Episode 118 - Spawn Kills Every Spawn 3 - With Special Guest Rob Duenas (aka Sketchcraft)!

[00:00:00] Speaker A: Welcome to Spawn Killer school class. Today I'm going to teach you how to become top Spawn. Good evening and welcome to the Malbolge. This is regarding Spawn, the world's best Spawn podcast. I'm your co host, John Fisher. [00:00:46] Speaker B: And I'm your co host, David Williams. And Johnny, it looks like there's a lot of stuff behind you there. A lot of. A lot of details in the background that I can. I can hardly make out. [00:00:57] Speaker A: I guess you must have a magnifying glass to get in there and see all the. See what's going on behind you. David, it looks like there's a Necronomicon and a copy of the handbook for the recently Deceased. [00:01:08] Speaker B: There's a foot of a Godzilla over there too. [00:01:12] Speaker A: How is this happening? I didn't do this. Why is there so many insanely detailed awesome backgrounds to us right now? How could this be? [00:01:20] Speaker B: Don't look behind you, Johnny, but I think hidden somewhere in the details, there's an extra person behind you. [00:01:25] Speaker A: Oh, my God, you're right. That's because today, all of our fellow Spawnverts, we have a guest very humbled to have. Because this is our first big first for us. The first interior artist of Spawn we've had on the podcast. We had Mark Spears on for covers, we had Erica Schultz as Ryder. This is our first interior artist. And without further ado, just wanted to introduce everyone to Rob Sketchcraft Duanes is here. [00:01:52] Speaker C: Hey, what's up, everybody? [00:01:54] Speaker B: Hey, how you. How you doing today, sir? [00:01:57] Speaker C: I'm good, I'm good. I got. I'm hopped up on donuts and coffee, so we're good to go. [00:02:03] Speaker A: That's what you need. [00:02:04] Speaker B: That's what. That's what we call a good time. Speedball. Don't need no actual drugs, just the sugar and the caffeine. [00:02:12] Speaker A: Yeah, that's right. As you guys probably know, is the interior artist on Spawn kills every. Spawn, our currently going on miniseries that we've been covering. And we're just so, so grateful to have you. Yeah, yeah. [00:02:27] Speaker B: Thank you for coming on. [00:02:28] Speaker C: Oh, my pleasure. Glad to hang out and maybe shed some light on. On why. Why, dear God? [00:02:36] Speaker A: Why, dear God, does this exist? [00:02:39] Speaker B: Well, my first question was, of course going to be how insane have you driven yourself with the amount of detail you like to put into things? A little bit. A lot of it. A little bit. [00:02:53] Speaker C: Not as much as you'd think. Honestly, a lot of this is just how I. How I am. Like, it's. [00:02:58] Speaker B: Oh, understandable. [00:03:00] Speaker C: I think. I think the. The bigger problem, if I had to say there was a bigger thing driving me a little nuts is. Is, you know, like, on the COVID when you got, like, man, I want to do an homage to X Force. That'll be awesome. I'm gonna put five characters, but they're all wearing red and black. Yeah, yeah. You're like, oh, yeah. They're all running. They're all. They're all wearing red and black that. Didn't plan on that. Yeah, yeah. [00:03:29] Speaker A: You don't think about that, but everyone's pretty much the same color palette. [00:03:33] Speaker C: And the red hair, like. And red hair. [00:03:37] Speaker A: And the red hair. [00:03:37] Speaker C: Yeah. So a little bit more trickier than you'd think. You know, I work really close in hand with the colorist Robert Nugent, who, God bless his soul, you know, and he just looks at me. I'm like, I'll solve it. Don't worry. I'll figure it out. Like, you just keep doing what you're doing. [00:03:55] Speaker B: Sounds like we need to invite Robert Nugent on and ask him the same question. [00:04:00] Speaker C: I'm sure he'll want to talk about the other coloring he does. [00:04:03] Speaker B: Like, this one is just, like, not on this podcast. [00:04:11] Speaker A: How did you just, like, I guess, start at the beginning in a way. How did you get onto Spawn Kills every spawn. How did that come across your path if you don't? [00:04:21] Speaker C: Oh, yeah. It was a real complicated process of Todd McFarlane DMing me on Instagram and saying, do you want to draw Spawn Kills Every. Every Spawn kills everyone. Three initially, yeah. And I just said, sure. You know, so like most good things. [00:04:39] Speaker A: That'S how it starts with the Instagram dm. [00:04:41] Speaker B: I like that. We have somehow stumbled onto the exact same process that the Todd father himself uses. Excellent. [00:04:50] Speaker A: When did. When