Posted in: Comics, Recent Updates | Tagged: boom studios, seven secrets

The Seven Secrets #3 Secret Variant So Secret Almost No One Saw It

Published Mon, 16 Nov 2020 09:00:07 -0600

As we informed you last month, Tom Taylor and Daniele Di Nicoulo's Seven Secrets #3 went to a second printing after selling out immediately as it went on-sale. That second printing released last week, and much like Donny Cates and Geoff Shaw's Crossover, Boom Studios snuck a secret (how clever) variant into the second printing.

The Seven Secrets #3 Secret Variant So Secret Almost No One Saw It

That's right, it seems that every fifth copy or so is missing the sound effect on the cover. It's a relatively subtle, yet less subtle than the previously mentioned Crossover variant, that largely seems to have flown under the radar of most retailers and collectors. In fact, there's currently only a single listing on eBay for it at a bargain price of $9.99. The Crossover #1 secret variant is currently selling for between $23 and $32 while copies of the Seven Secrets #3 second printing are still available through Diamond, but likely not for long now what we've made savvy retailers and collectors aware of it.

Indeed, quick sellouts and multiple printings seems to be a recurring theme for Seven Secrets with issue #1 having gone through four printings (the fourth which is already sold out after releasing last week) and issue #2 having gone to second print already as well.

If that pattern of rapid sellouts and multiple printings sound familiar, it's because we saw this story play out in 2019 with another of Boom's "must read" series – Doctor Kieron Gillen and Not-A-Doctor Dan Mora's Once & Future. Once & Future, alongside the series that followed it – James Tynion IV and Werther Dell'Edara's Something Is Killing The Children, kicked off Boom's rise in prominence as the David to the industry's reigning creator-owned comics Goliath. It's something that hasn't escaped YouTube influencers who recently observed that Seven Secrets kicked off the rising tide of creator-owned books in 2020 after Diamond resumed distributing which recently hit new heights with Crossover. Those same YouTubers are predicting that Keanu Reeves, Matt Kindt, and Ron Garney's BRZRKR could be even bigger still.

And like Seven Secrets, both Once & Future and Something Is Killing The Children launched big, went through multiple printings on early issues, but saw sales numbers follow the normal trend of attrition… until their first collections release. Then after the first volumes released, readers who didn't want to chase down hard-to-find single issues jumped at a rapid clip and single-issue sales jumped up with the second story arcs. And like Once & Future and Something Is Killing The Children, Seven Secrets has also garnered consistently positive reviews with each issue getting more effusive praise than the last. This certainly sets the table for new readers to come on board with the first collection. Will Boom hold back soliciting Seven Secrets #7, the first issue of the second arc, to coincide with the release of Seven Secrets Volume 1 in April? Yes, yes they will.