SPAWN! A look back at an award-winning collection of graded slabs. 10 10

[Mirkinator]

Very impressive! Something to aspire too! I would not have thought this possible… my goodness.

A few years ago I found my old Spawn #8 I got as kid and it kicked off my ‘serious’ collecting (and joining these forums). My first thought was “lets collect the whole run! Cant really be that hard right!?”

Holy cow was I in for a surprise! The “whole run” has now turned into “maybe at least one or two of most # issues..” And at least say I have 1- current. I do still enjoy reading the new ones, so might as well fill in the ranks while I can.

Im in the 160 - 260 range now and it’s killing me. I dont care about every variant, but there are some amazing ones that I just cant seem to live without and even like better the some of the originals.

Anywho, thanks for sharing this amazing collection and the journey to get there!

[newshane]

On 4/10/2023 at 7:11 PM, Mirkinator said:

Very impressive! Something to aspire too! I would not have thought this possible… my goodness.

A few years ago I found my old Spawn #8 I got as kid and it kicked off my ‘serious’ collecting (and joining these forums). My first thought was “lets collect the whole run! Cant really be that hard right!?”

Holy cow was I in for a surprise! The “whole run” has now turned into “maybe at least one or two of most # issues..” And at least say I have 1- current. I do still enjoy reading the new ones, so might as well fill in the ranks while I can.

Im in the 160 - 260 range now and it’s killing me. I dont care about every variant, but there are some amazing ones that I just cant seem to live without and even like better the some of the originals.

Anywho, thanks for sharing this amazing collection and the journey to get there!

Your handle looks familiar. I think I may have sold you a few of these? 

 

[Mirkinator]

On 4/10/2023 at 7:36 PM, newshane said:

Your handle looks familiar. I think I may have sold you a few of these? 

 

Hah, you are RIGHT! Checked my message history and apparently I have 4 of your books in the #90s range. 
Now ill tell everyone it was once part of the greatest Spawn collection Ive ever seen! 

 

Edit: Wait I bought twice from you… I actually have 4 more and a slab from you (#275)! They were awesome deals too! Ty!

Edited April 11, 2023 by Mirkinator

[newshane]

SPAWN 100 - MIGNOLA VARIANT - CGC 9.8 - SIGNATURE SERIES 

Love him or hate him, he has unmistakable style. This is a cool take on the character. I like the composition, too. Cool sig book, if I say so myself. 

 

[newshane]

SPAWN 100 - MILLER VARIANT - CGC 9.8 SIGNATURE SERIES 

This is the second of my books signed by Frank Miller. The first was Spawn 11, if you recall. Frank used his old school signature on that one. 

Here, we see his most recent style signature. I requested the gold ink because I thought it would look best. I also requested the placement for purposes of balanced composition (at least, IMO). Frank was always very accommodating and the rep on this one was outstanding. I can't recall his name, but he was based out of Nashville. 

Again, we see a problem with the inner well touching the outer well, giving it a wave like effect when scanned. I remember there was a period in time where the CGC were cranking out ugly slabs like that. I think the boards dubbed it "slab puddling" if I recall correctly. Shame. This was an awesome book! Hopefully it's been re-holdered, wherever you are! 

 

 

Edited April 12, 2023 by newshane

[Ryan.]

On 4/12/2023 at 5:55 PM, newshane said:

can't recall his name, but he was based out of Nashville.

Doug?

[newshane]

On 4/12/2023 at 5:56 PM, Ryan. said:

Doug?

Yep! Fantastic facilitator. 

Edited April 12, 2023 by newshane

[newshane]

SPAWN 100 - ROSS VARIANT - CGC 9.8 SIGNATURE SERIES

"Do you ever regret selling your Spawn collection?" 

YES

 

[newshane]

SPAWN 100 - WOOD VARIANT - CGC 9.8 

MISSING SCAN 

My apologies. I can't find the scan for this one. Strange, but it's empty when I open up the folder in Windows, and the scan that I uploaded to the registry set was incorrect. I still have the proper registration number, however. 

I never got this one signed because Ashley Wood is an Australian and just never made it to the states that often, at least back when I was putting this set together. Rest assured, I gave it my best shot. 

 

[newshane]

SPAWN 101 - CGC 9.8 

George Perez cover. Not really up to snuff, at least relatively speaking. 

Edited April 16, 2023 by newshane

[oldmilwaukee6er]

@newshane- you've just hit two from own small collection of Spawn slabs. I have a 100 Ross in 9.8 and a 101 SS 9.6 signed by Perez and Medina 

[newshane]

SPAWN 102 - CGC 9.8 

Angel Medina. Danny Miki. Love the look they gave the series. 

Print runs at this point are significantly less than previous eras, and the series begins to get really dark, in my opinion. 