was that? Like, how many. How long ago did the inception of the series start? [00:04:57] Speaker C: I say 2022. Right. Is when he first hit me up. And then they took. It took a while to get things going, as any project kind of does. There was a period of time when. When I just kept drawing things like concepts and characters and ideas, and I just kept emailing them, you know, every week. Every week. Hey, I did this. Hey, I did that. Hey, I did this. And then they finally scheduled a meeting with Todd, and he goes, oh, bud, you turn it all stuff unsolicited, you know, I'm like, yeah, no, well, no, you. I mean, that's not really. I mean, really, like, you know. Yeah. I mean, I'm paid. The best part was since I wasn't paid for that work, like, I felt like when it came Time to promote the book. I could just show it, right? Like, yeah, like, I was able to go, oh, concept art. And it couldn't really, you know, get me on that one. [00:05:55] Speaker B: It's clever. It's clever. So what's your history with Spawn been? Obviously this is not something that you get to do very often. Drawing little Chibi Spawn, killing all the other Spawns. But like, are you one of those 12 year old kids that found this massively terrifying superhero randomly one day or are you just kind of new to Spawn or just like it's a paycheck? [00:06:23] Speaker C: Yeah, I just turned a book in and really try. I. Here's the thing, guys. I, I always wanted. I'm from San Diego and I always wanted to go to Comic Con. My, my uncle, I had these two uncles. You ever see the movie War Games? Yeah, right? Yeah. And there was these, there was these two guys that worked at the college. The fat one and the skinny one, like Eddie Deezens and the other guy, right, that, that was my two uncles. I had these two nerd uncles, right? And, and Uncle Dennis and Chris. And, and they, they loved everything nerds. And they went to Comic Con like the day it started. And I always wanted to go. And my father who adopted me was like, comic Con? No. But I finally conjured him in to let me go, coincidentally, in 1992. Yeah. Because I told him. I was like, hey, the creator Batman is going to be there. Bob King, because Batman Returns, it just came out. So I get his signature. He was like, all right. You know, so I go there and I discover Image Comics, right? They just launched at a Spawn mobile there. They had a whole booth and everything. Yeah, yeah. [00:07:39] Speaker A: So. [00:07:39] Speaker C: And I knew Todd from like the Spider man stuff. I didn't have every issue. I didn't have any issues, but my friends did. So I'd always borrow them. Especially the Spider man issue where he punches hole through the logo, you know, on the COVID Yeah, like that. That was the first time I ever saw Todd's work. So that's where I discovered Spawn. And I mean, since I was a big fan of Todd's work, I, I, I picked this stuff up and I've been, I had a complete. I have a hundred issues, right? 100, 120, all the way up to an angel. Medina left. So 126. Somewhere around there. [00:08:13] Speaker B: Oh, dang. [00:08:14] Speaker C: Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. [00:08:16] Speaker A: Well, we're going to turn the podcast over to you now. [00:08:20] Speaker C: Look, I'm only good on those first guys once, once Haberlin took over, went all Realistic. I was like, I don't really care. So, you know, but I'd come back every now and then when Gray would come back or cartoony artists like Carrie Randolph did an issue, you know, and then Eric Larson jumped on that run. So, yeah, you know, I was. I was back for that. Yeah. But I. I've been there. I mean, there were times at Comic Con, like, I remember 96, I brought my little stepbrothers. One of them was eight. And they had the PlayStation demo demos up, right? The PlayStation game. And sure, everyone hated this game. No one wanted to play. And. But my little brother sort of playing with the controller, right? And he got it, like, working. No one could get this thing to work, man. And Todd just like, I just happened to look to my left and Todd standing right there, just looking at him, right? Like, the kid likes it, you know, he's got to work it. And I'm just like. And he just. That he did that same. My brother did that same move and deleted my Dragon Warrior file. Todd. Like, it is not, you know. [00:09:24] Speaker B: Yeah, but that's worse. [00:09:27] Speaker A: That's almost as bad as it. When you rented a game that you were playing and then someone had saved over your file. That's the worst. [00:09:31] Speaker C: It was right before I defeated. I went to fight Dragon Lord. And, you know, like, Dragon Warrior 1 was not an