So here we go. We are in the middle of madness over Spawn 309 Gunslinger cover. As mentioned before Spawn 310 has a Gunslinger cover by Mattina. Not to be missed. But also Todd McFarlane has teased the art for his cover of the issue also found here that will have Ninja Spawn on it, at least. Might not want to sleep on these lest history repeats with jacked up prices and canceled orders.
At least from the look of it, this cover B cover will be revealed BEFORE foc.
(foc is September 7th)
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Two links go to the same place (Spawn 310 TFAW).
Now that we’ve gotten Gunslinger out of peoples systems, the few other Spawn characters that I would always go “all in” on are:
Mandarin Spawn/Ninja Spawn
She-Spawn
The Freak
War-Spawn
The Redeemer
Aside from comics (and the established comics with these are all pricey), these are the characters I usually see with a huge following relative to tattoo art, art prints at horror shows, & cosplay.
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That’s Anthony being lazy… 
So thinking how for the recent runs of Venom, Thanos or Immortal Hulk, early on each of these books were “small-ish” ordering and then the spec game kind of blew them up to the point where retailers were on to it and ordering plenty of copies. I’m thinking like IH issues up to 10-13 or so and then how issues after those were all ordered sufficiently. Or the Cates run on Venom/Thanos where the early issues went by kinda quiet. At what point does Spawn sort of “blow up” and not go under the radar as to where the spec possibilities aren’t really there because everyone and their brother is pre-ordering for that next hot book?
It’s rinse, recycle, repeat… you can almost apply that in any genre of collecting or attention spans. Look at cover artists that pop up, everyone must have their stuff, all the hype around them and then it wears off as everyone goes and finds another artist…
When retailers start paying attention to what’s being bought, they’ll bump their orders, there will be plentiful to go around, everyone will go… meh, look, Cates is creating another Knull minion, lets all jump on that bandwagon now… when that gets old, hey look, a new Spawn gunslinger… let’s go jump on that wagon again… 
Yep. That’s why I’m curious how many more issues Spawn goes before the potential spec is gone. Or perhaps it might not. Spawn has never seemed to be a big seller, but looks like they are gonna milk this Gunslinger run for a bit. Not that I blame them, I just don’t wanna sink too much money into it.
Good question Bryan. Obviously stores will order what they can sell. While some speculators are savvy to Spawn not all may be. Case in point, Spawn 306B is a $70-90 book because of the Gunslinger cover. #309 is hitting $25-$35, even with people knowing what happened with 306B, so there is some depreciation because some were on to it. So even if Spawn 310 goes on to be a $10-$12 book, is it worth the effort in advance?
Well now that McFarlane knows he’s got a cash cow by drawing a character on the cover that’s not even in the story itself, he’s gonna take Kirkman’s cue on milking that cow probably… until everyone starts going… meh, enough is enough.
And I’m still like… take that damn banner off the top of the comic. Do you really need you ego stroked on every new issue? 
This book was just a perfect storm of opportunity. If there had not been a COVID pause, it would have played out a bit differently (but still been a great book to get).
Spawn 306 was the exact same perfect storm situation for a book. The Covid pause seemed to make people forget about it however & the situation repeated itself just two issues later.
For those who prefer to not “pick them up”…I get it…but the great thing is, regardless of those who love or hate it. I can think of few runs/books who have as much overall value in back issues as Spawn. You bring a long box or two of nice Spawn comics to a show…you will walk away with cash. (Even more so if they are from issue 100 & up).
While I go heavy on Spawn (well, my idea of heavy anyway)…I’m doubtful we will see a repeat of what we saw on 306/309 anytime soon.
Prior to these, the last time the situation happened was with an issue in 290’s where there was a last minute cover change to an unannounced Mattina. That was just a FOMO as it was nothing special however. These Gunslinger issues are great holds.
His post was at 2:30am. doesn’t sound like being lazy…sounds like sleep deprivety…
Nah, he made a link to both books and just copied it twice…
On #310?
One thing to note, this is popular due to the long standing (how many years ago was Gunslinger Spawn introduced? 10+?) popularity of a character.
Typically we see those rises and falls due to a new series, new character, new artist Etc…it’s the newness and FOMO that drives sales and once it wears off it dies off.
Gunslinger spawn has been around for years, and popular for years. Look at some earlier Gunslinger covers. This isn’t a cycle.
The rabid spawn fan base has been around for years and doesn’t really fluctuate.
So stuff like this can happen at any time. And print runs can stay lower with Todd releasing his art so late every week.
310 has him on the A cover. Art has been out for months. Hence why orders will be plenty and you see the book doing very little.
309 B Todd released late (same as 306 D), people couldn’t get their orders in.
The situation will keep repeating itself any time Todd puts a very popular character on the cover and releases the art late.
@agentpoyo I was referring to his #309 cover. Todd had no issue getting rid of it when it got in the way of “his” art lol!
Oh… yeah but wasn’t it on the other covers?
Every issue technically rebreaks the record right? Ha