Episode 49: May 2020 Sale Alert – Humanoids, Trilogies, Crime Comics

In these COVID-19 times, there are free digital comics flying everywhere. Check out your favorite publisher’s websites for their latest deals.

Those are often short-term offers, though. You can only read those comics on their websites before they go away.

If you want to own those comics, though, there are some great deals if you want to buy a few — or dozens. And they’re cheap.

Here’s a list of three great deals you might want to act on fast before they expire. At the end, I’ll throw in a fourth for a series that’s not European in origin, but does feature a British artist. That has to count for something, right? At the very least, nearly 200 comics for less than $20 is an eye-watering deal…

Bundle!

There’s a huge Humanoids bundle deal going from a website named Groupees that I had never heard of before now. It’s similar to Humble Bundle: pay a certain amount, get a lot of comics. Pay more, get more. You can even donate a percentage to charity.

There are three tiers to this offer — $2, $8, and $15 — with lots of comics in each. And, yes, while the offer is open, you can start at one and come back later to throw more money in for the next tier.

For the value they’re offering for the money, I’d recommend just going for the whole thing. When on sale, these books are at least $1.99. There’s more than 70 books total here. I’m not math genius, but the numbers work to your advantage here…

I went for the whole hog: That’s the $15 route that gets you the Rod Serling bio-comic, plus Travis Charest’s Metabarons work, two books from Milo Manara, Terry Dodson’s “Muse,” and more. It also gives you an incredible amount of Metabarons and Incal comics, if you’re into those.

Do yourself a favor, though, and don’t go any lower than the $8 level, for which you get the Metal Hurlant comics collected from the early 2000s. There’s some good stuff in there. Plus, you’ll also get the Geoff Johns/Butch Guice “Olympus” two album series, more “Carthago”, and the John Cassaday-drawn “I Am Legion.”

Good luck downloading it all. It’s going to take you a little bit of time, and then you’ll have to look at the files and rename them. They come as a series of numbers and then the “.pdf” extension. My “Downloads” directory was filled with them. Took a bit of time to go through, one by one, and rename them, but it was worth it.

Thankfully, there is an option to download all the comics with the click of one button. I took advantage of that one, for sure!

Humanoids!

If you’re more of a crime person, Comixology and Izneo are running a Humanoids crime comics sale. There are 49 books available in the sale, all at $1.99.

I enjoyed the first two books of the “Bouncer” western series that I read, back in the hardcover album days of the rip-roaring early 2000s. I read the digital edition of “Sole Survivor” more recently, which has a great high concept of tragedies in which only one person survives. (Unfortunately, that known outcome kills a bit of the drama of the books.)

And I know I read “Bad Break” at some point, but don’t remember much of it at all, sorry to say.

There is some overlap between this sale and the Groupees bundle above, so pay close attention.

This sale ends on May 11th, so hurry up. It’ll be gone on Monday.

Trilogies!

Finally, there’s a big Trilogy sale from Europe Comics on Comixology. It stretches the definition of “trilogy” to really include “any series that made it to three books,” but there’s still some good reading in there.

I’ve only read the first of the three “Ric Hochet” books, for example, but I love the art on them, and enjoyed the first story. I’m pretty sure it’s three standalone stories, though.

“Tebori” is a real trilogy, a story told in three parts. It’s from the same creative team as “Ken Games,” though not quite as great. Still, it’s enjoyable.

I mostly enjoyed “The Kingdom of the Blind,” though I don’t think I ever reviewed it here. Not a perfect book, but a fun read.

“Lethal Lullaby” has what seems like an odd creative pairing. It’s written by Tome, best known around these parts for his Spirou work, and drawn by Ralph Meyer or “Undertaker” fame. Combined, the two created a nifty crime story that I read on vacation a couple years back and then never reviewed. Good stuff, though.

The list goes on. Take a look. You should find at least one series of interest in that mix.

The sale ends on May 17th.

Bonus: The Complete “The Walking Dead”

HumbleBundle is offering the complete series of “The Walking Dead” for just $18.

That’s a ridiculous good deal with a lot of great reading.

You have until about noon time on May 20th for this deal. Get cracking!

If you pick up any of these deals, drop in the comments below and let me know what you’re excited about, or which of these books you loved and would recommend.