• When you click on links to various merchants on this site and make a purchase, this can result in this site earning a commission. Affiliate programs and affiliations include, but are not limited to, the eBay Partner Network.

Anyone else annoyed how comics now have dozens of covers?
0

Started by Ladic,

44 posts in this topic

valiantman

valiantman

Posted
Posted
6 minutes ago, 1Cool said:

From a buyers perspective i can see why variants are a great thing since you can have get the cover you like instead of being forced to accept the lone cover you use to get.  But from a collector, store owners or producer standpoint I don't see how doing so many covers is beneficial.  They are basically saying the interior story is meaningless - lets just concentrate on producing a ton of great covers and our numbers will be thru the roof.  Never mind the cost to produce and develop so many covers.

I haven't run the numbers (not sure if it's possible to do so), but I assume the sportscard industry has higher than 80% variants in slabbed cards.  There no reason to slab a regular issue card for a player when there's a quadruple-prism-purple-diamond-signature-jersey variant.

Link to comment
Share on other sites
Martin4

Martin4

Posted
Posted

OK- So House of X will be going on sale next week. If I wanted to purchase one copy of variants A-J for cover price the cost would be $132.90. From there it gets even crazier Variants K-P will cost a whopping $1,130. So a total of $1,262.90 will get you variants A-P. Who does that? Completely ridiculous!! I am a big X-Men fan and have been looking forward to this story line but I have to admit I am so sick of the variants that I almost want to boycott the hobby that I have loved for over 40 years. 

That being said- as stated earlier - I will choose 1 or 2 covers and read the story and move on. To me True Believers is the best thing Marvel has done in years. I really enjoy reading the older stories and they cost a buck. Best of all no variants........ yet

 

Link to comment
Share on other sites
NWOslave

NWOslave

Posted
Posted (edited)

 I think the only real people that will really suffer once people stop paying for the variant covers will be companies like, unknowncomics, frankies comics, krs and others due to the fact that variants is their whole business. I dont know how much value the variants by the publishers provide but if they went away i cant image it would hurt them too bad.

 

Me personally i dont care how many variants are made or by whom. i buy what i like. Im not a competitionist so im not obsessive about getting every single cover. no one should let their hobby control them to that extent.

I am tired of homage covers specifically amazing spider-man 300. That needs to stop.

Edited by NWOslave
add more thoughts
Link to comment
Share on other sites
Mirkinator

Mirkinator

Posted
Posted

Im new to the scene, but I did like having so many options to choose from initially.  It also gave an opportunity to get a relatively rare comic for an issue thats not all that rare and felt like a more robust market with choices with some artists I really enjoy.  But its always been a PITA for me to just see what variants are coming, whos making them and which one I really want.  My LCS feels like their hands are tied because they can only get select variants.  I have subscriptions with my LCS, but then see some fresh variant from some other mint online and end up buying it and getting multiple copies of the same issue for ones I really dont want. 

I realize they do this to sell more comics, but would be nice just to see every variant they are printing and let me choose before its out at least.

 

Link to comment
Share on other sites
ExNihilo

ExNihilo

Posted
Posted
On 8/16/2019 at 7:28 PM, NWOslave said:

 I think the only real people that will really suffer once people stop paying for the variant covers will be companies like, unknowncomics, frankies comics, krs and others due to the fact that variants is their whole business. I dont know how much value the variants by the publishers provide but if they went away i cant image it would hurt them too bad.

 

Me personally i dont care how many variants are made or by whom. i buy what i like. Im not a competitionist so im not obsessive about getting every single cover. no one should let their hobby control them to that extent.

I am tired of homage covers specifically amazing spider-man 300. That needs to stop.

I bought the Spawn 298-300 homage covers because it's Todd, but otherwise yeah...it's overplayed.

Link to comment
Share on other sites
valiantman

valiantman

Posted
Posted
On 8/20/2019 at 10:32 AM, Mirkinator said:

Im new to the scene, but I did like having so many options to choose from initially.  It also gave an opportunity to get a relatively rare comic for an issue thats not all that rare and felt like a more robust market with choices with some artists I really enjoy.  But its always been a PITA for me to just see what variants are coming, whos making them and which one I really want.  My LCS feels like their hands are tied because they can only get select variants.  I have subscriptions with my LCS, but then see some fresh variant from some other mint online and end up buying it and getting multiple copies of the same issue for ones I really dont want. 

I realize they do this to sell more comics, but would be nice just to see every variant they are printing and let me choose before its out at least.

I've mentioned this before, but it's still true and another way of looking at things...

When a comic book has a limited variant, then by definition the majority of copies of that comic are "not the good one".  Before variants, every copy of a key issue was "the good one". Now, even the books which may someday be key issues are "mostly junk" since the most limited variant is always the focus and the others are "not as good".  Even when you think you have "the best variant" there's no reason the publisher can't create another variant later (months or years later) that beats it.  Hulk #377 3rd print, Man of Steel #18 4th/5th print, Saga #1 3rd print variant (called RRP), even Amazing Spider-Man #300 (1988) has a chromium variant from 10 years later (1998) that's highly valuable.

