Posted in: Boom, Comics, Recent Updates | Tagged: alienated, boom, image, si spurrier

Will Spurrier & Wildgoose's Alienated Fill The Paper Girls-Shaped Hole In Readers (and Retailers) Hearts?

Published Fri, 17 Jan 2020 10:00:15 -0600

Boom Studios had a very good 2019, with record sales from all-star creators defecting to them in Azzarello and Llovet's Faithless, Gillen and Mora's Once & Future and Haun & Luckert's The Red Mother, along with the biggest creator-owned releases ever from their already deep bench including Kindt & Smith's Folklords and JT4 & Dell'Edera's Something is Killing The Children (which has gone on to be the biggest creator-owned launch in the company's history).

Why Boom over Image Comics? The big difference seems to be that while Image Comics titles are likely to sell more than those from Boom – and thus pay more – Boom are more likely to pay advance payments for creators to work on the projects rather than just wait for the backend payments. So for many artists, especially, this can be an added draw.

And now Boom is kicking off 2020 with Alienated by Si Spurrier and Chris Wildgoose, two creators you know from their success at DC in the Neil Gaiman-backed Sandman Universe and the book market hit graphic novel Batman: Nightwalker, respectively. The series was announced at NYCC to much fanfare, with Spurrier's stock rising due to his critically-acclaimed Coda at Boom Studios and relaunch of Hellblazer at DC.

The book has only gained more buzz since, appearing on the cover of Diamond Previews Catalogue with not only a quote from Doctor Kieron Gillen (one of the biggest hitmakers in comics with Die and the aforementioned Once & Future) and Brian K Vaughan (THE hit maker in comics, though we don't want to anger the Catesbronies who'll say it's their trading card dark lord).

In a world without new issues of Paper Girls, could this be BKV blessing a spiritual successor to his hit series, which also focused on extraterrestrial beings and a diverse cast of relatable teens caught up in the surprising chaos?

Given the last issue of Paper Girls sold around 25k in July 2019 and Boom has been launching new series at or north of 25k – if not launching debut issues in its exclusive 50K Club – and remarkably still holding over 20k sales on subsequent issues with readers flocking to books like Something is Killing The Children and Once & Future, then Alienated seems primed to fill that spot.

So could this be the silver bullet that retailers, like Challengers Comics in Chicago, have been searching for to fill the BKV hole in their pocketbooks and on the their top customer pull lists?

Just remember, we warned you about The Red Mother #1 in December and that book currently rocketing towards a fourth printing as new readership continues to…boom for Boom's creator-owned launches.

Alienated #1 is on-sale in comics shops on February 12th and FOCs this weekend.