DC Comics is launching another retailer incentive that will give retailers 15% off of specific titles in addition to "future returnability of some of The New 52 books." The lists for both are below. However, this "incentive" doesn't come without a price.

To qualify for returnability, your total post-FOC orders in dollars for DC periodicals must be 125% or more of your July post-FOC orders for DC periodicals.

This means that in order to qualify for returns you must have had a 25% increase in sales of DC books post "final order cutoff" in July. The publisher asks that retailers strip covers of unsold issues and ship them back to Diamond Distributors in order to obtain credit for the issue (minus 10% of the cover price).

DC also announced that they would once again be providing retailers with variant cover copies of their comics; for many of their issue #4 comics DC will be offering a variant for every 25 copies ordered as well as a black and white variant for every 200 comics ordered. Full details are below. So the next time a retailer charges you extra for a variant comic, keep in mind that it's likely they were unable to sell copies of what they were required to order in order to be eligible to order the variant in the first place. Full details about the retailer promotion below.

Great news, retailers! DC COMICS - THE NEW 52 titles soliciting in the October Previews for December on-sale will feature the same sales incentives offered with the first three months of the new series!

DC continues with variant cover editions on JUSTICE LEAGUE, THE FLASH, ACTION COMICS, BATMAN andGREEN LANTERN this month. Also, qualifying retailers will continue receiving an extra 15% discount on select DC COMICS - THE NEW 52 titles, and future returnability on other titles. See below for full details.

VARIANT COVERS

JUSTICE LEAGUE #4
For every 25 copies of the Standard Edition ordered, retailers may order 1 Variant Edition with a cover by Andy Kubert.
For every 200 copies of the standard edition, retailers may order 1 black and white Variant Edition with a cover by Jim Lee.

THE FLASH #4 The quantity of variant editions you may order will be determined by your lowest orderedDC Universe comic bookon FOC in the same week. This issue's variant edition features a cover by Eric Basaldua.
For every 200 copies of the standard edition, retailers may order 1 black and white Variant Edition with a cover by Francis Manapul.

ACTION COMICS #4 The quantity of variant editions you may order will be determined by your lowest ordered DC Universe comic book on FOC in the same week. This issue's variant edition features a cover by Greg Capullo.
For every 200 copies of the standard edition, retailers may order 1 black and white Variant Edition with a cover by Rags Morales.

BATMAN #4 The quantity of variant editions you may order will be determined by your lowest ordered DC Universe comic book on FOC in the same week. This issue's variant edition features a cover by Mike Choi.
For every 200 copies of the standard edition, retailers may order 1 black and white Variant Edition with a cover by Greg Capullo.

GREEN LANTERN #4 The quantity of variant editions you may order will be determined by your lowest ordered DC Universe comic book on FOC in the same week. This issue's variant edition features a cover by Francis Manapul.
For every 200 copies of the standard edition, retailers may order 1 black and white Variant Edition with a cover by Doug Mahnke.

DISCOUNTS

Retailers will receive an additional 15% discount on copies of these titles ordered by FOC:

• BATWOMAN #4
• SWAMP THING #4
• GREEN LANTERN: NEW GUARDIANS #4
• TEEN TITANS #4
• WONDER WOMAN #4
• STORMWATCH #4
• RETURNABILITY

Qualifying retailers may make returns of up to 100% of the titles listed below ordered by FOC.

To qualify for returnability, your total post-FOC orders in dollars for DC periodicals must be 125% or more of your July post-FOC orders for DC periodicals.

Retailers will be required to return stripped covers from the returnable issues along with an affidavit of destruction to Diamond Comic Distributors at a date to be named later. Retailers will then be issued credit for each copy, minus 10% of the cover price.

