The Rise and Fall (and Rise Again) of Variant and Gimmick Covers
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- Опубліковано 19 бер 2022
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Variant covers have an interesting history, ranging from price variants to sketch cover variants and in between, led to various gimmick covers: glow in the dark, chromium, die cut, embossed, holograms, holofoil and more. This episode looks at the history of gimmick covers for comics, looks at the best and worst comic covers and discusses the business side.
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Good evening! I found a few old comics after thinning out my collection, and I thought I could send them to a P.O. box if you’d like to laugh at them as I have.
i looked up the website and thought it was a bad joke when i saw its around $10 for a box of cereal and you need to buy them as 4 pack... for $40 i could buy like 11 or 12 boxes of healthy cereal elsewhere.. yikes
Dose this remind you of NFT?
Hey I just wanted to thank u for these videos you've helped me thru a couple hard times and u didn't even know it. Your real good dude thanks for being such a good friend to me without even knowing it
Really diggin' your take on the ads! It's smart of Magic Spoon to let you use your creativity and run with it. Well done!
"Oh Hi! You caught me making another video without one of my famous 'Oh hi!' intros. Speaking of cheap gimmicks designed to attract attention, let's talk about gimmick comic book covers!"
Hahaha we need always someone that jumps in for that^^
Why doesn't this comment have a heart yet?
XD
@@NerdyHalfrican Thanks man that's very kind of you to say.
Nice!
Scene: A boy arrives home with a bag of comic books.
Father: “Did you get anything interesting at the comic book shop?”
Son: “I’ll say! I got Mega-Blood number negative one half with the holographic and foil embossed cover!”
Father: “That’s great. What’s the book about?”
Son: “What do you mean ‘about’???” 🤨
"It's about $3.95."
@@MarkLipka $3.95 in 2023 lol
About 8.50. Cause your dollar is worthless. Follow me for more pro tips.
Working at a comic shop and processing collections that would come in, we’d sometimes see whole long boxes of X-Force #1, then you’d know it was likely somebody who once owned a shop and had been hauling that albatross along for decades. On the other hand, I never found a 30¢ or 35¢ variant of the old Marvel books.
I hate the gimmickry of variants when it relates to the superficiality of foil covers and such. But when you're talking about great artists like Paul Pope or David Choe doing a cover, I'm all in.
Yes a painted cover ,or one by one of my favorite artist is a reason to spring for a variant cover but I won't pay more for a cover I don't even like because it's rare.
Same, i love different cover art
To names: Lee Bermejo.. 'Nuff said.
I have two more words: Dan Mora.
@@coreylineberry8557 I've posted Dan Mora covers in my daily comic covers poll. Really liked his Klaus covers among many others and will surely do another poll featuring his art eventually.
Oh man, I worked at a comic store in 1989 when Legends of the Dark Knight came out and the owner was so pissed at DC over those 4 covers - pre-orders were out the roof and they had to make sure to get the color info from the customers ,etc.
This was a great show. I'm 48 years old and all the gimmick mania was through my senior year of high school and first year of college, brings back great memories.
I was in 8th grade
I agree! Also, very nice seiko in your profile picture!
I was in 6th grade... I thought I struck gold finding Cable's first apperance at cover price.
It was a second printing.
The Superman vs Lobo colorform cover will always be the king of the gimmick covers for me.
i remember my dad was obsessed with all the variants of marvel stuff in the 90s. he had a bunch of the foil spiderman and silver surfer comics framed on the walls lol. of all the ones you showed i think the spectre glow in the dark covers are my favourites
Thats a cool dad!
Cold Crushing it…with the Glow In The Dark!
Your dad sounds awesome.
My general rule for my comics store pull list is to stick with standard covers. Living thru the 90s has made me very wary of the contemporary variant covers. Regardless of how cool they can be, a part of me feels like a sucker when I buy them. I'll indulge in variants once in a while, but I restrict it to issues that are otherwise meaningful to me.
Same here.
Same man. Only time I will intentionally buy a variant is if it's by an artist I like a lot or if the variant catches my eye. Closest I did to buying multiple variants of the same issue was early in the Boom comics Mighty Morphin Power Rangers comic
I don't buy comics as a whole anymore like through a series so I'm only buying one if it's an artist I like or I do like sketch covers. Can be a fun gift for one of your art friends, or just draw someone a homemade comic cover that's fun
I wholeheartedly agree with you and I know I'm 100% done with variant homage covers. I felt like a member berry sucker when I bought those.
