you @problem_chimp, @lizbatty, and @ZomDa.  They came up with two suggestions:

Iron Man 1 - 6 by Warren Ellis (writer) and Adi Granov (pencils).  Here's a link to the first issue.  Issues 1 to 6 form an arc called Extremis, which ZomDa says is ideal for new readers - it's a standalone story, updates Tony Stark's origin (this happens regularly with characters which have been around for a few decades) and the plot has been adapted into the Iron Man 3 film.  That sounds pretty ideal to me.

Invincible Iron Man issues 1 - 6 by Matt Fraction (writer) and Salvador Larocca (pencils).  Here's a link to the first issue.
Both lizbatty and ZomDa agree this series is good, but Liz commented that it quickly descends into crossover hell, which could either put off new readers or excite you. It depends on how keen you are on continuity, guest stars and series being forced into big events within the shared universe.  Issues 1 to 6 are a self contained arc, The Five Nightmares, so a good place to start.

Also in the sale are Iron Man/Thor 1-4, Marvel's The Avengers The Black Widow Strikes, a three issue movie tie in that is set between Iron Man 2 and another comic, Marvel's The Avengers: The Avengers Initiative #1, which is a prequel to the Avengers film.  Most comics aren't set in movie continuity, so expect what you read in here to be movie correct not regular Marvel comic correct.

So there you go. I know that Matt Fraction is a very good writer and we've reviewed other Warren Ellis titles before, so I reckon that those recommendations are good ones.  I find movie tie-ins good fun too. 

Enjoy your comics!

Comixology - Black History Month

February is Black History Month in America so Comixology, sellers of digital comics, are doing sales throughout the month of key comics with black characters.  This week's spotlighted titles are all DC issues:
Green Lantern 182-188 - introducing John Stewart, the first Black Green Lantern.
Green Lantern 14 -17 - starting John Stewart's excellent Mosaic story.
The Mosaic maxi series (12 issues) itself.
The new-52 Mr Terrific series.

I would recommend the Green Lantern titles over the Mr Terrific ones.  There are a few key DC titles they haven't yet included but I hope to see on sale over the next month.  These are:
Black Lightning Year One
Vixen - Return of the Lion
Suicide Squad - Trial by Fire

All issues are 99 cents (about 60 pence in English money) and can be read on your device of choice - ipad, tablet, iphone, android phone, laptop, pc, apple mac etc.

We have covered many comics with black characters, and you can see all entries here.  We've also done spotlight blogs on characters of colour in superhero and non superhero comics.  The final entry, which lists all previous entries, is here.

Green Arrow Sale on Comixology

A Twitter friend has just alerted me to the fact that Comixology, the digital comics retailer, has a Green Arrow sale.  Each issue is 99 American cents, or about 50p (English money).

Green Arrow is one of DC's superheroes.  He dresses in green and is an ace archer.  He has an on again/off again relationship with Black Canary, ace martial artist with a sonic scream.

Aquaman 101 sale continued

Following on from my previous post on the Aquaman 101 sale, I bought several issues and now feel able to wax lyrical about why you should buy them.  Read on!

Aquaman 101 digital comics sale

In leiu of an actual review (yes, real life is still very hectic) we thought you'd like to know about an Aquaman 101 sale on comixology, starting 19th May (Saturday).  The comics are all 99 cents each (dirt cheap, about 50p in English money) for 3 days.

Aquaman is the King of Atlantis.  He gets a lot of teasing in popular culture, which really isn't right because he's a great character.  He's has several incarnations over the years - clean cut King, husband and father, bearded, hook handed, water handed, back to clean cut, grumpy, heroic, fun loving...he's done it all.  He's been in Smallville, as a sort of frat boy version.
Here's the promo poster for the sale:

If you click the picture it should get bigger and more readable.

I particularly recommend any title from 1986 onwards, particularly the ones titles 1994 to 2001, written by Peter David. The 2003 to 2006 issues are also well worth picking up for the Sub Diego storyline, where San Diego falls into the sea, issues 15-20.
Aquaman: Sword of Atlantis has beautiful art and a real dreamy feel to it.
Flashpoint: Emperor Aquaman was awful. Don't bother with that.

If you want to read any more of him, there is currently an ongoing Aquaman series, also available on comixology.  Also check our Aquaman and Justice League tags for other books with him in.

It's generally worth checking out Comixology's sales as they regularly have good stuff for rock bottom prices.

Top Shelf Comix digital sale - ends Sunday 29th April

In addition to our earlier post of recommended books, Top Shelf Comix are having a weekend sale on some of their digital books.
I have bought The Pterodactyl Hunters, Blue, Lost Dogs, Essex County, Any Empire, Swallow Me Whole, Too Cool To Be Forgotten and Underwired.  All for 5 dollars or less.

The sale ends Sunday 29th April, so get in there while you can!  Comics are available to read on the Top Shelf App, Comixology app or Comixology website (where I read them).