Spawn of Image

Image comics wouldn't be in existence without Todd McFarlane and his work on Spawn.  The book drew so much hype, it's widely rumored that over 1,000,000 copies were printed.  That is a LOT of comic books.  These days, anything over 50,000 copies is a tremendous success and anything over 100,000 is a hit-of-the-year.  Books need to average some 5500-6500 a month in sales quantity to stay afloat.  So 1M books was a lot.  Two decades worth of a lot.  So why, then, will a high grade copy of Spawn #1 still cost you a pretty penny?  Because people recognize the importance of the issue and the elegance of the artwork.  Todd McFarlane was a legendary artist in his own right, and his run on Amazing Spider-Man (including #298-300, some of the most expensive "modern keys") was tremendous.

I have a copy of this book bagged and boarded squirreled away somewhere from my youth.  But more recently, I picked up a nice mint signed copy for my collection that helps remind me of what matters.  Sometimes the demand can outpace the supply, even if the supply is literally 1 million comics.  McFarlane has gone on to some pretty amazing things in the industry, and his work with Image is essentially why I still read comics