Back in the day when Spawn was considered the vanguard of the self-publishing movement, Alan Moore, Neil Gaiman, Frank Miller and Dave Sim all teamed up with Todd McFarlane to create four successive issues of SPAWN. It was a way to show solidarity — and for the writers to make some pretty good money, given SPAWN’s huge sales at the time.

However as we all know, things that were so happy and cooperative at the time didn’t stay so. Gaiman and McFarlane had a falling out, so to speak, and Gaiman began a lawsuit over the rights to SPAWN #9 which introduced the Angela character.

According to some PR we just got, the Dave Sim issue, #10, which saw Cerebus and Spawn teaming up, is returning to print for the first time in 16 years in SPAWN ORIGINS COLLECTION: DELUXE EDITION VOL. 1 HC. Apprently McFarlane and Sim worked out a non-exclusive deal. The oversized collection will also reproduce the Moore and Miller issues….but NOT #9. 

“It hasn’t been reprinted since it first came out,” SPAWN #10 writer and CEREBUS creator Dave Sim said. “I’m very glad that’s all over with after 14 years. Todd sent me black and white scans of Spawn 10 which will be published in a Cerebus Miscellany volume someday and, hopefully, Spawn 10 will be included in any and all future collections if the Toddmiester decides to make that official McFarlane policy.”

The SPAWN ORIGINS COLLECTION: DELUXE EDITION VOL. 1 HC features the artwork of Todd McFarlane, which laid the groundwork for the most successful independent comic book ever published. This limited edition hardcover includes classic SPAWN stories written by Sim, Alan Moore, Frank Miller, Grant Morrison and McFarlane himself in one massive slipcase collection. It will mark the first time Sim and McFarlane’s collaboration has seen print since it first appeared in 1994.

SPAWN ORIGINS COLLECTION: DELUXE EDITION VOL. 1 HC (SEP090283), a 620-page full-color hardcover for $100 will be in-stores soon. A signed and numbered edition (SEP090284) will also be available for $150. Cerebus is ™ and © 2009 Dave Sim.


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1 COMMENT

  1. feels like something than this will cast an even brighter light on issue 9 not being in there and the reasons why.

  3. I remember that issue being a horribly preachy rant about creator-ownership, with ham-handed symbolism abound. I was (and am) completely sympathetic to creator-ownership (as my own career will attest to), but man, Sim really pulled out the Message Hammer on that one.

  4. I wonder if in 15 years we’ll see another edition which includes the Gaiman issue, but not the Moore due to Todd getting into a slap fight with Alan.

    Shame when talented people squabble really.

  5. Scott, reading the issue now in light of what happened between Todd and Neil always puts such an interesting view on the story.