Comic books can be very hard to get into.  The 75 + years of stories and continuity tends to turn most people away as it seems to be a gigantic feat to learn what has come before, and where to start now. Understanding new terms like ‘Trade Paperback’, ‘first/second printing’ or understanding how printings work are tough endeavours without guidance or prior knowledge. A big issue I had when I started reading comics was how to determine whether an issue was a first, second or third printing, and when I went through my collection a few years later, to find out whether I had a variant cover or the standard one.

There isn’t a whole of a lot of information out there regarding printings and how to quickly and accurately determine what you have – and yet it is really simple once you know! It is something I wish I had known right from the start of collecting so I thought I would put together a simple guide on how to know what you are buying.

Where can you find the information about printings, variants, etc? It is all available  in the product BARCODE! When buying issues and you want to be sure you are buying a first printing or variant go straight to the barcode and you will be able to determine what you are looking at.

Below you will see a picture of a barcode; single issue barcodes tell you the issue, the printing, and the cover in the LAST 5 DIGITS of the code.

In this fist image the circled numbers give you all the information you need. The first 3 numbers 001 indicate the issue number. The fourth number indicates the cover; a 1 is the regular cover. If it was a 2 or 3 it would mean this issue has a variant cover. The fifth and final number tells you the printing, with 1 meaning the issue is a first printing.

The information important to readers, regarding; issue number, printing type (regular or variant) and whether the issue is a first, second, third printing is all contained within the last 5 digits of the issues barcode.

These 3 numbers show the issue number. If it is issue #150 that is exactly what you will see here.  

In this third image the number circle indicates that it is a variant cover. The cover on this issue has been designated variant cover 3. Some issues can have up to 7 variant covers.

In this fourth image we can see that the last number indicates this is a second printing (2). This is one of the most important things to look for when buying comics. Only first printings increase in value. Sometimes all you want is to read an issue and having a second or third printing doesn’t matter as you are buying the book to read the story. However if you collect and read comics and want them to hold their value, this is only possible if you have a first printing.

The fifth and final number of the barcode is one of the most important for collectors and readers alike. Often first and second printing covers will look VERY similar with only a slight colour and/or image variation. 

It is very simple stuff but is great knowledge to have, and now you know it! When going through my collection after learning this, I was lucky to only have 3 issues which were second/third/seventh printings.  I then spent extra time and money on finding the first printings. Hopefully you won’t have to do this. Another way to avoid the risk of buying a later printing is to pre-order and receive you books the week they are released.