eat.sleep.geek.

Well here we go again with another edition of It’s new to me, where I will admit to the world that I missed out on something cool the first time around and only now have gone to the trouble of picking it up. This time around it’s Todd McFarlane’s Spawn.

The reason I picked Spawn was after years of being out of print, a collection of the first 6 issues came out and all for only $14.99, how can I say no to that. Now until I had read the comic all I had to go on was what people had told me about Spawn, the movie (kinda sucked), the HBO run (97-99) of Todd McFarlane’s Spawn (pretty cool) and the PlayStation one game Spawn the Eternal (worst game ever). So going into this I had great praise from fans a cool cartoon, and my love of comics, on the other side I had a shitty movie and one of the worst video games i have ever played/owned (actually I still own it) so it was about a 50/50 split on whether I was going to like this or not.

For all of you who don’t know Spawn was released way back in 1992 and when it hit shelves it was one of a kinda and as the back cover tells me “one of the most successful independent comic book ever published” this wasn’t your typically hero (he’s a anti-hero)  Al Simmons (Spawn) was a good man who did bad things for his country and after a deal made in hell comes back from the dead, for the 90’s this was huge. This would have been the type of thing I would I have loved as a kid if my parents would have let me have stuff like this (which they didn’t).

So first off I want to point out that unlike other comics from the early 90’s the art work isn’t nearly as dated an example would be Chris Claremont’s X-Men Forever Alpha which brought us issues 1-3 from back in 91 and while it was awesome to read the art really looked dated. Not so much with Spawn, there are moments where it seems dated but these are overshadowed by the detail of characters like Spawn and Violator in battle. Next the story well I love it even 17 years later this still stands out, you have a soldier of hell (spawn) sent back to earth after a deal is made in hell to lead the armies of hell to victory, years after his death with most of his memories gone, and finds out that his wife (the sole reason for the deal and his return to earth) has married his best friend, throw in a psychotic clown (who transformers into the demon Violator) and a sense of morals for our anti-hero Spawn and we have a great comic, where Hells  general (Spawn) battles to stop the armies of Hell from rising to take over the earth (at least that’s where to comic seems to be going).

This was a great joy to read and the thought of more volumes to come makes me real excited. This is one for anybody who missed it and those who maybe started late and never got the first issues. Each new volume has bonus content for you and each volume feature a classic Spawn cover re-imagined by Spawn artist Greg Capullo.

The other reason I had grabbed this trade was back in February it was announced that once again Todd would be taking over writing duties on the comic book he had created and since I am the self titled comic geek here at Eatsleepgeek.com I thought I really should pick this up. This book is worth far more than the 15 dollar price tag and if you have any sense you should have all ready bought it (since this article is a little late in coming) and if not do so now Spawn has now gone on my list of things I need to catch up on and it sits near the top. I only other trade I’m more excited about then volume 2 of Spawn is the reprinting of  Eastman and Laird Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles.

So for all of you who missed it or never picked it up if you like violence, heartache, and the forces of heaven and hell battling it out (and remember this is for mature readers only) this ones for you so just go and get it already and stop wasting my time (cuz I have a stack of unread comics here calling and no more time for you).

Cool Terry

“Just because a guy reads comics doesn’t mean he can’t start some $@#%!”
— Brodie Bruce (Kevin Smith)