OK,
Back in 2003, I expanded my retail shop into the local convention business. I wanted to model my shows after Fred Greenburg conventions, where the focus of the show was one guest. ( not an entire artist alley)
From my fandom I fondly remembered the Mignolia Greenberg show. The McFarlane Greenberg show. The Brandon Peterson Greenberg show. Ect.
I thought that giving away a variant comic FREE with admission would be a great idea and draw. I contacted publishers.
The first show I scheduled was Portland, ME, Josh Howard artist of Dead@7.
Publisher, Viper printed me 1,000 copies of Dead@17 #1 Variant.
500 of which arrived damaged.
The next show I hosted Robert Kirkman. He agreed to print a variant to Invincible #1. The new version had my shop logo , a cardstock cover & back cover by my pals Rich Woodall & Matt Talbot ( Johnny Raygun) Kirkman let me overprint to cover damages. I printed 1,600. All came in pristine condition. ( the cover stock is amazing)
The show was a flop. It was the weekend before Christmas. There was a huge snowstorm. The hotel hosted a porn show the same weekend. I gave out maybe 100 comics.
I was stuck with a fairly obscure (at the time) 1,500 Invincible #1's
The Original printing of Invincible #1 was 9,000
The show variant is 6x scarcer.
A few people own alot of copies.
The bulk of the print run is owned by people on the CGC forum. It will probably never be worth anything.
It is a great affordable way to read one of the greatest modern day superhero saga's.
Collectors do not really need a variant "IF" the cover is not different.
Respectfully
Larry Doherty
Larry's Wonderful, Wonderful World of Comics n such.
978-459-5323
larryscomicsinc@aol.com
http://larryscomics.net
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