easy game to level up on. So I lost. I lost everything. [00:09:40] Speaker B: Yeah, a limited amount of space on those olds. All those old memory cards. [00:09:44] Speaker C: 100%. [00:09:45] Speaker A: Yeah. [00:09:46] Speaker B: I witnessed many arguments between my cousins of somebody deleting a file. Well, I bet. I bet the Todd father was actually considering how he would make a job offer to a little child to help run his PlayStation demos at all the rest of the conventions. [00:10:02] Speaker A: Yeah, I've never played that one. [00:10:06] Speaker C: I've played them all. The Super Nintendo one's the only. The only good one, though. [00:10:10] Speaker A: Like, that's like a side scroller, right? [00:10:12] Speaker C: Yeah, yeah, it's a side scroller. It's the one I keep putting in the background in Chibi's room, like on the TV screen, like, every time. Yeah. Yeah. [00:10:20] Speaker B: Well, Johnny, Johnny, I know that's a lie because I know you played the Cabinet version. [00:10:24] Speaker A: No, that was. But that. I don't think that was the PlayStation game. I think that one maybe was released on Dreamcast only. [00:10:28] Speaker B: Okay. [00:10:28] Speaker A: But it was like a. It's like an arena fighter and I. It's really weird. You could be like Sam or Twitch or Jessica Priest or like out of the Clown. And I played it at C2E2. They had like a cabin. [00:10:39] Speaker C: It's like a Quake model, you know. [00:10:42] Speaker A: Exactly. [00:10:42] Speaker C: Right? [00:10:42] Speaker B: Yeah. [00:10:43] Speaker C: Yeah. In the demon's hand. Or I. I snuck it in the drawer and Chibi's bedroom. In issue one, if you look, there's a little Dreamcast. Yeah. Yeah, it's in there. [00:10:54] Speaker A: Yeah. I don't. It was. Yeah, it was on Dreamcast because that was the one that was closest to the. To the arcade as far as graphics and fidelity and all that. [00:11:03] Speaker B: I. I've only ever played like four total minutes of Sonic the Hedgehog on Dreamcast my entire life. [00:11:11] Speaker A: Nice. [00:11:12] Speaker B: Because I got to play at Sam's club until I died. And I always died immediately. [00:11:19] Speaker A: That was the rule. [00:11:20] Speaker B: That was the rule. Yeah. I could stay there until I died. And then. But then there were all the rest of the free samples to go get, so, you know, I was looking forward to those little. [00:11:30] Speaker A: You had to. [00:11:32] Speaker B: Pieces of fried chicken that they would hand out. [00:11:34] Speaker A: Well, we always start when we're going into the issue with the covers. And today. Well, in a roundabout way, just to introduce us to. If this is your first episode, we are regarding Spawn pod, where each week we bring you two issues from Spawn's universe. Except when we don't. And this week is one of the ones where we don't. Because, you know, if you've listened. If we have a guest, we usually just cover one, because the conversation is usually much grander when you have a third person here. So we're just doing one issue today. And that issue is Spawn Kills every spawn number three. Three of five. [00:12:08] Speaker B: Three of five. [00:12:09] Speaker A: And it's a fun adventure where we get to meet some other Chibi characters from the Spawns universe and an expansion. [00:12:17] Speaker B: Of the universe of characters in this world too, in a major way. [00:12:22] Speaker A: And this just for those listening, it is from September 2024, just a few short months ago. That seems like forever and yesterday ago. [00:12:31] Speaker B: Yeah. All at the same time. [00:12:33] Speaker A: All at the same time. And we always start with the covers. Yes. There are two covers of this guy. I have the A cover. [00:12:42] Speaker B: I also have the A cover, which is. [00:12:44] Speaker A: Who's this by? [00:12:45] Speaker B: I don't know. It's by some dude. Some. Some. Some dude. I don't know that. I can't. I can't pronounce that name. Johnny. Maybe we'll have somebody who knows pronounce it for us. [00:12:57] Speaker A: Well, that's a rare thing, Rob, is that you get to do the A cover and the issue on. Pretty much on every one so far. Yeah. Right. [00:13:06] Speaker C: Is that a rare thing? Is That a rare thing? Like, is that rare these days? [00:13:10] Speaker A: At least for Spawn, it is. Because usually the covers don't even match up to what's going on in the issue. Sometimes. [00:13:17] Speaker B: Yeah. Yeah. [00:13:20] Speaker C: I don't think anyone else really wanted to do it. [00:13:23] Speaker B: Well, I mean, I have seen. I saw that There's a John McCrae cover for issue number five. [00:13:28] Speaker