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The guy at my local shop flipped my opinion on variant covers

I used to think variant covers were just a money grab. You know, same story inside, different picture on the front, charging double. But about two months ago I was at Cosmic Comics in Portland digging through the dollar bins. This older dude next to me saw me scoff at a variant and he pulled out a book from 1990. He showed me how the cover artist actually drew a scene that never happened in the issue. It was a whole hidden storyline told just through the cover art across a series. He pointed out details I never noticed before, like the character's reflection in a window showing a future event. Now I actually look at variants differently. They can be their own thing, not just marketing fluff. Anyone else ever find a cover that told a better story than the comic inside?

3 comments

3 Comments

willowc601mo ago

Oh, I think that's selling artists short, there's some real craftsmanship in those covers.

masondixon22d ago

Is it really that deep though? Like yeah some cover artists are skilled but we're talking about 50 variants of the same comic with a slightly different filter slapped on it. I'm with luna on this one, most of them are just marketing tricks to get people to buy the same thing twice.

luna5191mo ago

I've seen the same thing and honestly I still think they're mostly a cash grab. One cool detail out of a hundred lame variants doesn't change the game for me.