Spawnography

Hey there Hellspawn! We're finishing up in Japan as Spawn faces ghosts, demons, and an ancient curse in "The Bridge, Part 2." As Ben Nakadai uncovers the mysterious Box of Eden — and falls right into Mammon's trap, opening a door between worlds that won't easily be closed. Back in New York, "Consequences" brings us a turning point: Spawn clashes with Cogliostro over how far he'll go to reshape the world, while a young man named Eddie Frank takes a deadly path that leads to his rebirth as the new Redeemer. Two issues that bridge the supernatural and the moral — and set the stage for Spawn's next dark chapter.

This week's recommendations are FX's Alien Earth tv show and then a couple of bigger ones than just some fun media we've been consuming. We are living in tough times. Find a way to get involved with your local immigrant community in some small way. And similarly, show up for your friends who make art.

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 wrapping up "The Kingdom" and starting up a new arc! (I know it's weird but if you don't like it, start your own podcast.) A content warning for self-harm and suicidal ideation in this episode!

Spawn #113 wraps up the "Kingdom" arc with a tense showdown in Central Park. Spawn battles the vampire cult while Twitch nearly makes a tragic choice—until Spawn steps in. The Hell-gate is destroyed, Twitch's son is saved (though changed forever), and Mammon quietly hints that bigger dangers are coming. Then Spawn #114 kicks off a brand-new mystery in Japan, where a man named Ben Nakadai is haunted by visions of a legendary bridge and a family curse. With Mammon weaving his manipulative tales and Spawn drawn into the mix, the stage is set for a fresh, eerie chapter in Spawn's saga.

Our recommendations this week are James Gunn's Peacemaker on HBO and Matt aFraction & Jorge Jimenez' recently released Batman ongoing.

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!

"The Kingdom" continues! Spawn versus Simon Pure and his hordes of Christian vampires! Absorbing the sins of all New Yorkers, he purifies the city and robs the zealots of their targets, forcing their crusade to a standstill. With the help of the demons Ab and Zab, Spawn rescues Twitch's son, Max and confronts the Kingdom head-on. But his victory comes at a cost, leaving him burdened with unimaginable darkness and standing further apart from both Heaven and Hell! We'll get into it!

This week's recommendations are to interrogate the thing within you that is keeping you from being the person you want to be as well as Zach Cregger's excellent flick, Weapons.

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!

"The Kingdom" continues! Simon Pure and his army of Christian vampires are out for blood! But George and Pierce are liking how this story is unfolding as McFarlane, Holguin and Medina are bringing some interesting depth to Spawn's world by involving side characters and finding a new style for the previously established visual langauge of the book.

This week's recommendations are the lovely kitty Instagram of Gumbus as well as the comic book work of indie creator Ian Cinco.

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! The #SummerofHellspawn is over and we've got vampires. More specifically, we've got some of those Heaven vampires and the return of George's favorite character, Wolfram! But who exactly is Simon Pure? And what fate will befall Twitch Williams' son Max and his new friend, Dawn? We'll get into it!

This week's recommendations are Thin Lizzy's Thunder & Lightning and the boxing anime Megalobox.

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!

The grand finale of Hellspawn is here and with it, the #SummerofHellspawn comes to a close!

In this episode, George and Pierce get into Steve Niles and Ben Templesmith's haunting conclusion to the series (despite the fact that they didn't seem to think it was ending just yet). There are a lot of heavy themes as there have been throughout so a light trigger warning for our discussion surrounding abuse and self harm. With Eden's haunting accusations of Spawn and Hel's relentless orchestrations, the finale doesn't shy away from exploring loss, responsibility, and the nature of power. It's a moving farewell wrapped in beautiful, unsettling art and it leaves you haunted in the best possible way.

Apologies in advance to anyone that doesn't want to hear us argue about the Fantastic Four. Skip ahead to 26:56 for discussion of the issues.

This week's recommendations are Jack Kirby comics (just any of them) as well as Patrick Horvath's Beneath the Trees Where Nobody Sees and Deniz Camp & Javier Rodriguez' Absolute Martian Manhunter. Comics are good, y'all, and you should read as many of them as (in)humanly possible.

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!

The final arc of Hellspawn begins here! George and Pierce begin with some chatter about Fantastic Four but then we dive into what turns out to be a couple of breezy issues of Hellspawn. It's clear the team doesn't quite know yet that they are nearing the end of their run but it's interesting to see how the book has evolved and how it fits into the larger Spawn mythos.

As always, a hearty trigger warning for some discussion of selfharm. It is kind of inevitable in this book. Sorry!

This week's recommendations are to go see Fantastic Four if you haven't already, watch Abel Ferrara's 1990 crime noir masterpiece King of New York starring Christopher Walken and to go do one of your favorite things.

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!

George and Pierce get into another couple of issues of Hellspawn because it is, in fact, the #SummerofHellspawn. No one has used that hastag and no one will again.

In these two issues, we're going to finish things up with Cy-Gor, seemingly finishing things up with Mike Moran (?) and see what's in store with Eden, the woman who was left in a bathtub previously.

As with many of these episodes, trigger warnings for self harm, forced birth and extreme violence if you read these comics. We won't talk about the violence much but the rest we have to at least mention. This week's recommendations are the show Taskmaster, the film Dangerous Lives of Altar Boys and Wong Kar-Wai's Days of Being Wild.

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!

Ben Templesmith joins the fray as the #SummerofHellspawn continues! As with many of the previous episodes, we'd be remiss not to give a trigger warning for some of the content in these issues and the discussion of them surrounding self-harm.

That said, Steve Niles is clearly trying to set this book on a slightly different path than its been on to this point while Ashley Wood and Templesmith are seemingly trying to be cognizant about bringing a cohesive look to the book as Wood transitions off of it. But we've got Cy-Gor. We've got Mike Moran. We've got Scary Larry and we've got Spawn so we're here for it.

The first of this week's recommendations are Dan Jones' "The Plantagenets: The Warrior Kings and Queens Who Made England." This book focuses on the Plantagenet dynasty, which ruled England before the Tudors. If you're a Game of Thrones fan, you might dig it. Our other recommendations are the films Night of the Comet, a super campy and fun 80s sci-fi horror flick, Repo Man, maybe the best Emilio Estevez movie(?) and the Coen Brothers' debut Blood Simple.

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 halfway through the #SummerofHellspawn! There's a lot to cover in these two issues! Trigger warning abound to for self-harm especially in these two issues!

Issue #7 offers a surreal psychological portrait of Spawn's fractured identity, with dreamlike, unsettling visuals as Sam & Twitch strike a secret deal with Mike Moran and John Damascus tortures a broken Jason Wynn. Then, in issue #8, Spawn confronts a twisted abomination from his past—Cy‑Gor reprogrammed into a killing machine—and also attempts to save Eden, an abused woman who tragically chooses to end her life. We've got existential dread and horror in spades!

This week's recommendations are Marvel's latest Disney+ show, Ironheart, and for the films aficionados out there, the video essays of Patrick H. Willems. For something Spawn-adjacent, Pierce highly recommends the videos about the Exagerrated Cities of 90s Cinema and the classic about Trains.

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!