On Monday, retailers place their FOC orders for Boom Studios' second "Must-Read" series of the year in Brian Azzarello & Maria Llovet's Faithless II #1. It's the sequel to the hit series that doubled orders at FOC and kickstarted a year for Boom that saw them gain a lot of ground on rival Image Comics.
The most popular cover for each issue of Faithless was the bagged erotic cover – never previewed publicly except for those times I tastefully protected you from the naughty bits – and it's no surprise that Faithless II will feature erotic covers too.
This time it's different, with each erotic cover of the six-issue series illustrated by Tula Lotay AND connecting in a special six-part (or double threesome) erotic image. Expect that full sets of these covers – which Boom has already confirmed will never be reprinted or collected ever – to be rare, as comic orders drop with every issue and that means each erotic variant will get rarer as the series progresses. Any collectors looking for a full set should make sure they pre-order now so they don't end up, ahem, screwed by the time the series concludes and casual fans realize the number of erotic cover full sets are limited by issue #6 orders.
The wild card for all of this is the pandemic which in some stores is reducing foot traffic to "Nearly Non-existent". With some retailers already talking about cutting their orders back , this is exactly the sort of opportunity speculator sites love to take advantage of — the return of a 2019 sure bet and collectors' love of sets — to short stores and flip some cash on eBay.
Boom has continued their 2019 success of hits like Faithless, Once & Future, Something is Killing The Children, Folklords and The Red Mother with 2020 hits like Alienated #1, which needed a third printing to keep up with demand as the book hit stores, and King of Nowhere #1, which needed a 400% overprint to not sell out before on-sale.
And don't forget that Faithless II #1 was set to debut at WonderCon this year, with a special "high end" with a 100 copy print run and a $100 price tag. I wouldn't be surprised to see an enterprising comic shop approach Boom about selling those comics directly to consumers – after all, it's the kind of cash infusion that any retailer would love right now. But which retailer will be first?
Boom will also be supplying retailers with one-per-store Faithless II variant covers by Paul Pope. We don't know what that one looks like yet either…
About Rich Johnston
Head writer and founder of Bleeding Cool. The longest-serving digital news reporter in the world. Living in London, father of two. Political cartoonist.