Spawn is Having a Moment. Again.
One of Image’s original sensations was amongst the industry’s top sellers in 2021. Let’s dig into why that might be.
When Diamond Comic Distributors released its top selling comics of 2021 last week, you’d have been forgiven if you did a double take when you saw the top of charts. The number one comic – at least in terms of units ordered by comic shops – was a Spawn title. Not only that, but the newfangled Spawn Universe took up two of the top three slots, with King Spawn #1 leading the way and Gunslinger Spawn #1 finishing third. 24 That’s a dominant finish for Todd McFarlane and his famous creation and, perhaps for some, a surprising one.
That’s because if you omit 2019, a year that saw Spawn #300 as the direct market’s second most ordered single issue, it had been 25 years since an issue of Spawn had finished in the 10 of the most ordered comics. It’s been a while since the character was the toast of the town. That’s not to say the title wasn’t still successful, as the number of comics that have consistently run for the past 30 years in an uninterrupted volume and maintained solid sales is precisely one, with that being Spawn. That’s a heck of an achievement, but one largely defined by metronome-like consistency — at least after its explosive, record-setting early days 25 — rather than the incendiary, industry-leading sales we saw this year.
That made this rise a curiosity to me, although one with a little smoke behind its fire even before looking into it. I had heard there was a bit of an uptick of interest in the character. The pandemic supposedly generated even more lift. But top of the pops, and doing so multiple times even? That was unexpected, especially considering how significant the gap between the conversation about Spawn and how the larger Spawn Universe line – including both the main Spawn title and recent debuts King Spawn, Gunslinger Spawn, and The Scorched – was ordered felt. It’s not that I don’t believe it. Results are results, and Spawn’s dominance of 2021 is irrefutable.
It’s just there were questions in my mind. When did this rise start, for example? Also, who and what were fueling it? And, most of all, we know that Spawn and its associated titles are selling to comic shops, but are they selling to the customers of comic shops? In short: Spawn sells…but does it sell? It’s one thing to see heavy orders, especially when each new title had 1:250 variants 26 that were signed and numbered by McFarlane himself. It’s another to find homes for the hundreds of copies you ordered to get there. Those are all good questions, and ones we’re going to attempt to answer today.
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With the caveat being that no DC titles were included and the last three months of Marvel were only partially counted due to distribution changes. Given the orders on these titles, I’m skeptical it would have made much a difference anyways.↩
Spawn #1 having 1.7 million copies ordered is an incomprehensible achievement from a 2022 lens.↩
Meaning if you ordered 250 copies of the issue, you can get one of the variant.↩
Thanks to John Jackson Miller’s Comichron, which, as per usual, is a remarkably useful resource for a person such as myself.↩
With the gaps in these charts coming when Diamond wasn’t releasing estimates during the pandemic.↩
Or, at least as far as we know, as the pandemic stretch with no sales estimates makes those unknowns. But I’d wager a significant sum that each issue was far below that number.↩
I wouldn’t describe most of the shops I know to use ComicHub as prototypical Spawn shops, so my guess is this leans towards understating demand in Spawn titles. But that’s a guess!↩
One other note: the massive gap between the overall ranking and ComicHub ranking on later, asterisked issues is likely caused by the overall rankings of those being inflated by no Marvel and DC releases being charted then. With the splintering of distributors, sales charts have gotten a bit wonky.↩
One shop told me they ordered 150 more than they expected to sell just to get a copy.↩
He said they sell about as well as The Walking Dead Deluxe and Radiant Black, so in the top 10% of Image sellers.↩
The same customer bought both the King Spawn and Gunslinger Spawn variants signed by McFarlane, both for $800. When presented with the opportunity to do the same with The Scorched, the customer passed. So Manhoff did as well.↩
All this said, it seems likely that The Scorched #1 was the most ordered comic of January 2022, especially considering it took the top spot in the ComicHub rankings for the month.↩
Quick note: I normally try to use named sources as much as I can. In this case, some shops were concerned about pushback over what they had to say, so they requested to not be named.↩
Two shops gave that comp, which amuses me.↩
I even suggested some of the fans may have started with the Todd McFarlane directed video for Korn’s “Freak on a Leash,” which they did not disagree with!↩
Random but related note: I just watched the movie Long Shot, in which Seth Rogen’s character, when given the opportunity to have a portrait of him painted, chose to have McFarlane do it. I feel like that beat was related to this same trend.↩
Being adapted into a movie doesn’t hurt, of course.↩
And he could too, of course.↩
I’m sure some of you might be thinking this counts for less, as variants are a substantial driver. But a) these customers often pre-order, b) they’re relatively predictable, and c) the sales make a big difference for shops. It counts just the same as any other equivalent seller, at least amongst shops I talked to, and they aren’t bad, harmful actors.↩
Which, again, is an inescapable constant for second issues, even if those drops aren’t quite as severe, typically.↩
Or FOC, aka the last point comic shops can change their orders.↩
Evidently Haunt was not part of the draw. Most of the shops laughed when I asked whether the character was a draw. Poor Haunt.↩
Which might be why they never feel like big hits. Spawn readers are the ninjas of comic book world.↩
With the caveat being that no DC titles were included and the last three months of Marvel were only partially counted due to distribution changes. Given the orders on these titles, I’m skeptical it would have made much a difference anyways.↩
Spawn #1 having 1.7 million copies ordered is an incomprehensible achievement from a 2022 lens.↩
Meaning if you ordered 250 copies of the issue, you can get one of the variant.↩