Todd McFarlane returns for the mammoth 200th issue of ‘Spawn’
If we flashback to May of 1992, you would discover comic book frenzied over an Independent comic which just vanished from shops all over America: “Spawn.” Spawn’s creator, Todd McFarlane, had reached a pinnacle of popularity after a stint on “The Amazing Spider-Man” where he created the now popular super-villain Venom. The run continued with a stand alone series, “Spider-Man”, which fans equally devoured.
Now, nearly twenty years later, long after many of those shops in Tampa have long shut their doors, McFarlane will be churning out the 200th issue of “Spawn.”
After a motion picture, tons of merchandise and an animated series, Spawn endures and McFarlane will return to oversee this issue personally. From an interview with Newsrama this summer:
“It’s a couple of things. There’s a big fun factor in terms of getting to get back in the pilot’s chair for Spawn by writing, penciling and inking. And then being able to do finishes and inking over guys that I’ve known but haven’t had much chance to work with before like Michael Golden and Jim Lee has been fun. Although Jim and I were partners at Image for years, we were each doing our own books and never had time to work together. With Marc Silvestri, it’s the same thing. All of these guys I’ve hung out with, but we were both so busy that we didn’t have the chance to have fun with each other like this until Spawn #200.”
The list of contributors is longer than the line for “Spawn #1” outside of Merlins Comics back in 1992.
Michael Golden, Jim Lee, Rob Liefeld, Marc Silvestri, Ashley Wood, David Finch, Greg Capullo and Robert Kirkman all composed the list of creators for the milestone issue.
“I’d talked about collaborating with some of them for years, but it wasn’t until I had the special 200th issue that it became easy to convince everybody. Anytime you’re working on these special numbered issues you’re more prone to have someone jump on-board; if it’s Spawn #200…” – Newsrama interview
While it’s been nearly two decades, Spawn fandom doesn’t appear to disappearing. The comic book vendors are no longer scattered throughout Tampa and the United States as it was during the heyday, but the fans are still present.
My first effort at “blogging” before it was called “blogging” was a Pop Culture, Comic Book column at CrazedFanboy.com.
A lot sure has changed since these days.
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Beginning in December of 2010, I began writing on Examiner.com, check out my articles there: http://www.examiner.com/comic-books-in-tampa-bay/brandon-jones
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