Larry's Phantom Variant Debuts With Nick Spencer's Bedlam #1

Recently, I referred to something I called Larry Doherty of Larry's Comics' "Revenge variant" cover. Well apparently it's actually called a "Phantom" variant, and it's debuting with the release of Nick Spencer and Riley Rossmo's Bedlam #1 from Image.

Earlier this year, Larry was extremely annoyed, upset even, over the Ghost Variant cover of Walking Dead #101, a variant cover available from certain retailers. There was the allegation that it was a ComicsPRO deal amongst board members, excluding other stores, members or not, but it seemed rather personal, even for Larry. Today, in a letter written to other retailers, Larry reveals why he was so annoyed. It was his idea. He writes;

Last year  Ralph DiBernardo ( Jetpack Comics ) and myself approached Comics Pro and offered to revamp their exclusive program (actually proposed to them twice in two different formats). The idea(s) was rejected by the board based on a fear that it could open the org to anti-trust suits, so we moved on, producing exclusives on our own and our New England comic retailer micro distribution network.

Several months ago a group of retailers got together and formed The Ghost Variant. A secretive organization, privately inviting hand picked retailers to be members of The Ghost.

Suspiciously, every Comics Pro Board member was a part of the group. In fact, only one Ghost member was not a Comic Pro member, and he happened to have been a board member that stepped down.

As a Comic Pro member I was offended by what I viewed as an impropriety by their Board of Directors. Using their position of power they either launched or were knowing participants in a program that left out over 90% of their members, but included every board member. I absolutely feel as if they took our idea, modified it & excluded us from it. I quit the ComicsPro as did many others. I had been a member for 4 years.

Many might be an exaggeration. But it does give the whole fuss a slightly different ton, a kind of "how dare you do this! It's disgusting! I wanted to do it!" feel. And now he is. Larry writes;

I am starting a micro distribution network of shops carrying original art directed , limited versions of comic books. Original Images. The program is called The Phantom Variant.

Our first book will be a spectacular edition of Nick Spencer's Bedlam #1 with an original cover from Riley Rossmo  ( there will be #2-6 as well ) The back cover is blank to recieve autographs or sketches. Most releases will feature Blank backs.

I have a couple dozen other projects  in the pipeline. We are going to announce them the week of their release.

It has a benefit to you the fan* These editions are availabe at a bunch of shops & online. You can shop around to get the best deal. Maybe there is a local venue. You do NOT have to deal with the infamous "Larry"

Couple of things to point out – Larry denies that there will be a My Little Pony Phantom variant, despite one retailer on his network believing there will be one. The other is that Larry is actually creating a distributor here, picking certain retailers who would support specific books. Look past the variant cover and the speculator deal, and this is the kind of infrastructure that a future Our Love Is Real or Scam could take advantage of. For a while now, there has been the idea that a micro-distributor could bypass Diamond and focus on high volume, highly committed stores with maximum return for the publisher and creators. Could the Phantom variant be a step in the direction of a new indie comics distributor?

Here are the first twenty stores on the Phantom list: