The loosest usage of the term "luckily" you’ll ever read.
Still going through the Box of Misfit Variant Covers that I talked about last week, scanning ‘n’ prepping them for sale in the eBay store. And seeing these two comics in the box reminded me of how immensely popular these titles once were:
Dark Minds and Warlands were strong, popular sellers, at least for a while, and it seemed like every time you turned around, there was some new tie-in/crossover/mini-series popping up related to one or the other. And there were about a million variant covers pumped out in association with these series as well. Okay, maybe I exaggerate slightly.
Here’s the Warlands “Dynamic Forces Exclusive Alternate Canadian Cover,” only 2,500 printed:
Hope all you Canadians out there enjoyed that. Sorry for the crooked scan.
This next variant is…well, it’s appallingly ugly, frankly:
The appeal of a variant (aside from any alleged “scarcity”) would be, I’m assuming, a compelling alternate cover image that far outshines the non-exclusive, non-variant cover that all the common folk would own. While the original covers for the above series are no great shakes, that variant is just plain yucky. And maybe that Dynamic Forces logo could have been a bit bigger.
It had a print run of 2,000 copies. I wonder how many of them made it into customers’ hands?
This next variant isn’t from the box of old variants, but is instead from last week’s release of Army of Darkness/Xena #1:
Dynamite Entertainment sure likes its variants. Most of their comics have a set of multiple covers that comprise the regular print run…if there are two covers, the run is split 50/50, four covers 25/25/25/25, etc. So those variants are usually easy to find. In addition to that, there are the “virgin” variants (cover art sans any cover text or logos), and then there is the “negative” variant, with the colors inverted, as above. These are doled out based on orders, like 1 for every 25 or 50 or what have you. I understand the appeal of the virgin covers, but the negative covers? They don’t do anything for me. Do people like how those look, or are they just being bought because “they might be worth money someday?”
Who knows? But they do occasionally sell at the shop, and what doesn’t move at the shop, I try to move in the eBay store, which is why AoD/Xena is going up with the Dynamic Forces stuff. Better to try to find a customer somewhere for it now, while interest is up, rather than waiting ten years and trying to find a home for, oh, say, Demonslayer.
Speaking of which…that Nine Rings of the Wu-Tang comic I was listing last week? Sold it. Almost immediately. Luckily I have more copies of that very comic to relist.
“Luckily.” Sigh.
In other news:
- Jim at Comics Bulletin has a list of 20 recently-released Marvel ‘n’ DC books, and wants you to pick your favorites.
- Pal Dorian posted some remixed propaganda posters for the comics weblogging community…and the granddaddy of comics bloggers, Neilalien, was inspired to post his own. BEHOLD.
- Have I mentioned The Daily Batman yet? That’s a Batman every day, baby…what more can you wish for? Well, you can ask for wealth and power, but wish in one hand, The Daily Batman in the other, and see which one piles up first.