Because I never learn and just can't help myself, I'll snag an occasional variant cover if I really like it. Since I only buy Superman-related titles now, I'm not placing myself in financial jeopardy. I have a standing order at my Local Comic Shop for any foil variants of Superman titles (ooh, shiny!).

Captain America's comics got kind of weird after his raison d’ętre, WWII ended. It slowly morphed into a horror title, as that genre started getting popular while superhero comics were on the decline, then went on a four year hiatus, came back with Cap as a "Commie smasher", limped along for three issues and that was it until his resurrection in Avengers #4 nearly 10 years later. The last "horror" issue didn't even feature Cap and his name is barely the title of the book. The whole thing fascinated me when I was first reading about this in the Overstreet Price Guide as a teenager.




I always liked this Cap/horror issue because it really plays up the Red Skull's monstrous look, which matches up with the "Weird Tales" title:

Whoa, I had no idea about this! That's really a fascinating (to a comic nerd like me) bit of comic history there! I've also found a lot of interesting tidbits in the Overstreet Guides over the years.

When I got my first Overstreet guide for Christmas when I was 14 years old, I pored over the whole thing during the holidays, learning and absorbing as much as I could about comics history, especially the Golden Age (which I didn't know much about). This was the edition I received, and along with all the history I learned, it also introduced me to an artist who became one of my favorite Golden Age cover artists, L.B. Cole, as it contained an article about his life, a cover gallery plus this awesome new cover that he painted. I still have that edition of the price guide, it's very well thumbed through at this point.

That's an awesome cover!

The Overstreet Price Guide and the Billboard Top 40 Hits book were my two favorite reference guides as a teen.

And to think of all the money my parents poured into the World Book encyclopedia set that never got cracked.

Chasing foil versions has become something of an addiction for me the past couple years. Wait until you hear about all the exclusive convention foils, mostly San Diego and NYC, that get issued. Usually $30 and up for a single issue.

Oh yeah, I hear about them - and get the Superman ones. Given how many titles I used to buy every week I'd go broke trying to keep up now!

I went to the Toronto FanExpo here last year for the first time in a decade or so. It was . . . so-so. I’ve been out of comics since the early 90’s except for Omnibus editions of my two favorite artists and some of the new Taschen XXL books as noted in the deals thread. If I’m wandering around downtown Toronto and cross a bookstore or comic shop, I’ll go in for an ‘art/design fix’ but never make a comics purchase (other books, occasionally), so I honestly was unaware that the industry is as seemingly obsessed with variant covers and whatnot as it was in the early 90’s when I bailed (in small part due to that crap). In getting my FanExpo ticket I signed up for their email updates, which begat a series of eblasts peddling all sorts of ‘exclusive’ merch, including a shit ton of foil covers, some loose, some signed, others already in those plastic grading shell thingies never to be read.

Here’s just the foils they’re offering now:
https://www.shopfanexpo.com/index.ph...Foil&limit=128

I’m curious if these are really exclusive to this particular convention, or if the publishers just print these ‘limited editions’ by the thousands (or tens of thousands?) and just portion them out to all of the events. Anyone know?

Also, does this lean toward being a racket designed to offset slowing book sales now that so many people just get them online or wait for collected volumes?

I also had no idea that cover variants are a thing again (dammit, didn't we learn last time?? ) but to be fair, I'm mostly out of touch on the modern comics industry. And when I attended Toronto FanExpo last year, I was quickly reminded of that fact.

Yeah, it's this. A lot of these variant covers are incentives like 1:50 or 1:100 to get retailers to increase their orders, who can then turn around those incentive covers at a premium. Others are can just be ordered like regular covers.

Sales have either been plummeting or stagnant, and this appeal to collectors and completists is helping to keep the publishers above water. About twenty or so years ago, on a creator's board, folks were complaining about "A" and "B" covers and the creator flat out said that they needed to put out variant covers or the book would lose money.

This title probably scared just as many people as the horror titles at the time.

Yes, the foils are usually exclusive to a particular convention. Usually employing cover art from a previous job but not always, convention foils are limited runs (anywhere from 400 to 3000 units) unique to that particular year and con. I mostly follow DC these days and know they've produced exclusive foils for cons in San Diego, New York, Arizona, Texas, Atlanta, and a few other cities.

They seem to have exploded in usage around 5-7 years ago. I think San Diego Comic Con got them first over a decade ago and then other conventions started copying the idea.

Regular issues these days are getting for 4 or 5 variants right out of the gate as standard operating procedure. DC has been doing that for their new Absolute line.

I literally was coming here to post this one. Then as I scrolled down to reply, I saw it already posted. At some point we likely will have dupes. Just like this issue.

And I remember reading this issue as a kid.

There are so many great covers over the decades, it can be so hard to pick just one...

Uatu is getting a little chunky there.

He's always been a bit hefty. I mean, all he he does is sit around and watch!