@@KTF0 Ya the faux silver/bronze style variants often tempt me.
The Marvel Hip-hop variants.
As a person who grew up collecting those albums, it was fun seeing iconic artwork with Superheroes and Villains
Oh wow.... forgot about those. They were cool.
what issues where those
Haha, oh yeah, those were rad.
@@KennyKissKiss they did them in the last few years..between like 2015-2018 👍
They were cool for a while but they did the classic over saturation trick. Theres so many of them, they make an album book of those covers 😂🤦♂️
That said, I have the Carnage/Redman variant and it's proudly displayed
The Ghost Rider one you have in your thumbnail, I had no idea it was glow in the dark until someone told me while I was browsing some stuff in the glass case. I immediately went home pulled it out of my shoe box.... And sure enough neon green. I always thought it was weird how Sandy the cover felt lool
The amount of work you put into your videos is amazing. Thanks for the hard work.
Of all the speculator BS that we're still living with I think variant covers are the least harmful to the medium and business as a whole. More art from cool artists that doesn't involve constant character introductions, weird nonsense numbers and "big event" stupidity
well when its every single issue now it kinda defeats the purpose
@@KennyKissKiss idk when the prices arent abnormal or stupid, I enjoy having connecting variants on my singles, especially when it's a reputable artist.
A big chunk of my collection from that time was accidentally thrown into a dumpster(still hurts) but one of the few survivors were those Spectre issues. They still glow
Yeah, I had to sell 7 milkcrates full when I got married. Still wondering if I made the right choice.
I had a cousin who collected ton of comics in the 90s and I still remember flipping through all his X-Men comics with random variants thrown in. Honestly I prefer variants far more to gimmick covers, beautiful artwork from talented people
yeah as far as they aren't intentionally put in a (much) higher price range than regular covers, I like variants. They allow artists to give their take on a book and sometimes you just want a new pretty cover by your favourite artist... also, sometimes they allow me to pre-order books when the default cover is already out of pre-order, so that is nice lol. (I live in Europe, where its a bit harder to just show up at your local comic store and find the issue you seek).
Waste of $$
I have a copy of that Fantastic Four one with the embossed Human Torch performing his nova flame. However, mine is white, not orange. It caught my eye, because I was intrigued by a cover that went the opposite direction than being colorful and the like. The image is hard to see as it is, and can look like a blank white cover, which is an odd thing to think of. It actually inspired an issue of a webcomic I started doing, where one of the issues took place in a white void, where no character was visible, and the cover was almost completely white (except some gray for my "company" logo and the title logo). I may not think that was the best issue I've ever done, but it was a fun experiment, and I can credit a gimmick cover from the 90s for that experience.
I remember that cover and thinking the Torch gets “white hot”. Literally. But that it inspired YOU to explore something creative is cool. Some might say ice cool!
IIRC, the white cover was the original, and the red cover was a supplemental printing they did because the demand for the original was so high. To my memory, FF 371 is the definitive "speculator" issue. After one month (once 371 had been replaced by 372 at newsstands) some specialty shops were selling it for $20 or more. The Torch's rampage had been billed as a huge, status quo altering event (and in the short-term, it very much was).
Interestingly enough, the Italian edition of Amazing Spider-Man #400 used a different trick, with the "gravestone cover" being a wraparound. It's also worth noticing that, at the time, Marvel Italia was playing catch-up with the US, meaning that each issue actually featured multiple stories, printed on thicker paper and with a poster board cover, making them much more durable.
I just wonder who first saw the 'final product' of the 'gravestone gimmick' and said 'yeah that looks good!'?!?!
Was it a situation where Marvel was already 'all in' on the idea and just couldn't afford to scrap the issues already printed and come up with an alternative?
Or did the 'proof of concept' somehow look better than the final 'mass produced' version? I mean, when I first saw that cover I had NO IDEA it was meant to look like Aunt May's gravestone! I just thought it was just supposed to be a 'grey' (granite) mountain, and maybe the story took place in Colorado or something! lol
@@StreetPreacherraccording to Fingerof, the original plan was for a deeper emboss. However it turned out to be much cheaper to make it much shallower, which had the side of effect of making it basically impossible to work out what the image was of
That second Spectre cover was so cool. Especially like how its essentialy a second picture that you can only see in the dark.
