Fence’s Return to Serialization Successful, Plus a Preview

Fence launched at the end of November 2017. It’s the manga-like story of a bunch of boys competing at fencing, dealing with rivalries, and romancing their teammates (even if they don’t realize it yet). It’s written by C.S. Pacat, illustrated by Johanna the Mad, and published by Boom! Studios. Here’s an interview with the creators I did back then.

I found it “addictive soap opera“, particularly once it went from single issues, after the release of #12, to a graphic novel series with volume 4 (out June 2020) and volume 5 (out August 2022). With so many characters and interaction histories, I found it easier to read in bigger chunks.

Last month (June 2023), the series returned as individual issues as part of the Boom! Box imprint. Fence: Redemption is a four-issue miniseries with the usual allotment of variant covers (see below). It’s as fun and involving as always, and perhaps the additional sales bumps from the various covers will help it stick around.

There’s a good amount of drama and humor and characterization, plus a lesson on what “low lines” are in fencing. It’s kind of impressive how much is in these twenty-some pages.

This cover (above) was also available without the trade dress (logo and text) as a 10-copy retailer order incentive.

The first issue sold out at the retailer level. (Your local store may still have copies. And we don’t know how many were printed, so it’s unclear how much of a success this is.) There’s a second printing that will be available in comic stores tomorrow (July 5) with this new cover by Miguel Mercado.

Issue #2 is also out tomorrow. As with issue #1, I enjoyed the read. As with issue #1, there are alternate covers (although not as many).

I’ll be reading all the issues again when the miniseries concludes, of course, to be sure I was able to follow who was fighting whom. (There are additional boys in the various teams they compete against, so lots of young men in the same white outfit can be difficult to recall month to month.)

If you like following the graphic novel version, the collected Fence: Redemption is due out next January. (The publisher provided advance digital review copies.)

In the meantime, here’s a preview of Fence: Redemption #1.