Dynamite Entertainment's Nick Barucci has announced a print run of “more than 130,000 copies” for the first issue the 50th Anniversary reboot of the Vampirella comic written by Christopher Priest (Deadpool, Captain America, Black Panther) with art by Ergun Gunduz.  Frank Cho has created a wraparound cover for issue #1, which Dynamite is augmenting with covers by Alex Ross, Joe Jusko, Guillem March, Adam Hughes, and San Julian (plus a cosplay cover by Erica Fett (see “Christopher Priest to Write New Anniversary Year Vampi Series”).

Just three weeks ago Barucci confided in ICv2 that the publisher was projecting sales of 60,000 for Vampirella #1 (see “When Comic Sales Look Better”), but now that orders are in for the July-shipping comic the actual number is more than twice what was projected, which makes Vampirella #1 the bestselling full-price comic in Dynamite history and quite likely the bestselling Vampirella comic book of all time.

In announcing the record sales number, Barucci thanked fans and retailers in the direct market, but also mentioned “support from retailers outside the direct market”, indicating that specialty retailers contributed significantly to what is Dynamite’s largest print run for a full price comic to date.

Note:  Barrucci provided some additional details on the orders late Tuesday.  90,000 were through Diamond, with 20,000 of those exclusives and 70,000 of versions available to all retailers.  The other 40,000 were mostly in 1,000 to 2,000-unit orders, Barrucci said, plus three 5,000-copy orders, two from creators and one from a retailer.  --.ed