Monday 2 November 2020

Grandma Got Run Over By A Hellspawn, Coming Home From Our House On Halloween...

Hi, Everybody!

Did everybody have a good Halloween?

What's with all the torches and pitchforks?


So, this then...

BUT FIRST:
Monday:
"Yeah, yeah, enough of your bullshit. What's going on with the Halloween Spawn #10 Cover?!?"

First off: No swearing.

Second: the Disclaimer
As it says in the top righthand corner of this webpage:


So, this is all my opinion unless stated otherwise. And I do things my way pal...

"Yeah yeah, what the FUCK [NO SWEARING] is going on with The Halloween Spawn #10 Cover?!?"

I'll get to it.

Okay, so after the $#!* hit the fan, I faxed all the comments up to Dave to let him know what was going on.

Now before I show you what he said, I want to take a Moment (heh.) to respond to all the comments:

“Unknown” asked: 
Where was the grandma version. What is it. I would have ordered one if I had any idea where it was to order. What is it and I can I please get one?
Welp...it's the Spawn #10 Halloween Variant as offered through the Kickstarter. It's the "Censored-For-Grandma" variant, because when Dave sent the Waverly Press his original cover, they wanted alternate text. Because his was too controversial. (At least that's my read of the situation. Based on what the covers say.) The UN-censored cover was available through cerebusdownloads.com. It's the same art, different text. Kinda like Amazing Spider-Man #300 and #301:

Or Spider-Man #1 and 13:

Well, more like just Spider-Man #1:

Same cover, different text.
“crazyyears” said:
Gotta add my voice to the "Grandma? What Grandma? What? What happened," chorus.
Whatever it was happened without me and that's terribly disappointing.

WAIT! It's not like Todd's covers at all, it's like the covers to Batvark: PENIS:


 See, same art, different text. (Also, the "origin" of the "Censored-For-Grandma" concept.) Also, you can get the second printing of the XXXXX cover now.

Brian West said:
Hi! Yesterday, at 1200 EST in the morning, begun two Flash Sales for two versions of a HALLOWEEN EDITION of SPAWN 10. There was the Kickstarter GRANDMA EDITION, being offered as an add-on for only 24 hours (until 1159pm EST last night) to Backers of SPAWN 10 Remastered & Expanded Kickstarter by The Waverly Press and Dave, and there was a CEREBUSDOWNLOADS UNCENSORED HALLOWEEN EDITION, which was being offered directly for purchase to fans for 24 HRS from cerebusdownloads.com. Both flash sales concluded last night, I regret to inform you.

If I hadn’t been off yesterday from my seasonal night job I probably would have missed all the details myself.

Here’s a link with Dave elaborating on some details: http://momentofcerebus.blogspot.com/2020/10/dastardly-dave-update-7.html?m=1. You can also scroll through the posts by AMOC for Saturday, 31 October 2020, which were plenteous yesterday. Doing that will probably give you the best idea about what was going on then.
12:01 EST thank you very much. (Thanks anyway Brian.)  
Rav said:
Super frustrating. If you are going to do an event you should be coordinated. The Kickstarter clearly stated it was the Halloween cover. I ordered and then did family stuff. If I’d known I’d have ordered both. Now feeling like canceling my full Kickstarter bid because it’s not possible to get all covers. I wish the Kickstarter messaging had mentioned this.

It IS the Halloween Cover. The "Censored-For-Grandma" Cover. The other one is the UN-censored cover. Same artwork, different text.

“unknown” came back with:
Kickstarter may reorder a limited about of Halloween ones because people missed out, you need to offer the other version today again. Free money because I and many others that now know about it will buy it.

I don't gotta do $#!*. Not my dance party... 

Grimm said:
I was here at midnight but I couldn’t find a link to buy it and apparently I wasn’t the only one confused. I didn’t see a Kickstarter. Oh wells bummer
Sorry, that's my bad. When I posted the link the first time, I set it up BEFORE the link led to the order page, so you had to refresh the page to get there. (I think I mentioned that in one of the many "hour-on-the-hour" updates...) So:


Brian West came back:
This came down the pike from Waverly a couple hours ago, as a response to a comment in the KS, which conveyed similar concerns which have been expressed here. Might be of interest.

“The main differences between the 2 versions are Dave's text that he designed for the back cover. Also, the Kickstarter "Grandma" version is unsigned but comes with several new collectibles exclusive to this edition. Dave's version is signed but does not come with the extras. Hopefully this calcifies the confusion over the 2 editions. Thank you all for your support!”

Brian for the win! (Thanks Brian!) 

Jake said:
I’m now more confused than ever. I thought my Halloween Kickstarter add on was the uncensored/unsigned version with a pin. If that’s not the case I’m canceling. Why they sold another version at the same time on Cerebus Downloads is kinda dumb. Talk about gumming up the works.