So cool to finally see this getting attention! Always was curious about em - thanks Chris!
I admit those X-Men Fatal Attractions hologram covers grabbed my interest in my LCS and I dipped my toe in Wolverine for a couple years.
Some of my favorite variants have to be the recent decade based variants for detective 1000 and action comics 1000. The idea of using different artists for each decade? Created some absolutely beautiful art
I loved the gimmicky covers back in the 90s, and still love them today. Just a fun addition to the hobby.
Mark Texiera's Ghostrider pencils were awesome...
Way way back in 2011 I lost my whole comic collection in a F5 Tornado in Alabama. I had a lot of awesome comics and all the gimmick covers that I had you showed on screen and I was flooded with nostalgia. For my books.. my grandpa.. and youth. I had to say that my favorites are the glow in the dark. But my owned favorite is the 30th anniversary of Spiderman. All four I had and kept in cases. Never read myself just admired them. Thank you so so so much for what you show on here. My collection is zero as of now but your vids help keep that fire burning. Thank you for helping keep me young at heart.
MUCH LOVE!!!
This is going to sound nuts, but I live in the same area as you and I totally think your comics ended up in junk stores. I've seen a lot of 90s comics in rough shape. I'm guessing many of them were found and redistributed, haha.
Could just be a coincidence though.
April 27. You can’t forget it.
Somewhere some wicked witch is enjoying is dancing in delight
@@jimmyju76 And to be perfectly honest with you.. it's probably one of my ex's sooooo.... Thank God I'm not in "Kansas" anymore haha!!
@@5Detective I know we did find family photos in. A creek somewhere in TN and MS. I wouldn't doubt someone having something. But it wouldn't even be worth cover price. I sure wish I had them all though.
Lolol I had that ridiculous Death of Aunt May comic...that was the nail in the coffin
Last year I collected all of the fashion variants for Hellfire Gala because they gave a really good look at the unique costumes.
Thoroughly enjoyed this!! Trip down memory lane. I love that Ghost Rider 15 execution! Hated the Robin III, so muddy. The Silver Surfer 50 just fit the character so perfectly. I did not care for the chromium and by that time my teenage eyes were rolling like crazy over the variant madness. But like you said, some were great executions and some were just so so awful. Thanks for this!!!
I think retrospect yeah all this was nickel and diming people but a lot of this stuff was neat and cool to own. I loved holograms, and the deluxe polybagged comics came with some cool stuff.
That Ghost Rider #15 to this day has a special place in my heart. It was the "first" in my collection when I began collecting in earnest in the early 90s. (I had a dozen or so from the mid 80s when I was much younger). I loved Mark Texeira's style, especially what he did with Ghost Rider
The Spectre had some great glow in the dark covers.
Not really a variant cover, but Marvel somewhat recently released a collection of rap album covers remixed with their characters. As a fan of hip-hop I thought that was really cool
That's definitely a "How do you do, fellow kids" sorta thing but still cool.
Here's the thing: I LOVE variant covers, either if it's from a really talented artist, or if the cover is so well done, it can be framed and used as a picture (virgin variants are good for this). I also think it's great how people can express the comic with their vision through a variant.
My biggest problem is when publishers use this to push more product (buy 1 of 100 to get this semi-naked Wonder Woman variant, etc). I feel it's taking advantage of fans. Especially when through other means someone gets wind (or can blatantly tell) that the original "A" cover is a cheap put-together while a variant cover was planned to be the original, but changed at the last minute.
If I had to choose: I'd say it's better to have variants, and let people decide with their wallet. What I've personally never understood are people who buy comics as a form of investment, like they're buying a gemstone or gold or something. Like imagine there's a great depression, literally everywhere now that the global economy is in play. WHO will buy a comicbook when they can't afford food? The ONLY way I can imagine a physical comic being valuable is when in the future they don't have physical versions of some comics anymore, and you don't actually OWN the digital versions (subscription based). Who knows how many generations it'll be before we allow that to fly in entertainment?
I bought some books that I dont really read simply for the variant. I have the Lee Bermejo Suicide Squad variant that paid tribute to the classic Alex Ross Joker/Harlequin cover, but with Harley and Lex. Also the Tony S. Daniel variants for the multiple X00 issue. Got the Superman, Batman, and Wonder Woman ones.
Its fun to have great art for a price of a comic book. And I get to support my LCBS.
well technically nobody who has digital comics owns them if the company goes out of business or the app is removed some how by being deleted you will have no way to access the digital content that you supposedly own.
