How SPAWN Changed Comic Books (Even Though It Sucks)

this video is brought to you by my patreon no seriously i hit a patreon goal where i had to make a video about spawn thanks to everyone that has supported me and made this video possible and now spawn so turn off your lights in the late 1980s artist todd mcfarlane exploded onto the comic book scene with his dark hyper-detailed superhero art alongside several other up-and-coming young artists macfarlane represented the new age of comic books and his art not only helped usher in an era of dark edgy superhero stories but also rode the massive financial wave of the speculator boom eventually mcfarland's popularity led to him debuting his own new spider-man title as writer and artist with spider-man number one selling a whopping 2.5 million copies in 1990 thanks to a media blitz variant covers and collectors hilariously thinking that owning a comic that had millions of copies in print would make them a millionaire it did however make mcfarland a millionaire and in 1992 mcfarland and six other high-profile comic book creators founded image comics as a place for their creator-owned books without ever needing to give up their rights and financial stake in the characters they made the publication launched with several high-profile ultra 90 series rob liefeld's youngblood eric larson's the savage dragon jim lee's wildcats but the image flagship would be todd mcfarlane's spawn spawn is the story of al simmons a mercenary who comes back from hell to be reunited with his wife only to be turned into a super-powered anti-hero caught in a war between the forces of good and evil but really the story of the hellspawn is the story of todd mcfarlane a superstar artist and writer who used his popularity and the booming comic book industry to help form a new publication and build a multimedia empire while entire publications floundered and ran out of money spawn may be most well known for its chains goo and 90's extremity but the impact of the right comic at the right time can't be understated even if the years haven't been kind to mcfarlane's signature creation as of this video's publication spawn has published more than 300 issues and become the longest running creator-owned comic book in history along the way it's produced an animated series a movie many video games and an entire toy company and from its massive debut through its constant ups and downs both creatively and financially spawn has changed the comic book industry even though it sucks spawn opens with our anti-hero already back from hell and trying to remember who and what he is and while the early issues of spawn peel back the curtain on al simmons now filled with power and seemingly doomed to be a soldier in malbolge's demonic army the primary directive of spawn's first 100 or so issues is brooding stumbling into fights demonic angst and definitely not moving the plot forward at all and this is the problem with spawn the comic its story is simultaneously the most and least important thing in the book while mcfarland had originally created the character when he was 16 years old spawn is very clearly a product of its time blend together a little dark knight returns batman a little spider-man a whole lot of venom who mcfarlane helped create and a dash of faust love of the damned with necrogu and chains the kids like chains in a hyper-violent 90s aesthetic and you have spawn to match his hero the world of spawn is kind of a cosmic gumbo filled with forces from both sides of the afterlife who see him as either an eternal enemy or an ally that must be controlled with violator and angela being the most iconic of its early issues besides its demons and angels the villains of spawn tend to fall into three categories big guys babes and dang ass freaks most often they're in the employ of the mob or shadowy government director jason nguyen which creates a strange blend of mythic forces and banal crime with mcfarland almost always leaning into the crime side seemingly out of a lack of knowing what to do with the bigger picture he and his collaborators had created but over the course of hundreds of issues mcfarland and company constantly reworked the spawn mythology over time secrets are revealed and then proved to be lies years later the world of spawn is given contradicting backstories the hierarchy of the afterlife is rearranged again and again characters careen between trusted allies and sworn enemies due to misunderstandings and spawn slowly gains more and more power as the supposed chosen one and my god is this book overwritten mcfarland fills the pages with walls of text detailing out every thought emotion and plot point in excruciating redundant detail often with dark knight returns inspired news talking heads reiterating exposition three times on a single page multiple times an issue elsewhere characters are rendered into motionless tableaus to allow the omniscient narration to fill the page as necessary even though it is rarely necessary this means that spawn has absolutely no narrative thrust of course not every superhero comic needs