justadude

Anyone know about this? Other newsstands don't have the sticker but the number on the sticker is the same as the other newsstands. Makes me think it was an error of some kind? Or it's a weird thing a store would do as the UPC would already read that way? Strange.

Also had a Thing book from 2006. This one I'm more skeptical of as a true newsstand but curious if anyone knows for sure.

On 1/22/2023 at 9:00 PM, Lobstrosity said:

This release was canceled and there are no copies available. There was a lawsuit involved, and while the results are not public, the book itself was canceled.

That's what I feared. It sounds like a strange ordeal as Image was ready to publish it before McFarlane filed suit. He must not have seen it until it was almost to press. Thanks for the info!

On 1/22/2023 at 9:31 AM, LowGradeBronze said:

There's certainly commercial value in making reference to an iconic cover image that would likely boost sales that month. Draw in some lapsed comic readers too, who relate to/remember the original. 

Absolutely. I think market forces are the main driver now, which ties it to McFarlane as the father of the new kind of homage. His covers are so popular artists today can STILL cash in on his designs through homages.

To add to the swipe/homage debate, guessing an artist's intention is usually a fool's errand. Writing "After" "Thanks" etc. just gives us a clue to their intention which is often inscrutable. We have no idea what those artists thought of the works they were "swiping" or "homaging." The conversation could have been "Wow, that's a great form. I hope I can do some justice to X's line work." Or "Dang, I really need to get this done in four hours. Bob, hand me that comic." We'll never know which means it's just up to the individual collector.

On 1/18/2023 at 9:02 PM, jdandns said:

Speaking of McFarlane, his cover for Spider-Man 306 from October 1988 is a clear homage to Action #1.

Yep, he was well aware of the power. I think his focus on the form of the body is what makes him probably the most homaged artist in comics. Very easy to do Hulk 340, ASM 300, Spiderman 1, etc. because the forms are first and foremost with little to no background. That means any artist who can hack a basic body can do McFarlane (or they can try). To do Action Comics #1, for example, takes a bit more skill in composition and detail. It's part of the reason why Liefeld received (and still receives) criticism is because his forms just hang out in space. McFarlane does that quite a bit too though not as much.

On 1/18/2023 at 9:15 PM, Point Five said:

As jazawlacki notes above, it was done *constantly* to make deadlines and get work done that much faster. If an artist got paid by the page, that's a powerful incentive to cut corners, grind out more work per month and earn more. And comic books were thought of as the lowest of the low of art forms, as disposable as yesterday's newspaper. No one working back then could have dreamed that such a massive collecting fanbase would exist 8! decades later, and that we'd be going back and combing through the minutiae of their artwork.

Absolutely. I'm sure there are tons of examples of swipes/homages from pulp novel covers, paintings, etc. from that time period. Very very common practice and has been a part of art since the Greeks. A master would make a sculpture and his students would learn from it by trying to sculpt the same thing. Schools of painters, musicians, sculptors and more have operated this way throughout history and across cultures. (Mugham is a good example of the Turkish practice).

So, the strange thing is that we comic heads think it's cheap or easy when artists rip off of other artists. It could be Greg Land "practicing" in a way, could be "parodying" the popularity of another, or could be trying to legitimize the comic by borrowing from another, more popular/well known comic.

Or they could just be lazy.

On 1/17/2023 at 11:47 PM, KCOComics said:

Thank you for posting this. I never knew AC8 was an homage to Last of the Mohicans

You bet! Swiping/homage is a pretty interesting tradition in comics.

On 1/17/2023 at 11:17 PM, Juno Beach said:

Unless the new cover says "Thanks to 'artist'" or something I consider it a swipe. For me a homage has to mention the reference. 

It's interesting. Sometimes you'll see "After" or "Parody of" etc. Also interesting to learn how "swiping" wasn't frowned upon at all in the Golden and Silver ages. Artists did it all the time to crank out everything by their deadlines. Jules Feiffer talks about this in the 60s. I think things changed with McFarlane and how he homaged Spider-Man #1 in Spider-Man #13. Then the floodgates kind of opened up to cash in on the popularity of the design. It's not a subject that's written about a whole lot so lots to learn.

Figured I'd ask to see if anyone had a copy of "The Art of Being Spawn" by Al Simmons, as I see Spawn pop up more and more in the Modern section. Simmons was the "real life Spawn" who would go around conventions and sign things and had worked at Image for quite a while. I know McFarlane sued Simmons after the book came out for sharing protected information or something, which is weird because Image Comics published the book.

Anyhow, I'm writing a scholarly essay on this and can't find the book anywhere. I'm pretty sure it was printed, but Amazon, eBay, Abebooks, etc. don't show any copies. Anyone by chance have this book? I'd love to get scans/purchase if possible.

Fingers crossed

Reached out to purchase about 15 pages. Month later. None in stock. Reach out about 15 more and he said he already told me they were sold out. Tried clarifying but that didn't work. Arguing wasn't worth it.