Well Jake, you bought the "Censored-For-Grandma" version/unsigned/with a pin. 

“Unknown” said:
The image they had posted on Kickstarter was the uncensored version, so if is the grandma version, they didn't have the right cover up. Waverly says they didn't know about Dave's version until it was live. I hope they reorder both of these because this is a mess.

The cover's not finished. You guys noticed that right?

David Birdsong chimed in:
It turns out Android devices were having real trouble with the Kickstarter Add-On page. That and the late announcement caused some consternation. Dagon James at The Waverly Press is contacting Dave about it and it's almost certain more copies will be made available. Dave does not work on Sundays but I imagine there will be some movement on this early in the week. Dave hasn't finished the cover yet so there's no need to panic. Watch AMOC and the SPAWN 10 Kickstarter page for information.

Well...there's movement... 

Jake returned:
Yeah I have to go back, and look on Kickstarter. It’s doesn’t say anything about a Grandma edition. Basically the only way out of this mess is to ask Kickstarter people what version they want sense the Downloads people were the only ones who knew what they were getting. This will mess the numbers up but so be it. I am not down however for more issues being printed, and sold to those that did pledge/buy in the window. That’s the whole point oh the FOMO flash sale. Just add it the surveys. Did you order a Halloween edition? If so which one do you want? Do you want it signed or have some weird sticker on it?
Or...not?

I mean, this is from the guy who DID do this page:
"You can get what you want and STILL not be very happy..." words to live by kids...
“Unknown” said:
I did get the Halloween edition in the time, but didn't even know about Cerebus Downloads and never thought they would offer a variant of the IKS spawn 10 there. I would have bought one of each then.
So...what, you didn't see Saturday's post (that went up at 12:01AM EST) or ANY of the subsequent posts that ran up until the thanks post THAT YOU COMMENTED ON?!?

As I said to Dave: *insert Charlie Brown “ARRGH!” here*  

(What the @$%& was I supposed to do, come to your house and yell the deal through a megaphone? razzinfrazzin fans, razzinfrazzin opinions, razzinfrazzin covers, razzinfrazzin Halloween...)
Bill Ritter said:
This whole flash deal was poorly executed. I managed to get 2 from cerebusdownloads and adjust KS pledge for 1. I thought I was paying attention but did not realize the KS was also a flash deal. Which is as foolish as it might be innovative...I lean toward foolish.

Here's the problem: both flash deals generated a certain ordering level. I ordered 2 from cerebusdownloads figuring it would be low numbering based on how confusingly the whole offer was being done. If this CDO issue is offered again, then I'll be irritated because the numbers will go up and contrary to the original offer. 24 hours, then sales close.

Same logic on the KS. Although now offense is two-factored: 1 because those backers are generating a lot of money and now have perceived incompleteness in the KS, 1 because something linked to the KS was not available via the KS. Poor decision, poor poor execution.

Stupid stupid stupid way to run a promotion. I don't see a way anyone involved can make things right for everyone; hopefully everyone involved learned a thing or two about doing these types of promotions (hint: avoid effing with the KS stuff).
As I said to Dave in my fax of these comments:
Excuse me while I go outside and scream at the full moon…

So, people apparently missed out on the post I did on Friday, that laid out the two versions, and ALSO missed out on the post I did on Saturday where you talked about the cover and your wrist and stuff (that ACTUALLY went up at 12:01AM your time/11:01PM MY time,), and AND ALSO the “every-hour-on-the-hour” (mostly) posts all day that had links and stuff…

*insert Charlie Brown “ARRGH!” here*

Okay, so what’s a guy whose policy is “100% Satisfaction Guaranteed” supposed to do now?

My first thought was “Offer the other cover to anyone who bought the first cover and wants it”. On an either way basis, Kickstarters can get the Downloads, Downloads can get the Kickstarter. “And you’re the little abbess that cries down the lane…”

Doesn’t work: Who’s paying for all these books? You? The Waverly Press? The individual backers who have already given money?

Second thought: print more of the uncensored version, and offer it to the Kickstarter people at a *slight* discount

Doesn’t work: You committed to ONLY 54 copies, so Downloads people will cry “Havoc” and be bitchy.

Third thought: Basically, the second thought modified. Print the 25 copies for the Cerebus Archive, PLUS copies for the Kickstarters who want them, but they all get numbered out of “55 to whatever”, and they are ALL UNSIGNED only.

Fourth thought: I wonder if the dude who runs the blog about Marmaduke is retiring anytime soon…
Amber said:
I will wait until Monday, and if the fix isn't good enough I'm just pulling my money.