Are they called virgin variants because only virgin neckbeards wo will never feel the touch of a woman would do that?
@@KennyKissKiss no they are pirated and spread all over the internet.
@@thesexybatman263 virgin varbaroness variants with just the artwork on the cover.. no logos or barcodes.
My favorites are the Fatal Attractions holograms, they are really done well. Especially Gambit on X-Men 25, the 3D effect really pops.
Of all the comics that did not need a gimic...
The GitD and hologram covers the most. Green Lantern 50 was one of my faves, but was lost, so I've been hunting it. Silver Surfer 50 was perfect (the 2nd printing wasn't good with the Surfer being inked), but 75 took it to an awesome level with the silver holographic foil to it. It's amazing
Chris! Recently Ive been loving the "Connecting Variants" these are normally used in minis in a way that you can see a poster by putting all the covers together
My first gimmick book was 1982’s Battle for a Three Dimensional World #1, which came with 3D glasses. I remember thinking that a first issue with Jack Kirby art in 3D would become a valuable collector’s item. Of course I was wrong, but it’s still kinda cool as a novelty.
A lot of the Shadowhawk covers were kinda cool, the unmasking cover stood out a little more than the others.
Loved Shadowhawk back in the day.
I think artists lime J. Scott Campbell, Adam Hughes, Frank Cho, Micheal Linsner, Artgem & others have accelerated a great demand for variants! Alot of times id just buy the variants just for the awesome art over a normally boring cover!
What has Campbell done except variants in years? Seriously, I love his work but I mean WTF.
@@newdamage5945 illustrated pages in Spawn #300 for starters.
@@LowellLucasJr. I own that so I should have known but I mean at a certain point you just make your money off variants and covers if you want to ? Then there are those like Romita Jr who continue to do interiors because they want to?
@@newdamage5945 From what was shared to me, by a couple of comic illustrators, is covers make the same money as interiors. If your artwork is popular, or well known, it'll help sell a book. For example( and I'm sure you know this) but Catwoman and Wonder Woman were some of most under performing books ( at the time) til Adam Hughes started doing the covers. They were so successful he was even brought in to do Power Girl and Zatanna. Now, no offense to other artists like John Romita Jr, but you will see a plethora of incentive covers by other artists due to their popularity, or even just the variant image( Gwen Pool cover for the Deadpool secret wars for example).
@@LowellLucasJr. Wow I had no idea there was that much money in covers, thanks for the info.
I remember when the Death of Superman issue first came out. I've been collecting comics for years and I went to this one comic shop at least once a week to pick up my books. I remember the Superman issue was announced and even though I didn't collect the title, I asked the owner of the shop if he could hold one for me. Being a long time customer of his, the owner advised me he would hold a copy for me. The day the book was released was crazy! It was on the news and people were lining up to get that book, hoping to pay for their kid's college fund once they sold the book years later. I showed up at the comic shop and the parking lot was packed. I went inside and the owner had a news channel there, along with a real life coffin draped with a Superman cape. I remember walking up to the counter to get my books and, upon looking thru the stack, I noticed there was no Death of Superman issue in there. I asked the owner about the book and he apologized, stating he had no idea the public demand would be so huge he couldn't hold me back an issue, even stating he had to get one of this workers the distributor to bring back another stack of the book. I was devastated, feeling betrayed because I bought and collected comics for years from this shop and got to know them personally, only to be tossed on the side from the public who never read or collected comics, only hoping to cash in on the popular trend. I left that shop and vowed never to return. A few months later the owner contacted me and asked me how come I haven't been in the shop for awhile. I told him how I thought he did me dirty on that fateful day and he asked me if I still collected comics. I told him I did, but not that much anymore and only picked up issues of my favorite characters if I found them out in the wild, like a grocery store. He told me he still had my subscription books to the side and come in and look at them, pulling the books I didn't have if I wanted them. He also told me he would get me a copy of that Superman book at cover price and apologized for the inconvenience that day. I went back to the store and picked up the books from my subscription pile and noticed the Superman book in the pile. The owner apologized again and stated he was sorry for overlooking his faithful customers that day, stating it was so crazy he couldn't keep up the demand. He even gave me the book for free, even though I tried to give him money for it. It didn't seem it wasn't that much longer that his comic shop was closed. Every time I pick up my copy of the Death of Superman book out of my collection, I can't help but think of that crazy day. To this day I try to avoid variant covers for this reason. It's like the publishers are saying here's the regular cover of the book, but if you want a REALLY good cover art package then you're going to have to pay the extra bucks. Strange how the cover price is listed as the same as the regular cover, but the comic shop owners charge an extra price for the other covers because the hardcore collectors snag them up before us regular collectors can get there.
