Marvel Comics, prolific purveyors of variant covers, have announced a new program of 10 variants designed to highlight not specific characters or events, but a certain day of the week. A selection of Marvel titles shipping on July 15th, including Empyre #1 and Giant-Size X-Men: Magneto #1, will be available with covers featuring, in large block letters, the text “On Sale Wednesday.” The back cover to each issue will reiterate the Wednesday on-sale date, and include a spot for stores to add their information.
In a statement announcing the covers, Marvel described their reasoning behind the open-to-order variants:
These variants, each of which come with a digital code, are ideal for reminding customers that while other entertainment industries such as music, movies and video games may dominate on Tuesdays and Fridays, comics own Wednesdays.
(Presumably the note about the inclusion of the digital codes is for people who like art on their covers, so they have a way to still get that without buying two physical copies of the issue.)
You kind of have to admire the level of spite that went into this decision, as this is pretty clearly a shot at DC Comics and their decision to make Tuesday the release date for their new comics, aligning the release date with other media and eliminating the window of ‘direct market exclusivity’ for graphic novels. It’d be even more admirable if the covers featured some actual cover art, though, and not just text.
I’m really curious to see if people actually bite on these. There are those who are genuinely upset about DC’s decision to switch to Tuesday — will they be willing to put their money where their mouth is? Any jilted DC fans out there care to weigh in?
Check out all ten of the covers, as well as the back cover for each of them, below. These Marvel titles go on sale on July 15th (that’s a Wednesday, folks), and are available for pre-order until Monday, June 22nd.
These are both lame and lazy…lamezy?
It’s like Bill Jemas never went away.
These look terrible and really low effort. I can imagine a dozen different ways this could have been done better, including art with word balloons or just a simple stripe with text like the Stan Lee tribute issues. Not
that it really needed to be done at all.
What’s so freaking sacred about Wednesday?
I’m so old, I remember when Friday was new comics day.
So petty and spiteful. I don’t like the Tuesday thing either, but trying to make a quick buck while upping the animosity in the air? Is Marvel run by 7 year olds??
Oh… this is so stupid. You’re a DC only buyer? Pick them up on Tuesday. You buy comics from the other publishers, plus DC? Pick them up on Wednesday. Don’t care what day of the week they come out on? Go whenever. It’s as simple as that.
This is so dumb that I thought Ike Perlmutter might be behind it. However, I think he’s too busy with the Trump Victory Joint Fundraising Committee to screw with Marvel P.R.
What a waste of time and paper. Why would any shop order these?
So instead of a free poster to retailers, Marvel is selling it as a variant cover?
Such a waste. I ordered the Venom one online by mistake, thinking the cover art hadn’t been released and would just be out Wednesday. WASTE of MONEY. Great way not to pay an artist, Marvel. You want to troll DC so hard at your customer’s expense. Diamond can eat it, too: I’ll stick to Batman Covers A and B. At least I know I’ll be getting some actual artwork.
Looks to me like they took a shot at BUYERS.
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