Spawn News

Beginning with Issue #185 in October, SPAWN will feature a new creative team, including SPAWN creator Todd McFarlane, Image Comics co-founder Whilce Portacio and writer Brian Holguin.

The new creative force promises to bring an entirely new energy to the world of SPAWN.

"We've just been talking with everybody involved about what we can do to inspire the readers," McFarlane says. "One of them was to take the book in a different direction in terms of the storyline, and the other was to take it in a bit of a different direction artistically, too."

Image co-founder Whilce Portacio (Wetworks) is poised to take the book in that new artistic direction, with McFarlane serving as creative director. The two creative forces work well together, and are excited to be pooling their talents.

"Having Todd by my side is fantastic, because he gives me all the texture he's been trying to place in his stories," says Portacio. "As the artist, I get to say, 'Okay, let me grab all of this stuff that's oozing out of your head, and let me see if I could make it visually pleasing.' For me, that is artistic bliss."

Former SPAWN writer Brian Holguin will also be returning to the series. He and McFarlane have collaborated on the title before, and Holguin looks forward to McFarlane's return to a much more active role in plotting the series and laying out pages.

"It's exciting to go back to it," says Holguin. "It's familiar, but it's changed enough. It's like going back to your home town after a couple of years - that store is no longer there, and this is moved over there. You're in the process of rediscovering things again. I have an enthusiasm for it now that I didn't have when I left the book."

The trio will only hint at their plans for where the story will go next.

"It seems that everybody had the same thought that this is a great, huge universe, and to let everybody finally see it," says Portacio. "Not just glimpse a demon here or there, but to actually get into their motivation, what factions they're part of. Todd has even given me freedom to create new factions of spawns and new factions of angels."

Whatever direction the story goes next, the newly energized creative team will have fans talking, and eagerly turning the pages.