What is a 'variant cover' of a comic book?

What is a 'variant cover' of a comic book?

Mark Zaid (Owner of Esquire Comics) gives expert video advice on: What are the different types of comic book covers? and more...

Variant covers of comic books became popular more in the modern day, in the 1980s, although there are examples that go back before that and these would be multiple covers that would be made for the same issue. Either there were retailed issues made or there were even different issues as far as the cover made for different parts of the country. And that would spur sales perhaps, and it would create for the publishers an opportunity for collectors to buy each of the issues from a collecting stand point. Or there just could be different reasons they had to change some of the covers of the comic books.