Today, at ComicsPRO, Todd McFarlane announced Spawn Universe – a single launch in June with Jim Cheung that will spin our three new series in progress, King Spawn, Gunslinger Spawn and The Burnt, a new title every two months, until 2021. We talked about your general plans for Spawn Universe early. But and the first of the spin-off books in progress, King Spawn # 1 in August?
Todd McFarlane told me earlier this week, continuing our conversation last year, “The character Spawn will now join the rare company of robust characters such as Superman, Batman and Spider-Man, who will have several monthly books with the same title It will also mark the first time in twenty-eight years that anyone can buy a monthly edition of the book # 1 Spawn “. Giving McFarlane the hope of reaching a new generation of readers who missed Spawn’s initial launch in 1992.
Talking about King Spawn # 1 in August, “how many characters have received more than one monthly title in the course of their creation? Spawn is about to fall into that category. Spawn has paid off his debts for 28 years, he can have a second title and allows me to create a little head start in his character type, you know, since he’s been around for 28 years. “
I asked if it was a deliberate reference to King Conan, the series presented by Marvel to run throughout theand Conan the Barbarian, set in the future of the character. “Yes, ok, yes and the reason for having a reference is, for me, the first 300 editions of Spawn was Conan The Barbarian. He was just the young warrior who was willing to basically fight and never give up, but at some point what’s interesting about any king is that they went through the battle, they were tested and now they know they need to play the game slightly differently and in some cases dramatically different to still get the same results. Defeating your enemy cannot always happen on the battlefield with the sword in hand. “
I’ll ask. This is you, right, Todd? Spawn is you twenty years ago, King Spawn is you now.
“Everything has been to some extent a diluted version of me, that if he is going to be a good leader and I am going to have other characters coming, then they are going to have to look at him with some kind of historical difference that he could be the leader of them, he can no longer act like children, so he needs children because he is very enthusiastic and they have a lot of energy, but he will be, hopefully, a guiding force. Oh, so, when no one is looking, he will do some things alone that nobody is capable of because nobody knows what the king knows. “
Yes, that is totally Todd.
“And again, for those who are 28 years of age or less never had the opportunity to buy Spawn’s number one continuous monthly book, they just read about it, right, the beginning of Image and those founders and there’s a guy named Todd and he had a book called Spawn … these are just stories that they read or their parents or uncles or people at shows talk about. So Spawn will basically make the leap for a character from several books, and I can show a new one generation what Spawn is, because they lost and may not want to skip on issue 315. “
Which also reminded me of your justification for writing and drawing a new Spider-Man book all those years ago …
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