ThunderCats #1

History

The series was announced at New York Comic Con 2023 as the lead title of a broad licensing deal between Dynamite Entertainment and Warner Bros. Discovery Global Consumer Products, which also covered The Flintstones, The Powerpuff Girls, Space Ghost, Jonny Quest, We Bare Bears, and The Wizard of Oz. Editor Nate Cosby assembled the creative team of Shalvey (writer/cover artist, known for Marvel's Moon Knight and Deadpool vs. Old Man Logan) and Drew Moss (artist, known for Dynamite's Gargoyles: Dark Ages and Vampirella/Red Sonja), both self-described superfans of the original cartoon. The issue was solicited in Diamond's December 2023 Previews catalog and shipped on February 7, 2024; extraordinary pre-order demand prompted Dynamite to go back to press multiple times — a second printing featured a Rob Liefeld cover, and a third printing (described as rare for the publisher) carried a new David Nakayama cover.

Trivia · 8 facts

• Published February 7, 2024 by Dynamite Entertainment; written by Declan Shalvey, art by Drew Moss, lettering by Jeff Eckleberry.
• Launched under a new Dynamite/Warner Bros. Discovery licensing deal announced at NYCC 2023, making it the first ThunderCats comic published by Dynamite and the first major new ThunderCats comic series since DC's Wildstorm era in the early 2000s.
• The issue retells the franchise origin — the flight from Thundera, attack by the Mutants of Plun-Darr, and crash-landing on Third Earth — drawing from the animated series' premiere episodes 'Exodus' and 'The Unholy Alliance', but in remixed and condensed form.
• Key story addition: the comic explicitly explains Lion-O's adult body/child mind condition as the result of a malfunctioning 'Stasis Pod,' a detail the original animated series left vague.
• The issue received at least three printings; total advance and subsequent orders surpassed 180,000 copies, making it one of Dynamite's best-performing first issues.
• Cover gallery for issue #1 includes art by David Nakayama (Cover A, also used on Diamond's November Previews catalog), Lucio Parrillo, Declan Shalvey, Jae Lee & June Chung, Ivan Tao, Drew Moss, Rob Liefeld (FOC variant), and numerous exclusive convention and retailer-incentive editions.
• The issue's success directly led to spin-off series: ThunderCats: Cheetara (announced April 2024, creative team Soo Lee and Domenico Carbone), ThunderCats: Apex, and an eventual ThunderCats × SilverHawks crossover event forming a shared 'ThunderVerse' at Dynamite.
• Key Collector Comics designates #1 as the issue that begins Dynamite's ThunderCats publishing run; the first new named character introduced in the series — Calica, a ThunderCat — debuts in issue #2 (March 2024), not in #1.

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