Spawn's First Appearance is ... In Comic Buyer's Guide Price Guide!?!

Most comic collectors will rightly argue that Spawn #1 is the first appearance of Spawn.  After all, what is an appearance in a preview or advertisement page mean, anyway?  But I feel that collectors should collect what they want, and completists may want all kinds of appearances.

Spawn #1 was released in May 1992.  Benjamin Nobel's blog, spawncomics.wordpress.com, demonstrated that Rust #1 Special Limited Edition was published in April 1992 and had Spwan in an ad.  Malibu Sun #13, a preview magazine, had Spawn on its cover a couple of weeks before Spawn #1 was published.  He cogently concludes that Rust #1 Special Limited Edition had the first print appearance of Spwan.

But I just found a copy of Comic Buyer's Guide Price Guide April - June 1992  #10 (Vol. 3, #2).   It has a print appearance of the character in the first interior page.  Rust #1 has Spawn on the back of the back cover.   The price guide was published as a quarterly up to this point and had articles predicting which comics coming out the following quarter would be "hot."  This issue covered comics scheduled for April, May and June release.  The magazine, therefore, most likely was released during the prior quarter between January and March 1992.  Take a look at the photo of the indica page and you make up your mind!

$1 bin pick up - Rust #1 Special Edition - first Spawn

As of this writing, Todd McFarlane's Spawn is at issue number 264, an amazing run for any title, no less one from the most successful Indie comic publisher in history.  Think about it.  This title has been in print since 1992.  For 24 years, dedicated fans have been filling nearly two long boxes worth of stories about a man who, after having been betrayed and murdered by his best friend, comes back to life in the form of a demon and battles all sorts of evil.  But all stories have a beginning, and for collectors, it is the first appearance that matters most.

I had read some time ago that interest was growing for Rust #1 because it had the first published image (no pun intended) of Spawn:  it was in the form of an advertisement.  The blog spawncomics.wordpress.com makes a very clear argument for it and all readers should take some time to review it.  Some collectors scoff at the idea that an ad should count as an appearance at all.  But I say that the market guides us on what collectors really want. 

There are two versions of Rust #1, and the market seems to gravitate towards the Special Limited Edition version.  With roughly about a 10,000 print run, each issue is also individually numbered.

My copies have pretty low numbers, but I have seen one on eBay numbered "004."

Collectors of all types love low indentification numbers.  When I think about it, it is silly:  why should a book that was fresh off the printing press be more valuable than its tenth, thirtieth, or thousandth sibling?  It is for the simple fact that the number "1" has a magical quality that signifies the first is above all, for no other reason that it is, well, the first.  Not the best.  Or most unique.  Just The First.

So my copies are close to "001."  Better than "8600," a copy that is also on sale on eBay, but not as good as the "004" on sale.  Still, it is nice to have my copies which I would value, conservatively, at around $25 each.  Not a bad rate of return.