Star Wars: Vader Down #1 Books-a-Million Mike McKone Exclusive

Like many of the modern Marvel Star Wars titles, when Vader Down #1 was released, it was accompanied by a large number of variant covers.  So many in fact, that apparently, one cover was released exclusively and went unnoticed by many Star Wars comic fans for nearly 8 months, myself included!  With little fanfare, Books-a-Million, a bookstore chain located in the Southeastern United States, released a variant cover by artist Mike McKone for Vader Down #1.  One Facebook site, Star Wars Comic Books, reported this exclusive was available on the bookstore's website in September 2016 and other Star Wars news sites propagated the information which is where I learned about this comic.  (For interested fans, the comic is still listed on their website for the $4.99 retail price.)

Star Wars: Vader Down #1ac - Marvel Comics, U.S. (December 2015)
Books-a-Million exclusive

The cover is not Mike McKone's first contribution to Star Wars comics.  He also provided the Bampf store exclusive cover for Star Wars #1 as well as a series of six Mile High Comics store exclusive covers for Star Wars #7 - 12.  His artwork is nice and has a very traditional U.S. comic look but if it was not for the notoriety surrounding this "lost" issue, this comic would be just one variant in a sea of variants that would go unnoticed.

While researching this circumstances surrounding this comic, I visited several sites in addition to Star Wars Comic Books.  The other two sites are Jedi News and Jedi-Bibliothek.  All three sites are full of information concerning Star Wars comics and I feel they are worthy additions to my favorites section.  Please check them out!