Titles from Image Comics and BOOM! Studios are continuing a run of big orders from mid-sized comic publishers with new mid-six-figure launches for two October releases, Gunslinger Spawn and House of Slaughter, the companies announced.

Todd McFarlane’s string of big-selling first issues in his retooled Spawn universe continued with a first printing of 393,000 on Gunslinger Spawn #1, due out in October.  This follows orders of 497,000 on King Spawn #1 and orders over 200,000 on Spawn’s Universe #1 (see "’King Spawn’ #1 Preorders Come in at 497K").  There’s one more big launch in this initial group of Spawn titles, The Scorched, due out in December.

BOOM! Studios reported orders of over 460,000 copies on House of Slaughter #1, the spin-off from its hit Something Is Killing the Children (see "BOOM! To Publish Spin-Off").  The comics sold great, and the graphic novels appear regularly on both comic store and book channel bestseller lists (see "Top 20 Graphic Novels – August 2021").  Release was delayed to October 27 to accommodate additional production time.

Heavy doses of variants had something to do with both numbers: Gunslinger Spawn #1 had nine covers, including 1:50 and 1:250 incentives, and House of Slaughter #1 had five (both by our count, not including any retailer variants).