New Universal Monsters Comic Book Series'

[Rex fury]

Congratulations on buying your first comic! Even though the market is stagnant with superheroes there's an incredible array of concepts and content to enjoy if you look a little deeper.

To get the remaining Creature comic covers, I would suggest preordering through your local store or continue to watch Ebay for pre solicitation. Once they're published people start asking higher prices for the covers they think will be in most demand. I really wanted the Spider-Man comic with President Obama on the cover but missed the preorders for it. It took me a whole lot of time to find a reasonable priced copy! A lesson learned the hard way.

As to content, I agree that it's a gamble. The '62 Creature comic ended in a cliffhanger of sorts that was never followed up. One panel in the preview of the new comic led me to believe the creators may have picked up that thread- highly unlikely though. The design for the Creature looks like an actual statue of the "fish man" on display in a hotel in Lima, Peru I mentioned the statue in another thread on this site a couple of years ago, pointing out that the original movie script was based on a real South American legend.

Anyhow I hope you enjoy the comic and perhaps look a little further into the field!
RF

[Mike Scott]

Oh, come on!

https://www.ebay.com/itm/225972719267

[darkmonkeygod]

Having no knowledge at all about the storyline of these comics I just hope they aren't weird or pervy.

Well...

Years after the events of the original film, Journalist Kate Marsden hunts for a notorious serial killer in the heart of the Amazon. Hot on the trail of this madman, she soon encounters an unexpected new threat–but is he friend or foe? Or is he simply...THE CREATURE FROM THE BLACK LAGOON?

In addition to the Creature himself, the series introduces new characters like journalist Kate Marsden and serial killer Darwin Collier, along with a returning character from the film – the mysterious Doctor Edwin Thompson.

[fearliath]

Oh, come on!

https://www.ebay.com/itm/225972719267

Okay, help me out. Is that one of the 6 covers? Why is it H and why is the image a blank paper? Nothing about comic books seems straightforward to me.

[darkmonkeygod]

How would I go about purchasing the remaining 3 cover designs for the first Creature  issue? Are they limited and only available certain places? Will they be available closer to the actual release date?

This gets a little trickier and typically a lot more expensive.

There are eight covers being solicited for issue #1. Most of the alternate covers are "incentive covers", meaning that the retailer is required to order a certain minimum to then be allowed to order the incentive cover. The list down below is taken from Skybound's PR for the comic, with "1:10" meaning the retailer can order 1 copy of the incentive comic with every ten copies of the regular covers ordered, "1:100" meaning 1 incentive copy can be ordered for every 100 copies of the regular covers ordered.

Typically, but not always, the incentive cover comics are published with the same pricing on the front as the regular, non-incentive editions. Don't let that fool you. While a retailer may have only paid $2.50 for that comic, in the case of, say, the 1:100 Alex Ross incentive, they had to spend $250 on regular editions just to be allowed to buy that 1:100, and that's assuming the 1:100 is available to them at "cover" price. Some general incentive covers are sometimes much, much more at wholesale. Because retailers have such a high buy in on incentive covers, incentive comics are often priced AT LEAST as high as the limitation, meaning a 1:10 is $10, a 1:100 is $100. That said, a retailer can charge whatever they want, and a lot of incentive covers are more "valuable" than 'limitation price' right out of the gate, meaning collectors will pay more. It's not unusual to see a 1:100 with this price structure (costing at least $252.50 to order) priced at double the order cost, meaning $500. For this reason, a lot or retailers simply sell the incentive cover copies at auction, or even send them for grading before auction, attempting to squeeze the maximum return on their expenditure.

In my opinion, if you are serious about being willing to spend the kind of money it may take to acquire all eight covers, I would call or visit the largest comic book specially store near you and discuss what you want with them. Having the store order them for you - if they are willing - is likely to be the cheapest and most expeditious way to guaranteeing you get them all. Otherwise it's the aftermarket gamble with eBay and the like. The likely reason you're seeing eBay sellers offer pre-orders now, before the April shipping book has been formally solicited, is because the sellers themselves are attempting to off-set their purchase of the high quantity threshold incentive covers with your advanced money.

Comic Shop Locator is a good resource for finding a store local to you https://www.comicshoplocator.com/StoreLocator, as is just typing "comic shops near me" into the Google search bar with location services enabled.

Hope this helps, please feel free to ask more questions, I used to work in the comic industry and have a lot of arcane / borderline unless knowledge about it, even if i can't always put it into words someone outside the industry will understand.


