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Andy Mokler
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Joined: 20 January 2006
Location: United States
Posts: 2799
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| Posted: 05 July 2018 at 3:23pm | IP Logged | 1
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https://www.cbr.com/comic-book-questions-answered-what-was-t he-first-variant-cover/
...Man of Steel #1 in 1986. I would have never guessed. I thought X-Men #1 was a lot better guess but didn't think that was actually the first. It was just the "oldest" one I could think of.
I pretty much can't stand variant covers at this stage of the game. I have always hated when a comic book's cover art and interior art don't match and variant covers have taken that to all new lows IMO.
Ironically, JB's variant covers were both done by him as well as the interior art. It seems as if he was actually doing what the companies claim they are doing. Giving the fans a choice. I believe it with JB but I can't help but feel that all of those that followed were either late to the point that the interior artist couldn't get the cover done and/or just going for the money grab.
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Matt Hawes
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Joined: 16 April 2004
Location: United States
Posts: 16464
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| Posted: 05 July 2018 at 3:52pm | IP Logged | 2
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Yeah, in terms of being a planned variant for marketing purposes, I guess that was the first. There are other kinds of variants before that, though, like Whitman editions, price variants, and newsstand/Direct sales variants.
As for X-MEN #1 (1990s), I think SPIDER-MAN #1 (McFarlane) came first. There were several variants of that comic.
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Matthew Chartrand
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Joined: 17 June 2007
Location: United States
Posts: 1357
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| Posted: 05 July 2018 at 4:21pm | IP Logged | 3
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I am baffled by what people are willing to pay for variant covers and then probably sending them off to be slabbed. One more reason why I rarely buy new comics.
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Matt Hawes
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Joined: 16 April 2004
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| Posted: 05 July 2018 at 4:58pm | IP Logged | 4
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When the age of variants and the speculator market began in the early 1990s, I would just buy the cover I liked best. Before becoming a dealer and retailer, I was a reader/collector, and I collected to have a complete run of a title I enjoyed. I never collected for resell value, so variants held no sway over me.
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Nathan Greno
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Joined: 20 April 2006
Location: United States
Posts: 9154
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| Posted: 05 July 2018 at 5:04pm | IP Logged | 5
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I remember not being thrilled with the variant MoS #1 cover when it hit the stands (I was 11). Back then, I refused to flip through my comics before I read them (didn't want any spoilers!), I'd look at the first page to see who the creative team was... and that's it! I bought both MoS covers thinking there HAD to be other differences inside the book.
I'm glad I have both covers now, but back then I had VERY limited income and I was pretty pissed off at DC for "tricking me"!
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Nathan Greno
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| Posted: 05 July 2018 at 5:09pm | IP Logged | 6
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Matt: When the age of variants and the speculator market began in the early 1990s, I would just buy the cover I liked best.
--
Same! These days I do the same. I don't mind variant covers being offered... now that I know how it works! Ha
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Gordon Somers
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Joined: 18 April 2004
Location: United Kingdom
Posts: 522
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| Posted: 06 July 2018 at 5:34am | IP Logged | 7
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MoS #1 was one of the first comics I ever bought from an actual real life comic store (a rarity in the UK back then and an epic tale of a childhood grail quest I happily tell anyone when I can). I only ever saw the Direct-Market version in there and only knew there was another version because the back cover of #1 displayed it. It was another few years before I was able to attain that (cripes! and I've just realised it is 32 years ago this month since my friend and I made this trek!).
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Phil Kreisel
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Joined: 03 February 2006
Location: Canada
Posts: 1911
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| Posted: 06 July 2018 at 9:21am | IP Logged | 8
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One of the nice benefits of the Internet is the opportunity to see (and save as jpgs) the variant covers that you like of a comic. For example, Action Comics had tons of variants, but most were either over-priced or unavailable. With the Internet, I could see high res copies of the cover to go along with the hard copy that I bought.
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Rebecca Jansen
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Joined: 12 February 2018
Location: Canada
Posts: 4635
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| Posted: 03 March 2022 at 7:33pm | IP Logged | 9
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Been thinking about variants and what i like and what I don't about the practice. Hope this previous thread is suitable place to share thoughts.
