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Since the last column I gotta say events have been fast and heavy, with DC's restructuring, Kirby's heirs wanting their cut of Kirby's creations, Disney still in the process of buying Marvel, Alan Moore scoffing at the idea of any creativity left in superhero comics, and Blackest Night continues to ship on time. All Earth shattering events . . . and I plan to talk about none of them this month.
The idea for this month's column came to me about a week ago, but I knew I needed to start on it Tuesday the 29th of September. Why? Because I'm a procrastinator? Well no, though I am, but because today for retailers throughout the world orders for comics shipping in November were due at 11:59 PM Eastern Time. Now I'm not here to talk about Diamond's policies . . . necessarily . . . but about something that gets a lot of attention lately . . . promotions, or more specifically variant covers. It's a landmine that has reentered the comics mainstream in a way very different then 10 years ago, and it is now a standard promotion piece for all the comic companies to increase orders. Fans decry them on mass, retailers complain about them, and comic companies . . . add more and more. Huh?
Well to understand this phenomena let's look at what a variant cover is (though I will speak of other promotions later on). A variant cover is any comic that sports a second cover to the primary cover. Most often they are labeled "variant cover" though some aren't, thus leading speculation toward which cover is the main cover and which the variant is. In those cases though, the cover is usually a 50/50 split cover. Though let's explain that . . . and why variant covers aren't likely to be going anywhere anytime soon.
First, the variant is determined . . . at random to be honest. Someone in marketing at DC, Marvel, Avatar, Boom, whichever company you want to increase sales through a very simple gimmick, produce two covers instead of one so that hopefully more customers will buy both covers, or make one cover a "rarer" comic that calls attention to the issue. How the issues are determined does follow some patterns: first issues of a new title, large scale mini-series, anniversary issue such as 25, 50, and 100. All this is pretty basic. For some companies there may be a bigger theme, such as a month of variant covers (Marvel's Zombie cover months (yes plural) is the best example). However, such promotions never run through all the books and thus not every comic from a publisher gets a variant cover in such months. However, some comics get multiple variants (such as the current Captain America Reborn) and it is here that I will start to break down and label the "types" of covers.
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First is the standard order as many as you want of each cover and get it. Comics such as Captain America Reborn 5 will have covers like this, Dr. Horrible's upcoming one shot from Dark Horse will be like this, and Marvel's Project has had 2 covers like this for each issue.
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With covers like these if your local shop doesn't have as many of each cover when you see them unpack them, chances are the retailer liked one cover over the other. One interesting note is that the Frank Frazetta Presents line from Image only switched to this standard about six months ago and earlier was using 50/50 split variant covers.
50/50 split covers are ordered in a lump batch and then the covers are shipped in equal amounts. (So if a cover has a 50/50 split and a retailer orders 14 they will get 7 of each cover, pretty simple.) This caused a debate with the "Frank Frazetta Presents" line from Image because most customers only wanted to buy the Frank Frazetta illustrated cover and not the cover drawn by the other artist, usually the interior artist and thus retailers were left with a lot of unwanted and unsellable copies. Now 50/50 covers are used by every retailer, just about. Marvel uses them most it seems with #1's or special event issues (the recent Vengeance of Moon Knight #1 and Wolverine Weapon X are recent examples, with the upcoming Invincible Iron Man #20 being an "event" issue).
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DC has used them as well (Final Crisis anyone?) but companies like Boom, IDW, and Radical comics use them far more, in fact
for almost every issue. Best examples for this, is look at every book Boom puts out, from the new Unknown mini series, to Farscape, to even Toy Story there are two covers for every book! (Some comics like 28 Days Later and the new Die Hard series are not 50/50 splits but 3 cover splits, sent evenly if a retailer order in amounts of three.) IDW does this for almost every book too, from Transformers, to Star Trek, Doctor Who, and GI Joe.
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In fact, looking at these publishers looking for books that don't have 50/50 covers is pretty hard. The new Last Resort mini only has one cover from issue #2 on, Transformers Best of the UK has one cover now (though when it launched it had two.) However, both of these books do have variant covers, just a different type which I'll mention in a minute.
Now after 50/50 splits we have one more type of easy to order covers the 50% / 25% / 25% or the 75% / 25%. This type is interesting because primarily only one company uses this and that's Dynamite. For example, Red Sonja has had this formula for years now, with three different covers and a retailer gets one of each cover for every four books they order with one extra copy of the 50% cover.
Dynamite does this a lot, particularly also with Project Superpowers where the cover ratio jumps up to being 1-in-4 covers or 1-in-12 covers. (Again order 4 copies and one of those will have a variant cover while the other three will be the "normal" cover.) Dark Horse did this for awhile with Buffy The Vampire Slayer Season 8, though that has stopped recently with each cover being available to order equally. Even Marvel did this for a bit with X-Force and their 1-in-4 Bloody Variants.