Seems like a nice enough guy, but with a stock that hasn't been updated in years it's not even worth scrolling through.

For what it's worth, I had a similar experience with a much less expensive item and went back and had them do a missing mail search. Once they couldn't locate it, they offered to pay for the eBay value of the item which they did. I hear this is rare, but it happened for me.

Label was SS. There was a two month window to submit the books to CGC with the certificate that came with it to get the SS.

On 12/22/2022 at 10:01 AM, JoeBrrr said:

What happens to the double signed variants when graded? Qualified? Yellow or blue?

I was wondering if they'd do a CGC certificate like they did with KS 1, GS 1, and Scorched 1. I would think so. How many millions did TM just make for them with his signing?

On 12/21/2022 at 10:17 AM, kimik said:

A local auction house had a run up to 250 in lots a couple of weekends back. It was online and in person. I tagged all of the lots, then forgot about them while running errands. The new owner paid just under $200 CAD for #100 - #250. 

Whoa! That's the cheapest I've seen. Definitely would have sold for more than that on eBay.

Bummed to get this back. Also hesitant to send to ME as 1. it's a fragile book and 2. I worry about grade or label color change after handling. I wish those were unfounded fears.

On 12/18/2022 at 2:14 PM, JoeBrrr said:

Anyone seen the Barnes and Noble copies ? I don’t store near me but can’t imagine these are in good shape with the kids and others reading them at the store. 
 

also seeing a bit of a tear on the back upper right corner top of spine on many copies - anyone else noticing this?

I picked up a few and they're pretty clean. Most have some corner nicks but nothing major. One of the B&Ns here were sold out because one person bought them all.

On 12/4/2022 at 6:35 PM, pmpknface said:

I hope these Savage Dragon books come back.  I have a complete run until issue 75 or 100 I'd like to move.  I think I even have one signed by Larsen.

Unfortunately, the only Savage Dragons worth much are the ones after 100. If people think Spawn had a low print run, Dragon is less than half in the 150s and on.

Gunslinger is a great character. Sent off two 174s and got a 9.6 and 9.8 back. Beyond pleased. Also sent 119s and got a 9.6 in newsstand and a regular in 9.8.

I'm curious if Scorched, King, and Gunslinger will maintain their popularity. I think if they hit 100 issues it would speak a lot to the characters and the staying power of Spawn. I keep thinking of Dave Sim's Cerebus as a point of comparison and how no one really collects it except for the early issues. Would that happen to Spawn if McFarlane steps away again? Not to sound morbid, but what happens to the character when he dies?

On 12/17/2022 at 6:38 PM, awakeintheashes said:

They sure don’t sell for much. Especially, the War Devil one shot. I’m not sure I’d hold onto a book for 20 years just to sell it for $2 above cover. 

Haha, no. Definitely not worth the hold. Some of the variants might be worth something, but who knows?

Cool to hear the love for Spawn. Personally, I think the writing's always been weak but the art has been great. My favorite bits of writing were the Tan/Miki and Larsen runs. Some pretty cool stuff going on. The Jim Downing era didn't click for me. All read too slow for a book built on punching cyborg apes.

To echo 156, it's funny, I just got back 153, 154, and 155 in 9.8 from CGC today. But didn't send my 156s because they weren't close. I've never seen one without spine ticks.

I've got the whole run except for 245, 249, and 263. I second the variant stuff though. It's really getting out of hand and turning me off getting them even at preorder discount prices.

I bought those signed variants of King Spawn 1, Gunslinger, etc. and may kick myself in the future. Don't think they're going to hold value in the long run. They do look nice though.

At least it's all motivated me to keep working on this McFarlane book I've got in the works at a scholarly press. Hope to have it out this Fall.

Local store owner around me says Spawn is his number one selling back issue since the 90s. He's been ordering 20+ of every issue ever since and has made a killing doing so (especially on the low print era). Maybe this book will drop, but the original Batman/Spawns don't sell for below cover price today, do they? Give it 20 years?

The Marvel Tales I always look for is #253. Moebius cover. Newsstand helps too.

I've been thinking about how to do this ever since the McFarlane signature event was announced. I have this pretty strange manufacturer defect Spawn #8 that's cut to a tilt. I'd like to get TM to sign it beneath the Spawn logo (which would make it most visible) but don't know how exactly I should do that because of the tilt, how it would be encapsulated, etc. Any ideas?

In please

This is the discussion I hoped to spark. It's a nice Larsen page, maybe $800 or so, but nothing like that. I saw another Larsen Spawn page on the Comic Art Live convention a month back that was selling it as a McFarlane/Larsen collab for over 2k. 4250 is just crazy. That's more than a lot of McFarlane inked/Capullo pages.

Having looked through Albert's website, that's what I was figuring too. If I had Twitter, I'd ask him myself, but I don't. It is curious though why they'd be billed together as "Art" if it was so heavily in one direction. I'll just have to ask him when I get the chance.