Cover story: At Newsarama, retailer Brian Hibbs weighs in on the variant-cover debate:

"Variants harm. They skew retailer’s cycle sheets and increase risk on later issues. They send the wrong messages to readers. Each and every one of them runs the risk of being 'the straw' that causes a collector to quit the hobby, forever. I’ve been selling comic books my entire adult life, and I can assure you that there is lasting and long-term harm in promoting 'collectibility' over content.

"And all of this is in service of what? The number one spot on the sales charts? Why do you care about that? Quick, someone, anyone, tell me without looking it up, what the top selling book of April 2002! No, no one remembers because it’s just not a meaningful fact. The only thing that actually mattered about Transformers: Generation One #1 was, 'was it any good?'"