FIRE POWER #1 and #2, the first issues of Robert Kirkman and Chris Samnee’s new collaboration through Skybound/Image, will both ship to retailers on June 3. That’s right, the first two issues of the new series will hit on the same day.
This is the latest in a pattern of non-traditional (and, in my opinion, kind of cool) logistical release choices for the book, which will kick-off with a prelude graphic novel due out in April followed by a Free Comic Book Day edition in May.
For those of you who have not been following all of these new release wrinkles as closely as I have and thus may not remember what this book is actually about, here’s a brief plot synopsis from the press release that went out today:
Owen Johnson’s journey to China to learn about his birth parents eventually leads him to a mysterious Shaolin Temple. The students there study to rediscover the Fire Power, the lost art of throwing fireballs. A power they claim will be needed soon to save the world. Will Owen Johnson be the first person in a thousand years to wield the Fire Power?
As previously noted, this is the first new project for Robert Kirkman since the surprise conclusion of his mega-hit comic The Walking Dead last summer. For Samnee, this marks a departure from the critically-acclaimed superhero comics he has drawn for years with Marvel Comics, the most recent of which include Daredevil, Black Widow, and brief run on Captain America that brought the book up to issue #700.
Tinkering with the standard direct market release mechanisms is nothing new for Kirkman. When he ended The Walking Dead, there were fake solicitations out for future issues so that fans wouldn’t see the conclusion coming. Before that, he launched Die! Die! Die! in 2018 with artist Chris Burnham without soliciting it at all or giving any advanced warning. He simply set boxes of papers with DIE! DIE! DIE! on them to stores across the nation, which is a bit of an unnerving move when taken out of context.
Anyway, check out covers for Fire Power below…
Hope it works for them. Picking up the worst habits of the Big 2 right from the start. Over priced “first issue” then double shipping. What mythical new audience has the money to buy into this kind of sales?
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