Sperg about comic books here

[Alexander Thaut]

$5.00 has been deposited into your account, good goyim.

it's funny for like an issue, but they really should have highlighted that Amadeus just doesn't have any life experience.

I mean, they kinda did in the Incredible Herc, but they still kept turning him into a bit of a mary sue.

 

[jspit2.0]

The great Image reread (cause fuck it) 1

I've been re reading the Image books, mostly to see if they're as bad as I remember and if the recent nostalgia tism is as bad for trying to make them sound better.

Spawn #1-11

The first thing that stunned me was...allot of little things Spawn does really well. The lettering is CRAZY good as is the coloring. The comic is designed well, with tons of concepts....

But it all falls flat. The perfect example is the Violator introduction. read the introduction of the Violator and compare it with Alan Moore introducing a companion character in 8.

Violator's reveal from 1-4 is immediately spoiled by Mcfarlanes luck of sophistication or storytelling ability. The page is littered with word balloons. And bad word balloons. They aren't (intentionally) funny or clever. Then McFarlane is showing you the monster at the beginning BEFORE what he clearly intends to be a big reveal, undermining the appeal of the Clown character as this unassuming fat loser that is really a satanic murder bug. The transformation is unforgivably lazy and sloppy too.

Spawn Year one is effectively bipolar. you have #1-7, which are literal garbage. McFarlane is unleashed. But whereas on Adjectiveless Spidey he was at least somewhat constrained, he's essentially allowed his worst impulses. Lazy cheat splash pages, the talking heads ripped from Frank Miller's DKR that don't work here because Miller was using them as a narrative tool in context of a specific place and time and they wear out there welcome in McFarlane's lazy and unread hands. Issue 5 sees Billy Kincaid and at this point I believe is when McFarlane was talking with Moore, Gaiman, Sim, and Miller. So McFarlane gets this Moore concept and does it ie Kincaid. Spawn #6-7 involves OvertKill, an absolutely laughably eye rolling character. Fun Fact, this was a Rob, Todd, Stan video creation with Stan Lee obviously amused by how laughably awful Todd and Rob were. And that's the end of McFarlane's first year solo. Every issue (because I have the floppies) is filled with McFarlane's bs rants about how Marvel used him and this is a strike for creator freedom! Yeah, I'm rolling my eyes reading it.

In between, everybody clowned these issues, some of the worst written, sloppy comics of the time. McFarlane, making a ridiculous amount of money because a ton of people speculated, buying this stuff thinking it'd be Amazing fantasy or Tec 27, turned around and PAID 100,000 dollars an issue to the four guys. Imagine your Alan Moore and all you've done in five years was Lost Girls, big numbers, and some other weird shit nobody read. Literally life line tier stuff.

Moore writes #8. Yes it's wordy, but it's wordy in a clever way. It's not describing the internal thoughts, but rather giving you a hint of personality. Perfect example, one character says she was throwing up (anorexia) and this is meant to convey why she's in hell. A great little bit of character. Then there's Moore setting up the character, it's only toward the middle that we have the creepy kid finally reveal, in a gross child mask tearing reveal of the characters form. From there, Moore forces McFarlane (a good penciller with a strength in design) to put the work in, showing us efficiently hell. It's...Really damn good. Gaiman then comes in and in 1 issue gives him Catwoman, a Lex Luthor, a Two-Face, and a Jonah Hex characters. Gaiman's issue is even better than Moore's contribution. Dave Sims does a preachy issue that's very well designed and shows McFarlane's art in a way, making the point he wanted and failed to make in his letter column more beautifully and poignantly that Todd ever can. Finally, #11 ends the first year and is a delight. It's as if Frank Miller was asked how to make Spawn good and in a way that could be done over a hundred issues. He does so, creatively using Spawn's background as a soldier and powers. When Frank Miller comes in and in one issue writes YOUR OWN CHARACTER better than you did over 7 issues, that's a sign.

So that's one of the launch books down. The first 7 issues are worse than I remembered and the remaining 4 much better.