to have a grand overarching story but mcfarlane is constantly telling readers that something anything is going to happen at any moment only for nothing to ever happen will spawn discover that it was jason wynn who betrayed him will his ever lowering necroplasm counter hit zero will his special role in the war between heaven and hell be revealed will that supposed war ever actually happen yes but the answers will only come dozens sometimes even hundreds of issues after it should have for any of this to matter to the reader it's a funny dichotomy because spawn was founded on and continues to be successful because of how it looks not what its characters are saying or the mythology being haphazardly built in the early 90s you could see spawn and its similar breed as being edgy and even a little taboo within the larger world of comics the hero is tortured often covered in filth and kills the villains are remorseless and often grotesque the world is both literally and figuratively dark generally spawn's outlook is very grim not only is new york city a cesspool of rats disease and abuse at least in the canadian mcfarland's mind but spawn's larger mythology implies that every soul is a pawn in the larger war between heaven and hell the afterlife is an oppressive exploitative place with hell being a pit of writhing flesh and fire and heaven being a power mad bureaucracy living is pain death is torture existence itself seems pitted against those who exist all this points to the most frustrating element of the early spawn comics there is a larger world and plot available to mcfarland that's almost never utilized instead it's just our hero brooding in alleys and gangsters plotting for dozens of issues at a time whenever the larger mythology is actually put to use it's almost always written by someone other than the todd father and that happens a lot early on with the first 20 comics seeing macfarlane bring in a cavalcade of superstar riders to take over the book for a few issues at a time including alan moore neil gaiman frank miller and grant morrison it's clearly a tactic to bring some extra critical cachet to the title in its early days as well as back up mcfarland's public commitment to creator freedom at image and while each guest star would bring new ideas into mcfarland's world it would later get mcfarlane in hot water with gaiman suing the creator over the rights to the characters of angela cagliostro and medieval spawn who greatly expand the mythology over time mcfarlane would scale back his duties on the book drawing less and less due to his commitments to the larger spawn empire more on that later with mcfarland not drawing a single issue between number 50 and number 195 by issue 71 in 1998 mcfarland would co-write with brian holgwin and eventually stop writing entirely as he focused on the business of spawn only to come back to the title for good at issue 190 in 2009 when the comic was losing relevance but the book is simply better when he's not writing it more gaiman and morrison not only create the foundation of spawn's mythology in just a few issues they have much greater control over narrative structure than the art first mcfarlane under the pen of his creator spawn is mostly a passive protagonist he almost never seeks out the action that propels the comic almost every issue has some villain make their way into the alleys to either accidentally or purposefully target the character forcing him into action and drawing him out into other parts of the city you would think that a character as tormented and in need of answers as al simmons would be more proactive but he just isn't the result is that the plot moves like molasses through the first 100 issues yes i read them speaking of guest stars special note has to be made of issue 10 written by dave sims of cerebus fame the story has spawn travel to a sphere of hell that breaks the fourth wall as the comic depicts every character and creator who sold their rights to comic publishers as imprisoned bound and gagged it sims and mcfarland's ultimate statement on how they view their status in the industry filled with power because they own the rights to their characters as the heroes including superman give their power to spawn mcfarland illustrates that his creation is stronger than any hero because he is crater owned it's a very pretentiously depicted statement but it reveals mcfarland's beliefs and his intentions behind creating spawn and founding image your mileage regarding the success of this issue statement may vary on how much you agree but let's face it spawn's selling point during its heyday was its art the story of much of spawn is a conveyance to put macfarlane's creatures into dynamic moments it was mcfarland's unique contortionist approach to spider-man and his hyper-detailed violence that brought success to his early books and it's that same sensibility that attracted an audience to spawn the extreme detail the ragged cape the flailing chains the flat shadows contrasted against every line of detail the exaggerated faces the complex unorthodox panel structure it's that