The Boys #1

A writer who found superheroes meaningless

Garth Ennis was born on January 16, 1970, in Holywood, County Down, Northern Ireland. He made his name in American comics writing Hellblazer from 1991 to 1994 and then Preacher, a 66-issue series with the artist Steve Dillon for DC's Vertigo imprint, from 1995 to 2000. He also wrote Hitman, a 60-issue series about a superpowered contract killer, and a long run on the Punisher.

Ennis made no secret of his view of the genre that dominates the industry: "I find most superhero stories completely meaningless." His objection, as he put it, was less to the genre itself than to the constraints the industry put on it. He preferred grounded characters such as the Punisher and Nick Fury.

Darick Robertson had co-created Transmetropolitan with Warren Ellis for DC's Helix imprint, which ran from 1997 to 2002, and had already worked with Ennis on Fury, the Punisher and Punisher: Born for Marvel. When his exclusive contract with Marvel ended, he reunited with Ennis on The Boys, designing its characters and drawing its covers.

This Is Going to Hurt

The Boys #1 went on sale on August 16, 2006, with an October cover date, under DC's WildStorm imprint. It cost $2.99 and ran 36 pages. Robertson's cover, titled "This Is Going to Hurt" and colored by Tony Aviña, lines up the five members of the team: Butcher, the Frenchman, the Female, Mother's Milk and Wee Hughie.

The 22-page story, "The Name of the Game, Part One," sets up the premise in a single stroke. Hugh Campbell's girlfriend, Robin, is killed by accident by the superhero A-Train during a fight. Meanwhile Billy Butcher begins putting his old team back together, the group whose opponents across the series are The Seven, the superhero team owned by the Vought-American corporation.

The grading company's notes for the issue credit it with the first appearances of Butcher, Hughie, Terror, Butcher's bulldog, and A-Train. Homelander, leader of The Seven, is the series' central antagonist.

Canceled after six issues

The issue sold modestly for a launch. Comic shops in North America ordered an estimated 31,576 copies in August 2006, ranking it 75th for the month. The best-selling comic that month, Justice League of America #1, sold an estimated 212,178. The Boys #2 was ordered at about 26,115 the same month.

DC was uncomfortable with the series' anti-superhero tone, and WildStorm canceled it after issue #6, cover-dated January 2007. Ennis later said that at DC, "the book would have been chipped and chipped away at until writing it was pure frustration."

Dynamite Entertainment picked up the series in February 2007 and resumed it that May. It ran 72 issues in all, ending in November 2012, with three spinoff miniseries along the way, Herogasm, Highland Laddie and Butcher, Baker, Candlestickmaker, and a 2020 epilogue, Dear Becky. Robertson left the monthly art after issue #43 and returned to draw the final issue.

A modern key, graded by the thousand

No print run for the issue appears in the sources consulted. The grading census, checked in October 2026, had recorded 2,912 copies. Of the 2,455 with Universal labels, 1,032 were graded CGC 9.8 and 645 graded 9.6; none had reached 9.9 or 10. Another 428 carried Signature Series labels, 165 of them at 9.8, and across every label 1,205 copies were at 9.8.

The supply of 9.8 copies keeps prices in a narrow band. Between May and September 2026 CGC 9.8 copies sold for between $300 and $450, with typical results around $350 to $400.

A first printing has the WildStorm "WS" brand, an October 2006 cover date, a $2.99 U.S. and $4.00 Canadian price, and Robertson's group cover titled "This Is Going to Hurt."

From canceled comic to television hit

The live-action streaming adaptation premiered on July 26, 2019, and concluded with its fifth season on April 8, 2026. Ennis said he was relieved when WildStorm itself was dissolved not long after it dropped the book.

For collectors the first issue is the entry point to the whole franchise: the comic that introduced Butcher and Hughie, published by the company that walked away from it.

The numbers

Cover price

$2.99 U.S. / $4.00 Canada

Pages

36; one 22-page story

Estimated orders

31,576 (North American comic shops, August 2006, rank 75)

Print run

Not documented in the sources consulted

Census, October 2026

2,912 total: 2,455 Universal, 428 Signature Series, 19 CGC x JSA, 6 qualified, 4 restored

CGC 9.8

1,032 Universal; 1,205 across all labels; none graded 9.9 or 10 (October 2026)

Series length

72 issues, 2006 to 2012; #1 to #6 at WildStorm, the rest at Dynamite

Timeline

1. 1995

   Garth Ennis and Steve Dillon launch Preacher at Vertigo.

2. 1997

   Darick Robertson and Warren Ellis launch Transmetropolitan.

3. Aug 16, 2006

   The Boys #1 goes on sale from WildStorm for $2.99, cover-dated October 2006.

4. Aug 2006

   Comic shops order an estimated 31,576 copies of issue #1, ranking it 75th for the month.

5. Jan 2007

   WildStorm cancels the series after issue #6.

6. Feb 2007

   Dynamite Entertainment picks up The Boys.

7. May 2007

   The series resumes at Dynamite.

8. Nov 2012

   The Boys ends with issue #72.

9. Jul 26, 2019

   The Boys premieres as a streaming television series.

10. 2020

    The epilogue miniseries Dear Becky is published.

11. Apr 8, 2026

    The television series concludes with its fifth season.

12. Aug 7, 2026

    A CGC 9.8 copy sells for $450.

13. Oct 2026

    The grading census counts 2,912 copies of issue #1, 1,205 of them at CGC 9.8.

The world in 2006

• Jul 7, 2006

  Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man's Chest opens in theaters.

• Aug 10, 2006

  A transatlantic airliner bomb plot is foiled in London, bringing limits on liquids in carry-on bags.

• Aug 27, 2006

  Comair Flight 5191 crashes in Lexington, Kentucky, killing 49 of the 50 people aboard.

• Sep 4, 2006

  Steve Irwin dies after being struck by a stingray barb while filming.

• Sep 18, 2006

  The CW network launches.

• Oct 10, 2006

  Google acquires YouTube for $1.65 billion.

• Oct 27, 2006

  The St. Louis Cardinals win the World Series over the Detroit Tigers.

• Nov 7, 2006

  Democrats win control of Congress in the midterm elections.

Price record

A realized auction price is what a buyer actually paid on the date shown, including the buyer's premium where the sale reported it. It is the strongest kind of reference price, and it is a record of one sale of one object on one day, not a promise of what the next example will bring.

By reference price, The Boys #1 is number 83 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 (89 here) is editorial: how much an object defines its field, not price alone.

Did you know

• DC canceled The Boys after six issues because it was uncomfortable with the book's anti-superhero tone.
• Garth Ennis has said he finds most superhero stories completely meaningless.
• Issue #1 was outsold in its own month by Justice League of America #1 by roughly seven to one.
• Out of more than 2,900 copies graded, none had reached CGC 9.9 by October 2026.
• Darick Robertson left the monthly art after issue #43 but came back to draw the final issue, #72.
• Hughie's girlfriend is killed in the first issue by a superhero, A-Train, by accident in the middle of a fight.