And:

TWP just posted this on Kickstarter "Dave sold his own variant without coordinating with us.". I wonder how true this is? I actually thought this was fixable but now I doubt it is. The attractive low production numbers would get all messed up. Seems like the best thing to do is cancle.

See above for my answer.

“Unknown” said:
The thing with this issue is there are two fan bases. I am hard-core Spawn, so I have not really followed Cerebus or the Cerebus websites as much. Cerebus fans do. So offering a version of the KS Spawn book on a Cerebus site misses half the audience. That is why a heads up since it IS a Spawn issue, to the Spawn fans who dont regularly check the Cerebus site or blog should have happened. I hope something can be done.

Again, your house. Megaphone. Maybe if the guy who runs the "A Moment of Spawn" blog touched base more often... 

And then our old “friend” “Anonymous” said:
Only thing that needs to be done here is fill the orders placed on the 31st, and not offer any more at all, leave it as is. Yeah it's a bit of messed up communication here and there, but it adds to the limited nature of the item "the almost secret limited version nobody knew about". This Spawn 10 campaign has 17 books to it now. Don't fix anything, leave orders closed and move to the next one. Lets have a Dave does Spawn left handed cover.

I mean, it's a fair point. At this point you could do a twenty-four page book of Spawn #10 covers... 

And on Oliver’s Sunday column, where I ended with “Next Time: Grandma got run over by a Hellspawn, coming home late on Halloween”,
“Unknown” said:
Are you saying the uncensored Spawn 10 will be available again? Or was this just a wrap up of events. Its says 12:01 am -12 on November 1st and I didn't see anything during that time.
No. I meant that I'd be talking about this. The first post CLEARLY stated: "between 12:01 OCT 31 and 12:01 NOV 1 at cerebusdownloads.com." for the UN-censored version, and "The HALLOWEEN VARIANT bundle will be available for only 24 hours on October 31st, starting at 12:01 am EST tonight and ending at 11:59pm" for the Kickstarter.
______________________________________
See, the thing I don't think people understood was the differences between the two covers.

So with help from "THE MOST SENSATIONAL CHARACTER FIND OF 2020" and my new friend from the 7th circle of Tokyo: Hell-Oh! Spawnee:
Copyright 2020 Matt Dow and Mouse Skull Entertainment
"But that's just two individual intellectual properties mashed together..."
Ah, but you missed the word balloon, that makes it a unique character. Like the difference between The Question and Rorschach...

...we'll look at the art without violating Dave's request of: 
NOTE - Please don't show the HALLOWEEN EDITION back cover on AMOC. You can show the GRANDMA EDITION back cover.


Here's the cover:

And here's the Backcover, so you can get an idea of the IMAGE:
Click for bigger

Click for bigger

NOTE: HELL-OH! SPAWNEE IS NOT ON THE G__ D____ COVER, I USED HER TO COVER UP THE CONTROVERSIAL TEXT! SO NO BITCHIN' WHEN YOU DON'T SEE HER THERE IF/WHEN YOU GET ONE!!!

See, there's gonna be a big ass cape. And hell?

And here's the cover/backcover text for the "Censored-For-Grandma" version:


Everybody see how it's the SAME DAMN COVER?!?

Maybe calm the @$%& down, huh?

Anyway, after sending all that to Dave, here's his response:

There ya go!

If the people who *couch* didn't snooze *cough* are cool with it, there will be a second offering. And if they're NOT cool with it...

Hey where are you @$$holes going with them torches and pitchforks?

Next Time: Hell-Oh! Spawnee takes Pawnee! (Somebody get the owners of Parks & Recreation on the phone...)

19 comments:

Brian West said...

Thank you, Manly!

Anonymous said...

Quite the read. So, say I ordered two of the Grandma versions from ks during the time slot, can I trade out one of those for the other edition somehow so I still got two during the 24 hour time, but one is uncensored and one is grandma? I would be cool with that if it's at all possible.

Mouse Skull Entertainment said...

Anonymous,

I... don't know... I'll look into it...

Manly

Amber said...

Pledge pulled. It's not worth the hassle now. Next time don't sell things on a different site at the same time you do a Kickstarter. Maybe we could have gotten Dave's response sooner if the blog guy wasn't wasting everyones time with this unfunny post. These comments are for Dave not you replaceable blog guy.

Mouse Skull Entertainment said...

Amber,

I'll bring it up at my next performance review.

Manly Matt Dow
Interim Editor
A Moment of Cerebus

Jake said...

Nice one Matt. You are so funny, and edgy.

Brian West said...

Manly, thanks again for all that you do here. The attention to detail, and the good humor, make the blog what it is today. God willing, an equitable solution will arise out of this situation, one where nearly everyone will be satisfied with the result. Only time will tell.