signature semi-cartoonish approach that is recognizably mcfarland and synonymous with spawn but that doesn't mean the creator doesn't care about his narrative it's pretty clear that he does just that there is a major disconnect between an author's passions and the main reason for his sales regarding his stepping away from art duties mcfarland said as a guy who is a self-confessed control freak giving up even a little bit of authority is very tough for me to do and because of that weakness i have i felt it was causing me to become lazy in terms of how i was drawing adding somebody new to the mix such as greg capullo would bring something new if the sole reason that you are buying this book is because of my artwork then i have failed in making spawn the character interesting with or without me uh oh todd thankfully capullo's art became as much of a selling point as mcfarland's had capullo is a lot darker gorier and more gothic than mcfarland's cartoony look it's an evolution of the spawn style that was set shadows nighttime hyper detail grime and gut-ripping action but capullo pushes it into darker territory overall spawn gets meaner grosser and bloodier as it goes along with mcfarlane reveling more and more in the viscera it seems like mcfarland became aware of what made him famous and felt the need to up the ante as the image approach infiltrated marvel and dc after decades of comics there have been many different artists on spawn but every contributors hyper detailed visions of hell on earth are a blast to look at even as the art changes to keep up with the times it's still the major selling point filtered through a lot of admittedly cool character designs add in a dash of consistently insane mythology and you have a book that can keep bringing loyal readers back and it's that loyalty that built an empire [Music] really the true cultural impact of spawn exists outside the comic book page first and foremost is spawn's ability to put image comics on the map having a host of super star artists defect from the big two and formed their own publication in what was known as the image revolution was enough to draw attention to image but having spawned debuted to 1.7 million copies sold meant the publisher couldn't be denied after that initial splash spawn's sales slowly shrunk but remained a top seller for years but like every book on the shelves spawn's numbers dropped when the comic book speculator bubble burst in 1993. all those holograms foil covers and limited editions weren't going to make collectors rich after all and when the jig was up people stopped buying but spawn's initial popularity on the printed page allowed mcfarland to transfer that power to a lot of other assets first was the toy line in 1994 initially named todd's toys and soon renamed mcfarland toys the company made its bones creating figures of basically every character that showed up in spawn and there are many different iterations soon the company became known for their high quality and extremely detailed productions which they parlayed into licenses with horror franchises anime musical acts and eventually even dc comics all the while mcfarlane has remained ceo the interrelationship between spawn the comic and spawn the toy sometimes resulted in reverse engineering with characters being made as a toy and then being introduced in the comic like saigor a cyborg gorilla with the brain of a man and of course all the different versions of spawn if you've thought of a spawn there's a toy of him it's not the first time a toy line has had media made for the sole purpose of promoting it famously masters of the universe were toys first and cartoon second and of course there's transformers but the intertwining of mcfarland's business as creator of both the comic and the toy business illustrates just how much the success of each was integral to the other no comic no toy line no toy line less investment in the comic meanwhile marvel comics was filing for bankruptcy and selling off their character rights to stay afloat the multimedia efforts under todd mcfarlane entertainment saw the debut of both the live-action spawn film and the hbo animated series in 1997. the film was a modest hit and blows but it's also one of the first films to star a black superhero and consider its position in the superhero movie timeline before blade before x-men before spider-man and still a more coherent satisfying storyline than the comic but more importantly todd mcfarlane spawned the animated series was a true critical success running for three seasons and 18 episodes like the film the animated series developed by alan mcelroy and not written by mcfarland at all is something of a pioneer as one of the first adult animated series in the united states yes there had been plenty of adult anime in the decades prior and a few shows like aeon flux and the max predate spawn but the show's a claim as part of the franchise and emmy win for outstanding animation program in 1999 said it as the crown jewel of the spawn empire and rightfully so with several contributors like producer eric radomski and composer