Detective Comics, the title DC Comics took its name from, first hit the shelves of newsstands just before March 1937, 26 months before Batman would first appear in the famous Issue #27 in May 1939. This Wednesday the monthly comic book’s landmark Issue #1000 is arriving, and it’s going to be packed with content from several writers and artists. It’s 96 pages in all, including the first appearance outside video games of Arkham Knight. And as you’d expect, DC Comics is releasing the issue with several covers (our count below is a whopping 84 or about a cover for each year Detective Comics has been in print!), including a standard cover, a set of decade-inspired covers, both a blank sketch cover and new black edition, retailer incentives featuring logos or no logos, and several limited, exclusive shop, convention, and creator store variants. More than a few are simply stunning, and this is the rare mass cover event where the final regular cover set (10) includes several works as interesting or better than the exclusives (the Frank Miller with the classic title art really takes us back to the 1980s). Check them all out below–all 100 images including art without logos–All 84 variant Detective Comics #1000 covers.
Writers for stories in Detective Comics Issue #1000 include Brian Michael Bendis, Paul Dini, Warren Ellis, Geoff Johns, Tom King, Christopher Priest, Dennis O’Neil, Kevin Smith, Scott Snyder, Peter J. Tomasi, and James T Tynion IV. Interior artists include Neal Adams, Greg Capullo, Tony S. Daniel, Steve Epting, Joëlle Jones, Kelley Jones, Jim Lee, Doug Mahnke, Alex Maleev, Alvaro Martinez, and Dustin Nguyen.
DC Comics did a nice job of pulling out creators defining each decade, with Steve Rude (1930s), Bruce Timm (1940s Detective Comics #69 homage), Michael Cho (1950s), Jim Steranko (1960s), Bernie Wrightson (1970s), Frank Miller (1980s), Tim Sale (1990s), Jock (2000s), and Greg Capullo (2010s)–all appear to only be available with the trade “Detective Comics” logo (but we’ve included images of the original art below). DC Comics publisher Jim Lee is back again with the standard cover, a wraparound design. The rest reflect a crazy big stack of variants by everyone and anyone, most available with the Detective Comics logo (with “trade” logo) or without logo (“virgin”), some in black and white, some with sketch art, some with foil cardstock. The following are all the non-standard variant artists and where to get them (we heard an Andy Kubert cover may be out there, but could not confirm this): Neal Adams (three designs, NealAdams.com), Jay Anacleto (trade, virgin, and B&W) (Unknown Comic Books), Kaare Andrews (trade only, no virgin-only edition confirmed) (Third Eye), Artgerm (trade, virgin, retro) (Forbidden Planet), Lee Bermejo (virgin, trade) (Midtown), Brian Bolland (trade, virgin, B&W) (Forbidden Planet), Greg Capullo (gold foil version of his 2010s cover) (WonderCon variant), Clayton Crain (virgin, trade) (Scorpion Comics), Tony S. Daniel (trade, no virgin-only) (artist website, Comic Stop), Gabriele Dell’Otto (trade, silver virgin, and gold convention) (Bulletproof), Jason Fabok (trade, virgin, B&W) (Yesteryear Comics), Riccardo Federici (trade, virgin) (ComicXposure), Pat Gleason & Alejandro Sanchez (trade, virgin, B&W) (Newbury Comics), Adam Hughes (trade, virgin) (Frankie’s Comics), Jee-Hyung Lee (trade, virgin, B&W) (Frankie’s Comics), Dan Jurgens & Kevin Nowlan (sketch, line art, and color versions) (Dynamic Forces), Mike Lilly (trade-only, no virgin cover) (Comics Vault), Warren Louw (virgin, trade) (KRS Comics), and Doug Mahnke (trade, virgin) (Planet Comicon).
Plus there’s Francesco Mattina (trade, virgin) (Midtown), Mike Mayhew (trade, virgin) (The Comic Mint), Stewart McKenny (trade, we couldn’t locate anyone selling the virgin cover) (Comics Etc.), Dawn McTeigue (virgin, trade) (Comics Elite), Rodolfo Migliari (trade, retro trade, virgin) (BuyMeToys.com), Lucio Parrillo (trade, virgin) (Scorpion Comics), Alex Ross (two covers) (via his website), Natali Sanders (virgin, trade) (KRS Comics), Nicola Scott costume match design to her Superman image for Action Comics #1000 (trade, virgin) (Kings Comics), Bill Sienkiewicz (two designs, signed or not, one in trade, one virgin, via his website), Mico Suayan (trade, virgin) (Unknown Comic Books), Jim Lee & Scott Williams (midnight release vertical and convention silver foil, B&W, and four villain designs) (Torpedo Comics, Bedrock City Comics, Graham Crackers).
Want to see them all? Here goes:
Jim Lee & Scott Williams standard cover (wraparound and front)
Steve Rude (1930s)
Bruce Timm (1940s)
Michael Cho (1950s)
Jim Steranko (1960s)
The late Bernie Wrightson (1970s)
Frank Miller (1980s)
Tim Sale (1990s)
Jock (2000s) 
(Jock – clean art) 
Greg Capullo (2010s)
Blank sketch
Black sketch
Three Neal Adams:
Three Jay Anacleto:
One Kaare Andrews (second image is full art shown):
Three Artgerm:
Two Lee Bermejo:
Three Brian Bolland:
Greg Capullo gold foil:
Two Clayton Crain:
One Tony Daniel (second image shows full art):
Three Gabriele Dell’Otto:
Three Jason Fabok:
Two Riccardo Federici:
Three Pat Gleason:
Two Adam Hughes:
Three Jee-Hyung Lee:
Three Dan Jurgens & Kevin Nowlan:
One Mike Lilly (second image shows full art):
Two Warren Louw:
Two Doug Mahnke:
Two Francesco Mattina:
Two Mike Mayhew:
One Stewart McKenny (art follows):
Two Dawn McTeigue:
Three Rodolfo Migliari:
Two Lucio Parrillo:
Two Alex Ross (showing full artwork for trade logo version/virgin art available as print):
Two Natali Sanders:
Two Nicola Scott:
Two Bill Sienkiewicz:
Two Mico Suayan:
Seven more Jim Lee & Scott Williams:
The winner? Anyone who can actually land one of the limited covers (most above limited to around 2,500) from their favorite artists. But how about Mike Mayhew’s incredible villain-filled design? And Alex Ross’s two covers for sale on his website–including an homage to issue #27–sold out early, as have many others. Alex Ross, Artgerm, and Bruce Tim’s homage to Jerry Robinson with retro title covers would make a great framed set:
Look for the base cover and decade covers this Wednesday, March 27, 2019, at Elite Comics, or your local comic book store. Your best bet for the rest will be the artists’ websites or eBay.
C.J. Bunce
Editor
borg
So couple edits:
Current count 84, not 86 variants.
No Virgin Variants for Kaare Andrews, Tony Daniels, or Mike Lilly.
A Third Version of Rudolfo Migliari’s exists which is standard trade dress.
The Bolland BW actually looks different than what you posted.
Hope this helps.
Thanks for reading. I added all the trade versions of the “decade” covers that weren’t yet posted yet anywhere, then added links to all the exclusives sites, and posted more virgin art for those I hadn’t yet. I had seen that Bolland B&W piece but couldn’t believe that was what they went with as final logo and bubble, but looks like that’s the one. So I think this is the most complete one-hit version on the Web now.