Funny that Election Night came a day early here. Who would have thunk?!

Fumerkeys said...

Hi. Well, sorry this turned into pitchforks and brimstone. Nice link to the Spawn movie there. I will gladly purchase an uncensored one if you do offer it again. I understand the number rarity. In the end I believe it would still be rarity even with a 2nd offering. Yes it's the same cover and like you said the text is different. To me and some others that is a variant. There are Spittin Image comics that all have the same cover, but there are four back cover variations and people collected all of those. I think five Spawn Image Firsts, again with only different ads on the back. I get all of this. For me personally I am a Spawn completeist that has worked hard for 27 years to have every variation of the entire series. It now includes his version of #10. I buy to keep, not to resell and it goes back into the hobby if I do. So this represents a hole and an jncomplete collection, at least to me. Likely sounds stupid to some people. Completeists tend to be a little obsessive. Either way, I hope you release a handful more. I didn't know about your site or comment on it until I heard murmuring elsewhere of a different version and I ended up here after searching it. In my case I didn't know about this site, so the posts leading up to the sale here are something I never saw until after the sale when I saw something about a downloads version. Anyway, I never thought of cancelling my pledge at any point. I want to support. And now I am aware of the site and will follow along to see whats up in Cerebus land.

Larry Wooten said...

I would normally go with if you missed it, you missed it. It happens all the time, right?
However, I look at this as a way for the Cerebus Team to make some more sales and sales means money.
I like the limited, low print run of the two copies I ordered. Not going to sell the extra. I just like having a second rare whatever when I can because you never know.
I vote yes to allowing more to be sold.
I also would like to make the suggestion of a little something for the Cerebus Download orders that would give them a special nod for giving up their low numbered specialness. I suggest that each of the original copies ordered from Cerebus Downloads comes with a Hell-Oh! Spawnee cloisonné pin with glow in the dark eyes. Yeah!!! Hell-Oh! Spawnee!!! Available only to them with no crying latter. You got your variant. We got Hell-Oh! Spawnee.

Brian West said...

Hi, Unknown! Thanks for sharing your story here. Welcome to “Cerebusland.” Thanks for your interest.

Mouse Skull Entertainment said...

Unknown: we like to have fun around here...

So, do you have the capital city Spawn collection of issues 1-3?

I also got issues 1 and 2 in Turkish.

Just wondering,

Larry: let me see how much these pins are gonna cost Ye ol' long suffering Edit-Man...
I mean Hell-Oh! Spawnee is probably gonna end up at the AMOC Tee Public shop.

But your solution interests me...

Manly

Anonymous said...

Good work sliding in the baby page, I think it fits in really well.

Fumerkeys said...

Hello, I do have the Capital City Collection and while I have a lot of foreign language versions, I havent tracked down any from Turkey. Between the regular Spawn, the 10 KS, and whk knows maybe a 2nd offering, he internation stuff got putnon hold. I need to win tye lottery or something. My name is Peter btw. I keep trying to post with my google account and it comes up unknown. Maybe I need to sign up somewhere. Though I like yhe shroud of mystery.

Fumerkeys said...

Sorry for the typos. My thumbs are ridiculous.

You know who said...

Okay. As a relatively long-term, sometimes involved, often just observing reader here, I have, essentially, two thoughts. Well, three:

First, WTF?!?;

Second, these books are ridiculously overpriced (Thanks, Todd, for getting your share with little to no current contribution.);

Third, WHAT THE FUCK???!!!??? I mean, it's good and it's fun and maybe Dave needs a new house or a better home-health aide (by gum!), but, I mean, "C,mon,man!"

Just sayin'. Do your worst.

Steve Gouge said...

Hello, I am here to beg you all that ordered the Halloween edition on CerebusDownloads.com to VOTE YES! to allowing a few more to be made of this version for us completists that missed out on it.
Please please please vote YES!!
Or if any of you ordered more than one copy, please reach out to me as I am in desperate need of one to finish my collection. I plan to get everything offered from the Spawn 10 KS and this being offered here instead flew under the radar. :( I will gladly trade one of the KS Halloween versions for it. Or something else you may be after.
I proposed that whoever was there to purchase the KS version, be allowed to order a copy of the CerebusDownload version, or vise versa. But it seems like it will come down to the votes of YES instead. So at the suggestion of Dave S. I am here to beg to get the YES votes out there so I may add this to my collection. Limiting it to those that ordered the KS version, would still keep the book very limited.

al said...

Wake me up when reasonably priced hardcovers of all the (hopefully remastered) phone books are available...

Jeff said...

Amen.

Damian T. Lloyd, Esq. said...

I'm with Al and Jeff.

-- D.