Why won't Marvel reprint the Dark Avengers sketch cover?

[inthehottub]

I'm kind of hating it also. I wish they would resale cheap

[Joel Elad]

The Hero Initiative blanks were never available, as a blank cover, direct to the public. They were printed by Marvel (the Ultimate Spider-Man #100, Hulk #1, and, NEW for 2009, Wolverine: Weapon X #1), delivered to HI, and HI delivers them directly to each artist. The artist draws on them, returns it to HI, and HI auctions them off. The McFarlane one went for $6701, if I remember right. If there are any extra blank covers, they are not allowed to let those copies get into the general population.

 

Sometimes, Dynamic Forces makes some of their blanks available to their biggest dealer reseller friends, or on their website, and now they are learning to keep the blanks, have their artist friends draw on it and only sell resketched copies. They have been making blank covers since they published some original Top Cow stories years ago, but they keep the print run low, like less than 200 copies.

 

As for Marvel, there's not a lot of money in reprinting the blank cover comic. For a low production run, the printer keeps most of the money. The money comes when you're about to print a book with 100k copies, and then bump it up to 120k, those newest 20k copies are much cheaper than a separate print run of 20k, for example. The reason publishers do reprints is the hope that, if a fan gets a 2nd printing of #1, that same fan will buy #2, #3, #4, etc. So, even though they make very little on the #1 reprint, it pays off in the long run.

 

I'm not sure where there are less DA #1 blanks available in the secondary market. It could be that more and more people are using them to get sketches at conventions, so it simply sold better than expectations. I think all the dealers ordered the same (or less if they are still stuck with SI #1 blanks) and the popularity meant a quicker sellout.

 

I think Marvel wants to keep it special, or unique, and keep it at 1 per year, so we'll be waiting 'til January 2010 for the next one, I would think.

 

Joel

[Turtle]

Thanks, Joel! (thumbs u

 

I hope you got your taxes sorted out in time...or at least filed for an extension!

[BeachBum]

the one thats really over due though is a blank cover for an X-men book, but i don't see where that can happen anytime soon

An exclusive X-Men related one is in the works

 

I would so be all over this one, I would order like 50 at my local LCS when it's announced.