The variant cover “craze” that has seemingly swept the comic book industry the past few years is not typically my cup of tea, but yesterday’s announcement that Marvel was going to use the front of Amazing Spider-Man #666 to promote comic book shops across the country seems like a lot of fun. Per Digital Spy:
A photograph of participating stores will be depicted on the front page of a copy of the Daily Bugle as part of Ryan Stegman’s cover design. Outlets that place larger orders will be included on Humberto Ramos’s variant design, being defended by the titular superhero.
I have a couple of big-time comic book shops near my office in Manhattan, so this might be a case where if any of them are participants, I’ll break down a buy an additional copy of ASM 666. All of these variant covers create a tricky conundrum for me as a collector: on one hand, as someone who’s trying to “complete” the entire run of Amazing Spider-Man there’s always a bit of a pull to get EVERYTHING that’s out there connected to the title. However, in many cases, these variants are so rare and are so well-sheltered by dealers, I would end up dropping as much money as I would pay for some of the older issues I’m still missing in my quest to nab the entire run. Plus, as a subscriber, you’d think Marvel would throw me a bone every once in a while and through luck of the draw, I’d get one of these variant issues mailed to me “at random.”
So instead, I’ve treated these covers as just an added industry gimmick designed to generate buzz from obsessive buyers and have decided to only consider picking some of them up well after I complete my initial goal of completing the ASM run in its most traditional sense: issues #1-6XX and beyond – no variants.
However, in the case of ASM 666, I can’t hide the fact that I’m sincerely nostalgic for the old comic book shops that were the foundation for my collection – many of which no longer exist thanks to the comic book bust of the 1990s. A cover that seemingly honors that pastime, tugs at me emotionally, so if the price is reasonable enough, count me in on this issue.
Thanks for a really enjoyable blog. You are really a very good writer.
I too have a quest but mine involes Iron Man.
I have every Iron Man from 97 on and need 50 more issues between 1 and 96
and 50 more Tales of Suspense to complete my collection.
I feel your pain with the early issues, with Tales of Suspense I am trying to get all the Iron Man issues but have to get alot that are a little beaten up.
I also have every Iron Man mini series and one shot. I was going to try to get every IM appearence in any book but that was too daunting a task to I just stuck to the main IM books.
I do have a side project that is not near as impressive,
Trying to get every appearence of Moon Knight who is my second favorite character but that will seem easy by comparison to IM.
Your comment about the smell of the old books really hit home, I love the smell and feel of the older issues , My wife has been known to give me a look when she see’s me smelling a comic book, like i’m the wierd.
Like you wrote, it seems like every time I go into a LCS I have to get the card players out of the way to even get to the books. Thats fine if thats what your into but I just want to get a look at the IM collection without moving bookbags and coats or a big piece of cardbord with a bunch of playing cards on it.
Also like you said I have and still use mycomicshop.com to get alot of my books.
I have found that their prices and service are the best on the web. I use their subscription service for the new books instead of Marvel because I have found it to be more consistent and you also get “free” shipping on back issues.
I was wondering, do you also collect the other Spiderman series and/or Minis and one shots ? From your blog it is not clear as to if you have them all or not.
Do you collect any other non Spiderman titles ?
If you are allowed to tell, What else do you write ?
Good Luck and Keep up the great work.