Plus, at some point soon, the covers are going to get super dark and super awesome. 

I'll have some more sig series soon. 

Please forgive me for missing my goal on posting frequency. I've been dealing with moving/selling/buying homes on top of everything else, and things have been basketballs to the wall lately. 

 

[newshane]

SPAWN 103 - CGC 9.8 

 

[newshane]

SPAWN 104 - CGC 9.8 - SIGNED BY ANGEL MEDINA 

Not a signature you see everyday. I thought the looming shadow in the background was screaming "SIGN HERE" so I went for it. 

I will have another somewhat rare signature book to share tomorrow! 

 

 

[newshane]

SPAWN 105 - CGC 9.8 - SIGNED BY STEVE NILES 

Awesome cover! Had this one signed by the writer, however. 30 Days of Night ring a bell? Gotham County Line? Steve Niles. 

As is often the case, I was able to choose ink color and placement. I always tried taking the cover's overall composition into account. It makes a huge difference in the book's aesthetic, and I was always very picky about that. 

 

Edited April 23, 2023 by newshane

[newshane]

SPAWN 106 - CGC 9.8 

This book exemplifies the difficulty inherent in finding 9.8 copies. Look at all the black. That makes it SO tough to find these in grade. By all means, go to your LCS and try to find a 9.8 in the wild. 

While I'm pontificating, let me reflect for a minute on the origin of many of these books in the 100-160 range. Someone years ago on eBay was selling an entire run, and he was listing them in groups of ten. He advertised them as nice and crispy. I was able to place the highest bids on many of the auctions. While I was bidding aggressively, I wish I would have went over the top and scooped up the entire collection. These were excellent examples, and almost every single one of my books from those purchases ended up as 9.8s! 

All the 9.9s you will see were purchased already in the slab, but a decent percentage of my collection was actually submitted. 

This book is beastly tough. To make things worse...again...fewer and fewer people were keeping up at this point. I think there was a lot of incoherence between the writers and styles and maybe that started to turn people off? Also, the entire industry was already past the bubble pop. . 

[newshane]

SPAWN 107 - CGC 9.8 

Most of the 101-170 range is particularly AWESOME. 

They are also some of the toughest to track down. Love this era. 

 

[Mewie]

On 4/26/2023 at 3:40 PM, newshane said:

SPAWN 107 - CGC 9.8 

Most of the 101-170 range is particularly AWESOME. 

They are also some of the toughest to track down. Love this era. 

 

I've only read up to issue 100 in my younger days... so hearing that 101-170 is really good - I look forward to catching up on the stories!

Where do you go to re-read your Spawn comics? Comixology? Right now, I'm using that app and then I purchase digital copies from HumbleBundle. I'm definitely not going to open up my slabs  

Edited April 26, 2023 by Mewie

[captainzombie]

On 4/26/2023 at 5:40 PM, newshane said:

SPAWN 107 - CGC 9.8 

Most of the 101-170 range is particularly AWESOME. 

They are also some of the toughest to track down. Love this era. 

 

The last 2 years I've been rebuilding my Spawn collection and totally agree that 100-185 has some of the best cover art. Of course, many of these books are so hard to track down. My LCS got an entire Spawn collection in about 3 weeks ago and the store owner allowed me to get first crack at it. I was able to get many of the books that I was missing in this number range. The funny part is that the 210-290 is also hard to get a hold of, but I actually have a good number of the books in the 200's. It helped with this LCS to get many of the books that I needed in both the 100 and 200 range. The owner of this collection kept these books in fantastic shape. There were some books with some minor defects that I passed on as I only want 9.8's for this series, but I am only concentrating on slabbing the keys.

As much as there are people out there that frown upon Todd McFarlane and even Spawn, I still think this series will amount to something even if it takes another 20-30 years to get there. For some reason or another, Todd has not been able to make headway with getting any kind of Movie or TV deal no matter how much he keeps saying he has one in the works. The world that Todd and co. have created is quite cool. Look at how Gunslinger has exploded and now there are rumors that even She-Spawn may end up getting her own ongoing series.

[newshane]

On 4/26/2023 at 5:49 PM, Mewie said:

I've only read up to issue 100 in my younger days... so hearing that 101-170 is really good - I look forward to catching up on the stories!

Where do you go to re-read your Spawn comics? Comixology? Right now, I'm using that app and then I purchase digital copies from HumbleBundle. I'm definitely not going to open up my slabs  

I had to quit Spawn like a bad habit. No interest in going back and reading them again. Not all the stories were bad, but I'm of the persuasion that Spawn is "all about the art." 

That being said, I may reacquire a few of my very favorites. The problem is that I have an obsession with Golden Age books, and I feel like every dime is better spent there. At least for me.