So I was reading this article (http://www.bleedingcool.com/2012/11/02/the-goosing-of-marvel-now-with-variants-and-discount/) and I began wondering if Rich Johnston had been listening to my podcast. He makes a lot of the same points that I make about the Marvel insanity with the ordering incentives for the Marvel NOW! books.
Going through the Marvel Previews during Wednesdays podcast, I noticed that every Marvel NOW! book had at least 1 variant cover. After reading Rich’s article, I sat down and actually counted them.
There are 30 Marvel NOW! issues in the new Previews.
There are 85 different covers for those 30 books.
I can hear the conversation now (or is it NOW!):
Boss: “So, sales go up when we do a variant cover.”
Underling: “Yes, boss.”
Boss: “So, if we do 3 variants, sale will go up 3 times as much, right?”
Underling: “Um…”
Boss: “So lets do this. 1 variant cover for every book we put out. That will guarantee double sales, see. And on #1s let’s do a minimum of 5 variants. And on Spider-Man lets to 7 just to mess with everybody.”
Underling: “Um…”
Boss: “Make it so!”
