You guys worry too much
We got hit with a perfect storm-- actually literally, due to the hurricane-- then the holidays. But what people forget is we launched on Oct. 31. We probably shouldn't have even done a November issue. You're still getting 6 issues in 6 months, it's hardly an MIA book. Right now the book is shipping every 3 weeks for 3 issues straight. So I feel like we're in good shape.
As for the variants, I don't really see how they hurt the book, though I can see how they might impact the secondary market. Remember that we determine a book's success by order numbers, not re-sale value. Don't get me wrong-- I'm happy to see anyone make money off investing in the book, but I'm not going to turn away a convention or retailer that wants to make a substantial order on the book.
The bottom line is, the print run on the book was always going to be fairly high, whether it was variants or regular prints. It just wasn't one retailers were going to sleep on. So I don't know, if you were in for the quick turnaround, if we were ever the title for you. The variants are more a symptom there than anything. If they didn't exist, there would just be more copies of the first print cover, and I don't see how you'd like that any more. Does that make sense?