 

[Arthur Morgan]

An issue I have with Spawn is that you had an excellent idea for a character: A hero who doesn't know who he is, allowing the reader to discover him at the same time he does himself. Except you have those dumb news cast panels stolen from Dark Knight Returns, without understanding why Miller put them in there, about a dead guy named Al Williamson, so it's pretty obvious that's who he is. And within a few issues, we know all about him.

As a series, as you pointed out it can be schizophrenic, but I kind of like that about it, you never know what you're gonna get. Plus McFarlane and Capullo on art made it fun to look at. It's a shame McFarlane was such a narcissist that he refused to make any changes that would make the story better because they weren't his ideas. Even when it was his wife telling him that, who he made the editor on the first three issues.

It's my favorite of the Image launch books, but that's mostly because of how it is compared to the other ones.

 

[Clyde Cash's Left Teste]

Does Spawn ever get consistantly good?

 

[Tor Lugosi]

Yeah, McFarlane is a great artist, an okay-ish ideas guy, and a horribly mediocre writer. I read #1-100 over a decade ago and the only thing I really remember about it is how schizophrenic it constantly felt. One issue Spawn would be fighting a giant cybernetic gorilla, which escaped at the end of the issue and was never referenced again (as far as I read). Then in another issue the main evil business guy got possessed by the spirit of Genghis Khan and it was then never referenced again. A story arc would be broken up by a random issue of Spawn acting as a shadowy judge for a group of criminal teenagers or some shit, obviously because that story just randomly came to McFarlane and he just had to do it immediately.

The series would randomly jump to different genres and you never had any idea what story hook would actually take root and which would be instantly forgotten.

 

[Humble Architect]

Does Spawn ever get consistantly good?

No, the ReTodd is a hack fraud and Spawn blows.

 

[el bandito loco]

Does Spawn ever get consistantly good?

you're better off reading some of the spin-offs. none of spawn (up to around 200 I have no idea about the last 15 years) including any of the spinoffs are actually good but some of the the other material at least doesn't feel written with a crayon. another big problem with spawn (the main book) is almost nothing happens for like 100 issues. it's kind of a meme but it seriously is 80% him sitting with homeless people in a filthy alley complaining, 10% TDKR news anchors talking and 10% he fights people. it's like when you watch a tv show with 20+ episodes a season and there is only one scene per episode that carries the plot forward and the only actual events are every season premiere and finale. it's like that. every 15 issues something might happen. but when it does it never makes much sense, and is always underwhelming anyways, so who cares?

 

[jspit2.0]

An issue I have with Spawn is that you had an excellent idea for a character: A hero who doesn't know who he is, allowing the reader to discover him at the same time he does himself. Except you have those dumb news cast panels stolen from Dark Knight Returns, without understanding why Miller put them in there, about a dead guy named Al Williamson, so it's pretty obvious that's who he is. And within a few issues, we know all about him.

As a series, as you pointed out it can be schizophrenic, but I kind of like that about it, you never know what you're gonna get. Plus McFarlane and Capullo on art made it fun to look at. It's a shame McFarlane was such a narcissist that he refused to make any changes that would make the story better because they weren't his ideas. Even when it was his wife telling him that, who he made the editor on the first three issues.

It's my favorite of the Image launch books, but that's mostly because of how it is compared to the other ones.

Well, it's probably the worst image launch book mechanically, but the coloring, design, and lettering are industry leading. So in a pile of garbage it looks better.

Does Spawn ever get consistantly good?

Yes and no. Not in the 90s and never to a point of being worth the following it developed based solely on its presentation.

Todd will, by Spawn Year 3 stop drawing the book and only writing. Which is just the most ass backward thing. Todd McFarlane basically cons people by doing dual credits when Capullo starts drawing the book regularly, but realistically it's in the 20s McFarlane dips, which pathetically is the last meaningfully sequential artwork he's done. Spawn in the 90s is better due to McFarlane starting out as unforgivably awful at storytelling and growing thanks to direct work with Alan Moore and Frank Miller to just being bad.

