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

Why Didn't Retailers Order More of Matt Kindt & Matt Smith's Folklords #2?

Published Mon, 16 Dec 2019 15:00:03 -0600

After the biggest creator-owned launch in the history of writer Matt Kindt's career along with artist Matt Smith in Folkords #1 from Boom Studios – that was shortly followed by a quick sellout of the second print that now sells for $30 and a sell-out of the third print, you would think that we wouldn't have to ask if retailers ordered enough of the second issue.

After all, while Boom!'s first issues have been quite the hit with speculators – especially those 1 per store variants fetching prices like $200 from giant retailers like Midtown Comics – we also know that these series have been quite effective with retaining readers at levels equaling or exceeding some of the bigger series from their rival Image Comics (though not the likes of Undiscovered Country or Killadelphia).

In fact, I'm hearing that both Once & Future and Something is Killing The Children – the two biggest creator-owned launches in Boom!'s history – now sell at or close to 20,000 units per issue, ongoing, when reorders and multiple printings are factored in. Given the competition in the creator-owned space these days, those are the kind of numbers that Boom or Image would be happy with for a launch issue – and is probably why Boom has rocketed to the position of #4 publisher in November. Though I still need to perform the per-capita stats on that. Maybe over Christmas…

But it looks as if retailers may have unordered Folklords #2, much like the second issues of Once & Future and Something is Killing The Children, with eBay sales commonly reaching $10 and listings as high as $15 – even before the book goes on-sale tomorrow:

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The most baffling part of this speculation is that Folklords #2, like the second and third issues of every big Boom launch, is part of the Boom Guarantee program for retailers – meaning the issue was fully returnable for retailers, with no minimums and no cover-stripping. So why did retailers under order on a big Boom launch again?

With last week's The Red Mother #1 selling out twice before on-sale – even with a double overprint – and Boom! still managing to fill all the orders, it looks like it's now on retailers to get their orders right because both readers and speculators are now here for more than just issue #1 of new Boom series…

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