• ALL-STAR WESTERN #4
• ANIMAL MAN #4
• AQUAMAN #4
• BATGIRL #4
• BATMAN AND ROBIN #4
• BATMAN: THE DARK KNIGHT #4
• BATWING #4
• BIRDS OF PREY #4
• BLACKHAWKS #4
• BLUE BEETLE #4
• CAPTAIN ATOM #4
• CATWOMAN #4
• DC UNIVERSE PRESENTS #4
• DEATHSTROKE #4
• DEMON KNIGHTS #4
• DETECTIVE COMICS #4
• FRANKENSTEIN, AGENT OF S.H.A.D.E. #4
• THE FURY OF FIRESTORM, THE NUCLEAR MEN #4
• GREEN ARROW #4
• GREEN LANTERN CORPS #4
• GRIFTER #4
• HAWK AND DOVE #4
• I, VAMPIRE #4
• JUSTICE LEAGUE DARK #4
• JUSTICE LEAGUE INTERNATIONAL #4
• LEGION LOST #4
• LEGION OF SUPER HEROES #4
• MEN OF WAR #4
• MISTER TERRIFIC #4
• NIGHTWING #4
• O.M.A.C. #4
• RED HOOD AND THE OUTLAWS #4
• RED LANTERNS #4
• RESURRECTION MAN #4
• THE SAVAGE HAWKMAN #4
• STATIC SHOCK #4
• SUICIDE SQUAD #4
• SUPERBOY #4
• SUPERGIRL #4
• SUPERMAN #4
• VOODOO #4

wow...

Fifteen percent of of SPECIFIC titles. Sounds to me like DC is already starting to call what titles may not be the most popular ones. I do like the idea of the more 1:200 variant like issues though.

I don't know how variants normally work, but that sounds like it will probably gonna jack the price up on variants even more lol

wow, that was A LOT to take in...i believe i understand most of that. i think. maybe.

Qualifying retailers may make returns of up to 100% of the titles listed below ordered by FOC.

...incentive much?

I find that list interesting, because some titles i would consider big news are on it (Batman and Robin,Detective...), but overall the other list seems like the big dogs. Its interesting to me that they are pushing GL and Flash harder than Batman.

Our store might get it. MIGHT get it.

@Grim said:

Qualifying retailers may make returns of up to 100% of the titles listed below ordered by FOC.

...incentive much?

I find that list interesting, because some titles i would consider big news are on it (Batman and Robin,Detective...), but overall the other list seems like the big dogs. Its interesting to me that they are pushing GL and Flash harder than Batman.

Probably because Batman doesn't need pushing.

That is a pretty steep price for returnability and the new way to calculate variants is pretty twisted, I don't know a lot of comic store managers that are smart enough to figure it out. It is smart on DC's part though to force retailers to increase orders on books that don't sell as well in the hopes of getting more variants for a book that sells well and even more hope that they can return said poor selling book.

I would like to return Fear Itself: Hulk vs. Dracula #1.

@RedheadedAtrocitus: Are you serious? They expect Wonder Woman, Batwoman, Swamp Thing to fail?? Really! Even Teen Titans, New Guardians and Stormwatch would be middle of the bunch books.

I'm not sure on the 15% part, but it's good to see that DC are continuing to support retailers like this. Incidentally, I'd love the Andy Kubert JL cover and the Greg Capullo AC cover, but comics are expensive enough for me without pushing the cost up for individual titles.

@Darkmount1: I found out today that they tear the covers off returns (prior to reading this article).... that just flat out angered me! My local CBS is wanting to reorder a ton of these issues simply to supply it's clientele (granted, he severely underestimated how much these would sell, but that's another issue altogether), yet our local Hastings has like 30 issues of Action Comics just sitting there.... how many people out there are actually wanting a copy of Action Comics #1 and aren't able to get it? And to think that all that these major retailers will probably end up just tearing off the front page and destroying these issues just to get a refund rather than return the whole damn issue as they should so that smaller comic book stores are able to re-order specific issues from Diamond.... DC and Diamond are just leaving a sour taste in my mouth, to be honest.

Wait, I don't get it...why are people tearing the covers off of comic books...? What does that solve?

@iLLituracy: Retailers are ripping out covers if they plan on returning the books back to Diamond/DC. I always wonder why some retailers don't refer to other stores when they're sold out on a certain book. The people who want Action #1 wouldn't mind knowing Hastings still has a ton of them. Retailers can always donate to the library but that's money coming out of their pockets. They pay the price of over-ordering or under-ordering.

I would like to return Fear Itself: Hulk vs. Dracula #1.

I don't really understand what's going on here...

Believe it or not I predicted they would do this (and know it explains a certain " something " tsk) before the event even shipped.

I really love that Aquaman cover! I hope that's not the variant, I don't want to pay an arm and a leg for it.

@Trodorne: OMG! I didn't know you worked at a comic book store! That must be so fun!!!

Stop drowning the remaining comic book market with variant covers!!

In the great order of things, it does help anything at the end of the day!