Buying comics can be an expensive hobby. A lot of fans simply can’t afford everything they’re interested in, due to rising prices and the over-saturation of the market with superhero titles.
That’s why we’re here. Every week, the Multiversity staff is asked “What would you buy this week if you couldn’t go over $20?” and shares their reasons why, in order to help others who might have similar tastes make their own decisions in buying comics on a budget. Be sure to leave your own picks in the comments!
Mark’s Picks:
The Lonesome Hunters: The Wolf Child #1 ($3.99): Tyler Crook’s “The Lonesome Hunters” is back for a second arc. I’ve got a full review coming later this week, so I won’t say too much here, but I’m very excited about this title. Crook’s been doing live drawing sessions on Friday evenings, so viewers have seen a few pages already and they were coming together beautifully.
Hellboy in Love #5 ($3.99): This last issue, ‘The Key to It All,’ may have been solicited as the last issue of “Hellboy in Love,” but it’s clearly just the end of year one. This story leads directly into the “Hellboy: A Plague of Wasps” audio drama. I expect we’ll be seeing a lot more of “Hellboy in Love” in the future, but this seems to wrap up 1979.
“Hellboy: A Plague of Wasps” ($12.59): Speaking of the audio drama, it’s one of my picks here too. Does this count for Comics Should Be Cheap? I don’t know. Anyway, this story takes place in 1980 and features Anastasia Bransfield as the narrator. “Hellboy in Love” writer Christopher Golden is behind this story as well with Scott McCormick directing and performing Hellboy’s voice. In terms of price, it depends where you’re getting it from and in which format. I’ve listed the GraphicAudio price for MP3 format.
Total: $20.57. But most of that isn’t really comics, so I’ll also be picking up “Panya: The Mummy’s Curse” #1, “The Great British Bump-Off” #4, “Fishflies” #1, “Lamentation” #3, and “Ghostlore” #3. It’s a big week!
Christopher’s Pick:
Eight Limbs ($19.99): Stephanie Phillips and Giulia Lalli’s graphic novel, inspired by Phillips’s interest in martial arts, follows a retired Muay Thai fighter who’s forced to reenter the ring after taking in a troubled foster child. It’s great to see a martial arts story from a female perspective, as well as a mother-daughter story (instead of a father-daughter or mother-son story), so this will happily be my pick of the week.
Total: $19.99
Kate’s Picks:
My Little Pony 40th Anniversary Special ($8.99): Putting aside the fact that My Little Pony is 40 years old, a piece of information that suddenly just made my bones creak, I have to celebrate a franchise that was such an integral part of my childhood. I collected the ponies, I went to the movies, and even one of my college friends kept her ponies and used them as our good luck charms when it was Bingo Night on campus. Here’s to Butterscotch, Blue Belle, Cotton Candy, and Blossom – – and all who came after them. (Even those damn Flutter Ponies whose wings broke the minute you took them out of the package!)
Fishflies #1 ($5.99): It feels straight out of the “Royal City” universe (and perhaps coincidentally, there’s a new compendium of that series also out this week), but it’s something totally different, and since it’s Jeff Lemire, it will be layers of brilliance.
Hellboy in Love #5 ($3.99): You’ll find out more in our Mignolaversity review dropping tomorrow, but this story just keeps getting better and better. It’s the end of “Hellboy in Love” as Mark has said, but it’s the beginning of something even grander.
Total: $18.97
Johnny’s Picks:
The Hunger and The Dusk #1 ($3.99): The first of a twelve issue saga, Hugo and World Fantasy winning writer G. Willow Wilson returns to the high fantasy genre for this sumptuous looking limited series. Partnered with artist Christian Wildgoose and colorist Michele SassyK, the plot seems to follow some well worn literary tropes (outside invading force that begs compromise between two longtime enemies, enemies to lovers, etc), but with Wilson at the helm, I have no doubt there will be plenty of depth of character and top notch scripting to be found. Wildgoose’s art is animated and exaggerated, his characters seem easily identifiable and strike poses that ooze charm, as well as understate just how good at exploring character via gestures the artist seems. I’m super excited for this first issue – already a mark for the fantasy genre, I can’t wait to see how this dynamic creative team subverts, inverts, or perhaps just explores these tropes, inviting us into a world we can explore with them!
Continued belowFishflies #1 ($5.99): Jeff Lemire has had numerous creative partners over the years, but my absolute favorite Lemire stories are the ones where he is in full creative control. There’s just something about his sketchy, ink-filled pages that draw me in the worlds he creates. In the case of this series, that world is one in which a young girl seems to have befriended a fugitive giant fly-man. Gimme the Canadian Gothic Lemire stories all day, every day!
Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles Annual 2023 #1 ($6.99): I’ve been checking in with Turtle stories here and there over the past few months or so, and by and large they have all been bangers. I love cartoonist Michael Walsh’s other works (most notably his “The Silver Coin” series via Image Comics, but also the outstanding and influential series “The Vision” he created with Tom King for Marvel in 2015), and when I saw his dynamite cover for this annual, I knew I had to check it out. Speaking of artists who know a lot about body language, Walsh does so much with so little, often isolating his characters in the frames of the panel, and making very tight but focused cuts from image to image to convey tons of information. Definitely a creator I feel deserves more love – so go out and give this book a try!
Total: $16.97
