ThunderCats #1 isn’t out until February 7, but it already has racked up pre-orders of more than 100,000, according to sources at Dynamite. It’s getting so that publishers are just announcing their numbers ahead of time! It’s an interesting move to get ahead of the narrative….and spur on retailers who don’t want to be left out of the fun.
Dynamite further upped the ante by announcing a Rob Liefeld variant cover that should should only add to the pre-order total, with FOC this weekend.
In case you don’t know what I meant by all the above, here’s an explainer:
• Comics go out via “solicitations” from all the major distributors (Diamond, Lunar, PRH) a couple of months prior to publication.
• Retailers can adjust their orders until the “Final order cut-off” date, or as its known, FOC.
• ThunderCats is the first issue in a deal that was announced for Dynamite to publish comics based on classic Warners, properties including ThunderCats, The Flintstones, The Powerpuff Girls, Space Ghost, Jonny Quest, The Wizard of Oz, We Bare Bears and more.
• ThunderCats #1 is by writer Declan Shalvey and artist Drew Moss. Dynamite is touting this 100K preorder because it’s pretty impressive in a world without sales charts. The first issue was announced with variant covers by David Nakayama, Lucio Parrillo, Jae Lee, Declan Shalvey, Ivan Tao and a Drew Moss action figure cover.
• Dynamite ALSO just announced a Rob Liefeld FOC Cover to issue #1 which should boost orders even more because Liefeld + ThunderCats = nostalgia overload.
• An “FOC Cover” is a variant announced just at the FOC date to give retailers ONE MORE CHANCE to order copies. For those who are aficionados of late night gismo ads, basically “but WAIT! There’s more! ” In this case there is an open to order variant AND incentive variants.
• Dynamite notes that January and February are typically pretty slow times for comics sales, so having ThunderCats as a “big event” in the time frame is good for retailers….and also justifies their decision to launch in this slow time.
And here’s one note from Ye Olde Editor:
• You’d have to be an old timer to remember this, but back when comics sales were recovering in the early 00s, licensed books like Masters of the Universe and Transformers and yes, THUNDERCATS, helped get sales revved up again. We’re seeing a similar phenomenon now, with Skybound’s Hasbro line, IDW’s Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, and now ThunderCats again creating some sales traction. And there’s nothing wrong with that: licensed properties are a key part of all kinds of publishing, and frankly, if top franchises weren’t selling a lot of comics, it would be more of a concern.
Here’s all the information on ThunderCats #1 for retailers and pre-orders:
February 7, 2024
P 10 COPY INC: DREW MOSS DESIGN – DEC230219
Wonder if Warner regrets shopping this , when DC had no interest at this time. It does help that with Dynamite , it is the biggest fish in a small pond. If at DC , it would at best be a decent-size fish in the ocean