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Are You On The Fence? C.S. Pacat Makes The Case For Her First Comic Book

There's buzz online for BOOM! Studios' upcoming comic Fence, the same kind of buzz I heard before Lumberjanes debuted, and shortly after Giant Days released. It doesn't hurt that it's from the same BOOM! Box imprint. What separates it from both Lumberjanes and Giant Days is it's about the competitive world of fencing set at an elite boys' school. But I think retailers may be a little out of the know on it, so here is what I have mustered.

The creator and writer of Fence, C.S. Pacat, is an Australian author whose first novel, Captive Prince, was first self-published online. The book, a fantasy romance about a prince whose half brother seizes power and sends him to an enemy nation to serve as a slave, quickly went viral, and inspired social media posts over multiple platforms. Pacat became an online star, and her subsequent book deal produced two more novels in the series, Prince's Gambit, and Kings Rising. The Captive Prince trilogy is currently a USA Today bestseller. She has over 13,000 followers on Twitter, almost 2,600 followers on Instagram, and quite a few blogs and Tumblrs devoted to her characters.

Fence is Pacat's first foray into comics. And she's an avid fencer. As she told the LA Times, she lived in Japan for six years and became a fan of sports comics. Voila, Fence. It's a trend I see growing what with First Second's acquisition of Ngozi Uzaku's Check, Please! (hockey) and the popularity of the Yuri!!! on Ice anime (figure skating).

As for Pacat's Mexican collaborator, artist Johanna The Mad, she is an online sensation in her own right: over 46,000 followers on Twitter and 194,000 followers on Instagram. In fact, her Instagram post of when Fence was announced has garnered over 10,000 likes.

View this post on Instagram.

I've seen Pacat drumming up her followers on Twitter to pre-order Fence—if you check out the #FenceComic hashtag, you'll find an active discussion:

And it seems to be working:

If history is doomed to repeat itself, retailers will under order Fence #1 like they did Lumberjanes #1 and Giant Days #1, which have shown that big online followings can be activated to buy print comics.

Speaking of online followings, Pacat has been posting Fence art from some very well known online artists. As you can see, it's giving this debuting comic quite a boost:

And one last hot tip: Yesterday, I posted that Boom! unlocked a new cover for Fence #1 by Shanen Pae, the artist who draws for the immensely popular Dream Daddy: A Dad Dating Simulator video game. It's open to order, no restrictions. Dream Daddy moved 62,000 copies within its first week of release on Steam and currently has over 210,000 players.

The final order cutoff date for Fence #1 is this Monday the 23rd. Speculators, start your engines.


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Rich JohnstonAbout Rich Johnston

Founder of Bleeding Cool. The longest-serving digital news reporter in the world, since 1992. Author of The Flying Friar, Holed Up, The Avengefuls, Doctor Who: Room With A Deja Vu, The Many Murders Of Miss Cranbourne, Chase Variant. Lives in South-West London, works from Blacks on Dean Street, shops at Piranha Comics. Father of two. Political cartoonist.
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