The covers:

Universal Monsters: The Creature From The Black Lagoon Lives! #1 Cover A by Matthew Roberts

Universal Monsters: The Creature From The Black Lagoon Lives! #1 Cover B by Joshua Middleton

Universal Monsters: The Creature From The Black Lagoon Lives! #1 Cover C (1:10 Connecting Copy Incentive) by DANI

Universal Monsters: The Creature From The Black Lagoon Lives! #1 Cover D (1:25 "Classic Horror" B&W Copy Incentive) by Joshua Middleton

Universal Monsters: The Creature From The Black Lagoon Lives! #1 Cover E (1:50 Copy Incentive) by Joëlle Jones

Universal Monsters: The Creature From The Black Lagoon Lives! #1 Cover F (1:75 Copy Incentive) by Alex Ross

Universal Monsters: The Creature From The Black Lagoon Lives! #1 Cover G (1:100 Copy Incentive) by Alex Ross

Universal Monsters: The Creature From The Black Lagoon Lives! #1 Cover H (Blank Sketch Cover)


Skybound PR:

https://www.skybound.com/announcements/universal-monsters/dan-watters-ram-v-mathew-roberts-present-universal-monsters-creature-from-the-black-lagoon-lives

[fearliath]

THANK YOU darkmonkeygod!!!

[darkmonkeygod]

THANK YOU darkmonkeygod!!!

Happy to assist. Love to know what you decide to do. The collector in me would love to get all the covers of all issues, but my wallet won't allow for that. Plus I have my doubts about the comic being any good, though I'll hold off judging that until I actually see it.

Also, as you may have surmised, the blank cover is called a "sketch cover" and they're sold with the idea that the buyer might take them to a convention and pay an artist to draw on the cover. Blanks are also a way for an artist to make some scratch, buying the blanks, drawing on them, and selling them to collectors.

[Mike Scott]

. . . if you are serious about being willing to spend the kind of money it may take to acquire all eight covers . . .

I was thinking no such thing. 

What's the difference between the two Ross covers? (None, at the moment.)

Why would anybody want that blank cover? Is it even a good joke, like the invisible "Invisible Man" carded nothing?

[Lazarus]

Blanks are for getting Sketches done.  I have a Dracula blank.  You can pay an artist at a con to do a piece on them and have an original cover.  Some are very cool.

The Ross ones are probably the original piece he did for the steel books and a sketch version that shows his rough art.

[Rex fury]

I wish one of the covers could have used some of Dave Cockrum's Creature art. I know Dave has passed on, but he did some really  cool Creature art back in the day. If I were to purchase a blank cover incentive I'm not sure whom I'd want to illustrate it? Maybe Frank Burner or Mike Ploog?

Dark Monkey, I'm curious what part of the industry you worked in? From your excellent response on the incentive cover market I assume you on the retailer's side? Just wondering?

RF

[darkmonkeygod]

I wish one of the covers could have used some of Dave Cockrum's Creature art. I know Dave has passed on, but he did some really  cool Creature art back in the day. If I were to purchase a blank cover incentive I'm not sure whom I'd want to illustrate it? Maybe Frank Burner or Mike Ploog?

It would be great to finally see that Cockrum cover on a comic. What a shame no publisher ever stepped up and gave his desire to make a Revenge of the Creature comic a go. I would love to see a Burner and a Ploog version of the Gill Man! Though I've found the paper used for sketch covers to be less than artist-friendly. I would much prefer something on illo board that I could hang or store in a portfolio.

Dark Monkey, I'm curious what part of the industry you worked in? From your excellent response on the incentive cover market I assume you on the retailer's side? Just wondering?

Reader, collector, buyer, retailer, inker, letterer, publishing, editing, marketing, repping, consultant, festival director... the list goes on! 

Because you mentioned them, and because they're always fun to see, here are some of the Cockrum Creature pitch pages and the cover were talking about. Not my photos, but you can imagine how much I wish I owned them! If anyone has a photo of the third story page, I would LOVE to see it! The cover was published as a pin up in a Marvel Monster mag, Monster Madness #2, perhaps?

[Anton Phibes]

It would be great to finally see that Cockrum cover on a comic. What a shame no publisher ever stepped up and gave his desire to make a Revenge of the Creature comic a go. I would love to see a Burner and a Ploog version of the Gill Man! Though I've found the paper used for sketch covers to be less than artist-friendly. I would much prefer something on illo board that I could hang or store in a portfolio.


Reader, collector, buyer, retailer, inker, letterer, publishing, editing, marketing, repping, consultant, festival director... the list goes on! 

Because you mentioned them, and because they're always fun to see, here are some of the Cockrum Creature pitch pages and the cover were talking about. Not my photos, but you can imagine how much I wish I owned them! If anyone has a photo of the third story page, I would LOVE to see it! The cover was published as a pin up in a Marvel Monster mag, Monster Madness #2, perhaps?

These are lovely Shannon, and they "fit" the classic flicks. Love it!

[Mike Scott]

Thanks for the Cockrum art!    Think I'll make a print of the cover.

[darkmonkeygod]

These are lovely Shannon, and they "fit" the classic flicks. Love it!

Dave was a true Monster Kid!

[Mike Scott]

Action Hobbies did a garage kit based on that cover art.