shirley walker the animated series almost plays like an adult extrapolation of batman the animated series the show's entire tone leans hard into extreme moodiness deep shadows instead of hyper detailed gore is the focus of the animation here partially because of budget and unlike the overwritten prose of mcfarland's narration it's far quieter to create a darker less exaggerated take on the source material the cartoon is also so much more narratively tight even though it cuts back on the exposition spawn's new status quo as an undead soldier of hell and his powers are defined in the first episode his inherent tragedy is quickly laid out to the audience and each episode has a stronger narrative definition than any issue of the comic with al's push and pull between good and evil staying at the center here cogliostro acts as the narrator but the closest the series gets to the comics purple prose waxing rapsodic over the nature of heaven hell torment and love is mcfarland's live-action cameos at the beginning of each episode yes spawn is learning but all the while the black tentacles of evil are starting to spread and as you'll see hal is alive and well on earth all of these elements create the dark aesthetic that drew people to spawn but filter it through a much more focused lens of course the real star is keith david's incredible voice for the lead character you you go to your mommy now she'll take care of you you're gonna be all right now there were also plenty of spawn video games with five in the span of eight years and the title hero making guest appearances in other series along the way but alongside the rise of spawn the multimedia juggernaut came mcfarland's decreasing engagement in spawn the comic involvement in the film and the series were the cause of macfarlane ending his increasingly spotty position as illustrator at issue 50. all the while spawn would produce many different spin-off mini and ongoing series like violator angela curse of the spawn hellspawn the extremely dumb spawn batman crossover by frank miller batman says punk 11 times in this thanks for that frank another unrelated batman spawn crossover and many more comics looking to bring the story of spawn to more readers the spawn heyday was truly the 90s mcfarlane had become a multi-millionaire a fact made obvious when he bought mark maguire's 70th home run baseball for 3 million in 1999 but by the year 2000 plans for a movie sequel were scrapped the animated series had been cancelled and monthly comic sales were beginning to dip down to 50 000 copies sold more than a decade in the spawns run writer david hein would bring the long simmering narrative to a climax with the armageddon storyline only for mcfarland to reboot spawn's story over and over again to keep the comic going and boost sales in the meantime gaiman had won his lawsuit entitling him to several characters rights and plenty of royalties and a lawsuit by hockey player tony twist over illegal usage of his likeness and the character of a mob enforcer cost mcfarland millions of dollars the coffers of the spawn empire were running dry and the juggernaut that made that money possible was not what it used to be with each issue after number 200 selling less than 20 000 copies even though every anniversary would briefly rocket sales up by hundreds of thousands via spawn nostalgia in 2004 mcfarland productions filed for chapter 11 bankruptcy but the spawn story was far from over a lot has changed since the debut of spawn and its early heydays the comic industry went through a major collapse the image comics shared universe that spawn was part of is almost completely gone besides mcfarland's comic and larson's savage dragon and image has become a major player in the comic book world because of its many highly regarded independent series from a wide variety of creators the vision that mcfarland shared with his co-founders at the beginning of the 90s lives on but in a way they probably could have never predicted the edgy stories of spawn savage dragon youngblood and the max helped found the publication but couldn't be further from modern image successes like saga or monstrous and when image went through a partial breakup and diversification in the late 90s that saw many of its co-founders leave it was robert kirkman's smash hit the walking dead in the early 2000s that gave new life to the publication thanks to its crossover success and massive tv adaptation but that multimedia strategy is very much a perfected more successful modern version of what mcfarlane had done with spawn macfarlane's comic continued through all of these changes but was slowly transformed from company mascot to the weird little pet project of the image comics president that wouldn't quit and the reason for its longevity is mcfarland's investment even as sales numbers tanked the creator remained committed to his vision with a small but loyal set of readers coming back each month even with readership a fraction of what it used to be spawn was still profitable because of creator ownership at image likewise many comic creators today follow