All,
Wanted to show off the cover art for the second printing of GHOSTBUSTERS #1.
IDW will have ordering info available soon, but don’t be shy about letting your local comics seller know you want this puppy pre-ordered when it’s available as quantities will be limited.
Thanks so much for your awesome support!
Best,
Cool, so that’s 14 covers for #1!..my heart jumps but my wallet weeps. 
:lol: Clever.
And with that statement, no on should wonder why I’ve given up collecting IDW’s Ghostbusters comics.
IDW has actually beaten 88MPH’s record for most covers for a single GB comic. 88MPH had 6 covers for Legion #1. In fact, if you add up every cover for the entire four-issue Legion series, you get 13 covers. IDW beat that with just ONE issue.
Well, I kinda do.
Sounds like you’re just collecting the covers, not the comics. (: Is that all the hobby is to you – completion of getting all covers vs all issues? Honest question.
I’ll be getting it for sure!
14 covers for issue 1?
wow 
I have the Ecto 1 cover from the first printing I believe (unless I am mistaken)
as it was the last one left at my local comic book shop.
I was very happy to actually find it - and I love it.
I follow Dapper Dan on Deviant Art, and have seen some of the preview art
over the past several months…and I’m looking forward to Issue #2!
Well, it defeats the whole purpose of “collect them all” if a collector doesn’t collect every version.
From a collecting standpoint, what other purpose do the different covers have, if not so an entire set could be made? IDW has a “cover checklist” in the inside page of every issue, so they clearly want people to collect all of the covers.
You work for the comics industry, so maybe you can answer a question for me. Who is IDW’s target audience for the different covers? Isn’t it the true blue collectors who want to have complete sets? (Complete sets being every issue and every cover of each issue.) Surely it’s not the casual reader, since the variant covers are usually sold for more than the cover price of the regular “version”. The casual reader would usually just pick up whatever’s cheapest. (I’m singling out IDW, but you could substitute any other publisher that produces more than one cover per issue - which is probably most of them.)
Would it really do any comic publisher any harm to simple produce one cover per issue?
Having all of these different covers, with the non-“regular” variants artificially produced in limited quantities, thus causing them to be sold at higher than the regular cover price, actually takes the fun out of collecting. Other than greed, there’s no reason a publisher has to tell a retailer that if they order X number of issues of Cover A, they’ll get one copy of Cover B. They could very easily let the retailer order how ever many copies of each cover as they want, and sell them all for the same cover price. It’s not like it costs more to print Cover B than it does Cover A.
It’s this same kind of greed that has taken the fun out of non-sport card collecting. Back in the 1980s I collected Topps’ Garbage Pail Kids stickers/cards. They sold for a quarter a pack, and I could buy a box of 48 packs for $12. With that $12 investment, I was almost guaranteed to get one full set of cards. Most of the time I’d get two full sets. Keep in mind that there was only ONE FULL SET to be had. There were no chase cards, no variants (other than accidental printing variants, which probably weren’t discovered until years later), nothing but one full set. Even when a set did include chase cards, such as the stickers that came with Topps’ Ghostbusters II cards, you were still almost guaranteed to get at least one full set of both the cards and the stickers with the purchase of a full box of packs.
In 2003 Topps reintroduced Garbage Pail Kids with an all-new series of stickers. As you might expect, the packs were no longer a quarter each, but were a few dollars each. Kind of a steep price hike, especially considering the cards are probably even cheaper to print now than they were in the 1980s, but that’s life. It’s not like everything else hasn’t gone up in price. However, unlike the 15 series of cards in the 1980s, now Topps added in several different chase sets, and they were NOT evenly distributed. No longer could you buy a box and be pretty much guaranteed that you’d have one complete set of everything (the main set and the chase sets). You could spend several hundred to a thousand dollars or more buying box after box and still not get a complete set. The only way to obtain a complete set for a reasonable price was to go to a card dealer. When you have to go to a dealer and buy the complete set, because it’s infinitely cheaper (and easier) than trying to collect the set, the joy has left Mudville.
For the record, I was a true blue collector. With the exception of the ongoing Ghostbusters series, I have every single U.S. Ghostbusters comic ever published, with EVERY single variant cover - Now’s The Real Ghostbusters, Now’s Ghostbusters II, Now’s Slimer!, 88MPH’s Legion, IDW’s The Other Side, IDW’s Displaced Aggression, IDW’s holiday series, the trade paperback versions of ALL of the aforementioned books (Now, 88MPH [published by Titan UK], IDW), IDW’s Ghostbusters Infestation, the Ghostbusters-covers for IDW’s Infestation #1 and #2 issues, plus 50-100 Marvel UK’s The Real Ghostbusters issues, Titan’s Marvel The Real Ghostbusters reprints, and Tokyopop’s Ghost Busted. I think that covers everything. I’m not going to even mention all of the original and new series Garbage Pail Kids cards I have, though I stopped after All-New Series 5 as that got to be ridiculous, too.
Suffice it to say, the day I decided to throw in the towel and stop collecting Ghostbusters comics (and trading cards) was the day that, clearly, the hobby stopped being fun. So, thanks IDW, Topps, and all of the other comic and trading card companies, for making it no longer fun to collect comic and trading cards.
Let me take these points as I can…
It’s marketing, not a command. Not every cover is going to be easily available to every person who wants one. Of course they’re going to make you aware of all the covers that are available… I know one person who only collects the harder to find variants. He gets a weird pleasure out of tracking down the hard stuff. It’s the hunt for him.
Other folks are in it for speculation (typically the ones I’d expect to go after all of the covers the hardest.)
Others pick and choose the cover(s) they’re most interested in.
What point do different covers have?