Beginning around Spawn 101, the bust is happening. Capullo after doing Todd's job for him for over five years leaves and suddenly McFarlane is in tough spot. So he starts hiring guys who can actually do somewhat decent writing. Brian Holguin will create Nyx and introduce some interesting stories from 101 to 150. Not great, but infinitely better than Spawn 26-100. As an aside, Holguin would also co-create Aria. then the book really picks up around 166, with Hine and Brian Halberdine putting out some solid work that culminates in them kindof ending Spawn in 184.

Then McFarlane came back, starting a cycle of gimmicks and bursts of effort, followed by inevitable lazy failure. He wisely stepped down from writing in the prior issues, then he comes back. He brings on fellow Image founder Whilce. Todd 'inks', which is his favorite tool over the 10s to pretend to be artistically involved, without actually doing the work. Whilce goes from 185-192, the Capullo returns from 193-197. Then it stops after 200. The book is drawn by Symon Kudranski. A year in and with interest fading, McFalarlane returns...to doing covers. It's a series of weak, cover art that lasts until around 241. Interest fades...so in 258 he brings in Larsen, of all people, who draws until 266. You get the pattern at this point I think.

 

[jspit2.0]

you're better off reading some of the spin-offs. none of spawn

All his collabs in that writer's row second half of year one went on to do cool minis.

Alan Moore wrote more Spawn comics than Superman and Batman combined. Frank Miller would do a follow up to DKR with Todd that I feel is very underrated (not great, but not bad.). Gaiman's Angela mini is very good.

(up to around 200 I have no idea about the last 15 years)

I covered them above, but the turning point is really the bust combined with Capullo burning out. that led to McFarlane actually having to put more effort into storytelling and hiring writers (people he always wrote off and verbally abused as worthless) to elevate the book for a five year window. Then his ego comes in and his prospects dry out a little and he comes back and ruins any progress other people made on the title.

including any of the spinoffs are actually good but some of the the other material at least doesn't feel written with a crayon. another big problem with spawn (the main book) is almost nothing happens for like 100 issues. it's kind of a meme but it seriously is 80% him sitting with homeless people in a filthy alley complaining, 10% TDKR news anchors talking and 10% he fights people. it's like when you watch a tv show with 20+ episodes a season and there is only one scene per episode that carries the plot forward and the only actual events are every season premiere and finale. it's like that. every 15 issues something might happen. but when it does it never makes much sense, and is always underwhelming anyways, so who cares?

Oh hell yes. That fucking alleyway. Who are these people and why are they here after four years!

 

[Chug Smuckle]

Source

 

[UnsufficentBoobage]

Thanks for answering me, again

I don't think there was ever a Sinister story with tentacles. At least not in the 80s and 90s.

I did end finding one in 90s

 

[Tor Lugosi]

I was reading New Mutants and came upon this ad.

Did anything ever come of it? I can find literally zero information about it beyond that image and even that I can't actually find by searching for it. Reminds me of the ad for the Puma miniseries that never happened. Also that Batman mini written by Tom Fontana that was advertised but never materialized.

 

[Alexander Thaut]

I was reading New Mutants and came upon this ad.
View attachment 6049747
Did anything ever come of it? I can find literally zero information about it beyond that image and even that I can't actually find by searching for it. Reminds me of the ad for the Puma miniseries that never happened. Also that Batman mini written by Tom Fontana that was advertised but never materialized.

is it related to the "fallen angels" series?

 

[Tor Lugosi]

is it related to the "fallen angels" series?

That looks likely, yeah. Given the time gap ('85 for the ad, '87 for Fallen Angels) I'm guessing something didn't pan out (maybe the original creative team ended up too busy) and it got shelved until Jo Duffy came along and revitalized the idea. I wonder if Claremont was originally involved but got too busy or the X-Factor drama pissed him off enough to drop a few X-related projects.

 

[MirrorNoir]

Misfits=Fallen Angels

It was supposed to come out after Secret Wars 2 (it's why Sunspot wasn't a part of the New Mutant Massacre at the end of Secret Wars 2 and Warlock, post-resurrection, was supposed to go looking for him) but got delayed for reasons never quite explained, with one rumor being that editorial had very little faith in it and demanded more X-Men/mutants like Boom Boom, Vanisher, Multiple Man, and Siryn be added to the book. And in the process, got rebranded Fallen Angels with in-house ad that hyped it as far as Sunspot "killing" Cannonball to set up the plot.