mcfarland's pattern of making a name for themselves at marvel and dc and then leaving to create their own independent comic their rights to most of the sales profits at companies like image and the ability to sell the ip to voracious movie and tv studios who gobble up every new comic book during today's comic book movie craze mean they can be financially stable in a comic book niche dominated by two major publishers who profit off creator ideas and pay them pennies on the dollar for what they made for them the steady profits from the comic and toys helped mcfarland productions exit bankruptcy in 2012. most recently mcfarland has ridden the wave of a spawn resurgence around issue 300 and its landmark numbering to boost sales up once again today spawn is the longest running independent comic book having passed dave sims cerebus with issue 301 and there's no sign of slowing down macfarlane debuted spawn's universe in 2021 which became image comic's top-selling number one issue of the past two decades and off the back of it spawn has quickly spun out multiple new ongoing series for an expanding universe of comic books with king spawn number one selling nearly half a million copies all the while mcfarland's global domination intentions remain the creator has promised maybe even threatened since 2015 to bring spawn back to the big screen with a film written directed and produced by him for blumhouse pictures with jamie foxx attached to star whether it will ever actually happen remains mystery and the same goes for the not one but two new animated series one for kids and one for adults that have been in limbo for years i guess there's something undeniable about mcfarland's signature creation a brooding figure of the dark caught in the never-ending push and pull between good and evil even when his entire world changes or he is usurped by a white guy al simmons hell-powered chain rattling dark adventures speak to the unabashed comic book fan in all of us wait am i becoming a spawn fan no like its title heroes seemingly ever-shrinking but never-ending necroplasm counter the cultural cachet of spawn has been slowly draining for decades but it never runs out and just when you think you can count out mcfarland and his hellspawn there's just enough juice to power a massive comeback i may not believe in the quality and importance of spawn as a character and comic book but mcfarlane always has and that belief isn't just infectious it's powerful enough to have permanently changed the comic book industry [Music] thanks for watching today's video and a special thanks to all of my patrons that helped make this spawn video possible or more accurately forced me to make the spawn video but a promise is a promise and here's your spawn video i really did actually have a lot of fun making this spawn video even though i've been very loudly critical of the comic for a very long time and after reading more than 100 issues of the comic watching the animated series re-watching the movie and doing tons of research i can still honestly say that i think spawn sucks but the story behind it and its influence is so fascinating and combine that with the support from all of my patrons and it really made this a fun time i can't deny it spawn's a pretty good time it's really dumb it's gross it doesn't go anywhere it has no story its characters are cardboard cutouts it's only about the art even the art isn't really that much my taste in art but i still had fun with spawn there you have it i'm not a spawn fan i promise but if you're a spawn fan good for you this video was also made in conjunction with my good friend and fellow youtuber diego rivera's spawntemper so if you'd like more spontacular content head over to diego's channel because he's having a spawn video come out every week during september he's a brave man now that i've hit my patreon goal i will be deciding on my next patreon goal which will be something similar to this which will probably be forcing me to make another video when i hit 200 patrons i'll be taking suggestions on my patreon and probably putting up a poll sometime soon but i will be having all patrons be the official deciders of that goal and if you'd like to have a hand in one of these videos please support me on patreon it's only a dollar a month for early access to every video and exclusive reviews and until the next video i hope that you're all doing well staying safe taking care of one another and keeping your necroplasm counters high see you again soon

Channel: Matt Draper

Views: 148,914

Keywords: spawn comic book, todd mcfarlane spawn, history of spawn, spawn explained, history of image comics, origin of spawn, history of mcfarlane toys, king spawn sales, mcfarlane gaiman lawsuit, spawn movie, spawn animated series, image comics spawn, spawn toys history, spawn violator, spawn sales, mcfarlane toys, mcfarlane productions, legacy of spawn, spawn alan moore, spawn batman comic, al simmons death, spawn origins, spawn comic review, spawn animated review, spawn game

Id: X4Zv8Ao8opc

Length: 24min 5sec (1445 seconds)

Published: Wed Sep 15 2021