I love how Venom had like a trillion miniseries for the simple reason to re-start in #1 every five-six months so they could get a new gimmick cover. I really like some of those Venom covers, except Funeral Pyre.
Did not expect a Comicpop appearance. Love those guys. 👍🏻
Okay I admit I bought two copies of Ninjak #1 with the cool Joe Queseda chromium foil cover for speculation purposes. Guess I won’t be retiring anytime soon 😔
One of the interesting variants involving the rivalry between DC and Marvel was the Siege #3 Deadpool variant, which was ordered with fifty stripped covers from select tie-in issues from the Blackest Night story arc. There were also the second printings of the first two issues of Marvel Zombies Return, which were homages of Blackest Night.
I remember at the time of that Robin lenticular cover I was at Harris Comics working on Vampirella.
As Publisher Dennis Page said: “It looks like Robin’s trying to waft away a fart!”
God! I hate variant covers. I’ve still bought a few variants though.
09:00
A friendly correction;
Not _all_ those behind Spider-Man and MJ are enemies, but only those lined up on the left side of the cover. Opposite them are superheroes.
Yes.
ComicPop was just introduced to me last week and here it appears! Comics worlds are colliding!
The Continuity Comics "Crazyman" issue shaped like his stressed out face was a gimmick low on numerous levels
Top of my list is the blacklight. It changes the experience. I would like to see it again for the right subject.
This era is bittersweet to me. A hardcore collector since elementary school, by 1991 I had started college, living on campus in northern Maine, and becoming very disengaged and disappointed with both the quality and direction mainstream comics (DC & Marvel) were going, and this variant cover craze was not helping. Every month I found less and less reason to shlep to the local comic shop in town until by late '92 I had stopped buying comics almost completely except for independently published graphic novels or comics from Europe or Asia.
Hello i loved this chapter, i Buy many of those comics back in the 90s and still have them, i was a reader of almost every mutant title and Ghost Rider. Thanks for your amazing videos and keep it doing it. Greethings from Guadalajara México
I like full-art variant covers made by an artist who can really go all-out.
Kael Ngu making me buy books that never leave the bag
My uncle is a collector and gave me a ton of variant covers for my birthday back in the 90s. One of my favorite presents I ever got.
Another great video. I must say, my friend and I purposely bought the Tyvek covers to test how indestructible it was. LOL
I remember when I was collecting Spider-Man: One More Day (I know, I know) my LCS *only* had a variant cover for one of the books. so I have three Quesada covers, and a variant. I guess I'd be more pissed if it was an actually good storyline...but it was one of the first I was following and collecting in real time, so it was still a bummer.
i remember when i did for mark waid's all new avengers and dan slott's all new all different spider-man era...
the comics were meh bordering to fogettable boring but passable but the alex ross covers were awesome
I don't know if they ever did it for a comic cover, but I seem to remember scratch and sniff gunpowder Punisher trading cards that I thought were ridiculous and fun.
Superman Man of Steel #30 is by and large my favorite gimmick. The static clings still work and it's always fun to set up fights between Lobo and Superman all over the front and back covers.
I definitely confused the chromium with the holographic covers as a kid, I did enjoy Age of Apocalypse, though. The chromium covers and the artwork on it are the only things I remember about it.
Great coverage!
I remember seeing about 100 Xforce #1 for 10cents each in the late 90's. Variant cover is a bane of modern comics in my opinion. edit I owned at least 5 still in the polly bag lol I'm a sucker to !
As someone raised in the 90s, I can appreciate all these variant covers lol
It may be nostalgia but I still dig the covers for Punisher War Journal #61, The Punisher War Zone #23, The Punisher #86 and the die cut cover of Punisher War Journal #64. The foil cover theme of Frank Castle shooting through glass was great and still looks good thanks to the amazing art by Michael Golden. Golden's line work looks great regardless but the contrast of the almost monochrome Punisher against the colorful shattered glass really makes his work pop. In my option, it's right up there with Ghost Rider #15 and Wolverine #50.