So why do this? Well as a publisher I can tell you why, real simple it sells more copies. (Everyone nod.) It is obvious, but the "why" of why it sells more copies isn't quite so "obvious". The collector mentality (and you know who you are
or we are) amongst comic fans usually is an obsessive compulsive addiction and lots of collectors want all the covers. So for every fan who wants all three covers of Red Sonja, a retailer has to order four. Same goes for wanting Project Superpowers 1-in-12 variant (get back to that in a second) collectors, and even just comic readers, want to be able to get all the covers or get one of the "variant" covers. Even those of us who scoff at "variant" collectors who must have them all have looked at a variant and said "you know that cover is cooler then the normal cover" and then bought that one (and therefore not the normal cover, or maybe both
). On 50/50 splits the same happens, you choose the cover you like best or buy both. The choice here though ups the amount of copies sold for less work. The interiors don't change, just the cover and therefore publishers make more money, get retailers to buy more copies, and therefore more comics are published. When the companies stop using this gimmick? Well . . .
One of the main reasons I believe publishers like IDW, Boom, Radical, and Dynamite will not let go of this is because they just wouldn't sell as many copies if they stopped doing it. I enjoy Red Sonja, but most Red Sonja fans are not going to buy three copies if there aren't 3 different covers which would greatly reduce their numbers. It has dropped Buffy Season 8's numbers now that the covers are able to be ordered equally. Before the Georges Jeanty covers (who by the way is an awesome artist and great person!) were the rare variants and retailers could charge more (some charged nothing more, other retailers a buck to five more) but the covers by Jo Chen sold more because retailers had more available.
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However, fans seem to prefer the Chen covers as every retailer I know orders twice the number of Chen covers to Jeanty covers, because they sell better. Simple math, order what the customer wants
but publishers are really capitalizing on this... because they know a portion of their consumers, a big portion, wants the covers which leads to the last variant group.
The last group varies a lot but ties to the earlier 1-in-12 variant. Project Superpowers #1 had 1-in-4 and 1-in-12 variant covers. So for every 12 retailers order they got at least 2 1-in-4 covers and 1 1-in-12 cover. Now retailers have 9 copies left of the normal cover which sell for cover price. In some instances they may have nine customers who want a copy. Of those nine there may be one customer who wants all three covers and is the reason the retailer ordered 12 copies. If the customer makes it very clear he wants all three he sets up a simple supply and demand scenario that leaves the retailer to order what the customer wants. However, if the retailer knows that he can't sell 9 copies of Project Superpowers why would he order 12 copies? To make the one customer happy or to be able to have those variants if a customer comes in who wants them. To compensate though for the extra copies a retailer may not be able to move though, and because of the rareness, most retailers raise the price on their variants. So the 1-in-4 will probably be anywhere to $1 to $5 more (usually, price may vary depending on location, check with your local retailer) with the 1-in-12 going for much higher. Here is where we really enter the variant debate and the last type of variant cover group ordering type.
Dynamite variants at least come depending on how many you order. If you order twelve you get one 1-in-12 variant. However, the last grouping lets you order, as in the retailer pays extra, one variant for X amount of comics ordered. Dynamite charges no extra; they just include the variant depending on how many copies you order. Marvel and DC though have cornered the market on this last type though with ordering X amount lets you order one variant. Examples? Well Superman has this cornered right now for DC, with Green Lantern close behind. For every 10 a retailer orders of Superman Secret Origin, they can order one variant. For every 25 a retailer orders of Superman World of New Krypton, they can order 1 variant. For every 25 a retailer orders of Green Lantern, Green Lantern Corp, or Blackest Night, they can order 1 variant. (We'll return to Green Lantern in a bit.) So this means what? Well that basically if a retailer orders that many copies they have 25 copies of Green Lantern, Superman World of New Krypton, or Blackest Night, and then one variant that they sell for anywhere between $15 to $25.
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Again the mark up usually occurs because retailers are hoping to make money or at least cover any unsold copies. DC has pretty solid numbers order 10, order 1 variant, order 25, order 1 variant, or order 50 and be eligible to order 1 variant (though some go up to 75 or 100 like rare sketch variants). Marvel though goes all over the place.
Marvel has cornered the variant marketplace. While DC has a good amount of variants, they used them heavily with the Batman Reborn phase and to promote Green Lantern pre-Blackest Night and during, Marvel has usually has 20 to 40 different variants of the order X, you can order 1 per month to DC's 10 to 20. Marvel has mixed this up from promoting books, like New Mutants and Hulk, to theme months like Marvel Zombies, Decade Variants, and the 70th Anniversary variants, sometimes with the two mixing! For instance New Mutants #4 had a frame variant, order 10, order 1 variant, and a variant by their variant cover artist, order 15, and order 1 variant.
For a retailer, and the consumer, this has gotten a bit crazy with titles like Captain America Reborn having up to four different covers, and titles like Hulk #14 having three (a normal cover, a order 15, order 1 variant, and a order 25, be able to order 1 variant). The amount of variants and the different in ordering, with some titles having 2 to 3 variants each at a different ordering point (so order 10 copies, be able to order 1 variant, order 15 copies, be able to order another variant, and order 25 copies be able to order yet another variant). It has gotten to the point that ordering Marvel books takes twice as long because figuring out variant cost to potential gain for smaller retailers is essential. Just because X-Babies #1 has a variant available if you order 10 copies doesn't always justify it if none of your customers want to buy a normal copy! However, I know a lot of retailers will up their orders by two to four copies beyond what they normally sell if they can get a variant they can sell for $10 to $15.
