Posted in: Boom, Comics | Tagged: boom studios, eat the rich

Eat The Rich #1 To Debut In Boom's 50K Club, No Longer Returnable

Published Mon, 19 Jul 2021 12:57:13 -0500

Eat The Rich! Since 2019, publisher Boom Studios has been shattering its own launch sales records over and over with debut like Once & Future, Something Is Killing The Children, Wynd, Seven Secrets, and We Only Find Them When They're Dead, before finally shattering industry records thanks to Keanu Reeves and BRZRKR earlier this year. And while it's unlikely that Boom (or any other publisher) will break the record set by BRZRKR any time soon, we've also covered how Boom continues to deliver career-best sales to established, prolific creators like Grant Morrison, Cullen Bunn, and Ram V. At the same time, Boom has a track record of publishing the first creator-owned comics for creators like James Tynion IV and Phillip Kennedy Johnson and introducing newcomers to the industry like Victor La Valle and LaToya Morgan.

Boom's next creator-owned series, Eat The Rich, is a case of the latter with Hugo Award-winning author Sarah Gailey making their comic book debut alongside Firefly and The Magicians artist Pius Bak. Gailey's debut novella, River of Teeth, was a 2018 Hugo and Nebula award finalist and their second novel, Magic for Liars, was an LA Times bestseller, so they certainly come to the comics with a built-in audience. And whether it's that audience, Boom's heat in the marketplace, the stunning covers (including one from Jenny Frison that is sure to be chased by collectors), or the series tapping into the frustration felt by many about wealth inequality in the States and around the world, I'm hearing that Eat The Rich is on track to debut in Boom Studios's 50K Club when it FOCs this coming Monday. Initial orders have come in on par with Cullen Bunn and Jonas Scharf's Basilisk which has been selling briskly and burning up the aftermarket as of late and easily made it into Boom's 50K Club at FOC. That's also ahead of Boom's most recent creator-owned launch, Dark Blood by LaToya Morgan and Walt Barna, which just sold out a week ahead of release indicating retailers may have underestimated the demand for that title.

What's even more impressive about the numbers on Eat The Rich #1 is that it's the first launch issue from Boom that is not returnable to retailers. Boom led publishers in establishing and normalising the practice of affidavit returns with their Guarantee program and then expanded their returnability to linewide when the pandemic hit the industry last year. Almost every major publisher followed suit and for most of 2020 and the first half of 2021 widespread returnability provided a safety net for stores to find the upper end of their sales for new titles. As I understand it, as returnability increased in the industry, so did returns industrywide. As a result, Diamond informed publishers they were implementing new returnability rules, giving them the choice between offering more than two covers on a product or making the product returnable, but not both. And Boom Studios does love its multiple covers. Titles shipping in August are the first ones required to operate under these rules and with six covers on issue #1, Eat The Rich is not returnable. Prevailing wisdom would be that this would cause retailers to order more conservatively and bet on a subsequent printing to cover their needs. That does not appear to be the case with Eat The Rich as it is poised to be one of Boom's top-ordered first issues from a debut author and join their 50K Club when it FOCs today, Monday, July 19th.

EAT THE RICH #1 (OF 5) CVR A TONG (MR)
BOOM! STUDIOS
JUN211012
(W) Sarah Gailey (A) Pius Bak (CA) Kevin Tong
What unspeakable horror eats away at the heart of Crestfall Bluffs?
With law school and her whole life ahead of her, Joey plans to summer with her boyfriend Astor in his seemingly perfect hometown of Crestfall Bluffs.
It's a chance to finally meet Astor's family and childhood friends, all while enjoying a vacation with every need attended to by servants.
But beneath the affluent perfection lies a dark, deadly rot… will Joey discover the truth before it's too late, and if she does, can she survive to tell the tale?
The bold, horrifying psychological thriller from Hugo Award-winning author Sarah Gailey (The Echo Wife, Magic For Liars) with artist Pius Bak (Firefly, The Magicians), perfect for fans of Stillwater and Nailbiter!In Shops: Aug 18, 2021 SRP: $3.99