That dude at my LCS dropped a truth bomb about variant covers

I was digging through the dollar bin at Cosmic Comics on Main Street last Saturday and this older collector just started talking my ear off. He said 'variant covers are just fancy wallpaper if you never read the story inside.' Hit me hard because I've got like 30 variants bagged up at home that I've barely glanced at the actual issues. Anyone else ever feel like they're collecting cardboard instead of comics?

3 comments

3 Comments

the_christopher28d agoTop Commenter

My buddy Mike has a closet full of those Marvel virgin covers and he still hasn't opened half of them either, @hannah_perry. He told me once he bought a whole set of David Finch covers just because they looked good on his wall and then realized a year later he had no clue what the stories were about. Doesn't bother him one bit though, he just treats them like art prints and reads the digital versions on his tablet. Maybe that's the trick, you can enjoy the pretty picture and still get the story without having to crack the plastic.

hannah_perry28d ago

Stood there for a second just staring at my dollar bin finds after reading that. I've got a whole short box of virgin covers I never even flipped through, just bought because the art looked cool. Realized last month I couldn't even tell you what happened in like half those books. It's honestly kind of embarrassing when you step back and think about it.

anthony12928d ago

Stood there for a second just staring" is EXACTLY what I used to do too, @hannah_perry, but I gotta push back on the "embarrassing" part. I mean, who CARES if you can't remember the plot? You bought them because the art looked cool, right? That's literally the POINT of a cover. It's like saying you're embarrassed for buying a poster of a band you've never heard live. The art IS the product half the time, especially with those virgin covers where the whole point is the uncluttered image. You're not a bad collector or something, you're just a fan of GOOD looking comics. Honestly, I bet half the people on here who act like they've read every single issue of their dollar bin books are Full Of It anyway. So enjoy looking at your pretty covers and don't let anyone make you feel bad for it.