variant covers

[Daimao]

I've been out of the comic game for a while and they didn't have all these variant covers back in my day. The new Venom series coming out soon has caught my eye but I've already seen 3 different covers solicited for issue #1. How do you guys keep up? Are there any sites that catalog all of the covers for every issue?

[IndySportsCards]

Originally Posted by Daimao

I've been out of the comic game for a while and they didn't have all these variant covers back in my day. The new Venom series coming out soon has caught my eye but I've already seen 3 different covers solicited for issue #1. How do you guys keep up? Are there any sites that catalog all of the covers for every issue?

Not really. There are rag tag groups on various platforms like Facebook and Google that attempt to be end all portals, but it's just too fluid of a hobby to establish that sort of authority on new titles. It's just not really possible. We do our best to keep track of things here, but even we slip from time to time, it's like herding cats.

If you miss a variant, don't sweat it, another will be out next week. The market is being flooded with variants, and not all of them are worth spending extra money on. In fact, it's quite troubling how much money is being spent on unproven properties simply because they have a variant cover. Overall it's not good for the industry because new fans get burned financially and will be unwilling to take chances on new books that actually have good stories. That's where you should concentrated your effort. Find stories you like, artists/writers you like, and then when they do variant covers, support them.

Venom should prove to be a good one though as it's an establish character with a fan base, hard to go wrong there, but newer titles with characters you've never heard of are riskier, but generally those are the ones nobody buy up front and in two years are worth $100..

This is not an exact science, and anyone pretending to know that they can predict this stuff is full of beans. Myself included. In fact, I'm the beaniest!

[Mysterio]

You will drive yourself mad and make yourself extremely poor chasing after variants. My advice, like Indy said, buy the characters and/or artists you like. Forget trying to be a completionist. Buy for your collection, not the flip and profit. You'll be much happier in the long run.

[Daimao]

Thanks guys! I was never planning on trying to flip, just collect for fun since I've always been a Venom fan. I like a few that I've seen so far I just want to be on top of what's coming out so I don't miss a cool one.

[Divino]

I just recently got into buying comics, and I've been mainly focusing on Harley Quinn, Deathstroke, Suicide Squad, and Deadpool. The easiest and best way for me to collect has simply been to just buy the covers you like!

[DynaEtch]

Found this variant browsing ebay, kinda funny (sorry old thread bump)



True there's been a zillion homages of good ol FF 1. I think my fav might be when Simpsons/Bongo did it with Comic Book Guy as Giganto.

[Archangel1775]

I use ePack Collect Forever for my variant understanding and I only buy from Pre-order. CF explains it pretty well.

[jdandns]

I always loved this one:



John Byrne, 1984 Marvel Age cover. While the writer/artist was in the midst of a seminal run on Fantastic Four, he depicted himself at their original menace for Marvel's monthly promotional comic.

I loved the dark blue costumes Byrne gave them and it was during his run that Sue Storm finally became the Invisible Woman as opposed to the Invisible Girl. The Thing was also replaced by She-Hulk for a time, her being a character Byrne excelled at writing and drawing. For my money, Byrne's 40+ issue run as writer and artist on FF is right there with the other classic Marvel runs of the era, including Miller/Janson "Daredevil", Simonson "Thor", and Byrne again, with Claremont on "X-Men".

[DynaEtch]

Hah, that Byrne homage is awesome! Was not aware of that one. Hard to argue that was one of the best eras of FF.

I think it would be fun to collect the homages of FF 1…gotta be one of the most “homaged” cover of all time. Alex Ross has a cool one.

[jdandns]

Yeah, Byrne homaged it during his actual run, too, on #264.



Here's Ross from a recent FF #1 facsimile comic:



...although he painted his version of the image way back in 1994, originally for, if I'm not mistaken, the Marvel Press Poster series:



It also, of course, became a trading card in 1997, in the Alex Ross Salutes Chase Set in 1997 Fleer/Skybox Marvel Silver Age. It was used as the promo card for the card set, too, shown here. The chase version has a silver foil logo.

[JBrooks Breaks]

I love homage covers.

[jdandns]

Awesome display, but we can't forget good ol' Jeff Albertson...