Something is Killing the Children #1

A Batman writer's horror book

James Tynion IV was born in New York on December 14, 1987, grew up in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, and studied creative writing at Sarah Lawrence College. He wrote Detective Comics for DC in 2015 and 2016 and would become the main Batman writer in 2020, co-creating characters such as Punchline and Ghost-Maker.

Something Is Killing the Children was his own creation, drawn by Werther Dell'Edera, colored by Miquel Muerto and lettered by AndWorld Design. Its setting, the fictional town of Archer's Peak, is in Wisconsin, the state where Tynion grew up.

Tynion's former creative writing mentor from Sarah Lawrence called it "horror done inspiringly, terrifyingly right." The writer Tini Howard praised Dell'Edera's "gorgeous & compelling" art.

Erica Slaughter comes to Archer's Peak

The first issue went on sale on September 4, 2019, for $3.99. Children in Archer's Peak are disappearing and being killed, and a stranger named Erica Slaughter arrives claiming she can stop the killings, which are tied to monsters in the woods. Adults cannot see the monsters, and the authorities are not sure whether Erica is a savior or a dangerous vigilante.

Erica belongs to the Order of Saint George, a secret society of monster hunters. The grading company's notes for the issue list it as her first appearance.

BOOM! announced the book as a five-issue limited series, then made it an ongoing series before the first issue shipped.

Sold out before it reached shelves

Comic shops in North America ordered an estimated 33,648 copies of the first printing in September 2019, ranking it 57th for the month; the month's best-seller, Spawn #300, sold an estimated 262,599. Demand outran those orders. BOOM! announced that the issue had sold out at the distributor level before it went on sale, and a second printing with a cover by Dani Strips followed on September 11, one week after the debut.

The third printing also sold out at the distributor level, and a fourth, with a cover by Lee Garbett, was released on October 2, 2019. BOOM! called the series "the top-selling original series launch in our history."

Within two years the first 20 issues had sold more than 2 million copies, and by mid-2024 all of the books carrying the series' branding had sold more than 4.5 million copies worldwide.

Why the first printing commands four figures

The entry tracked here is the first printing of issue #1 with Dell'Edera's Cover A; later printings and variant covers are separate books. The grading census's main listing for the issue, checked in October 2026, counted 4,100 copies. Of the 3,335 with Universal labels, 2,288 were CGC 9.8 and 714 were 9.6; 739 more carried Signature Series labels, 465 of them at 9.8. Across all labels, 2,761 copies were 9.8 and none had reached 9.9 or 10.

In September 2026 alone, a price tracker's page for the 2019 issue, which does not state which cover it tracks, recorded ten CGC 9.8 sales, from $625 to $1,100, most of them between $825 and $1,100. Across its full record of 49 sales at that grade, results ran from $612.27 to $1,200.

Cover art is the simplest guide: the first printing's Cover A is by Werther Dell'Edera, while the second and fourth printings carry different covers, by Dani Strips and Lee Garbett.

The Slaughterverse

Tynion won the Eisner Award for Best Writer in 2021, 2022 and 2023; the 2022 award cited Something Is Killing the Children among his works. The series tied for Best Continuing Series at the 2022 Eisners and won a Dragon Award in 2026.

The book grew into a line known as the Slaughterverse, with spinoffs including House of Slaughter and the Books of Slaughter, art books and a planned novel with the author Kiersten White. Netflix first developed a television adaptation with Mike Flanagan before stepping back, and Blumhouse later acquired the rights for a live-action film and an adult animated series.

The numbers

Cover price

$3.99

Estimated orders

33,648 (North American comic shops, September 2019, rank 57)

Print run

Not documented in the sources consulted; at least four printings by October 2, 2019

Census, October 2026

4,100 total on the main listing: 3,335 Universal, 739 Signature Series, 19 CGC x JSA, 4 qualified, 3 restored

CGC 9.8

2,288 Universal; 2,761 across all labels; none at 9.9 or 10 (October 2026)

Series sales

First 20 issues over 2 million copies within two years; line over 4.5 million by mid-2024

Timeline

1. 2015

   James Tynion IV begins writing Detective Comics for DC.

2. Sep 4, 2019

   Something Is Killing the Children #1 goes on sale for $3.99, already sold out at the distributor level.

3. Sep 2019

   Comic shops order an estimated 33,648 copies, ranking it 57th for the month.

4. Sep 11, 2019

   A second printing with a cover by Dani Strips is released.

5. Oct 2, 2019

   A fourth printing with a cover by Lee Garbett is released after the third sells out.

6. 2021

   Tynion wins his first Eisner for Best Writer; the first 20 issues pass 2 million copies sold within two years.

7. 2022

   The series ties for Best Continuing Series at the Eisner Awards.

8. 2024

   Books in the series' line pass 4.5 million copies sold worldwide.

9. 2026

   The series wins a Dragon Award.

10. Sep 12, 2026

    A CGC 9.8 copy sells for $1,100.

11. Oct 2026

    The grading census's main listing counts 4,100 copies, 2,761 of them at CGC 9.8.

The world in 2019

• Aug 2, 2019

  The United States withdraws from the Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces Treaty.

• Aug 28, 2019

  Greta Thunberg arrives in New York Harbor after sailing across the Atlantic.

• Sep 6, 2019

  Hurricane Dorian makes landfall at Cape Hatteras, North Carolina.

• Sep 24, 2019

  Speaker Nancy Pelosi announces a formal impeachment inquiry against President Trump.

• Oct 4, 2019

  Joker is released in theaters.

• Oct 27, 2019

  President Trump announces the death of ISIL leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi in a U.S. raid.

• Oct 30, 2019

  The Washington Nationals win their first World Series, beating the Houston Astros in seven games.

Price record

A realized private sale is a completed transaction outside an auction room. The amount is what changed hands on the date shown. Private sales are reported less consistently than auction results, so a single comparable carries less weight than a run of them.

By reference price, Something is Killing the Children #1 is number 67 of 100 in the comics entries of the FLOAT 100. 92 of those 100 rest on a realized sale; the rest carry an asking price or a guide value, and each page says which. Rank within the FLOAT 100 itself (91 here) is editorial: how much an object defines its field, not price alone.

Did you know

• The series was announced as a five-issue miniseries and became an ongoing before issue #1 shipped.
• Issue #1 sold out at the distributor level before it went on sale, and a second printing arrived one week later.
• BOOM! called it the top-selling original series launch in the publisher's history.
• The adults of Archer's Peak cannot see the monsters killing their children.
• Tynion's former creative writing teacher praised the book as horror done terrifyingly right.
• Netflix and Mike Flanagan once developed a television version; Blumhouse now holds the screen rights.