Mimicking comics in more ways than one, Warner Archive is offering a variant cover to its upcoming release of Shazam!: The Complete Series. The standard cover features a photo collage of the series' main actors (see below), but the variant will have artwork by Jerry Ordway, creator of DC's well-regarded Power of SHAZAM! series from the late '90s.

It's pretty smart marketing, too, because according to Super Hero Hype (who've confirmed with Warner Archive), the Ordway cover is only available to those who pre-order the series before its release date on Oct. 23. A lot of older fans have fond memories of watching the live-action show over a bowl of Fruity Pebbles on Saturday mornings, but haven't seen it since and don't know if it's as good or fun as they remember. Younger fans don't know what it's like at all. Waiting to hear some buzz by others who've seen the new DVDs before spending $34.95 on the set is a reasonable strategy, but the Ordway cover makes it more enticing to go ahead and plunk down that $35 on a blind buy. Fortunately, we have more than a month to make up our minds.

Warner Archive isn't so cruel as to make this the only way to get the art from Ordway's cover, though: The Warner Archive podcast has a promotion going where you can get a poster version for free.