Preview for IDW Transformers: Optimus Prime Volume 2 TPB

Thanks to a heads up from Seibertronian Sunstar and Twitter user The Kup, we have a newly revealed cover for the upcoming Optimus Prime #16, which is due out in February! The new cover is drawn by regular artist Kei Zama with colors by Josh Burcham, and shows off Soundwave with Laserbeak, Buzzsaw, and Ravage. What is interesting about this cover is that Ravage is drawn in a body style that is similar to his much earlier Megatron Origins design, which is fitting seeing as how Soundwave appears to have a rubsign, much like he did in Optimus Prime volume 1 during the "in the past" scenes.

Check out the cover below, and let us know what you think in the comments section below!

Fellow Seibertronians ScottyP and Sunstar have linked us to a recently uploaded variant cover for the current arc taking place in the IDW Publishing ongoing Transformers comics series Optimus Prime, specifically, the 1-in-10 incentive that will be released with issue #16 of the series, due end of February!

The art, featuring Optimus Prime (the Thirteenth/Arisen from Aligned and now seeping into IDW mythology) and Onyx Primal - the baddest winged spiky centaur of them all - is by Marcelo Matere, the colours are not credited, but may very well be Priscilla Tramontano or Joana Lafuente. Check it out below!

W) John Barber (A) Kei Zama (CA) Marcelo Matere
The Falling, Part 2: The arrival of Onyx Prime throws Cybertron into chaos-because he hasn't come alone. Onyx's treacherous companion forces Soundwave to finally make a choice: is Optimus Prime a friend... or foe?

I'm not sure if I'm correct but I think it's something along the lines of every 1 in 10 issues will have this cover

ZeroWolf wrote:I'm not sure if I'm correct but I think it's something along the lines of every 1 in 10 issues will have this cover

Alas, it takes proactive ordering from the shop, Rodimus Knight has it correct here:

Rodimus Knight wrote:For every 10 standard covers a shop orders they can get 1 variant,.

Rodimus Knight wrote:

Va'al wrote:

ZeroWolf wrote:I'm not sure if I'm correct but I think it's something along the lines of every 1 in 10 issues will have this cover

Alas, it takes proactive ordering from the shop, Rodimus Knight has it correct here:

Rodimus Knight wrote:For every 10 standard covers a shop orders they can get 1 variant,.

There is 1 variant cover I want for an IDW book (the only decent cover offered imho). I checked with 3 local shops, 2 nearby out of state shops and my friend looked into the 5 shops near him halfway across the country, and only 1 place ordered enough to get the variant cover I wanted, and it was already spoken for.

This is another reason I dislike IDW.

I understand the frustration, but this is not IDW's doing. This is the scourge that is the Direct Market. Those comics that the shops buy? Mostly non-returnable, and they've already paid for them. If no customers buy them, and they're on no orders, they'll just drop the title. That's the case for any publisher doing variants to drive sales, misunderstanding the fucking point entirely.

Rodimus Knight wrote:

Va'al wrote:

Rodimus Knight wrote:

Va'al wrote:

ZeroWolf wrote:I'm not sure if I'm correct but I think it's something along the lines of every 1 in 10 issues will have this cover

Alas, it takes proactive ordering from the shop, Rodimus Knight has it correct here:

Rodimus Knight wrote:For every 10 standard covers a shop orders they can get 1 variant,.

There is 1 variant cover I want for an IDW book (the only decent cover offered imho). I checked with 3 local shops, 2 nearby out of state shops and my friend looked into the 5 shops near him halfway across the country, and only 1 place ordered enough to get the variant cover I wanted, and it was already spoken for.

This is another reason I dislike IDW.

I understand the frustration, but this is not IDW's doing. This is the scourge that is the Direct Market. Those comics that the shops buy? Mostly non-returnable, and they've already paid for them. If no customers buy them, and they're on no orders, they'll just drop the title. That's the case for any publisher doing variants to drive sales, misunderstanding the **** point entirely.

Actually you just pointed out that it is the publisher's fault. If people don't want to purchase their books, it's the fault of the company making it. Either the writing is bad, the arts is bad, or the subject is bad.

You need to put out a good product if you want people to purchase it. If you're doing something new and original, then maybe don't make the variant requirements so high, or allow them to purchase multiples.

If you put you best cover on the variant in hopes that it will cause shops to purchase more of the standard, then you should have just used it as the standard, and maybe the stores would purchase more. Comics are a visual medium, and if you create stupid or ugly covers, people will skip over it.

