Spawn

[genesis]

I love Spawn's current run never read it before the Armageddon arc, but I absolutely love it now. My only regret is because i don't get comics weekly anymore I still haven't gotten issue 175 and it disappoints me after how great 174 was.

[Netley]

No Chapel is long gone and so is the concept that he killed Al Simmons. This really came to a head with the release of the movie. Since Rob owned Chapel's rights Todd decided to change the killer because either (a) he and Rob could not agree on financial terms or (b) he was too cheap to pay him. I would think the later.

Jessica Preist was a government operative that was on the mission with Al and she pulled the trigger that killed him. Ultimately it was Jason Wynn that made the call. Long confusing story but we are over 100 issues past that so it is no longer a concern.

Issue #176 should be out in the next couple of weeks - I would encourage you to give it a try.

So "Chapel" was replaced by "Priest." Hilarious! So ultimately Al Simmons can't escape religion, even in a copyright-motivated-retcon haha!

[Greg Anderson]

So "Chapel" was replaced by "Priest." Hilarious! So ultimately Al Simmons can't escape religion, even in a copyright-motivated-retcon haha!

Hahaha! :D

[Greg Anderson]

I love Spawn's current run never read it before the Armageddon arc, but I absolutely love it now. My only regret is because i don't get comics weekly anymore I still haven't gotten issue 175 and it disappoints me after how great 174 was.

Damn, son....I feel your pain, I really do. :( You're missing out on some non-stop gunslinging Spawny action, my dude!!!! :(

[michaeljsmith]

So "Chapel" was replaced by "Priest." Hilarious! So ultimately Al Simmons can't escape religion, even in a copyright-motivated-retcon haha!

Yes, I think they did the best they could to try and and stay as true to the original concept from the beginning when Spawn was drawn to a church and he thought it was "Chapel" and it turned out to be "Priest".

...from what I understand Chapel become some evil lord of Hell through Youngblood as he was about to die from AIDS and then killed himself and made a deal with a devil ---> LEIFELD, original idea.

[Netley]

Yes, I think they did the best they could to try and and stay as true to the original concept from the beginning when Spawn was drawn to a church and he thought it was "Chapel" and it turned out to be "Priest".

Makes sense, it's just also funny. Tony Twist was something/someone too (sports star that sued Todd for name-usage?) Poor Todd didn't have much luck with name copyrights. He was safe with Maelbolgia because no one could figure out how to spell it.

...from what I understand Chapel become some evil lord of Hell through Youngblood as he was about to die from AIDS and then killed himself and made a deal with a devil ---> LEIFELD, original idea.

Ahh, Liefeld. You gotta love the guy. (I still have his run of X-Force and a mint-condition Youngblood #1 somewhere.) I vaguely remember the Chapel plot your talking about. There were actually some pretty cool Chapel Vietnam solo stories of him from those early Image days. Not from Strikefile, but something like that.

[michaeljsmith]

Makes sense, it's just also funny. Tony Twist was something/someone too (sports star that sued Todd for name-usage?) Poor Todd didn't have much luck with name copyrights. He was safe with Maelbolgia because no one could figure out how to spell it.

Honestly Spawn succeeded inspite of Todd not necessarily because of Todd. That being said he might have sold his soul to Maelbolgia because he was able to market the heck out of the title.

Ahh, Liefeld. You gotta love the guy. (I still have his run of X-Force and a mint-condition Youngblood #1 somewhere.)

I prefer to not admit to anything with Liefeld's name associated with it... then again I know millions feel the same about McFarlane.

[Netley]

I prefer to not admit to anything with Liefeld's name associated with it... then again I know millions feel the same about McFarlane.

I don't think I'd ever read something by Liefeld now (other than for nostalgia's sake), but McFarlane was and is an incredible artist. I think lots of the resentment towards him is because he stopped friggin drawing after making a $#!+load of money. And he made the money off of people who like his drawings.

I would love, LOVE a Spawn/Spider-Man crossover drawn by McFarlane and written by Bendis!!!

[bookguy]

I used to read Spawn in every 50 issues or so up to # 150, and then monthly until the end of the Armaggeddon storyline by David Hine # 163(or 164).

After that the series became even more depressionly morbid than it usually was.

Anyway, correct me IF I'm wrong, but we do live in North America (I live in Canada) where it's in our constitutional right to express our opinions (good or bad).

If the writers / editors / artists (and whomsoever) reads these posts, often do so, to use such criticisms to improve their storytelling (if any is needed).

If someone doesn't like a certain post, then they can just scroll on down and ignore it.

Telling people NOT to post just because they don't like it (or otherwise) is stepping on their birth-given rights to express their opinions (right or wrong) in this country.

