Early Days of Spawn by Todd McFarlane
Early costume designs as featured in the Image 10th Anniversary article in spawn.com. The red Spawn is created in 1983...whilst the blue Spawn is one of McFarlane's earliest work and a tribute to his affection for Batman.
The Prowler that was illustrated by Todd McFarlane and who first appeared in Amazing Spider-Man #304 in September 1988 has been singularly representative as the prototype of Spawn. As with Spawn, the cape is overwhelming but it is obvious that Spawn cape looks better with practice.
I avoid the inclusion of trade magazines into this blog but this issue is special. The back cover of Malibu Sun #13 in May 1992 features an artwork that McFarlane completed in 1991 after leaving Marvel. Incidentally, this is the image used for a planned 2009 resin statue 'Spawn: The Beginning'.
SPAWN #1: QUESTIONS PART 1
MAY 1992
Pencil, story, ink: Todd McFarlane! The cover of the inaugural issue is printed as May 1992 but it reached stores only in June 1992. The first issue sold 1.7 million copies (info inside Spawn #50 said 1.82 million) largely on the name of McFarlane who has gained fame as an artist with the Spider-Man franchise (remember Mary Jane and those big hair-do?). With that many #1 lying around, new collectors need not fret.
The above image that appears has also been immortalised in a action figure kit.
SPAWN #2: QUESTIONS PART 2
JUNE 1992
Al Simmons the Spawn transformed himself into human and end up as this caucasian guy; well this white guy would eventually end up 16 years later in Spawn #185 as Jim Downing and took over the mantle of Spawn.
I can't help it but Jim Downing in #2 is so Peter Parker (the McFarlane version). Curly hair and big hair-do are quite the rage in the 1980s.
SPOON
1992
Published by Spoof Comics. As an imprint of Personality Comics, there is little surprise that this is a female-theme parody - Alice Timmid is Spoon. Written by Mike Halbleib and pencilled by Cinimod, it is probably released in June/July 1992.
SPAWN #3: QUESTIONS PART 3
AUGUST 1992
SPAWN #4
SEPTEMBER 1992
Also in this issue is an unconventional crossover with Savage Dragon, see Savage Dragon #3 at the last panel of this page.
The first Spawn of other persuasions to appear in drawings (disregarding parody) is the pin-up of Cerebus the Spawn (larger image in addendum). He is attached with Spawn #4 released in September 1992 as promotion for the forthcoming Spawn #10 to be guest-written by the creator of Cerebus - Dave Sims.
YAWN
SEPTEMBER/OCTOBER 1992
A parody of Spawn written, pencilled and inked by Bill Maus. Published in b/w by Parody Press, the character is called Al Lemons aka Yawn and he picked up his costume along the way, cape from Dr Strange, mask from Spider-Man...etc. There is a host of appearances regardless of publisher's loyalty, the aforementioned Spider-Man, TMNT, Batman, Superman and my favourite Penguin - Opus from Bloom County.
SPAWN #5
OCTOBER 1992: JUSTICE
WildBRATS #1
OCTOBER 1992
The cover lists the date as August but the inside cover corrected it as October. A parody by Idjits, an imprint of Fantagraphics. WildBRATS is an obvious spoof of WildCATS and here it stands for Bad Redundant Art Teams. There is no appearance of Spawn or Simmons. There is however a panel of Todd McFarlane (Ted McFlacid) talking about his creation - Offspring in Image (I-Con).
SHADOWHAWK #2
OCTOBER 1992
The honour for the first comics to feature Spawn as a guest star goes to Shadowhawk written and illustrated by Jim Valentino, a fellow Image Publishing stablemate of McFarlane in October 1992. On the cover it said "EXTRA! SPAWN LURKS WITHIN THESE PAGES!" Two pages to be exact.
SPITTIN' IMAGE
OCTOBER 1992
Published by Eclipse. Three Marvel characters goes in search of their former illustrators including a Todd McFairlane character. In one of their search, they met Prawn who was seeking vengeance for the bad shrimps that he ate.
SPAWN #6: PAYBACK PART 1
NOVEMBER 1992
THE SAVAGE DRAGON #3
DECEMBER 1992
The second guest appearance, more like a cameo appearance is contained inside The Savage Dragon 3-issue limited mini-series (as opposed to the monthly series which commences in June 1993). This is the same scene mentioned in Spawn #4 (Sep '92) but interestingly enough, with a different ending.
Both issue starts with the same scene - of Spawn wearing a cloak and walking down a street when a group of children started to scream in recognition of the latest 'new superhero' to hit town. Spawn was astonished that he was referred, only to realise that he is standing in front of a row of television sets that have the image of Savage Dragon.
Below are the two different conclusions or final panels to the aforementioned scene.
In Spawn #4, Spawn is seen to have escaped in embarassment.
In Savage Dragon #3, Spawn mumbled "Glory Seeker. I do my best to avoid such attention. I'll have none of it."
