Posted in: Boom, Comics | Tagged: boom studios, Comics, folklords

Folklords #1 Second Printing Is $30 – Did Boom Studios Screw Up Again?

It wasn't so long ago that Boom Studios' President Filip Sablik was apologizing to retailers for the allocations on printings of their series Once & Future #1 and Something is Killing The Children #1. While both these series have gone on to join the exclusive 50K Club, Boom had seemingly corrected their print runs – many of which included fast-tracking new printings that required the publisher to lock in a print run before FOC (AKA a lot of guess work).

Then, Folklords #1 happened – selling out weeks before on-sale and prompting us to ask "What's wrong with Boom?" as the company continued its Marvel vs DC battle with rival Image Comics (at least in its own mind) in the world of creator-owned series while facing some renewed scrutiny.

Since we all knew this was the biggest launch of writer Matt Kindt's career, one would've expected Boom to have set their print run a bit more generously on the second printing of Folklords #1.

So…did Boom lie about fixing their challenges with allocations on their hot creator-owned series?

Well, I'm hearing that this printing has been allocated to retailers, prompting some speculators to already sell it for nearly $30. No doubt this will cause some frustration for customers who put their orders in by FOC and expected to get a copy, even if BOOM! was explicit about the possibility of allocations occurring in their messaging to retailers.

However, in fairness to Sablik – who'll no doubt be hearing from even more retailers now – reportedly a higher percentage of the orders have been filled than the aforementioned Once & Future and Something is Killing The Children. The best news for fans and retailers is that all orders placed for the third printing by FOC were filled entirely. So there has been some improvement on the company's end this year as they've launched their best-selling creator-owned series in history with Faithless, only to be trumped by Once & Future and then overtaken by Something is Killing The Children.

While Folklords #1 is on its way to possibly joining the 50K club with combined sales nearing 30,000 units – and a cover already selling for $200 – the end result of this allocation is that the second printing is now the, well, the second most rare Folklords cover. This fact that should help propel activity with speculators and collectors, much like our story on the company's Heartbeat #1 1-per-store cover attracted the attention of the influential Key Collectors app:

Though rival Image is rightfully claiming a huge victory with over 85,000 units sold of Undiscovered Country – more than doubling the orders that BOOM! got for Folklords – the debut issue didn't actually sell out despite a second printing being announced quite quickly. And if you read the fine print, they're also allocating this new printing to retailers – so perhaps the better question is "What's wrong with Boom AND Image?" given that both of the top creator owned comic publishers can't better gauge demand on their big launches.

No matter who's at fault, Boom is on quite the roll this year and I'd expect December's The Red Mother #1, to be the next big sell out and source of controversy, especially if it is optioned as soon as we predicted.

Maybe this is the kind of thing that might help Boom Studios become the fifth-biggest publisher as Ross Richie announced he was aiming for ten years ago…

I'd also recommend asking your store about being first on the list for The Red Mother #1 one-per-store variant, because it seems like that's guaranteed to occur on any big Boom Studios launch – and then become one of the hottest comics with collectors.

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