From a pure product marketing standpoint… these are sales incentives on the part of the company (if a shop orders X, they can get this cover; if they order Y, they can get that one.) If a shop can get a higher in-store price point on a variant (for the sake of argument) they may be interested in ordering more copies from IDW to get that variant.
It gives variety, as well – though some folks only care about what’s in between the covers.
Depends on the variant cover. In the case of the rash of custom covers, the audience is the retailers, looking for a special cover for their shop.
Some collectors follow specific cover artists; Frank Cho, as an example, has some fans that may purchase a book with one of his covers whether or not the book itself is of interest to them.
Other people - like the friend I mentioned before - prefer the “special covers.” Some people don’t care about the cover so much as whether or not it was first printing. Once, at a convention, I saw three times the price on a NEWSSTAND version of a book, because it didn’t have the gatefold cover that was found in all DM versions of the comic. That’s right, charging more for a smaller cover!
Uniqueness can be attractive.
I’m of the mind that you collect the story first… and the cover (or covers) you’re most interested in second. If your
Depends. Many variants are sold to comic shops on terms of sales – order X amount of a book, and you can get this variant. (Or other promotion.) It never hurts to offer more product for sale. It may leave money on the table to not offer it. Consider this: I believe one of Marvel’s recent retailer specific covers came at the cost of 1000 copies. So a store orders 1000 copies of that specific book for a cover they can also use to promote their store. Maybe the store’s regular order is 50 copies. Add in a bunch of stores – and that is a significant amount. The publisher loses nothing by offering the variant and no one buying; but it potentially loses a lot of money by not.
Alternative question; does it harm a fan to buy the cover they find most interesting for their collection?
If there’s no interest in the variant cover, the orders are not made. These publishers are a business, now, and so are the shops. Their goal is to make money, and they simply make more money offering the variants (most of the time.)
Variety, too, is a good thing. You don’t go wrong with offering more options on a cover (many of the variants are “order five copies and get…”)
Now, I buy the books to read and collect them on that merit. Is that not a part of the collecting experience at all for you?
If the only reason you ever collected was to have them all, I understand throwing in the towel to a degree. But your argument is also along the lines of “it was easier to follow a sport when there were less teams.” You do have the option of paring it down. It doesn’t have to be all or nothing.
I mean, some folks do have fun chasing down all the covers. Some just go after the rarities. It’s certainly a plus for retailers, who need all the help they can get.
But again, I don’t understand the all or nothing.
There are four covers for the first printing of GB #1… one of them has several variations, true, but there are only four covers. You could consider it that way as well, no?
Or pick another route. “Just Runge,” for example. He’s doing regular theme variants for each arc of the series.
In either case, we’re not aiming for exclusion. Thanks for explaining your thoughts on the matter.
Love it. Can’t wait to get my hands on this cover to complete the collection to date.
And, of course, the Dan sketch covers are - literally - impossible to find.
But for me, I am a collector- I do have to agree that the number of variant covers do tend to realllllly stretch the collector thinly. I mean I have to shell out for 14 different covers which includes the 2nd printing cover (of which I will be looking to acquire too)… but not, as some have said, for an investment.
These are truly for their unique find- having them autographed is even more a unique hit for these too.. Finding original art boards is even more of a great addition- to have the original sketches is just enjoyable to view- these I have framed and hung.
But the expense of collecting is an art form unto itself- the comic industry don’t really take a look at the economy and how those who are fans- and like to collect- may struggle to upkeep their ‘habit’… but hey, it’s all for collectors, right?
A little breathing space and balance with financials with a balanced availability of the comics would be appreciated- and I am sure the fans (and collectors alike) would show it too.
Is there a Diamond order code yet?
Not yet. Unless they are planning on reusing the old one.
Okay, thanks. Just wanted to make sure before I go to my local shop tomorrow and ask about it.
Erik, you make a lot of good points and, as someone in the business, I really appreciate your insight into the matter. I never thought about there being collectors who only collect a certain type of cover, like the examples you pointed out of just variants or just one particular artist. I thought they were all like me: gotta collect them all!
This whole discussion has me curious about something, and I hope you can tell me if I’m right or wrong.
I get the impression that the publishers don’t make the money off of sales to the readers, but from sales to the shops. Is that right? If yes, then theoretically, wouldn’t it be possible for a publisher to sell (let’s say) 10,000 copies to various shops, but those shops not have a single book sold to any readers, and still the publisher could claim the book was “sold out” and a “big success”?
Njukgb, thank you for echoing my sentiments, and for not making me feel like a loner in the belief that if you're gonna collect them, you should collect them all.I looked on Previews’ Second Printing/Variant page and saw the information for the second printing.
Order Code: AUG118203
Ship Date: November 23, 2011 (same as Issue #3)
That’s correct.
When you see something is sold out, it means all copies sent to the distributor (Diamond) have been purchased by shops and any shops that happen to sell out cannot get any more copies (from the distributor.) So this isn’t a claim, it’s the truth - the book has sold OUT, but not necessarily sold THROUGH.
Sold out = shops can’t get more copies from the distributor. Sold through = shop has sold all copies that they had on hand.
The new DC 52, for example, sold out several runs from the distributor on the #1 issues. Some comics shops have sold hundreds of copies in their stores to readers and need more. Others have not sold near as many as they thought they would.
You never know.
Marvel recently had a 1:200 variant for Avenging Spider-Man. Now that’s a bit excessive! (: But the rarity is what makes them worth more to collectors and retailers. (That’s a supply and demand issue.)
Erik made a lot of good points on the subject of variants, some of which I made back during 88MPH’s run when similar questions came up.
The simple fact is, variants are OPTIONAL. This is not Pokemon, this is comics. You get the covers you want and can, and if you really gotta get 'em all (pun intended) you know eventually they’ll end up on Ebay at some point. Variants shouldn’t dictate how you collect, what you enjoy should.