Today’s new guide for Patrons of Crushing Krisis is my first guide for a creator-owned comic – created as a celebration of breaking the 100-Patrons mark!
Todd McFarlane’s Spawn – The Definitive Reading Order and Collecting Guide
With Spawn now crowned as the ruling Guiness World Record holder as the longest-running creator-owned superhero of all-time (and with him coming in at 3rd place out of 10 options in the April poll), he seemed like the natural place to begin my guide coverage of creator-owned comics.
As with many of my guides, researching Spawn’s publishing history held many surprises for me.
I had no idea that his first 100 issues were so comprehensively covered in every imaginable format – slipcase, oversize hardcover, deluxe paperbacks, and regular-size trades. He has one of the best and most-logical reprint coverage across multiple formats of any superhero, ever, once you get past how similarly-named all of the reprint lines are.
(I wonder if there is a Guinness World Record for that.)
The next surprise was how coherently told the Story of Spawn has been. I was under the impression that Spawn’s narrative has splintered into many other titles, but that’s not really the case.
Though there have been a handful of supporting ongoing series expanding Spawn’s universe, you can absolutely read Spawn #1 through Spawn #300 while only breaking for one non-sequential issue – 2015’s Spawn: Resurrection.
Finally, I had no idea of the creative consistency behind Spawn. Todd McFarlane an Greg Capullo pencil over 90% of Spawn’s first decade, and there are only 35 issues of Spawn which aren’t at least co-plotted by McFarlane.
Even after the McFarlane/Capullo art era, Spawn has had many periods of consistent art, from several years by Angel Medina to Szymon Kudranski’s star-making turn before his jump to Big Two comics like Punisher and Action Comics.
This guide doesn’t quite cover the entire world of Spawn – there are some supporting titles without Spawn’s name on them, plus a certain elusive supporting character to address. Look for more on that in the future.
Want access to this guide today? Because this guide is part of my core coverage of every X-Men comic book, it’s available to all Patrons for as little as a $1/month pledge to cover CK’s hosting expenses.
Current Exclusives For Crushing Cadets ($1/month): 16 Guides!
DC Guides: Batman – Index of Ongoing Titles, Batman: Legends of the Dark Knight
Marvel Guides: Alpha Flight, Blade, Dazzler, Domino, Dracula, Elsa Bloodstone, Legion, Marvel Era: Marvel Legacy, Sabretooth, Scarlet Witch, Vision, Weapon X, X-Man – Nate Grey
Indie & Licensed Comics: Spawn 
Current Exclusives For Pledgeonauts ($1.99+/month): 44 Guides!
DC Guides: Animal Man, Aquaman, Books of Magic, Catwoman, Batman – Index of Ongoing Titles, Batman: Legends of the Dark Knight, Flash, Harley Quinn, Houses & Horrors, Justice League, Lucifer, Mister Miracle, Nightwing, Outsiders, Sandman Universe, Suicide Squad, Swamp Thing
Marvel Guides: Alpha Flight, Ant-Man & Giant-Man, Champions, Darkhawk, Blade, Dazzler, Domino, Dracula, Elsa Bloodstone, Falcon, Gwenpool, Legion, Marvel Era: Marvel Legacy, Moon Boy / Moon Girl & Devil Dinosaur, Ms. Marvel: Kamala Khan, Power Pack, Sabretooth, Scarlet Witch, Sentry, Silk, Spider-Gwen, Spider-Man: Miles Morales, Venom, Vision, Weapon X, X-Man – Nate Grey
Indie & Licensed Comics: Spawn
Nice.