Pick a Cover...Any Cover...
Artist J. Scott Campbell showcasing our exclusives.
- Decisions...Decisions...
Waaaaaaaay back in 2014, my shop Conquest Comics teamed up with Marvel Comics to create our own store exclusive variant covers for an upcoming Amazing Spider-Man issue. These specific books would only be sold through my shop. Available no where else on the planet.
To this day, these are the most successful of our store exclusive variants and one of the most successful store variants ever. Reason for that ringing true is it had several aspects that were totally killer. It was the perfect storm.
Popular title? Check!
The most sought after comic artist? Yup!!
Super sexy character? Hell Yeah!
1st Appearance? Bingo!
We got lucky as hell on this. We’ve done several exclusives since then and will do more in the future. We will probably never get this lucky again. We had J. Scott Campbell drawing Black Cat on an Amazing Spider-Man issue that featured the 1st Appearance of a new character named Silk. Whew! Oh, another killer aspect is we were the only store on the planet to do an exclusive variant for this issue. The only other covers were the regular release, a 2nd printing, and a 1:10 ratio variant.
I’ve written about this before but it was early on and I have a lot of new friends that are weirdly interested in this stuff so I figured I’d talk about it again...this time with some cool new backstory.
We did 3 different covers for this book. A regular color, a B&W sketch, and a negative. Each one rather than the previous. We initially sold them for $14.99 for the color, $19.99 for the B&W, and $59.99 for the combo 3pk that included the negative. Outside of the small chunk that we kept for ourselves, we sold out quickly. Currently raw copies of each sell for between $90-$125 a Pop in high grade shape. Not a bad investment.
The main reason I’m writing this today though is I came across some of the other potential covers we could have ended up with. We initially wanted Silk on the cover but since she was new, Campbell didn’t want to draw her. Instead he wanted to conjure up a beautiful Black Cat piece. We were fine with that so we waited for some ideas. I’ll go through a few sample sketches that they sent us over to look at.
This was the first one. It is basically Black Cat scratching the cover. We thought it was simple and cool so we said yup! Done deal super quickly. Not so fast...
This next one we liked but we thought it was a tad too similar to a variant he did a few years earlier on issue #648.
On this piece, we found it cool. It featured both Spidey and Black Cat in multiple panels. The layout was sharp but we thought it was a tad too busy and distracting.
HOLY SHIT!!! This is perfection. The look on her face. Spidey falling. The placement of the trade dress sideways. It had a very cool James Bond like feel to it. It was elegant. We loved it and with that, an instant classic was born.
What’s your thoughts? Which one would you have picked???
Blewitt
You know the answer. The last one every time.
Yeah. Not even close...is it?!?
How the hell can he be so young when he was drawing when I was a kid....
I know. The dude looks like a million bucks. Some people have it all. His wife is stunning as well just to make matters worse. 😜
What is that I have here? Oh yes!! It's still unopened, I know, I'm a shitty friend. But, I am keeping it for Christmas so that I can emerge entirely in the comic book.
Also, I love to see all of the versions for the cover and have this little backstory; it's pretty damn epic. Cheers for the comic book again! :)
Tastiness!!! Enjoy that son of a bitch and keep it in good shape!!!
Yes! I kept it in my freaking laptop all the way from Krakow to Romania, so it doesn't get destroyed on the bus. It's still in the same condition as I got it from you. :)
I'm not necessarily the hugest comics fan but, I'll keep it in good care since it's a gift from you man. Probably the best gift I got at SF, ofc, after the nudes from Eve. Nobody can compete with those. :D
Sell it and buy some tasty Steem. Lol
Haha, I'd rather get paid in comic books at the moment. :))
definitely more profitable as of late...
LOVE. I bought the Neal Adams Variant from ebay year ago. CGC signed Stan Lee
awesome you had your own variant!
Thank you! Yeah we have done several but this one was by far our most successful.
That’s awesome! Post a pic!
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I like the 2nd one alot also but have to agree with your pick @blewitt I even prefer the first draft of it actually.
Yeah the 2nd is pretty sweet as well. Shame is ultimately I would have been happy with any of them but once I saw the obvious choice...it was a no brained which route to go.
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howdy sir blewitt! hey you guys are great, can you do this again for your shop?
It’s really expensive to do these do we have to make sure it’s a homerun. I’m looking into this one though...
howdy sir blewitt! Well sir, given your experience and knowledge I bet you make a great choice and that it makes you guys a pile of money!