I remember that white spider-man cover. Even as a kid, I remember thinking we had gone too far.
You know it’s a good day, when comic tropes pops up on your notifications 😊
hell yeah brother
Amen 🙏
Agreed
It's crazy how a cover can make or break a cook sometimes. Punchlines 1st appearance/ original cover is worth some money vs its variants- while Gwen-Pooles very 1st variant cover appearance is worth more than the original cover!
I randomly found out about Whitman just last week, and that ends up being your next episode. Amazing, Chris!
Huge fan of Peach Momoko's work. I love collecting her peices!
You are going to make me climb into my attic just too see how many of these gimmick covers I still have. Super nostalgia of my 12 year old self. If I only knew the it was all a ploy to get my allowance money
This video unlocked my memory of owning that Eclipso purple gem comic as a kid. I think I threw it away
An important correction: Batman #500 was not the return of Bruce Wayne as Batman, but the debut of Jean-Paul Valley’s new Batman suit. He had previously been Azrael and then took up the mantle after Bane broke Bruce’s back. The outer flap of the variant cover showed the old suit, and beneath the flap was the new one.
Apologies to Chris, as I don’t mean to be “that guy.” I love the channel and know he works hard on researching and compiling these videos. I just remember the issues as I had both the premium variant and the generic cover.
I'm glad the Sleepwalker mask cover was included in the video, I always thought that one was so weird and silly.
I love your cover story about the variant covers. I remember the variant cover for Image comics before (Wildstorm to be precise), when they did a cover for all their titles and you can assemble the covers to make a 9 cut poster.
I remember buying the gloss platinum cover of Generation X #1 when I was a teenager and the vendor told me it was gonna be worth thousands when I got older. Then I saw tons of them in every store from Pennsylvania to New York and was like "ohhh *I'm the mark, here"
Give it another year, maybe
Same
Dealers, however friendly, aren’t necessarily your friend. They’re dealers. How well they take care of their customers may vary, but at the end of the day, it’s still a business. Something we ALL need to remind ourselves of on occasion. Caveat emptor, and better luck!
@@brotherjamesstrang lol will do
All the variants make it feel like the 90’s all over again. Except for me that’s fine because it’s when I got into comics.
really enjoyed this video format, great stuff :)
I like the idea of being able to "choose" your favorite cover. Like not getting multiple variants necessarily, just getting the one you think looks the coolest. It makes the buying process a little more fun, and makes a casual collection way more personalized!
Great video man! Watched the entire thing and subbed.
always great to see ya!
Another great video. An excellent deep dive.
My favorite gimmick cover is Silver Surfer #50 and it gets personal. I am Greek and there were not any comic shops importing US comic books back in '91, only the national distribution company, which distributed certain titles to newstands and selected bookstores. Things were quite random and the titles that appeared here overseas were mostly the best sellers. For instance, Silver Surfer had started appearing on newstands around issue #35. When in the summer of '91 I saw the cover on the newstand, my jaw dropped. There were two copies there, but my allowance could afford only one. Went home, read it and the story was awesome, so I wanted a second copy to perserve it! By next week, when I dropped by the newstand again, the second copy was gone.
However, over time, I became frustrated with gimmick covers. My allowance was limited and it meant that I had to pay more for not missing an issue of my favourite series, which at that time it meant that when it was gone, it was gone for good. I loved Peter David's The Incrediblle Hullk, but 3 of these covers within 2 years was annoying and expensive.
Runner up, is Generation X #1. By '94 we had a bookstore that was importing comic books and is now mostly a comic book shop, got it, read it who knows how many times, got it signed by the writer and it still is in great shape!
From the DC-Superman-Lobo book with the stickers, i placed on of the stickers on to my motorbike helmet back when in came out in the 90s. The sticker has wandered from old helmet to new one all these years and is still there today. Never fell off or got lost. My man of steel good luck charm.
Every one of your videos is so incredibly well researched. I love this channel.
The comic book racks at the convenience and grocery stores were where I fell in love with comic books as a child. First comic I remember having was a Spider-Man with Dr. Octopus in it that my dad bought it for me at a Seven Eleven near Rehoboth Beach in 1983
I've got a copy of the first issue of "The Button" story from DC Rebirth with a lenticular cover that alternates between Batman and The Flash. I think it's pretty neat, especially since the story is essentially a team-up between the two, and is evenly split between both series
The thing I hate about variant covers these days is they can sometimes mislead you as to what the book is even about.
