2020 Second and Later Printings

Reprint Editions of Comic Books Released to North American Comics Shops
by Diamond Comic Distributors and UCS Comic Distributors

With some notable exceptions, reprinted editions of comic books were long considered less desirable by collectors when compared to first printings. Many reprints had basically the same cover as the original, so there was no particular appeal to them. In the 2010s, however, with the number of variant-cover editions outnumbering the regular editions of comics, reprints became another kind of limited-edition variant. By 2020, many were in high demand.

During 2020, 357 different reprint editions were released through Diamond Comic Distributors and DC's distributors, UCS Comic Distributors and Lunar Distribution. That's down from 572 in 2019, with a large portion of the difference caused by the Coronavirus pandemic and its attendant shutdown of the industry in late March. But reprints were popular: 2020 saw four rounds of reprints for Venom #25, the top-selling comic book for May 2020. They're among the five covers seen on this page.

Marvel was responsible for the largest number of reprint editions: 169, more than 47%. That's down from 354 in 2019, when it accounted for 62%. That dropoff is in part because Marvel was slower than other publishers to restart fully following the shutdowns.

Boom was the second most prolific reprinter with 58 second editions; that's up from 41 in 2019. Its Once and Future #1 hit its eighth printing on Feb. 26, making it the highest-numbered printing in 2020.

DC and Image had 41 second- or later-printings each. For DC, that's up from 24 in 2019; for Image, it's down from 71. IDW rounds out the five most prolific reprinters with 17 reprintings in 2020, down from 22 the previous year

Such reprints were always mixed in with other variants in distributor shipping lists; there was never a list devoted to second- and later printings. We've collated below all confirmed shipments of such comics below, along with links to Diamond and UCS, where an identifying image of the cover can be found. "Auctions" leads to listings on eBay.

Sometimes, there's more than one version of a printing, so cover artist names, when known, appear in the "detail" category, as well as further identifying information such as "sketch" and "recolored" covers. We also include, where known, any platform variant information. The orders of the Ryan Stegman Wraparound Sketch cover of the Venom #25 third printing, seen below, were limited to one copy for every 25 copies a retailer ordered of the Mark Bagley third printing, seen at right.

A word of caution: That 25:1 ratio does not mean that there's one copy of the Stegman Sketch variant for every 25 copies in existence, because only some retailers would have ordered 25 copies of the Bagley edition. The true ratio is going to be different; odds are there are well over 25 Bagley copies for every Stegman one.

Since Diamond combines all variants for a comic book — including reprints — in its monthly sales charts, the below list can also be helpful when trying to figure whether sales reported in a particular month refer to the first printing or a later one.

Diamond's reports include reordered copies, so if an issue is released in the last week of a month, there's a good chance any entry appearing in the following month includes at least some reorders. If there's several weeks between the printings, it's more likely that the later printing accounts for most of the sales.

This list includes all second- and later printings of comics shipped by Diamond and Lunar in 2020.
Catalog links lead to Diamond, for its products, and Lunar, for DC's products.
The "Detail" category assists identification when more than one variant of a printing appeared.
Auction links lead to current listings for each item on eBay. You can also find the books at your comics shop.

Click to see the year's Advance Reorders, which include many reprint editions.