We can ALL agree to disagree. :D

I see they cancelled SPAWN: GODSLAYER. Too bad, I like that title. :(

[michaeljsmith]

I used to read Spawn in every 50 issues or so up to # 150, and then monthly until the end of the Armaggeddon storyline by David Hine # 163(or 164).

Anyway, correct me IF I'm wrong, but we do live in North America (I live in Canada) where it's in our constitutional right to express our opinions (good or bad).

I welcome the opinions - good or bad about the title. If somebody doesn't like the book and has an educated opinion why other than "it sucks" then I would love to hear from that person. All I have ever asked is that you give it a chance and have had read an issue.

I see they cancelled SPAWN: GODSLAYER. Too bad, I like that title. :(

Please don't even get me started on that cancellation. The book was like nothing else in the market when you look at the art and the content. Most books you can understand why they lose readership... this one has me speachless.

[jesse_custer]

Best Spawn story I've read: the team-up with Houdini in issues 19 and 20.

[flashdisk]

David posted an exclusive at Newserama! http://forum.newsarama.com/showthrea...145856&page=18

Here it is!

David Hine


You guys are so active on this thread, I thought I'd throw you a small exclusive. The Greek publishers of Spawn are putting out Gunslinger as a special double-issue and the editor asked me to write a few words for a new introduction:

Gunslinger Spawn: Introduction for Greek Edition
David Hine – 13th March 2008


After the success of the one-shot ‘Mandarin Spawn’, my editor, Brian Haberlin, suggested more specials based on Spawn action figures. It’s unusual to write a story based on a toy, but when the toys are as cool as the McFarlane action figures, you can’t help but be inspired. A few days after talking to Brian I was in the Forbidden Planet store in London with my 12-year-old son and he spotted the 12-inch Gunslinger. One look was enough. The lean, mean, gun-toting Hellspawn, in his tattered coat and tall hat, was the scariest thing I’ve seen in a long time. The figure was actually based on a single panel from Spawn 119 by Angel Medina, depicting dozens of Spawns from across history. Apart from that one brief appearance, nothing had ever been written about him, so I had a blank slate.

I started to think about Westerns and I knew I wanted to write about the kind of mayhem and destruction that happens to a small town in the movie ‘High Plains Drifter,’ directed by and starring Clint Eastwood. I also wanted to tie it in to Al Simmons’ ancestry. So what would Al’s ancestors be doing in the frontier period of American history? The logical choice for Al’s great grandfather was to make him a Buffalo Soldier. After the American Civil War, with slavery abolished, cavalry regiments were set up specifically for black soldiers. As I began researching the history of the Buffalo Soldiers I came across an event that looked like the starting point for our story. In 1881, in San Angelo, after a black soldier was murdered by a local man, around 70 Buffalo Soldiers shot up the local saloon and afterwards, several of those soldiers went on the run.

From that incident, the story you’re about to read unfolded. Most of what you’ll see in the following pages is authentic. I read half a dozen books on the American West and several on the Buffalo Soldiers, including letters written by the soldiers to family and friends. The voice of Henry Simmons is taken from those letters. Comments attributed to characters in the story are also culled from contemporary accounts. This was a period when all black people in the USA faced racism on a daily basis. Here’s what a white cavalry officer’s wife had to say about the ‘coloured regiment’ in 1872: “The officers say that the negroes make good soldiers and fight like fiends. They certainly manage to stick on their horses like monkeys.” I adapted that line for the story. The soldiers’ declaration on Page 3 of the story, is taken almost word-for-word from the actual declaration made by the soldiers of the 10th cavalry. Although the town of Bane is fictitious, its location and background reflect the silver-mining communities of Colorado during the period. Everything about the story is authentic… except perhaps the part where a representative from Hell named Mammon brings a dead man back to life as a Hellspawn.

I deliberately scripted this story like a movie and the second half of the story delivers all the vengeful violence of a spaghetti western. The art team on this book did an amazing job. Bing Cansino and Geirrod Van Dyke are relative newcomers, but their teamwork created a Spawn story that stands with the best art the character has ever seen. Veteran Spawn artist, Greg Capullo painted two of his greatest covers for the series and also had a hand in laying out the art.

I hope you enjoy reading this story as much as we did creating it.

In the words of Gunslinger Spawn: “Let the killing commence…”

[Greg Anderson]

Best Spawn story I've read: the team-up with Houdini in issues 19 and 20.

Ugh. I couldn't get into that at all. Thought it was crap.

[michaeljsmith]

Ugh. I couldn't get into that at all. Thought it was crap.

The beauty of comics - one man's crap is another man's work of art. Personally I do struggle through much of the early Spawn issues now. I feel like they were good at the time bu the book and I have really grown up together and let's face it - you can't go back.

[Netley]

Best Spawn story I've read: the team-up with Houdini in issues 19 and 20.

Oh yeah, that was golden! Good call. If my memory serves correctly, those were Capullo's first issues, huh.