Also, only one cover features Beppo the Super-Monkey.
So when we all last met here, JohnJ asked
“Sometime would you give us some insight as to how you order something like Action Comics #1000 with 8 covers for 8 decades. Primarily by pre-orders or do you favor some artists over others? I am going to order an Allred cover since I collect his stuff anyway but my temptation to buy a Steranko cover was only beaten down by some common sense. I don’t need two copies!”
In case you missed it, the impending Action Comics #1000 is indeed having multiple covers (most of which you can see here), all equally orderable, thank goodness, because I could just imagine having to do it up Marvel style and matching order amounts on previously-published comics just to open up availability of the variants and blah blah blah look, I’ve already got a headache, don’t get me started.
Anyway…yeah, that’s the trick, ain’t it? Most of the covers are pretty nice, I think, but I haven’t had too many people putting their nickel down on any single one so far, with the possible exception of Mike Allred’s “1960s” cover:
…which, okay, I admit it, that’s the one I want, too. The initial orders on this comic are due in this week, so I’ve got some working numbers already entered in (heavier on the main Jim Lee cover, plus an assortment of the rest). More of a problem is whether or not this being the debut of Brian Michael Bendis’s writing on Superman is going to be any kind of big deal…could sell really well, and don’t want to be caught short. Or nobody could care, and don’t want to be stuck with stock. I know how Superman comics generally sell normally, but I don’t know if this forthcoming Bendis run is going to shake sales up one way or the other. Plus, there’s the little matter of the comic running $7.99 American per copy, so it could turn out to be quite the expensive soaking if the comic doesn’t move.
Now, I still have a few weeks after putting in this initial order to adjust my numbers prior to the comic’s release, so I have time yet to continue gauging my customers’ needs. I have had plenty of people with comic savers asking me to just add #1000 to their pulls, without specifying which cover, though my bad in not asking them if they had a preference, I guess. Better start checking with them! (Related: I’ve also many of these same people asking for the accompanying hardcover history of Superman, which is not usually something that happens with $29.99 books.)
I’ve also had a few requests to pull every cover from some of my pull list people, so that helps me plan out my orders a bit, certainly. I did have at least one person ask if this promotional image was going to be one of the covers:
…and, you know, why not? That would probably be neat-looking as a full-sized front cover, instead of the tiny insert that it’s going to be on all the covers.
So, JohnJ, as of right now, it’s mostly just guesswork and assumptions and plain ol’ “that cover looks better than that other cover, better order more of those.” However, I’m pretty sure that Allred cover is going to be the most popular of the variants. I mean, do any of the others feature the Luthor/Brainiac team? …CASE CLOSED.
Thanks for the tip on the variant covers! I had originally ordered the modern-day, “Yes! I wear trunks, so get over it!” cover, but switched to the Allred variant because Beppo.
I don’t buy many comics at all these days – just wait for the graphic novel.But this caught my eye as it’s so nostalgically pleasing. I did wonder about all of them but the price is a killer and therefore decided on one….. the one illustrated above as it reminds me of my period reading Supes!
Thanks for sharing Mike
They all look pretty great — but I think I’m leaning toward Rude, in a close three-way race with Allred and Cho.
Ah, the tragic tale of Lori Lemaris choosing Merman Superman over Lobsterhead Superman in the lower corner…
(yes, I recognize the Anthead Superman art, but the recoloring and placement of it on the cover by Allred tells a better untold story)
Ah, Lori Lemaris…a welcome reminder, in these continuity-obsessed days, that DC once had two entirely unrelated versions of Atlantis in its comics, and no one felt any need to reconcile them.
(A quick check verifies that Lori’s version came first, in 1959. Aquaman at this point was, as he had been since his debut in 1941, simply the policeman of the seas; he did not become king of Atlantis till he got his own comic, in 1961.)
(For the nitpickers: I am aware that Aquaman did not actually get his own comic until 1962. I am including the SHOWCASE run that preceded it, as that is where Atlantis was brought into the series.)
Okay, a little more research complicates the issue. The first origin story for Aquaman, back in 1941, had him acquiring his ability to breathe underwater as a result of experiments performed by his scientist father. A second origin story made him the son of a lighthouse keeper and a woman from Atlantis–and this was published in a comic dated May 1959, the same date as Lori Lemaris’s first appearance. I would suggest that this shows that DC’s editors did not talk to each other, except that the comics in question (SUPERMAN, ADVENTURE) were both edited by Mort Weisinger.
Then again, going back to my original point, this new origin did not necessarily contradict the Lori Lemaris version of Atlantis, as it showed us only one refugee from there, and not the place itself. We were not given an alternate version of the city till Aquaman got his own comic, and that was edited by Jack Schiff. So maybe it did all come down to a lack of communication between the editors.
And you only get a month’s rest before you have to decide how many copies of Amazing Spider-Man #800, supposedly a big 80-pages for a whopping $9.99.
My biggest screw-up ordering comics when I had my store was over the Superman-Lois wedding special. I thought it would sell in the kind of numbers the death of Superman could have sold in if I’d known that was going to be a big news item. But they tried too hard to coordinate it with the wedding on “The Adventure of Lois and Clark” on tv, which really killed off interest in the comic.
Thanks for responding to my question so quickly.
I love everything about that Allred cover. If only Superman comics were half that fun these days…
Thanks for the comics history lesson, Turan — I always wondered why Atlantis was so different from comic to comic. Until Crisis, of course.