So again, why do DC and Marvel do this? Well we know the lower publishers need, or perceive they need, the variants to keep sales high, but DC and Marvel do it for the same reason? Perhaps, with books like Doom Patrol #2 having an order 10, be able to order 1 variant, probably helped raise sales and the same for Magog #1. Titles though like Green Lantern, Hulk, and Batman & Robin though? I have two ideas, with one being the more likely. All three of these titles, with Batman & Robin being the best example, are bigger sellers. Geoff Johns, Jeph Loeb, and Grant Morrison can sell books just on name recognition, so for most retailers order 10, 15, or 25 of their books makes sense. So the variants can be seen as a "gift" to retailers. "You are already order this many, why not order one more that you can make more money off of?" However, none of the comic book companies advocate that retailers sell the variants for more money, but obviously being rarer the retailers do because they can. (Some retailers don't though mixing the variants in with their normal comics, but those retailers have a drawback of "first come, lucky customer" syndrome. It also a reason some retailers, very few, don't order any variants at all, even if they qualify.) More likely though publishers like Marvel and DC offer variants on these higher selling books to keep sales steady. Books like Batman & Robin will sell a lot of copies based off Grant Morrison's name, but the artists are different arc to arc and with Frank Quitely on art will sell more copies then Phillip Tan on art. However, with an order of 25, to be eligible to order 1 variant, retailers are more likely to keep their numbers steady making publishers more money and with a steady seller. (I think this is why Justice Society of America Volume 3 kept variants all the way till issue #25.) Whatever the reason publishers have no incentive, no matter how much consumers or retailers complain. Though why do they complain?
Well the consumers are why most of the complaints come about. Most comic fans are compulsive collectors or seek rarities to add to their collection so variants are what they want. If publishers stop making them then there is nothing to compel collectors to want them, out of sight out of mind. (By the way I view comic collectors and comic readers a bit different, but that's another article and you can decide where you fit.) Retailers, as long as customers want the comics will order them, or try to, but they do get tired of having to constantly juggle demand with what to order, and variants make this doubly hard. In the end publishers win the most here with variants being cheap ways to keep sales up in a market where sales have been shrinking for years.
In wrapping this up though variants are essentially promotions and I thought I'd end this by talking about the latest comic promotion to light the consumer and retailer worlds on fire: the Blackest Night "ring promotion". If you haven't heard the promotion goes something like this: the September Previews showed different colored Lantern rings, tying to the different Lantern groups in Blackest Night (Green Lantern Corps, Sinestro Corps, Orange Lantern Corps, Red Lantern Corps, Indigo Tribe, Star Sapphire Corps, and Blue Lantern Corps).
(For those who think they are forgetting the Black Lanterns, they already did Black rings to tie to the first issue of Blackest Night). All the image says is to ask your retailers about each ring on the page for the books that must be ordered to get each ring. Now in examining this promotion there were a few big
issues. First, the rings weren't going to arrive at the same time as the books (why was never explained). Second, the amount of books were at least 25 copies had to be ordered with Doom Patrol #4, Outsiders #24, R.E.B.E.L.S. #10, and Booster Gold #26 and 50 had to be ordered with Adventure Comics #4, Blackest Night #5, and JLA #39. In addition retailers could only get 1 bag of 50 rings for these amounts, with each bag costing $8. Third, if you look at the books most retailers probably do not order 25 copies of R.E.B.E.L.S. or Doom Patrol a month (in fact it can be interpreted that these are some of DC's lower selling books) so in order to get the rings retailers may be left with a lot of unsold copies. While the promotion is a great idea to generate interest in the Blackest Night, several of the rings wouldn't have arrived till the series was almost done. Now, DC has revised the promotion and made it easier to get more rings, though the order quantity remains the same, and the rings will come out on the same date as their respective books, but like the variant covers the promotion will be difficult for all retailers to participate in and will probably leave a lot of retailers with tons of unsold copies. However, I'll leave you with one last thought on this promotion. DC has created something attention getting and that will generate interest, which is a good thing. However, they leave it to the retailers to "show" they are interested by ordering a large amount of books, over $500 of books at retailer cost, $1000 at consumer cost, and charge the retailers for the rings too. Much like the variants, many customers who order the rings will probably be paying for them on top of buying the books.
In the end though variants and promotions like this aren't going anywhere as long as they sell books, which they obviously do. The main issue though that may be rubbing retailers and consumers wrong is that the industry is propping itself up and steady with promotion after promotion which eventually leaves "cool" promotions as just being "another promotion". Moderation is not the name of the game here, and in looking at all this information I hope that those who read this are more aware of what the "cost" of the variants really is.
As always you can reach me at vdf1@hotmail.com
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