Knocked another one out of the park Chris! I have most of all the early 90s comics and this brought me back. I love the gimmicks, but hated the variants
Solar Man of the Atom #10 from Valiant. The Black cover was so sleek and different at the time
Your best recent video. Loved this. Deep dives into the industry and little known titles are my favourites.
Great research sir, outstanding
Damn, what timing you have Chris, I just sat down to have some coffee, now I have something to watch! Love your videos as always, this topic is always interesting to me
Another great one. Love the Baywatch Nights clip.
The mini series "Robin II: The Joker's Wild" had variant and gimmick covers for each issue. Each issue had a direct market edition with a hologram and a newsstand cover without a hologram. In addition the newsstsnd cover was different art than the direct market cover. And even further issue 1 of the direct market edition had 4 variants (4 totally unique cover illustrations) all with the same hologram, while issue 2 had 3 variants (3 totally unique cover illustrations) all with the same hologram yet a different hologram than issue 1, and issue 3 had 2 variants (2 totally unique cover illustrations) both with the same hologram yet a different hologram than issue 1 or 2, and 1ssue 4 had just a single direct market cover with its own unique hologram. That's 5 covers for issue 1, 4 covers for issue 2, 3 covers for issue 3, and 2 covers for issue 4. 14 different cover illustrations for a 4 issue limited series.
This is one of my favourite thumbnails you've done. Good job man!
I know it's not a comic but back in 04 I was the web designer/flash animator for The Simpsons and they tapped my shoulder to do some special TV Guide covers. They were lenticular animated x-mas ornaments. I grew up in the 80's and 90's with all these gimmick covers and always wanted to do one of those. So much fun.
I love variant covers when it’s within reason.
If I have the ability to pick up a Ron Frenz Amazing Spider-Man cover in 2022 I’m going to pick that up. Sometimes if I like the cover enough I’m willing to spend a bit more over cover price. But I’ll never go over $30 for anything that isn’t a key issue.
Nice little trip into comic history(once again)thanks man ,always intresting and informative
As a young reader in the 90s, the variant/gimmick covers were an excuse to jack up the price w/o adding anything of substance. The Spider-Man titles (your examples celebrating Amazing Fantasy & Amazing Spider-Mans) immediately comes to mind.
While the X-Men titles felt like they did it well incorporating their fancy covers. Distinctly remember how cool the Fatal Attractions holograms looked, though didn't artificially persuade me to buy titles I wasn't already getting. The Age of Apocalypse storyline although bookended by the foil(?) covers, their title revamps had a damn near a completely new story.
Ultimately though both companies (Marvel & DC, the ones I sorta followed) overreliance on their megastorylines crossing over into their shared figurehead universe (like the damn Clone Saga for Spider-Man or Azrael Batman or Superman or Operation Galatic Storm for the Avengers are just a few examples) which made it virtually impossible to follow the storyline if you don't also get the other titles are what made me pretty much moving on from purchasing hard-copy comics & shifted to the TPBs if & when I purchase them now.
Yeah. I generally liked mega-storylines when they were confined to a single title (like the Assassin Nation Plot or Return of the Sinister Six) but the multi-title crossovers (especially the Clone Saga) made me quit comics for years. The thing that bothered me most was the stylistic and tonal inconsistency between the various writer/artist teams. In the late 80s and early 90s, Amazing Spider-Man was the "fun" book, while Spectacular and Web were typically more grim and somber.
Excellent content!! I really enjoyed it.
I remember buying the Ghost Rider book without even knowing about the gimmick.
then, that night, when I turned off the light, there was a strange glowing from across the room ...
Great episode!
Oh man this brought me so much 90s nostalgia 😃
Sure there were plenty of bad gimmicks - as mentioned in the video - but some of the most memorable comics were the ones that had gimmicky covers. Like X-Men and Death of Superman also mentioned in the video.
I do remember I liked them a lot and had more than a few. Some of the best in my opinion were the ones that prioritized the artwork - again X-Men cover poster was awesome and the Alex Ross' Marvels was also great.
Anyway all I got in mind right now were the ones mentioned in the video - including some I didn't expect to be mentioned like the Valiant ones - so I can't really think of a different example.
But thanks for the great video I thoroughly enjoyed it 😃
Another slam dunk, and the picture looked gorgeous - can’t wait for the next one Chris!