Todd McFarlane’s King Spawn #1 Sells Almost Half a Million Copies

Fresh off the record setting sales figures for Spawn’s Universe #1 earlier this summer, Image Comics and Todd McFarlane have confirmed that the upcoming King Spawn #1 has reached almost half a million pre-orders ahead of its release later this month. In a new press release the publisher revealed that 497K pre-orders for the all-new ongoing series’ first issue have been made by comic stores retailers, making it “the single largest new superhero monthly title launch in the comic book industry in the past 25 years.” The series’ pre-orders also eclipses Spawn’s Universe #1’s own sales figure by a two and a half margin.

“The numbers that came in were much higher than what I had projected,” McFarlane said in a statement. “With sales that now have a historical impact in our industry. It proves that the character Spawn and the world he lives in still resonates to fans almost thirty years after I first introduced him. But the biggest thing for me is having King Spawn becoming another example to the creative community that you can have creator-owned success outside of the two huge publishing giants, Marvel, and DC Comics. Every story that shows you can make a career on your own will hopefully inspire other talented people to try. As President of Image Comics, advocating for the creators has been our goal since its inception in 1992.”

King Spawn marks the first that an all-new #1 Spawn comic has been released, in monthly form, in the 28 years since Spawn #1 debuted in 1992. The series is one of several all-new comics that will be published by McFarlaneas part of “Spawn’s Universe,” expanding the comic line to include four new monthly comics by the end of the year. August will see the publication of King Spawn which will be followed by Gunslinger Spawn #1, a spin-off of the western themed Hellspawn character, in October, and The Scorched, a team-up book of characters from the universe (with a rotating roster according to McFarlane) by year’s end.

McFarlane will co-write the first issue of the King Spawn series with Sean Lewis while also contributing artwork to the book alongside Javier Fernandez, Brett Booth, Philip Tan, Stephen Segovia, and Marcio Takara. The previously released solicitation for the issue further teased the series as “only Spawn knows that he even exists,” further deepening the mystery of the new series.

King Spawn #1 will be released on August 25.