Set Description
Back in December of '15 DC celebrated the first bi-monthly release of Harley's Little Black Book by having several notable artists create their own version of a Harley 'Invasion' into the DC titles. On each cover, Harley would be doing her utmost to best the titled character. For example, on Superman, you see a giant Harley fighting against the Man of Steel, or Harley trying to outrun The Flash by using a rocket pack. To up the ante on the variant release, DC had three of each cover come out simultaneously as a full color, sketch, and a black/white cover. In addition they were all bagged in an opaque black bag. To go even further, there would be a single sketch copy to be had for each title! A true 'Golden Ticket' available for anybody to find!
For me the collector, I felt like I was opening a set of baseball cards, not knowing which one would be inside. It was a coup for DC as collectors went out of their way to grab at least three of each release to increase the odds of getting one of each cover. To help the sales along, each cover was wonderfully done by the assigned artists, making for some beautiful covers by some of the bigger named contemporary artists.
DC wasn't all winner with this release. During the process, many of the comics suffered physical damage from the bagging. A majority of all the prints got a bend and/or crease just above the top staple or mid spine. Close to 90%, across the board, arrived damaged. This made for a clean copy to be rare and special in its own right. The covers are of a thick paper meaning that any after-work pressing are difficult to perform as the damage has already been done. You pretty much have to find a prefect copy to have any chance to get a high grade. Many of the Batman #47s suffered the worst of it. On the opposite end, I have seen many Superman #47s and Justice League #47s come out quite good.
As for the artists and the covers:
-J Scott Campbell led the way with three variant of the first issue, Harley's Little Black Book. This is the first time Mr Campbell 'featured' Harley on cover. This is quite possibly the most popular cover.
-Jim Lee himself produced the covers for the Justice League #47 title, another fan favorite.
-Alex Ross did an homage to the original Harley Quinn special released back in '99. This time on the Batman #47 cover. The Dark Knight seems to have busted up the action and captured the two.
-Bruce Timm, himself one of the creators, did the variants for the #23 Harley Quinn release with the original style Harley versus the current Harley.
-Even the current Harley creator, Amanda Conner, put her foot in the water with the #47 Wonder Woman covers, reminiscent of the Harley Valentine's Special from 2015.
-The late Darwyn Cooke put his stamp on his version of Harley for the Green Lantern #47 issue. One of my personal favorites.
-The longtime Marvel veteran, Joe Madureira put Harley at the lead of the JLA on issue #6.
-Tim Sale added his twist on the Green Arrow 47 cover with Harley as Cupid.
-Finally, Superman #47 is up against a gargantuan sized Harley intent on making her own mark on the city!
To continue the theme for the year, every other month, a new Little Black Book will be come out with Harley competing against another Superhero. The first one had her against WonderWoman that had J Scott Campbell doing those initial variant covers. The next one featured Green Lantern and Alain Mauricet handling the 1:25 cover. Issue three had Joseph Michael Linsner, of Dawn fame, handling the very popular Zatanna variant. The upcoming 4th cover has Harley against Superman featuring Josh Middlleton on variant duty, and Neal Adams taking care of the regular cover.
Set Goals
I ultimately want to attain one of each cover in a 9.8 or better. Me, I am a sucker for practically anything Harley. The covers that artists came out with were all done with so much tongue-in-cheek humor, I really just love them all.