Variant Covers

I like comics covers, but covers hopefully are primarily attracting readers. And I don't see how variants help with that.

These days if variants for an issue I am buying ship in equal ratios, I'll almost always just pick the _one_ I like best, or the best _one_ of what is still available on the rack, as the case may be. I learned my lesson long ago on these. Buying more than one is not worth it to me.

Most people have a budget, so I have to wonder if spending on variants is reducing the variety of comics people purchase.

I essentially ignore the rarer variants that are printed these days as sales incentives (1:10, etc.). I certainly won't pay extra for them. If a person enjoys collecting them that is fine, but I hope people are cautious about using these as an investment. I have a hard time believing these will have lasting value, as people who crave them will snap them up, and the rest of us won't care. So where is the market down the road? I suppose "the Internet" may have a source that records the actual rarity of all these variants and how they look, but I'm certainly not going to do so in my own head. So if I'm randomly given a chance to buy one, I won't have any clue about the rarity, and, in many cases, if it was a genuine variant in the first place.

I'm concerned that these incentive variants may be inflating inventory of the normal covers. When I think about it, if a variant is worth more than cover price, why isn't my regular version selling for less? The retailer paid the same for all of them. And if he bought extras to get more variants that isn't my fault. I'm not generally in the habit of turning my comics over in the market after I read them, but if I were, I imagine the extra plain copies lying around are hurting the value of what I've collected.

I don't actually mind too much when later printings have a different cover. Of course, sometimes I wish I could just get the original cover or think the later version is cooler when I'm already stuck with the original, but that's not what I'm talking about here. If the printing matters to people enough to mark it on the issue in the first place when more are printed, then it might as well have a different cover because people consider it a different product. It makes it easier to tell it is not a first print.

Update (Feb. 8, 2007): Some more thoughts on variants from me (originally posted here):

Are Variant comics something you love or disdain in the comics collectibles market?

I have a feeling I know much less about the comics collectibles market and variant covers than I think I do, and I don't think I know that much. I just read the stuff I like, has me curious and can afford and store, and that generally does not include variants.

That said, perhaps variant covers have restored the thrill of the chase to modern comics collecting. These days between pull lists, mail order, ebay, and plain old making your way to the new issue rack of a competently run operation like [my local comics shop], how hard is it to really get an issue you want? Beyond an industry wide underestimation of how well an issue will be received, or the unwillingness to part with a few extra dollars, I'd say, Not very. That's pretty much how it should be, in my opinion, but some people want more.

So if variants are keeping people who need a challenge in everything they do or love having things not everyone else can have in the hobby, that could be a positive. I just hope they stick around as readers on some level if the thrill ever wears off again.

Variants may bring in extra dollars to retailers, who price them higher than cover, and publishers who get a sales bump as retailers try to acquire more variant copies. This is the tricky part for me. Building buzz and excitement can be fine. Yet greed is very dangerous and has hurt comics badly in the past.

Smaller publishers may feel doing variants is a way to survive by pushing up sales for their more limited product lines, but I have to wonder if Marvel and DC decided to do 4 variants of every title, like say Dynamite or Avatar, wouldn’t the smaller publishers get pushed off the shelves? I think they would, and I don’t think we want to find out if that is true.

I agree that sometimes a little choice of covers is fun. But is it worth slowness and lateness because artists are banging out extra covers instead of doing interiors on their monthly?

I can't say for sure if variants are a net positive for comics or not. It doesn’t feel like they are to me, but I'm far from fully informed, and I doubt there really is a solid answer.