EXTRAS - SPAWN 101: A BRIEF SPAWN HISTORY LESSON
Spawn's history starts years before the character's first issue even saw print. Drawing from a young age, Todd McFarlane created the character of Spawn at the age of 16. While the overall look and design approach would change before the character's official debut over a decade later in 1992, McFarlane had the rough idea and concept for Spawn already planned out.
McFarlane enjoyed superstar status among comic fans during the 1980s and early 1990s, thanks to his work on Batman, The Incredible Hulk and, most especially, Spider-Man for both DC Comics and Marvel Comics. McFarlane's run on Spider-Man was a sales sensation, with the launch of his Spider-Man comic selling 1.7 million copies. His take on the character also introduced a new visual approach to Spider-Man's depiction. This included bigger, more emotive eyes on the character's mask, and exaggerated movements and poses, among other flourishes. McFarlane also co-created Venom, one of Spider-Man's most popular foes and one of Marvel's biggest characters. McFarlane's subsequent break with Marvel, over creative dissatisfaction, and the formation of Image Comics was considered a sea-change event, changing the way in which comics were produced and how creators were compensated for their own creations and intellectual property.
Spawn was a massive hit immediately upon the comic's debut in 1992. During that time, comic book collecting was experiencing a marked upswing, fueled by the speculator boom and resellers looking for the next hot book, and Spawn was considered exactly that. The first issue of Spawn was a smash hit, eventually selling over 1.7 million copies (like Spider-Man). While the series was occasionally criticized for pacing issues and clunky dialogue, Spawn received wide-spread acclaim for its flashy and detailed visuals, gritty tone and novel plot concepts and ideas. Multiple publications would eventually come to be consider Spawn one of the greatest comic characters ever created.
Spawn's story follows Al Simmons, a CIA operative who dies in the field but cuts a deal with the demonic Malebolgia in the afterlife so he can see his wife again. He agrees to become a Hellspawn and lead Hell's army into Heaven, kick-starting Armageddon and ending all life as we know it. However, upon his return to the living, Al realizes he's been tricked and was sent back years after his death, with nearly everyone in his life either gone or moved on. He also discovers that while he's been imbued with unimaginable power, his body he become an undead husk, twisted and mangled beyond all recognition and resembling a corpse wrapped in a red cloak. Realizing the betrayal, Al swears vengeance and sets out to dismantle the omnipresent forces and conspirators controlling his life.
Despite the dip in sales over the years, common for any ongoing series, Spawn remained the top-seller for Image Comics. It was also one of the few titles launched during the 1990s that was able to maintain high sales numbers despite not being headlined by an established mainstream character, such as Spider-Man or Batman (and so on). Considered the unofficial "mascot" (for lack of a better term) of Image Comics due to the character's overwhelming popularity and top-selling status for the publisher, Spawn would even eventually meet Batman in Image Comics' first-ever crossover with DC Comics. Despite the volatile comic market, Spawn remained a persistent Top Ten seller for most of the 1990s and even inspired multiple spin-off comic series throughout the years. A loyal fanbase and continued interest in the character have kept Spawn a strong performer in the comic market for over three decades.
Spawn's growing popularity back in the 1990s can also be partially attributed to the debut, quick growth and widespread popularity of McFarlane Toys. Spearheaded by Spawn's creator, the outfit produced action figures and figurines based not just on Spawn, but also eventually characters from major comic book publishers, movies, video games, sci-fi and fantasy franchises, along with wrestlers, celebrities, and so on. This helped McFarlane's burgeoning toy line expand beyond specialty shops into major department stores, including Toys "R" Us, Walmart and Target, among others. The line was, and still is to this day, credited for its high detail and quality and price point, and introducing the toy collector market to the Spawn comic and universe.
The popularity of the franchise peaked with the 1997 Spawn feature film. Despite being hyped as a "special effects extravaganza," the poorly-reviewed film was only a mild commercial success which failed to kick-off a successful franchise based on the character. Still, the film's soundtrack was one of the year's best-selling and reviewed titles and, even with the film's middling performance, Spawn comics at the time did experience a significant sales boost thanks to interest in the film. Spawn also appeared in a host of video games throughout the decade, each performing to varying levels of success. The Todd McFarlane's Spawn animated series, which debuted earlier in 1997, was an award-winning and high-rated performer on HBO, and ran for three seasons until 1999.
There have been repeated attempts in the decades following to get further Spawn-inspired movie, television and animation projects off the ground, but none took hold. McFarlane maintains an assortment of projects are at assorted stages of early development.
Spawn, both the comic and the character, saw a significant surge in popularity as the title approached its 300th issue in 2019, which marked Spawn as the longest-running independent comic book series of all-time. That issue, along with issue #301 and the special Spawn's Universe #1, kick-started an expansion exercise for the Spawn comic book universe, introducing a wealth of new characters and Spawn variants from across different time periods, along with a batch of new comic titles exploring said growing universe. This marked the biggest ever expansion of the Spawn comic line, and brought in some of the biggest sales for Image Comics in decades, with some Spawn titles - such as Spawn's Universe and King Spawn - selling over 500, 000 copies.
Further expansion plans for both the Spawn universe and comic franchise are in various stages of production, including more multi-media ventures and projects - both animated and live-action, among other forms of media - and continued growth of the Spawn comic line.
Updated in 2022
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