The guy who runs the shop I spend most of my time at, directed me to one of the biggest shops with an online store that sells across the country, and even they don't appear to be ordering enough to get the variant.

That is not what I said.

Let's try again:

"They’re a very normal part of the comic book landscape and are offered to retailers in a few different ways: A and B covers where a shop will get an equal amount of the standard cover and the B variant. And Incentive Variants where a retailer has to order a certain amount of A issues from Diamond to get issues with the B cover, or occasionally separate covers for the same issue with Separate Order Codes that shops can order as they wish.

Variant covers are a really popular part of comic buying for fans, but can be a real struggle for retailers, as they encourage speculation, where collectors buy rarer books specifically to resell them at a higher price. If a shop takes a risk on a large variant scheme that doesn’t land well, it can really damage a business.

[...]

One of the most interesting things about variant covers is they are always sold to shops at cover price. So the inflated prices that you will often see for the rarer books are set by whomever is selling them. Comic shops will usually set a price close to what the book is being sold for online, as this means that they won’t just be selling it to someone to sell on at a hugely inflated rate.

Variant covers can impact order numbers in different ways. They can drive initial sales up as shops order to get specific covers for customers, but sometimes they actually lower numbers by spreading them out among different codes, which can cause sales to be completely misreported. A separate order code is typically used when a variant cover has a higher cover price than the standard cover. Also, the number of comics sold by Diamond in no way equates to the actual number of comics sold. "


Source

Ultra Markus wrote:If getting the variant cover is so important to some wouldn't it be easier to just order the 10 directly from the distributor? Sure you would be paying for more books but you end up getting what you want

Some people do pool together and do that, or then resell the other copies on secondary market, or both!

Rodimus Knight wrote:

Va'al wrote:

Ultra Markus wrote:If getting the variant cover is so important to some wouldn't it be easier to just order the 10 directly from the distributor? Sure you would be paying for more books but you end up getting what you want

Some people do pool together and do that, or then resell the other copies on secondary market, or both!

I'm willing to pay double or maybe triple for the variant (because I only know one shop that sells variants at cover price), but I'm not willing to go higher then that. Otherwise, If I read it I'll just read the comic online and not buy it at all.

I purchased the transformers Archie x-over book for the cover with Hot Rod, Betty and Veronica because I liked the cover. I couldn't' give a rats ass about the story. I never read it, but I display the cover art.

Companies create variant covers to try and drive up sales, for their own profit. My point is, if they wrote and drew comics people want they wouldn't need to create a false sales model. People would buy the books. If a company feels they need to put their best covers on hard to get variants, it's because they don't believe the book will sell well, and In the case of IDW it's become a way of life for them period and really needs to stop.

Again, if one of the largest online retailers is apparently not even getting the variant cover, it shows just how bad they are expecting the book to sell.

Nah. Still not getting it.

EDIT: Oooh, and I initially missed the bit about not actually buying the comics, therefore not supporting the comics, therefore not supporting comic shops, and really just being part of the problem.

Ultra Markus wrote:

Va'al wrote:

Ultra Markus wrote:If getting the variant cover is so important to some wouldn't it be easier to just order the 10 directly from the distributor? Sure you would be paying for more books but you end up getting what you want

Some people do pool together and do that, or then resell the other copies on secondary market, or both!

i remember doing that once with one back when dreamwave put out transformers and ended up with a shitload of one issue like 20 just for the variant and decided i wasnt going to do it again but just 10 issues doesnt seem too bad

If comics prices were not as high as they currently are with all major publishers, I'd say go for it! But with 3.99 minimum per issue, I wouldn't recommend it, just for the one cover.

Va'al wrote:

Ultra Markus wrote:

Va'al wrote:

Ultra Markus wrote:If getting the variant cover is so important to some wouldn't it be easier to just order the 10 directly from the distributor? Sure you would be paying for more books but you end up getting what you want

Some people do pool together and do that, or then resell the other copies on secondary market, or both!

i remember doing that once with one back when dreamwave put out transformers and ended up with a shitload of one issue like 20 just for the variant and decided i wasnt going to do it again but just 10 issues doesnt seem too bad

If comics prices were not as high as they currently are with all major publishers, I'd say go for it! But with 3.99 minimum per issue, I wouldn't recommend it, just for the one cover.

It's cheaper to buy them on eBay than it is to do self-fund an RI order. Way cheaper.