Spawnography

We are firmly in the David Hine era the times they are a'changin' especially as we get deeper into a run that has yet to have a clear direction or identity. The mystery of the twins deepens, we meet some of the legion of spirits that make up Spawn, Spawn fights Kali, the goddess of destruction and the art goes through a bit of a rough patch with a veritable army of inkers and colorists. This arc doesn't technically have a name in the issues themselves but if "Armageddon" is a good enough title for the Spawn Reading Order then it's good enough for us.

This week's recommendations are many! George's band, La Cigarette, has a new single out on coolbutrude.com called "The American Blues." (Unsurprisingly, it rips.) She also recommends that y'all check out the flicks of Jordan Peele and Josie Reisman's incredible Stan Lee biography "True Believer: The Rise and Fall of Stan Lee." On a similar note, Pierce recommends you check out Sean Howe's excellent "Marvel Comics: The Untold Story."

Thanks to Freesound for being a great resource for our intro atmosphere and sound effects. Thanks to Blake Whitlow for the always useful Spawn Reading Order.

Thank YOU for listening!

Last episode was a milestone for Spawn and this episode is a milestone for us! We've made it to episode 100 so we are finishing out the "Thamuz" arc before headingstraight into Armageddon! We are definitely entering an interesting era of the book and as a result some of the discussion does get a little bit fraught but its all in support of the continued analysis of the book.

This week's recommendations are the Wonder Man TV show, Marvel Cosmic Invasion and 28 Years Later: The Bone Temple.

Thanks to Freesound for being a great resource for our intro atmosphere and sound effects. Thanks to Blake Whitlow for the always useful Spawn Reading Order.

Thank YOU for listening!

We've made it to another milestone and this one ushers in the David Hine and Philip Tan era. George and Pierce get into a little bit of a retrospective of the Holguin and Medina run but are pleasantly surprised by Hine and Tan's first outing with our favorite Hellspawn. will it last? Only time will tell!

This week's recommendations are Zeke's album Lords of the Highway and nouns' album still.

Thanks to Freesound for being a great resource for our intro atmosphere and sound effects. Thanks to Blake Whitlow for the always useful Spawn Reading Order.

Thank YOU for listening!

Sometimes, even your humble Spawnographers can't parse a story and "Howl" happens to be one of those. But then we dive into "Random Patterns," an arc that certainly earns its title. It's an interesting era for Spawn and his creative team to say the least and your hosts will get into it.

This week's most important recommendation is to get involved with your local community. We only have each other so do what you can to help your neighbors especially if they are in the crosshairs of this corrupt administration. But a secondary one as a break from the horrors of daily life is to checkout Dropout TV - some of the funniest people doing the funniest things on the planet.

Thanks to Freesound for being a great resource for our intro atmosphere and sound effects. Thanks to Blake Whitlow for the always useful Spawn Reading Order.

Thank YOU for listening!

We are back to the main Spawn title with an arc that doesn't leave us scrataching our heads necessarily but does make us question the ramp up to #150 on some level. Todd, Holguin and Medina are clearly looking to expand the mythos and build up Mammon but the story itself feels like a little less than the sum of its parts.

This week's recommendations are the excellent Youtube channel Animalogic which is all about our natual world and the fuzzy friends that live in it as well as the incredibly interesting podcast Art Astra that investigating the intersection between "space studies and the humanities in popular culture with the aim of highlighting opportunities for people from all walks of life to participate in and get excited about space."

Thanks to Freesound for being a great resource for our intro atmosphere and sound effects. Thanks to Blake Whitlow for the always useful Spawn Reading Order.

Thank YOU for listening!

This episode we wrap up the first arc of Marc Andreyko and Scott Morse's Case Files: Sam & Twitch and prove that even when you think you completely understand an arc, sometimes you don't. The show starts off with a some talk about upcoming movies like Street Fighter and Masters of the Universe so feel free to skip tot eh 30 minute mark to get right into discussion of the book. As we noted last episode, Andreyko and Morse take a non-traditional approach to this story and it manages to pull the wool over our eyes really effectively. In classic Spawnography fashion, we start out a little bit cold on it as a whole but warm up considerably as we discuss it.

This week's recommendations are the legendary Tank Girl (the comic and the film) as well as Kyle Baker and company's Plastic Man - both available wherever you get comics, probably.

Thanks to Freesound for being a great resource for our intro atmosphere and sound effects. Thanks to Blake Whitlow for the always useful Spawn Reading Order.

Thank YOU for listening!

We're back with another slight diversion from the main Spawn title as we dive into Marc Andreyko and Scott Morse's Case Files: Sam & Twitch . We're only covering this first arc (for now) and we find our hispid hero Twitch Williams in a bit of a predicament. Told in 3 timelines unfolding simultaneously, it seems the events of the first two have landed Twitch in jail in the third! It takes us a little while to wrap our heads around the best way to cover the form, but we get there!

This week's recommendations are to check out George's new band La Cigarette and their first single "Born to Die (World is a Fuck)" at coolbutrude.com as well as to check out the films of the recently departed Rob Reiner.

Thanks to Freesound for being a great resource for our intro atmosphere and sound effects. Thanks to Blake Whitlow for the always useful Spawn Reading Order.

Thank YOU for listening!

It's a knockdown, drag out fight between Redeemer and Spawn with Nyx caught right in the middle. But there's more at play. Have the trio played right into Mammon's hands? What exactly is Mammon's plan anyway? Will Nyx regret the deal she made with an unassuming demon? We will get into all of it!

This week's recommendations are Nocturnals by Dan Brereton and a trio of titles by Matt Emmons - The Council of Frogs, Those That Inherit the Earth and The Gardener.

Thanks to Freesound for being a great resource for our intro atmosphere and sound effects. Thanks to Blake Whitlow for the always useful Spawn Reading Order.

Thank YOU for listening!

We've got a fun one this week. Al is in a coma and Nyx ventures into Hell to save her friend Thea's soul. She has rejected Mammon's overtures to deliver the Spawn to him. But the new demon lord she's made a deal with may not be exactly what he seems. Plus Redeemer is back!

This week's first recommendation is to quit using generative AI! It's bad for the planet and bad for your brain! Our second recommendation is an incredible video essay by matttt called "How manga broke the US comic industry." It is a really fascinating deep dive into how manga gained a foothold in the US and a must-watch for any comics and manga fan. Our third recommendation, piggybacking off the second one, is kind of a lay-up but if you haven't read Katsuhiro Otomo's groundbreaking AKIRA in full, you should.

Thanks to Freesound for being a great resource for our intro atmosphere and sound effects. Thanks to Blake Whitlow for the always useful Spawn Reading Order.

Thank YOU for listening!

Spawn continueshis struggles against the Clown/Jason Wynn hybrid that has been terrorizing him and the people of New York but we're getting the feeling that we've seen some of this stuff before. Holguin and McFarlance seem to be going back the well with some of their ideas so despite some interesting machincations with Nyx the arc isn't as impactful as it feels like it could have been. A big knock against this era of Spawn is it's inconsistency and that definitely rears its head here. We'll get into it.

This week's recommendations are to go outside (I think we've recommended this before but it's always a good reminder) and Spike Lee's 2000s classic, Inside Man.

Thanks to Freesound for being a great resource for our intro atmosphere and sound effects. Thanks to Blake Whitlow for the always useful Spawn Reading Order.

Thank YOU for listening!