I think when there were variant covers without saying there would be only one of this for every thousand of another it was a genuinely nice sideline... you could pick the one you preferred for your copy without paying a premium much where there were equal numbers of both (like a lot of #2s in the late '90s/early '00s Marvels). Somewhere it got really toxic and even bad for the environment where a thousand of one had to be bought to 'qualify' to get one 'rare' variant, or those other exclusive to this or that wholesaler/retailer on top of what people could at least get through all channels. Now there are people making money out of this exploitation of the collecting instinct where it's anything but enjoyable of positive to read about their great news of big profits. It's fans turned against fans at worst and creates I think a bad feeling about the hobby. I'm not saying it is illegal nor should be, but gimmicking along with rare deliberately under produced variants to bleed the last of the lovers of the comic book is very short term for it as a business strategy.
The bottom line is if people are not reading and enjoying the stories about the characters nobody in the future is going to have any nostalgia or positive feelings about this stuff in the future to want to pay anything much for it never mind absurdly priced professionally graded copies or deliberate scarcity variant covers (with one thousand or more going instantly to land fill or recycler?). It's really sad but the variant cover seems to me more like the final stage of the death of what once was a mass media and affordable enjoyable thing to collect and read!
It was foolish enough in the past where PX copies with the ads for rings in the middle, or Canadian and test price increase variants commanded a premium, at least they weren't made to do that (not that I'd pay a cent more for either), these modern 'rarities' however are entirely manipulative and thus negative when as out of hand common a strategy as they seem to be now. Make it so people pre-order the cover they want, then at least the numbers of one versus another would be based on something like actual demand! That would also save all the excess 'regular' or non-rare versions being printed that are in fact unwanted and considered not likely to be more valuable.
I'd really like to see comic books survive as a thing, including specialist shops, but how can anybody feel it's enjoyable when there are so many manipulators involved forcing collectability. It was bad enough where the number of new #1s kept getting more and more frequent and for little reason usually. Comic retailers have so much tied up in new deluxe format hardcovers and pricier non comic book merchandise like never before, it really is amazing how many of them have been able to continue at all.
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Peter Martin
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Joined: 17 March 2008
Location: Canada
Posts: 15881
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| Posted: 03 March 2022 at 9:45pm | IP Logged | 10
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The one I remember that was a kind of watershed was Legends of the Dark Knight, which was launched in 1989, surfing on the wave of popularity of the Tim Burton movie, with the tagline "The first new solo Batman book since 1940!"
The book had a dual cover: a 'normal cover' and then, covering that, a kind of black Bat-shaped outline against a solid coloured background and that came in a variety of colours: pink, blue, yellowy/orangery or greeny/yellowy. IIRC, I had the greeny/yellowy thing.
The inside cover:
I remember Denny O'Neil writing something inside along the lines of "Why the different covers? Oh, it's just a bit of fun" and I recall thinking yeah, right...
Apparently, it wasn't to try and boost sales, but it did and not long after we had the McFarlane fiasco with his new Spider-Man book, and then X-Force #1 came with a mylar bag and a trading card and X-Men#1 had the various different covers... And the bubble started to expand.
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James Woodcock
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Joined: 21 September 2007
Location: United Kingdom
Posts: 7699
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| Posted: 04 March 2022 at 12:59am | IP Logged | 11
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The current state of collecting boggles my mind.
Variant covers are through the roof, but the one that really gets me is the
premium for 2nd & 3rd, & beyond, printings - because the print run was
lower than the first print.
I’ve quite a few discussions about whether these count as reprints & how
can a reprint be worth more than the actual print - changed no one’s mind
during those debates.
Have I profited from these crazy spikes in value?
Well let’s just say I sold a single comic in order to buy my Razor Crest toy.
Some would say I was an idiot because it was Clone Wars 1 & that is the
comic of the hour due to being the first Ahsoka, but the reality is, I never
read the comic, had no personal connection to it beyond finding out it was
worth a small fortune & I really wanted the Razor Crest.
So I sold it without a second thought, & I love my Crest, whereas that comic
had sat on a shelf for years, untouched & unloved.
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James Woodcock
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Joined: 21 September 2007
Location: United Kingdom
Posts: 7699
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| Posted: 04 March 2022 at 1:00am | IP Logged | 12
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But, regarding the topic at hand? Those two Man of Steel covers were
beautiful
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