There is some debate about whether this book is a variant or a reprint. While the retailer calls it a variant, all signs point to it being a reprint. That is because per Diamond, the first print came out on 1/22/2003. Larry's edition was created for a December 2004 convention, almost 2 years after the release of the 1st print. By the basic practices of 1st prints vs later printings, this edition seems to clearly fall into the reprint category, even though it is an example of an early retailer "convention variant" - which commonly constitutes a reprint because they are produced well after the 1st printing in spite of not advertising as a reprint. To corroborate the above, the best we have is a post from the retailer, Larry Doherty, on the CGC forums from 1/14/2011: "OK, Back in 2003, I expanded my retail shop into the local convention business. I wanted to model my shows after Fred Greenburg conventions, where the focus of the show was one guest. ( not an entire artist alley) From my fandom I fondly remembered the Mignolia Greenberg show. The McFarlane Greenberg show. The Brandon Peterson Greenberg show. Ect. I thought that giving away a variant comic FREE with admission would be a great idea and draw. I contacted publishers. The first show I scheduled was Portland, ME, Josh Howard artist of Dead@7. Publisher, Viper printed me 1,000 copies of Dead@17 #1 Variant. 500 of which arrived damaged. The next show I hosted Robert Kirkman. He agreed to print a variant to Invincible #1. The new version had my shop logo , a cardstock cover & back cover by my pals Rich Woodall & Matt Talbot ( Johnny Raygun) Kirkman let me overprint to cover damages. I printed 1,600. All came in pristine condition. ( the cover stock is amazing) The show was a flop. It was the weekend before Christmas. There was a huge snowstorm. The hotel hosted a porn show the same weekend. I gave out maybe 100 comics. I was stuck with a fairly obscure (at the time) 1,500 Invincible #1's The Original printing of Invincible #1 was 9,000 The show variant is 6x scarcer. A few people own alot of copies. The bulk of the print run is owned by people on the CGC forum. It will probably never be worth anything. It is a great affordable way to read one of the greatest modern day superhero saga's. Collectors do not really need a variant "IF" the cover is not different. Respectfully Larry Doherty Larry's Wonderful, Wonderful World of Comics n such."