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

[newshane]

SPAWN 208 - CGC 9.8 

 

[newshane]

SPAWN 209 - CGC 9.8 

 

[newshane]

SPAWN 210 CGC 9.8 

This and the next few issues were extremely difficult for me to find back in the day. And I mean these were the toughest of the tough. This is approximately where the print runs bottomed out. They eventually started to climb back up a notch, but this was the valley. 

Michael Golden began a brief run as the cover artist beginning with this issue.. 

 

Edited October 1, 2023 by newshane

[newshane]

SPAWN 211 - CGC 9.8 

This one gave me big time fits back in the day. One of the last I had to track down. Spawn 210-215 were very, very tough! 

 

 

[newshane]

SPAWN 212 - MISSING 

Only two books kept me from having a complete set of 9.8s or better. Spawn 156 and Spawn 212. I'm baffled that there are now 10 of these at 9.8. Back in my day, there were none. Where did they come from? I turned the world upside down and could never find one. 

[ADAMANTIUM]

On 10/3/2023 at 10:32 AM, newshane said:

SPAWN 212 - MISSING 

Only two books kept me from having a complete set of 9.8s or better. Spawn 156 and Spawn 212. I'm baffled that there are now 10 of these at 9.8. Back in my day, there were none. Where did they come from? I turned the world upside down and could never find one. 

where did they go? They found cotton eyed Joe!  ::

so close but not necessarily far away!

 

 

Edited October 3, 2023 by ADAMANTIUM

[newshane]

SPAWN 213 - CGC 9.8 

Another Michael Golden cover. To me, his work is pretty lukewarm. While there is nothing to openly despise, there is certainly nothing to celebrate. 

Part of the problem with the Spawn run is the lack of continuity. The book was going through so many stylistic changes during this time that it was hard to establish an identity for the series. One month things would be dark and grim and the next month it would look like a children's book again. Throw in story arcs that were going all over the place with no direction, and it's easy to see why Spawn's popularity was at an all-time low down at your favorite LCS. 

 

[newshane]

SPAWN 214 - CGC 9.8 

 

[LadyDeath]

On 10/4/2023 at 1:52 PM, newshane said:

Part of the problem with the Spawn run is the lack of continuity. The book was going through so many stylistic changes during this time that it was hard to establish an identity for the series. One month things would be dark and grim and the next month it would look like a children's book again. Throw in story arcs that were going all over the place with no direction, and it's easy to see why Spawn's popularity was at an all-time low down at your favorite LCS. 

This is my biggest problem with Spawn. Big picture view: great concept, interesting story, complex character.

Close up: lots of exposition, massive retconning, really wordy in some issues, the new reports are a huge waste of time, and so many plot lines go off on a strange side tangent and then just end.

[newshane]

SPAWN 215 - CGC 9.8 

The "vomit" cover. 

 

[Poutine]

Yeah those are pretty bad 

[newshane]

SPAWN 216 - CGC 9.8 

First McFarlane cover in ages, and what a relief it was! Also, looks like McFarlane is back in terms of writing. At this point he's finally abandoned the pen name "Will Carlton." 

Hard to believe Spawn is now 31 years old.

For perspective, the Fantastic Four were 31 years old back in 1992. 

 

Edited October 7, 2023 by newshane

[newshane]

SPAWN 216 BLACK AND WHITE - CGC 9.8 

Oh look! A variant! 

Get ready. We are about to dive in all the way. Soon, every issue will have a variant of some sort. Let the madness begin! 

 

 

[newshane]

SPAWN 217 - CGC 9.8 

 

[FlyingDonut]

On 9/23/2023 at 11:03 AM, newshane said:

Yeah, the number of variants is out of control, and it’s been that way for too long. But, people keep buying them. 
 

I admired Todd back in the 90s because he avoided all of the gimmick covers. Unfortunately, he made up for it. Sadly, mist of the variants aren’t even that interesting. You will see soon. There is a very long stretch where every issue had a black and white variant. 
 

This, along with the unmanageable size of the collection, was one of the main reasons I sold out. The stress of keeping up was too much. The unannounced “ultra rare” convention variants were the last straw. As vigilant as I was, I wouldn’t even hear about some if them until after the fact…even with all my connections. It was just too much stress to keep up, and it took all the fun out of collecting. 
 

I sold out, bought some truly rare Golden Age, and I’ve never looked back. 

Its much less dollar wise, but that's why I got out of Adventure Time collecting - things that I found out about after the fact. What a pain.

[newshane]

SPAWN 218 - CGC 9.8 

Definitely one of the better Spawn covers from Michael Golden. 

I just can't help but feel like this was the most "meh" stretch of the entire series. I have NO idea why they didn't have Kudranski doing the covers. 

I'll probably be posting some interior shots soon. That's where Kudranski was best. 

 

[newshane]

SPAWN 219 - CGC 9.8 

Kind of easy to see what Todd and Michael added here. Both styles are apparent. Nice collaboration. 

 

Edited October 11, 2023 by newshane

[AC Skywalker]

Maybe it was already mentioned but does anyone know why CGC barely has any keynotes for these books?  Example 1st Gunslinger whether it’s 119 or 174, neither mention it.

[newshane]

On 10/11/2023 at 10:52 PM, AC Skywalker said:

Maybe it was already mentioned but does anyone know why CGC barely has any keynotes for these books?  Example 1st Gunslinger whether it’s 119 or 174, neither mention it.

No idea. 

I worked with Gemma at CGC a little bit back in the day. At least we were able to straighten a few things out. You will definitely see inconsistency when comparing different copies of the same issue that were graded at different times. 

[newshane]

SPAWN 219 CONVENTION EDITION - CGC 9.8 - SIGNED BY MICHAEL GOLDEN AND JON GOFF

I love the way the signature placement and the red ink turned out! This was a beautiful signature series book! I almost always picked the placement and the ink color. 

The cover says 500 were printed, although I will forever be skeptical of publisher's claims after the latest Spawn variant fiasco (#306 Netherrealm edition).