Briar #1 (Raw VF/NM) - BOOM! Studios (Yanick Paquette Virgin / Incentive Variant Cover)

Add a dark fantasy key issue to your inventory with Briar #1, published by BOOM! Studios! Created and written by Eisner Award-nominated author Christopher Cantwell (Iron Man, The Blue Flame) with interior art by German Garcia (Ka-Zar: Lord of the Savage Land), colors by Mat Lopes, and variant cover art by master illustrator Yanick Paquette (Wonder Woman: Earth One, Swamp Thing), this series delivers a gritty post-apocalyptic dark fantasy reimagining of Sleeping Beauty.

This issue features a full-bleed Virgin Variant Cover completely free of issue numbers, price tags, and publisher brand logos, allowing Yanick Paquette's illustration to take center stage alongside the white gothic-script title dress Briar and creator credits (CANTWELL • GARCIA • LOPES) at the top left.

The dramatic cover artwork—signed Paquette 2022 / Mat in the bottom right corner—depicts Princess Briar Rose in a torn, blood-stained white dress standing triumphantly atop a giant defeated wolf, leaning on a broadsword driven into its corpse against a backdrop of thorn vines, dark forest ruins, and a distant fairytale castle illuminated under a purple night sky.

What happens after "happily ever after" turns out to be a nightmare. Sleeping Beauty didn't wake up to a prince's kiss saving the kingdom—she slept for a hundred years while the world fell to ruin around her. Waking up in a grim, post-apocalyptic wasteland where her kingdom is gone and her legend is forgotten, Briar Rose must learn to wield a blade and fight to survive in a brutal fantasy realm.

This unslabbed raw comic issue is in top-tier collectible condition (estimated VF/NM 9.0 or better), with sharp corners, a flat spine, and vibrant color saturation—making it an essential pickup for fans of Christopher Cantwell, Yanick Paquette, BOOM! Studios, dark fantasy, and virgin incentive variant cover collectors.

• Publisher: BOOM! Studios

• Series: Briar (Issue #1 / Miniseries 2022)

• Release Date: September 2022 (Modern Age)

• Grade: Raw (Estimated VF/NM 9.0+)

• Printing/Format: Direct Edition Virgin Incentive Variant Cover

• Key Significance: Key Issue #1 Premiere; Debut Dark Fantasy Series; Yanick Paquette Virgin Variant

• Key Characters: Briar Rose (Sleeping Beauty)

• Creative Team: Christopher Cantwell (Writer), German Garcia (Artist), Mat Lopes (Colorist), Yanick Paquette (Variant Cover Art)