Spawn

[Redruum]

I followed Spawn religiously throughout the 90s, and really loved the writing, story telling, and drawing. I can recall always sitting in my room tucked in my closet with a flashlight reading it. I stopped at issue 100, when he killed Malbolgia, did anyone follow the series beyond issue 100? Was it any good? Is it worth going back and picking up? Thanks.

[Parch]

Best to ask the Spawn fans on the Image board.

Whenever I've looked at a random Spawn issue I've thought it looked pretty damn cool. I really should give it try. Seems to be an under appreciated title with a niche following.

[shaxper]

Seems to be an under appreciated title

How do I apply to transfer to whatever corner of the world you are living in? Seems to me like there were entire years where you couldn't get away from Spawn, even outside of the comic industry. To this day, it seems like 9 out of 10 people who stopped collecting comics at the end of the '90s still list Spawn as their favorite character. I'd go so far as to call him one of the most overrated characters in all of comicdom, created by absolutely the most overrated creator in all of comicdom.

Not that I have anything against Spawn at all, but, like those damn songs that they play on the radio once an hour until its positively ingrained in your head, I absolutely resent the level of over-exposure it received.

However, I absolutely do have something against Todd McFarlane, but I don't think you want to see me go off on that rant. It gets scary and things get thrown

[Parch]

Fair enough. Even though I'm an old fart, I wasn't into comics during the 90's. I don't know what the hype was back then. From what I see most comics from the 90's get dumped on, especially Image, and it's not my favorite era either.

Spawn must be doing something right to survive this long, but I never see much talk about it. Seems niche to me. The artwork from recent titles is pretty damn impressive and that's what tweaked my interest.

[Greg Anderson]

The stories between 100-149 were extremely hit and miss. I was a fan of them monthly but when I tried to re-read everything as a whole years later, it was a huge struggle. There were some gems, but they were FAR too few compared to that whole era as a whole. David Hine came in on 150 till he had to rush his ending at 184. Hine's run was very damn good and considered by many to be the best of the series or one of the best. The series after Hine's run seems to be a mixed bag. As a Spawn fan for YEARS, I finally dropped the book as I felt it got poor.

[Jezebel Bond]

I can recall always sitting in my room tucked in my closet with a flashlight reading it.

I just have to ask why you chose to read your comics that way?

[Scott Harris]

Spawn must be doing something right to survive this long, but I never see much talk about it. Seems niche to me. The artwork from recent titles is pretty damn impressive and that's what tweaked my interest.

Well, I think both you and shaxper are correct here. Spawn in the 90's was one of the most ubiquitous titles in comics. Not only was it Image's top selling book, it had an HBO cartoon series and a live action, big budget feature film.

However, nowadays it's very much a niche book. Part of that is just that comics have less readers than they used to, but Spawn in particular has taken an epic nosedive in popularity. Here's a comparison for you: Spawn #1 sold nearly 2 million copies. Of course, a lot of that was speculation, but it was still pretty much one of if not the best selling comics being published throughout the 90's. For instance, in August, 1995 -- a random month with a random issue, #35 -- Spawn was the top selling book in America.

Contrast this to sales from this past October, 2012: Spawn #224 ranked 138th on the sales chart with 17,759 copies sold. That puts it behind books like Masters of the Universe: Origin of Skeletor, Adventure Time and Ami-Comi Girls, which is a series based on an anime-inspired line of DC action figures. So... yeah. I think that counts as niche these days.

[shaxper]

Contrast this to sales from this past October, 2012: Spawn #224 ranked 138th on the sales chart with 17,759 copies sold. That puts it behind books like Masters of the Universe: Origin of Skeletor, Adventure Time and Ami-Comi Girls, which is a series based on an anime-inspired line of DC action figures. So... yeah. I think that counts as niche these days.

I'd always assumed that the remaining readership was just die-hard fans from the old days -- the ones that still think Punisher and Carnage are two of the world's greatest comic book characters.

[adam_warlock_2099]

I've read a few issues strictly for my interest in the character Angela. I didn't read them at the time they were popular as that kind of devil's work wouldn't have been allowed in my house. I read the Angela mini after I moved out and have most of her appearances in Spawn, but for some reason nothing has prompted me to read more, despite the fact that it did, of what I've seen, have some impressive art. I think McFarlane's art is best suited for monsters and demons, as his human faces look downright bizarre. I also like Capula's (sp?) work as well.

That reminds me I don't have the Angela cover edition of Spawn #100

McFarlane's quality action figures of Spawn at the time where the superior quality that most of that time didn't have. I would say it's a standard that was set then, that is more of a norm now. I didn't read much Spawn but I had quite an impressive collection of McFarlane studio action figures because they are a quality that not many others had at the time.