‘ROCKET RACCOON #1’ poised to sell 300,000 copies. Furry Space Boner.

Skottie Young’s Rocket Raccoon #1 is poised to hit the shelves with the subtlety of a bazooka-toting raccoon! Get it? Rocket Raccoon loves his weapons, and he doesn’t seem very subtle? Eh whatever. The Young-powered title is looking like it’s going to drop on the market to the tune of 300,000 copies. I think it’s safe to say that the “risky” Guardians of the Galaxy movie is going to have a built-in star when it arrives.

Bleeding Cool is reporting that sales of the first issue of Skottie Young’s Rocket Raccoon series is set to exceed 300,000 copies.  That’s right, a solo series about a talking raccoon is going to move 300,000 comic books, and that’s without any sort of holofoil raccoon tail-etched cover or fifty variant covers or any other sort of bullshit gimmick.

I’ll let that sink in.

If Rich’s number is accurate, this will make Rocket Raccoon #1 one of this year’s top-selling comics, right under Amazing Spider-Man #1.  While these figures only indicate how many copies stores ordered from Diamond, it’s impressive that the book will have a higher sales count than the first issue of Infinity, Forever Evil, and probably Original Sin, too (we’ll find out later this week when sales estimates come out).  Rich mentions that Marvel offering a preview issue as one of its Free Comic Book Day offerings probably helped raise interest in the new series, which makes sense, since people tend to like good comics and want more of them.

So prepare yourself, we’re about to live in a world where a comic about a raccoon outsells every Batman comic published this year.  There’s hope for the industry yet.  [The Outhousers]