We’ve avoided glow-in-the-dark covers for more than a decade.
Back in 2015, in Valiant’s Elysian days, Jeff Lemire was launching his run on Bloodshot, and we were pulling out all the stops to promote it. The wonderful folks at Borderlands Comics & Games commissioned a glow-in-the-dark retailer exclusive, and I was thrilled. Glow-in-the-dark ink is expensive, difficult to use well, and opportunities to justify it don’t come around very often. It was my first glow-in-the-dark cover and, like anyone who grew up idolizing Ghost Rider #15, I was absolutely giddy at the prospect.
The reality, however, was… painful.
It barely glowed.
The result was so disappointing that we actually reprinted the book, doubling the glow-in-the-dark ink hit in the hope of salvaging it. Even then, it still looked underwhelming. That Bloodshot Reborn glow-in-the-dark cover has haunted me ever since.
Until now.
Next week, DINGOLIATH #1 arrives with a glow-in-the-dark cover. It’s the first in a line of glow-in-the-dark covers we’re releasing. WARBIRD #1, BANANA NUMBER ONE #1, and MEGALITH #0 follow close behind.
For me, this is very much righting a wrong.
Our amazing printer is using an entirely new production process, cutting-edge glow-in-the-dark inks, and a painstaking manufacturing technique. Not only does it avoid a repeat of the Bloodshot glow-in-the-dark fiasco, but it erases it from memory entirely. I dare say this is the best-looking, brightest, most smile-inducing glow-in-the-dark cover I’ve ever seen.
