Spawnology - Origins
- Details
- Published on Monday, 04 June 2012 02:09
- Written by Andrenn
- Hits: 1283
Welcome one and all to a brand new article for the Comic Book Revolution. Spawnology is here and its here to stay! For anyone who knows me even the slightest bit, you know I am a huge Spawn fan. I have been reading Spawn for the last several years and it is the only title I have stuck with since I got back into comics since 2006. Spawnology is my tribute to Spawn, but before we get to the goods, let me talk a little bit about Spawn and why I love it.
For those of you unaware: Spawn is a long running Image comic, one of the first Image comics created by 1 of the 7 founders, Todd McFarlane. Spawn has been running since the 20 years it first started and is now one of the few independent comics to pass 200 issues. And that is not counting the tons of spin-off comics, cameos and team ups Spawn has had over the years.
Spawn has definitely been the most commercially successful Image Hero outside of comics. He had one film in 1997, an Emmy winning animated series, multiple video games and you are more likely to get a response when you bring up Spawn on the street than you would Witchblade or Savage Dragon. Spawn has made its mark both on comics and pop culture and has earned its place in comics history as one of the most successful comics of its generation.
Now where do I, Andrenn, fit into that equation? Simple. In the early 2000's a 10 year old kid and his friend rented the Spawn movie from Blockbuster. He watched that movie and instantly became a fan of the character and universe. He wanted to know everything there was about Spawn. He played the SNES game constantly, he read the comics, he even watched some of Season 2 of the animated series (which is in no way kid friendly nor do I recommend you show it to your children when looking for ways to stop them from crying.)
He was instantly a Spawn fan. He would take his bike over to the local comic shop every so often excited to see what was next for Spawn.
Then his comic shop closed, and the kid didn't read Spawn anymore. He did not watch the movie or the animated series. He just went on with his life. He kept Spawn in mind, but it wasn't until a few years later when he was a teenager that he remembered Spawn and randomly decided to go online to the Spawn website and see what his favorite hell born hero was up to.
It turned out Spawn had been up to a lot since he last read, and that Spawn had surpassed 150 issues! Spawn was just a little over 100 when he first read it. Now it was over 150? All the love he had for the series rushed back, so he and a friend looked through the phone book and found a local comic shop. They went downtown, the kid turned teenager found Spawn #158 and bought it right away.
The actual issue was right smack dab in the middle of the huge Armageddon arc and the teenager had no clue what was going on. Who was who, and why Spawn had bugs inside him. But he didn't care. He loved Spawn, and he loved that comic. He would visit the comic shop regularly to pick up the latest issue of Spawn. Then he'd check out other comics, until eventually he'd be writing a huge fanboy love letter for all the internet to see about how much he loved Spawn and what a huge nerd he is for the series that got him back into comics.
I feel I owe a lot to Spawn nowadays. For getting me to the comic shop in the first place, rather than just waiting for whatever comics my father would bring. Spawn encouraged me to buy my own comics and not just read Dad's. Then it got me back into the comic shop 6 years ago and I have not stopped buying comics since. I write for a great website, I get to talk to comic creators about their creations often and I owe it all to Todd McFarlane's creation.
Spawn also made me take note of other Image comics like Savage Dragon, Witchblade and Invincible. Reading old Spawn comics in the now out of print Spawn Collections made me want to read older issues of Savage Dragon and Shadowhawk. I would not be the huge Image fan I am today, with a podcast devoted all to Image comics (check it out sometime) if not for Spawn. Spawn made me the comic fan I am today.
So that is why I am doing a series of articles all about Spawn, now what will these articles be like, I hear you ask in Internet Land.
Spawnology is a pun of course, on Chris Sims being a Batmanologist. I am a Spawnologist, I know, I love, all things Spawn. Of all the comics out there Spawn is the one I know most well and am the biggest fan of. So as I said earlier this is essentially a tribute. Me taking a look at McFarlane's creation and everything that has to do with it.
I will talk about the creators who worked on Spawn, the characters, the story arcs, the spin-off comics, the movie, the cartoons, the video games, the board game, the team ups and crossovers and every thing in between. Its my all encompassing Spawn tribute. If its Spawn, chances are pretty high I'll talk about it eventually.
If you are interested in the Spawn series but do not want to just wait around for my non-scheduled series of articles to educate you, check out the fantastic Spawn fan site SPAWNWORLD which is a great database about all things Spawn that long time fan can spend ours looking through, and that newbies interested in can check out for all things Spawn to be revealed to you.
Welcome to Spawnology, readers. It is going to be a fun ride.
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Andrenn got back into comics years ago with a random issue of Spawn. From there he was hooked and a couple years later he had to share his thoughts with the world at his old blog New Age Comics with Andrenn. Now a huge Image fan and a horror geek, Andrenn writes for the Comic Book Revolution. You can follow Andrenn's ramblings and thoughts from the links below.
Twitter: @Andrenn
Formspring: Andrenn
Image