The Power Fantasy #1 by Kieron Gillen & Caspar Wijngaard Sells Out, Image Comics Rushes Second Printing

The Power Fantasy #1 is blowing up. On Tuesday, Image Comics announced an upcoming second printing of the super-powered comic from writer Kieron Gillen ( The Wicked + The Devine ) and artist Caspar Wijngaard ( Home Sick Pilots ). Out Wednesday, August 7th, the publisher is rushing the sold-out debut issue back to print this week "to keep up with relentless reorder activity."

In a statement provided to ComicBook, Gillen said, "We've been striving to make this as good as we can. To find the market respond to that? It's heartening. We can't wait to get this into as many people's hands as possible."

"It's an explosive book," the Die and Once & Future co-creator added, "so it's great to see it explode like this."

The first printing features a standard cover by Wijngaard and variants from artists Stephanie Hans ( The Walking Dead Deluxe ), Rian Hughes ( Tales From Beyond Science ), and Tula Lotay ( The Cull) . The Power Fantasy #1 second printing -- with all-new covers by Wijngaard, Hughes, and Sweeney Boo ( Dark Ride ) -- will go on sale alongside issue #2 on September 11th.

Image describes The Power Fantasy as "a daringly uncompromising new superhero epic" that offers "an edge-of-your seat read in which every character is a nuclear weapon on the brink of detonation. And the entire planet is on high alert."

Set in an era of nuclear superpowers -- an alternate-reality 1966 -- the new comic is "intense, yet understated, and gripping," Jamie Lovett writes in ComicBook's advance review . "Ripe with the potential for drama, intrigue, nuance, depth, and meaning, The Power Fantasy is primed to explode superhero comics."

The book received the "highest recommendation" from Ultimate Spider-Man and Marvel's G.O.D.S. writer Jonathan Hickman, who wrote: "I can tell a couple pages into a book if it has legs--if the writing's good, if the art is well done, and if it's going to find an audience. However, when I got to the end of the first issue of Power Fantasy I knew that I was looking at the better version of that. A book constructed with artfulness and nuance and a care that borders on being obsessive." James Tynion IV, who penned DC's Batman and Image's The Department of Truth, called Power Fantasy " an absolute must-read comic by two of the absolute best in the business."

"Superpowered." You have certain preconceptions. They're incorrect. Here, that word has a specific technical definition. Namely, "any individual with the destructive capacity of the nuclear arsenal of the USA." There are six such people on Earth. The planet's survival relies on them never coming into conflict. Come dance to the ticking of the doomsday clock...

The Power Fantasy #1 first printing goes on sale August 7th. The second printing arrives with the second issue in comic stores and digital platforms on September 11th.