Posted in: Boom, Comics, Comics Publishers, Current News | Tagged: kickstarter, something is killing the children

Rarest Something Is Killing The Children #1 Ever Is On Kickstarter

The Rarest Something Is Killing The Children #1 Ever is being sold on Kickstarter right now... worth an investment?

Celebrating its fifth anniversary in September, James Tynion IV and Werther Dell'Edera's Something Is Killing The Children continues its reign as one of the industry's top-selling, and most collectible, creator-owned series. Even five years in, sales continue to jump up at the start of each new story arc including the most recent "Erica Slaughter: Year One" that kicked off with issue #36 in April. Multiple volumes ended up in the Top 20 graphic novels for all of 2023 based on ComicHub stores. All while collectors continue to chase rare key back issues on the aftermarket.

Which is why we felt it our responsibility to point out that right now, publisher Boom Studios is offering what appears to be the rarest Something Is Killing The Children #1 variant edition… ever.

As part of the James Tynion IV: The First Decade at BOOM! Studios campaign, currently running on Kickstarter until June 13th, Boom is offering Something Is Killing The Children #1 in an Archive Edition. The Archive Editions appear to be Boom's version of a facsimile edition… or some might call it a stealth 10th printing of the landmark issue. The edition offered through the campaign features a cover by Dell'Edera, exclusive to their Boom Direct Reserve program. The same goes for Archive Editions of The Woods #1 and Memetic #1, the series that kicked off Tynion's creator-owned career, with exclusive covers by Michael Dialynas and Eryk Donovan respectively, also available through the campaign. While the regular editions will have print runs based on the pre-orders received through the campaign, the campaign also offers three limited foil-stamped editions in increasingly smaller quantities.

With even the more limited variant covers from Boom carrying an average print run of 500 copies, all three of the limited tiers are some of the smallest print runs ever offered. The silver foil edition carries is the largest with a print run of 300 copies, followed by the gold foil edition with a print run of 150 copies, and finally the Elite edition with red foil will only have 50 copies produced.

Back in 2020, Boom co-founder Ross Richie revealed the top five lowest print run issues of Something Is Killing The Children spurring a frenzy of aftermarket activity. Even four years later, the top two variant covers by Jeff Dekal and Jenny Frison are selling for hundreds and even thousands of dollars graded. And both of those certainly had higher print runs than the foil editions available in the current campaign.

Oh, and did we mention the gold and Elite red foil editions come pre-graded at 9.8 or better through the campaign? All the foil editions are available only as part of a complete set that comes with matching foil stamped slipcased hardcover editions of the complete The Woods and Memetic: The Apocalyptic Trilogy and The Art Of Something Is Killing The Children, which are likely to be quite collectible in their own right. Each slipcase features exclusive art by Absolute Power artist Dan Mora and the hardcovers come signed by Tynion and his respective co-creator and artist. In fact, a savvy collector might be able to pick up a gold or Elite red foil set and sell off the 9.8 graded comics on the aftermarket to cover the cost of the entire set…

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