DC has “Dark Alleys of the DCU” sale going on at Comixology and Amazon right now. (Another one where the pricing is consistent across platforms, but Amazon hasn’t yet chosen to publicize the sale with a page.) Yes, there’s a joke to be made about DC’s proclivity for darkness over the last decade plus, but they’re putting full runs of some choice titles/creators on sale with this one and it’s worth a look.
The Horror, the horror…
For full-on horror comics, Saga of the Swamp Thing is both Alan Moore’s US debut and the functional roots of the original Vertigo imprint (pun intended). Speaking of Vertigo, if you want John Constantine comics, you want the original Hellblazer. You’ll have some personal opinion on who prefers Delano or Ennis or Ellis or Jenkins and so forth, but it was a consistently enjoyable title for a very long time and hasn’t been the same since leaving Vertigo.
Heroes and sorcery
While not really horror in the vein of Swamp Thing and Hellblazer, there are some good pickings with more magic-based heroes. I haven’t seen Alan Moore & J.H. Williams III’s Promethea on sale recently. One of Moore’s better works and Williams is one of the best artists on the modern era, so this is pure win. John Ostrander & Tom Mandrake did a terribly underappreciated run on The Spectre that was one of DC’s best 90s titles. Paul Levitz wrote a Doctor Fate series a couple years ago with Sonny Liew (!) doing most of the art that featured an new recipient of Nabu’s helmet trying to figure out how to use it and how it ties into his Egyptian heritage while confronting Anubis. It flew too far under the radar and deserves a wider audience.
Weird heroes
A few superhero titles that are on the darker side and a bit off-kilter. Grant Morrison’s Doom Patrol may still be my favorite bit of his work. Aided and abetted by Richard Case, this is the series where we get Mr. Nobody and the Brotherhood of Dada… it’s weird and absurdist in the best possible way. Speaking of weird, I’ve mentioned literary weird fiction legend China Miéville’s revival of Dial H before. It’s still recommended. Finally, there’s Starman. The James Robinson/Tony Harris masterpiece that ran from ’94-’01. They should hurry up and get the rest of it in digital.
All kinds of good stuff for your discounted consideration.
Comixology has had some great DC sales lately. I CAN’T STOP GIVING THEM MY MONEY!
All of this together equals a pretty damn good comic collection with most of everything I would not want to have missed out on.
Mieville was greatly aided by Alberto Ponticelli on art on Dial H and that was a big reason for me in my buying it (after taking note of Ponticelli on the Unknown Soldier series
Agree, agree, agree, partic on Starman. Didn’t know about recent Dr Fate so, cheers.
Ditto re: the newer Dr. Fate series — a little slow to start, perhaps, but continually excellent with the 2nd story arc.
And from your mouth to the Corporate God’s ear re: more digital STARMAN.
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