Comic Talk- X Files Conspiracy

[buttheadsmate]

I can feel many of your groans but I'm still a fan of the X-Files & I still collect the comics ...in fact they are the only comics I buy ( I read others that are lent to me) apart from the Battle Beasts run . Recently I've gotten into "Season 10" & I'm slowly gathering the variant covers.....quite why is another question ? I guess it's 'my stuff' again

That said I've just gotten wind of the new X Files Conspiracy which involves an intriguing amount of cross-overs.....leastways the variant covers imply that there will be. TMNT,Transformers,Ghostbusters et al. Intriguing?

Anyway as I'm not a real die-hard comic fan these days I was wondering if all these variant covers (for issue #1) is a precedent....unusual.....normal ?? Ebay sellers are promoting several & I'm getting a bit overwhelmed .

[Lokash]

I am right there with you, I love the X-files. I recently started watching the seasons over on Netflix and am only watching the episodes that involve Smoking man/mulder abduction/scully abduction/alien conspiracy and it makes for a much more exciting watch. As far as the comics go I havent got into them yet but will probably pick up the trades. Are you asking how many variants have been made? I know there is usually the regular cover and a subscriber variant for every issue. IDW does that with most of their liscenced comics.

[buttheadsmate]

Thanks for the input.....what I'm asking is "why are there sooooooooooo many variant covers ??? " There appears to be about a dozen for the first issue

I appreciate the way you're watching the show ......they eventually cottoned on that people wanted 'just' those episodes that featured the conspiracy .........they released the X-Files Mythology series 1-4 which just had those episodes.

Edited January 18, 2014 by buttheadsmate

[youbastards]

Variant covers make the retailers happy because they can mark up the prices of the limited incentive covers to make up for the cost of ordering 25 issues just to get a single incentive.

I used to be a hardcore Marvel variant collector when I was buying comics, strictly out of habit more than enjoyment. IDW is notorious for multiple variants of almost every issue they publish, it is pretty ridiculous when you step back and look at it.

Good luck with your hunt, but I completely understand the "why am I doing this?" question you are probably asking yourself from time to time.

[hellpop]

To piggyback on YB's post, multiple variants have been a stunt publishers use to artificially increase sales for several years now. Basically, publishers put out a variant with a specific ordering incentive, such as 1:100; meaning that if a retailer orders 100 copies of the regular comic, they can order one copy of the variant. As YB said, the retailers like this because they can then turn around and sell that variant for a huge markup, and it has to be huge, because usually they are swallowing the cost of the regular comics purchased in order to purchase the variant. In some stores, you'll see piles of these issues sitting in discount bins, sometimes within a month of release. It's a real shady business all around, I think. Longtime retailer Brian Hibbs, who writes a column on retailing for Comic Book Resouces, wrote an excellent piece on the subject a little more then a year ago:

http://www.comicbookresources.com/?page=article&id=41000

Personally, variant covers are one of the factors (a small one, but an important one nonetheless) that led to me dropping monthly comics in favor of trades. You usually get all the variants reprinted in the trade anyway, so what's the point?

[buttheadsmate]

......what's the point ?

......what's the point ?

I agree .

[MiniMage]

I just started reading Avengers World #1 and yeah, there were a ton of variant covers. Animal covers, blank covers, baby covers, deadpool'd covers. It's pretty funny since I doubt this run is going to be worth any value in the future. The point is just to make increased profits like the other have already said.

Personally, I just buy the normal covers. They're cheaper and the content is the same no matter which cover you buy.