Word?!? Spawn #1 / Malibu Sun #13 / RUST #1?!?!
It looks like David Schnebly was the first person to point this out. Check out his website.
Spawn #1
About five to ten years ago the discussion arose about the first appearance of Spawn. This has a lot to do with Spawn fans wanting to stronger collections, looking for obscure books that others can’t find, resulting from the high print run of Spawn #1. An argument began that Malibu Sun #13 published in May, 1992, an earlier product catalog featuring Spawn, was actually the first appearance of Spawn featuring Mcfarlane’s first Spawn Pinup from 1991, being published weeks earlier than Spawn #1 (published date May 1992). Malibu Sun #13 currently sells for $20 – $80, depending on condition, with CGC Graded copies reaching anywhere from $250 – $400+.
This week it was revealed that there was an earlier published Spawn Pin-up, bringing a new “spawn first-appearance” into the equation.
Rust #1 published by Adventure Comics (Later turned into Malibu Comics) in April of 1992 – a full month before Malibu Sun #13 – and features the original Pin-Up of Spawn done my Mcfarlane in 1991.
This book is currently selling for $20 – $30 – with a limited edition Gold Foil Variant, numbered and limited to 10,000 – hitting the $100+ range. This book is 100% dollar bin material, so that is where you should start looking.
Do you have a tip you’d like to share? Comment below! Or hit us up on Facebook!
Happy Speculating
Want to be first to see our updates? Follow us on Facebook
Thanks for the info. Picked up Rust 1 for $1 and the limited version for $2.
I recently caught onto this story as well. While I cannot say that a pinup or ad will qualify as a first appearance in the long run, I speculated on this comic and ordered three copies from milehigh. Not two weeks later, their regular price on this issue has risen to $80.00. Something is going on with this. If you can find this obscure title for less than $20.00, I would put one away. For further fun, have one or two copies graded. I think when more people are aware of this, there will be a bunch coming out of the woodwork from the dollar bins. It might be a flash in the pan and Malibu Sun 13 may win out, but who knows anymore?
This is more far-reaching than Rust #1. Other titles from this publisher have the same ad including Rocket Ranger #3. Planet of the Apes #23 (already a rare book in its own right) has a cover date of May 1992 (same month as Spawn #1 & Malibu Sun #13) and includes a two-page Spawn spread. Torg #3 has this same spread (it’s a subscription ad; cover date April 1992), as does Re-Animator: Dawn of the Re-Animator #3 (May 1992) and Torg #4 (May 1992). Strange Sports Stories #1 (cover dates: May 1992) has the one page ad. I don’t have EVERY comic published by Adventure with cover dates of April or May 1992 but, I’m sure it exists in more cases than the ones I cited here.
I appreciate your comment, Steve. When these other books become common knowledge, it will surely make the Rust #1 fall in price. I mean, they can’t ALL be the first appearance of Spawn. If this topic was introduced five or ten years ago, why haven’t we heard anything about these display ads before? And further, I wonder if CGC will note the display ad when they label these issues.
Can you double check that Rocket Ranger #3 issue? The information I have says it was published in 1991. Another obscure title with this ad is Lovecraft in Full Color #4 also published in May 1992. I have been like a crazy man trying to come up with these titles just for the fun of it – drives my comic store guy nuts to boot.
So interestingly enough i have a copy #’d 10423. Are we sure there were only 10k prints?? Curious!! :/
I agree. I’m wondering what the actual print run was too because mine is #10097.
Anyone still curious about this, I just checked these two April 1992 Adventure books and verified there is NO spawn advertiesement: Roger Wilco #2 and Lovecraft #3. Anyone checked any others?
I am the writer of Rust, and I just discovered this trend. My memory is that the first issue sold about 20k of the regular and around 11k of the special edition. There was not a set amount of the special edition, just however many were ordered for initial orders. Hope that helps.
Just got the regular edition back from CGC. It does have a line on the label concerning the Spawn ad. Not that it matters, but mine graded at 9.4. So far only 5 regular editions and 8 special editions have been graded.
So, are Rust #1, Rocket Ranger #3, and Torg #3 the only Adventure issues with cover dates of April, 1992 that have the Spawn ad? I don’t have copies of Rocket Ranger or Torg to check those two…
These look to be the only issues dated in April with the ad. According to the above poster “Steve” I would suspect that they are the ones to look for.
Anything else I’ve come across personally have been dated May 1992.
The link above is not working
It should work now, thanks for pointing that out.
What about Crusade of Comics? That predates all the others by a few months!
Not just to revive an old thread, but Torg #2 has the centerfold subscription ad and it’s dated March 1992. This is the only issue that I’ve run across produced in March with the Spawn ad. Adventure Comics are not easy to find anywhere. In my day to day job of pressing comics I came across Eternity – Robotech Invid War 1 (May 1992) that has the 2 page centerfold ad; so there are a few issues out there that could be made into a comprehensive list.