Straw Poll - How do people feel about buying DE's multiple cover variants?

[positronic]

Just wondering:

Is it a huge turnoff for people?

Do you just pick whatever single cover you like best?

Does anyone besides myself purchase 2 or more of the available covers?

Do you buy variants only on certain titles or characters, or dependent on the individual artists involved?

Are some of you frustrated in not being able to find copies of the cover variant you'd prefer?


For myself, on some books I just buy the single cover I prefer (I lean towards Alex Ross, Joe Jusko, and Franchesco Francavilla as my DE cover artists of choice).

Depending on the character and the artists involved, on some books like The Shadow and The Spider or Masks, I may purchase as many as 3 or 4 of the variants. I don't buy them just to have them all, however. Only the cover artists that I personally like, but sometimes that is as many as 4. I tend not to go for the RI (retailer incentive) 1-in-XX covers, the "virgin", "negative" or "pencil art" covers if there's a fully-painted 25% version readily available. Obviously, even if I am somewhat of a diehard Dynamite nut, I can't afford to do this with all the DE titles I collect. I tend to reserve buying multiples for books with characters AND cover artists that I REALLY like, and titles where my perception is that the book could use the extra sales, too.

Feeling indifferent

I usually don't buy more than one cover.
Masks #1 is an exception.
I bought two different covers.
I like Alex Ross' artistic approach... and usually end up with his covers. (Masks, T-Bolt and The Shadow.)

There are a couple other exceptions but they have to do with other companies.

I only tend to buy one cover, usually the one that appeals to me best, though lately my LCS only has one in anyhow. ,But at least Dynamite tends to have a 50-50 policy, unlike Marvel's current policy of odering 250 copies to get 1 variant which the LCS then trys to sell for twice or thrice the cover price, THATS A TURN OFF! (And my LCS now has a wall full of Marvel variants it cant sell hahahaha!)

[positronic]

You can find pretty much any "hot" comic from the 90s in the discount bins, these days. The manager of my LCS, a friend of mine and a pretty good artist in his own right, keeps a coffee stained copy of Liefeld's X-Force #1 under the counter just so that he can pull it out and demonstrate to people exactly how lousy Liefeld is at anatomy, composition and backgrounds at any time.

Too easy. The real challenge would be to try to put as big a dent as possible in the print run of that issue by coffee-staining as many copies as possible. Good luck with that.

[Ghornet2]

My LCBS does a good job of pulling the cover I want. And it's rarely a problem to change covers. I have a few of the black and white covers for GH and Kato from a dollar back issue sale (its the only way I buy multible covers) and I think I have at least 1 of the virgin covers. They usually rune the Dollar sale every few months so I plan ahead with a list.

I have no interest in varients...

...AND, for some unGODLY reason, my comic shop consistantly pulls the WORST cover for me.

I'm just fired up because I didn't get the Darwyn Cooke cover for THE SHADOW #7.

You can find pretty much any "hot" comic from the 90s in the discount bins, these days. The manager of my LCS, a friend of mine and a pretty good artist in his own right, keeps a coffee stained copy of Liefeld's X-Force #1 under the counter just so that he can pull it out and demonstrate to people exactly how lousy Liefeld is at anatomy, composition and backgrounds at any time.

[comixfan1980]

It's much cheaper to collect those '90s variant covers than it used to be. I still see them from time to time in the $1 and 50c boxes.

Same here. Heck, you can get a lot of them on mycomicshop.com for next to nothing too, but I admit that variants were a lot more fun back in the 1990's than they are now. I don't know what it is but the 90's were a great time for me as a collector, maybe I was looking at things differently or something.

Also, I see Positronic is from MA, I am as well.

[positronic]

I do grab a variant from time to time these days, but it's pretty rare and I had a better time doing it back in the 90's than I do now.

It's much cheaper to collect those '90s variant covers than it used to be. I still see them from time to time in the $1 and 50c boxes.

Much like CF1980, I too bought a TON of variant covers back in the 90's when comics seemed to be at their hottest. I had variants galore from comics such as Aspen, The Coven, Witchblade, Darkness, Re-Gex, and tons of other comics from companies that were blazing hot with readers at the time, it was fun to collect as many as possible back then but these day's I just grab whatever cover appeals to me the most or whatever is on the shelf.

I do grab a variant from time to time these days, but it's pretty rare and I had a better time doing it back in the 90's than I do now.

[positronic]

I guess an important distinction to make about DE's cover variants is between the "regular" variants (there may be 2, 3 or 4 of these, depending on the title and whether it's a first issue) where the different covers are evenly split among the total print run (50/50, 33/33/33, or 25/25/25/25) and the "retailer incentive" (sometimes known as the "limited" or "chase" variant). The former should always be found at regular cover price (until backstock liquidation, when they wind up in the discount boxes), while the latter are always more expensive than cover price (usually $10 and up, depending on scarcity). I generally skip the latter, since I have no faith in these books as a long-term investment (unless its an exclusive hand-drawn sketch cover by a well-known artist, and then it's definitely too rich for my blood).

DE went all out on MASKS #1, producing 80 original one-of-a-kind hand-drawn covers, which you can see here. Our store got the 2nd (from the left, top row) of the Alex Ross Spider covers pictured, and it is a beaut.

[comixfan1980]

Well, I take whatever Dynamite sends me in the mail (a perk of the job) but I also buy the main cover if I'm send a variant just because I like to always have the "A" cover. As far as variants go, I'm not the biggest fan of them but I admit to buying a ton of variants back in the mid to late 90's when they were the big thing in comics.

I love having the different choices for covers. I have multiple variants of the Black Terror series, the Francavilla Spider #1 cover, and I got Jae Lee's (my favorite artist) cover to Masks #1.

From other publishers however I do enjoy getting sketch variants and have many of them as well.

I wait for the trades anyway so it's nice to have the cover gallery in the back. That being said when I look at the cover variants my favorites are always the Alex Ross or John Cassaday covers so were I to buy an issue to check out a new title (and I have to admit I am very tempted with Masks) I would probably want a cover by one of those artists.

My LCBS usually only gets in one version of the issue. And that is normally enough for me.
If I want a different cover, I need to drive into the city. So if I want multiple covers, the book had better be worth the cost of gas, and the time to track it down.