I was over at friend Bob's place the other day and i was looking through his video game collection and started wondering if they still make video games NOT based on Legos versions of licensed characters. But there's no doubt that the Lego guys are popular and appealing, and Mike Sterling's latest post is another proof point of that. It also proves that a good cover can still be a way to get people to consider picking up a book they weren't otherwise interested in (or didn't know about), contra what you sometimes hear regarding the reasoning behind the switch to generic pin-up covers.

But mainly it just emphasizes the weird nature of variant covers. I sort of understand when comic companies just have artists draw alternate covers that are in some way related to the story or at least series in question. But when you have Lego variants or Deadpool Month variants or even the really cute Skottie Young Baby variants, it's just... weird. It's misleading to the average comic buyer, and i have to wonder what the collectors of these variants think of the 22 pages of extraneous story that is attached to the pin-up that they bought.

Now, let me just say that if variant covers are your thing, that's fine with me and thank you very much for subsidizing my hobby, because without you i think the comic industry as we know it would be out of business already. I just find the whole thing... odd.