In the variant game, there are some individual winners (just like a casino), but when it comes to the entire industry today... the house always wins. 

Link to comment
Share on other sites
Lazyboy

Lazyboy

Posted
Posted
4 hours ago, valiantman said:

Even when you think you have "the best variant" there's no reason the publisher can't create another variant later (months or years later) that beats it.  Hulk #377 3rd print, Man of Steel #18 4th/5th print, Saga #1 3rd print variant (called RRP), even Amazing Spider-Man #300 (1988) has a chromium variant from 10 years later (1998) that's highly valuable.

Those aren't variants (okay, the Saga is, but it's a variant of a reprint rather than the original).

Link to comment
Share on other sites
valiantman

valiantman

Posted
Posted (edited)
17 hours ago, Lazyboy said:
22 hours ago, valiantman said:

Even when you think you have "the best variant" there's no reason the publisher can't create another variant later (months or years later) that beats it.  Hulk #377 3rd print, Man of Steel #18 4th/5th print, Saga #1 3rd print variant (called RRP), even Amazing Spider-Man #300 (1988) has a chromium variant from 10 years later (1998) that's highly valuable.

Those aren't variants (okay, the Saga is, but it's a variant of a reprint rather than the original).

That's true, but the line between "reprint" and "variant" has been blurred for a while now.  Possibly even as far back as Marvel Comics #1 (1939) October vs. November.

But I'll accept your point... my intention was to point out that variants (and reprints) automatically create a scenario where all the possible versions of a comic book ensure that MOST of them are "not the good one".  A collector knows they have a copy of just-became-a-big-book-recently that they bought years ago, they go to their collection all happy and when they find theirs... it's the wrong one.  That's more disappointing than never buying any copy in the first place.

Edited by valiantman
Link to comment
Share on other sites
Corners

Corners

Posted
Posted
On 7/15/2019 at 7:22 PM, Martin4 said:

To me its a money grab.If your looking to make money then you have to buy them all. Then go broke. I pick one or 2 covers that I like and then read and stash them.

They are milking the speculators. Getting them to buy hundreds of books to get that 1 variant. 

Link to comment
Share on other sites
the blob

the blob

Posted
Posted
On 2/8/2021 at 12:02 PM, followtheleader said:

Last Ronin 1 may be one of the worst. 

They have pages of the different covers in the 3rd print.  

Pretty astounding.  Feel real bad for someone's wallet if they are chasing all of those. 

Patrick 

They should make it even more complicated by mixing in a bunch of 2-4 page back up stories in each of them, creating hundreds, if not thousands, of permutations! (OK, that might make it cost more to print, but how much more?

Between endless reboots and different covers and trying to look up stuff on my terrible phone with its terriby cracked screen I am going blinder and blinder

 

Link to comment
Share on other sites
Randall Ries

Randall Ries

Posted
Posted

This is why I quit collecting in 1986. "Crisis On Infinite Earths" had crossovers in every title. We had to buy each title to try to keep up. Titles we wouldn't normally buy. So, I stopped. When I picked up collecting again, I saw that publishers were going nuts with multiple covers and the artwork is MUCH more sophisticated than it was in 1986. MUCH more tempting to buy all the covers to satisfy OCD. AMAZING what you can do with a computer. So, I determined I would just buy the main cover and maybe a variant that caught my eye or was done by a specific artist. It worked with DKIII very well. I never liked feeling that I was being played by the people I was helping support. The fact remains that - like "Crisis", the market got FLOODED with books that were easy to get. As "groundbreaking" as "Crisis" was, the issues are still virtually worthless. I can't swing a dead Catwoman without hitting a first issue. And that was pushing 40 years ago. All these variants aren't going anywhere. And 99% of them will be worth diddly squat.

Link to comment
Share on other sites
EmoJackson

EmoJackson

Posted
Posted
On 2/10/2021 at 5:29 PM, mysterymachine said:

I don't mind variants if they have fantastic covers, but I don't understand why any comic company would pay so many mediocre artists for ugly covers. If you are a completest, that has to really hurt to see those in your collection.

This is totally it.  Some of the covers that I have in my collection are complete trash... but I enjoyed the story inside so it made it somewhat bearable.  

Link to comment
Share on other sites
CHASEnBLUE

CHASEnBLUE

Posted
Posted
5 hours ago, EmoJackson said:

This is totally it.  Some of the covers that I have in my collection are complete trash... but I enjoyed the story inside so it made it somewhat bearable.  

For me its a pick your battles sort of mentality...otherwise I would spend way much more money than I already do. Case in point - recent Spidey covers (Gleason, new costume, etc.). I gave in this time buying more variants than usual, knowing that I will have to settle for a little less for a while going forward on other buys. 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Create an account or sign in to comment

You need to be a member in order to leave a comment

Create an account

Sign up for a new account in our community. It's easy!

Register a new account

Sign in

Already have an account? Sign in here.

Sign In Now
0
Go to topic listing