Fun fact: a sequel was planned but would have featured none of the mutant characters; just Ariel, Chance, the guy with the lobsters (who was a take that towards Kurt Busiek and the people who hated Claremont and Jean being Phoenix) and IIRC Devil Dinosaur and Moon Boy. A couple of issues were finished, with IIRC Colleen Doran as the artist of the book before Bob Harras killed the project, along with a planned Longshot ongoing.

 

[Prehistoric Jazz]

Anyone reading Batman Dark Age? It's very strange but I kinda like it. Allred art, a slightly odd origin, a redux of Sionis' gang from the early 90s.

 

[SugarSkullWishes1989]

I hate to drag the attention away from Spurging about shit movies, but what comic series does everyone want to have to have a movie spinoff. I'm personally rooting for SAGA or seconds to be adapted at some point, but what does everyone else think?

None of them. I hope recent Hollywood leaves my favorites alone. And it seems they will, as indie comix (or anything non-big two considered more niche than The Boys or Watchmen) hasn't been touched in awhile.

I only dislike the Jim Carey adaptation of The Mask a bit because it brought a wave of spinoffs entirely directed at an increasingly younger audience. Aw Yeah Comics! even made their bastardized version of it.
On its own, I liked it, because peak Jim Carey and 90s special effects.

Maybe if there was an adaptation of Brat Pack made in the 90s.

Oop didn't realize I was reading an earlier page. Not a bad topic, though.

 

[Prehistoric Jazz]

I'd like an accurate adaptation of Absolution. Deputized superhero with similar powers to Green Lantern or Carnage decides he's had enough of a revolving door prison system and starts killing his rogues gallery, only to be found out by the system. Prosecution is attempted, and eventually he decides he'll fight everyone. People side with him and essentially elect him their local law enforcement, kinda.

 

[Nick Obre]

A couple years ago I made a LONG post about this local comic, its difficult publication history, and the infuriating lack of quality and consistency in the various collections they've put out during the last couple decades (with the exception of two fantastic tomes collecting the stories by the lesser of the two artists who worked on it, thanks to his son's dutiful work).
However, I closed with this:

To be fair, and this is what prompted me to write this whole fucking novel, they just put out (and I do mean just, it was days ago as far as I can tell) an almost as high quality tome of some of the best and most iconic of Themo's Mampato stories. A beautiful (if a little old-fashioned) hardcover tome, good quality paper. But the print quality is a little less amazing. It's based on the watercolor version, which is great, but while some pages look perfect, some look a little washed out, others a little more red than they should be, and so on. Not perfect but the best effort these stories have seen in decades.
I can only hope this publishing house (which I believe is associated with Penguin, so there's some expectation of quality there) decides to keep crafting more volumes, hopefully with all the Themo stories this time.

A second volume was put out earlier this year, and I took my time to buy it, because of money, time, and other reasons.

I have it now, and the quality is consistent with the previous volume. Not as good as the aforementioned Oskar volumes, with some stories being a bit more saturated than they should, others less than they should, and so on; but still the best edition currently available.
What does bother me is that neither of the two volumes (covering 10 stories in total, though really it's fewer, since some are two-parters but numbered as separate, out of almost 30 Themo stories) contains the first story; in fact, they're not in a seeming chronological order. They just took some of the most popular stories and put them in two books. Which means, should they continue putting out volumes, they'll go into less and less popular stories each time, potentially dooming each book to sell worse than the one before, which would likely result in a cancellation before all the stories are collected.

Still, I hope they keep going and eventually get there. These works deserve a definitive edition, and even if this is not exactly the quality I want, it's the best shot we have. I'll buy all of them if they make them.

 

[UnsufficentBoobage]

I had never read anything ongoing, and dick around wikis if my sporadic readings leave me puzzled, so shit from ANY time can be news to me, but it says something about people's view on relationship that they "killed" Eternity's sister and made up a wife for him instead.

This was around '15, maybe it never was mentioned and/or retconned, but I was kinda irritated as, even as oblique JLA/Avengers reference, it makes little sense.