What is considered to be the first variant cover?

[chriskay99]

I was thinking about the history of comics, and variant covers and got to wondering two things...

1) What is considered to be the first variant cover?
2) What is considered to be the first incentive variant cover?

I think the answer to #1 is Todd McFarlane's Spider-Man #1 bagged edition/silver variant? That came out in 1990 and I'm guessing they were orderall variants and not incentive? I was 12 at the time and didn't really know anything about the shop owner/business end, not that I really know that much these days. X-Force #1 and Jim Lee's X-Men #1 followed a year later in 1991 which might also be contenders, as I know for sure those were orderalls.

For #2, I think the first ever incentive variant I saw in a shop was WildC.A.T.s #11. I remember seeing it on the wall behind the counter on the day it came out. I was collecting WildC.A.T.s at the time ( ) and remember asking the shop owner why the cover was different and why he was charging $15 for it. I think I remember him saying it was either a gift or a reward based on the number of issues they ordered.

Does anyone from the shop owner side (or just a better memory than me) have any information on this topic?

[greg]

I assume you mean different covers as variants, not just differences in the covers (such as price changes... there are some 12cent books that also exist as 15cent books).
Marvel Comics #1 has both an October 1939 cover and a November 1939 cover... same, other than the date.

Dark Horse Presents #36 has two completely different covers... and is a few months older than Spider-man #1 in 1990.
Batman: Legends of the Dark Knight #1 from 1989 has various colors available.
There are two different versions of Man of Steel #1 (mini-series) from 1986, but they may be direct and newsstand, so they would be the same book for two different markets.

Spider-man #1 does have a Platinum version "retailer premium", though, that would be older than Wildcats #11.

[chriskay99]

Ah, I had forgotten about Legends of the Dark Knight with the different colored covers! Yeah, I was looking for more than just price changes or retailer vs. newsstand. I was curious about a publisher actively seeking the collector and selling the same book but with different covers. Hmm...interesting! Thanks for the insight.

[nycjadie]

Spiderman 1 is the first incentive variant I'm aware of.

[kjjohanson]

Amazing Spider-man Annual #21 (the wedding issue) from 1987 has 2 covers, one with Spidey and a collection of heroes and villains, and another with Peter Parker and the supporting cast from the comics. Not sure if there was some special distribution thing with this issue.

DC also did a couple of variants in 1987 with a Superman test logo (replacing the DC bullet) for Justice League #3 and an issue of Firestorm. I think the purpose of these were more like when publishers did price variants (i.e. a marketing test to see if the general public would react more or less positively to the change).

[sanman]

I've always thought that The Man of Steel #1 was the first one. Its dated July-Sept 1986.

BTW, the Spider-Man marriage annual came out in 1987.

[kjjohanson]

I've always thought that The Man of Steel #1 was the first one. Its dated July-Sept 1986.

BTW, the Spider-Man marriage annual came out in 1987.

Yes, Man of Steel is definitely earlier. The question is whether the variants was a direct-only thing.

Looking at the copies of ASM Annual #21 available on eBay, though, I'm thinking that the version with Spidey was a newsstand version and the version with Peter Parker direct-only, because Peter has no barcode and Spidey does. So for pure multiple versions for the purpose of having multiple versions, I'm going to go with Legends of the Dark Knight.

[Ramses818]

Is far as I'm aware Spiderman number one platinum edition was the first variant incentive. I can't remember I think it the time they said you had to order like 1000 copies of number 1 get one Platinum variant. Came with a nice little letter from marvel at the time. I can't remember the first variant cover it though but I'm sure that's kind of an interesting topic if somebody can hunt it down. I get the feeling though it was probably image? Something like Wildcats because they had that gold cover that they did for a few issues. But it could've Gen 13 as well because those books were always so late hard to keep track of what came first. Darker Image?