Friday, August 28, 2020

Mega Man Fully Charged Comic Variant Cover Pays Homage to Astro Boy


Issue #1 of the Mega Man Fully Charged comic book is already on sale but we're not done talking about variant covers. There's one more!



Out of nowhere, a new variant cover by Jordan Gibson has appeared. It's an homage to Osamu Tezuka's Astro Boy manga. This Astro Boy cover art can be found on the Japanese and International release of volume 13 of the manga and the fourth omnibus published by Dark Horse in North America in 2016.

As you might know, Keiji Inafune has declared many times that Astro Boy was one of the influences when designing Mega Man. Here's an old but relevant quote:

Nintendo Power: Where did you get your inspiration when you were originally creating the characters of Mega Man
Keiji Inafune: A lot of it, I think, came from my influences from Japanese anime. Growing up, I drew pictures all my life. I was an artist. For instance, Osamu Tezuka's Astro Boy, or Tetsuwan Atom-that was a big influence. [I was] just picking all the things I liked about Japanese anime and putting that into a single character."
- Nintendo Power , October 2007


While there is not much else known about this variant, it looks like it's called a "Thank You Variant." These are variants shipped to comic book stores as a "one per store" according to the information on top of the comic barcode.

This variant is already a nice collectible, but it could be also very limited. If you want to add it to your collection before prices skyrocket, you might want to check with your local comic book retailer ASAP!

14 comments:

  1. That is without question the best variant cover. Though Mega Man's cheek looks very off in that one pic of him on the right side of the cover.

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  2. That's kinda cute.

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  3. I love this type of megaman design. Fully charged should go with this.

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  4. Suddenly, Mega Man looks like Mega Man!

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  5. If fully charged looked like that, instead of the godawful mess it became, I would have actually cared.

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  6. Wow... finally a cover that looks decent.
    Deceitful... but still a good cover.

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  7. Cool, but holy fuck how many variant covers does one comic need?!

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    1. As many as there are artists that need to advance their career, apparently. :P

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  8. This is one of the only variants (alongside Peach Momoko's cover) I can actually say I like! Bring Jordan Gibson back for more issues!

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  9. Enough is enough! What are they drying to do with all these variants?! Just produce the dang comics and be happy!!
    … … …
    Though I said that… this variant is pretty neat-looking…

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  10. wish the actual tv series looked like this but despite that i love the homage to astro boy.(especially since mega man originally was going to be an astro boy game like the game donkey kong was going to be a popeye one.:3)

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  11. If the whole comic looked like that, I'd actually buy it regardless of it being a Fully Charged spin-off.

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