C: Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. [00:13:30] Speaker B: Excellent. How does. How does that feel to be doing something that. I'm a big. I'm a big John McCrae fan. He and his buddy, whose name I've also forgotten because my brain is bad. [00:13:43] Speaker C: Huge fan. [00:13:43] Speaker B: The other Irish guy. The Nasty Men himself. Both. They. They can do no wrong together. Oh, it'll come to me in, like, four minutes. [00:13:54] Speaker A: Okay. Well. [00:13:55] Speaker B: Real bad. [00:13:56] Speaker A: Just in time. [00:13:57] Speaker B: Just in time. Just in time. But I think that's. I think that's exciting that there's a John McCrae cover. And I mean, not. Not to diminish your covers. Just anytime John McCrae does anything anymore that actually comes to America is always exciting to me. [00:14:13] Speaker C: Well, you know, all of the covers really come from Thomas Healy and, like, and him and. And John's connections. So it's pretty awesome, you know, when they're like, oh, Rob Gilroy's going to join on or. Or Jonathan Glan doing a cover, you know, or Ben Temples Smith and John and stuff. So I'm. I'm just. I just sit back. All right, man, that's awesome. You know, just keep signing everyone up. [00:14:41] Speaker A: You know, so in there. [00:14:44] Speaker B: Yeah, Garth Dennis. That was his name. [00:14:47] Speaker A: What? [00:14:48] Speaker B: Garth Ennis. That was good. [00:14:49] Speaker A: Think of Garth Ennis. [00:14:50] Speaker B: I couldn't. I couldn't. [00:14:51] Speaker A: You know more about comics than I do, and I knew who Garth Ennis is. Come on. [00:14:54] Speaker B: Well, no, I knew who it was. It's just my brain is dumb. [00:14:57] Speaker A: Hey, it happens. You're probably dumbfounded by this. By this awesome cover. [00:15:01] Speaker B: I am. It's all my attention is going. It's. It's great. So this cover A. So obviously Rob Gilroy does the. The B cover, which is very good, but doesn't have as many. As many details. [00:15:16] Speaker A: Have as many people in red and black. [00:15:19] Speaker C: I'll tell you how the COVID happened. I didn't intend it to do it this way. It's. I get the script, right, and the script's like, hey, opening page. Chibi's in a classroom, and there's a. A poster on the wall. And it's cover. Cover quality detail. Right? The poster is cover quality detail. And I'm like, oh, man, is he tricking me into drawing, like, two covers. Like. Like, you know, I gotta draw a cover within a cover. So I was like, what if I drew the COVID and then we open and there's no Chibi on it, but when you open the book, you realize it's a. The poster, right? So you're looking at the COVID The cover's part of the story, Right. And I was like, will that make any sense to you people? This is why I only gotta draw one. I didn't have to do two ideas. [00:16:12] Speaker B: You know, I think it works. It's like. It's like we're instantly transported into the classroom. Like, this is the. This is our workbook that we're going to be working out of for today's lesson. [00:16:27] Speaker A: Yeah. And it's a great cover with, like, the scorched on there. [00:16:31] Speaker B: It's got Commando spawn on there. A very. An excellent Commando spawn. He doesn't pop up very often. [00:16:38] Speaker A: It's good to see him. Jessica's having Glee killing, which she does, so that's perfect. And you got medieval and monolith and gunslinger. And of course, of course, everyone's favorite, Mr. Gunslinger. Mr. [00:16:52] Speaker B: Hot Stuff with his tall hat. [00:16:55] Speaker A: We don't get to see his butt like we do in the other issue. [00:16:57] Speaker B: No. Sad. So. So what? So this has been. Then. We've been wondering where the gunslingers got a good butt comes from. Was that a. Was that you? Was that John? Was that just sort of in the ether at night? [00:17:13] Speaker C: I did that. Yeah. So. So in. In. In the convention pages from Chibi at the table with the. Those autographs, right? Being, like, marked down all the way to when he leaves the convention. Those pages right there were originally written by Todd. Todd was going to originally write the book. And then as anything else Todd has, you know, like, he. He's like, you know, runs a company. And then, because I drew all those pages and then there was like, what's up, guys? What's up? We got it. Yeah. [00:17:47] Speaker A: Yeah. [00:17:48] Speaker C: And so, you know, they. They. They had to go find a writer to write the rest of the issue. But. But that was sort of my nod to, like. Because I'm like, look, if. If I'm gonna put nods in this book, I'm gonna try and put as many 90s nods as I can, because that's where Spawn comes from for me, right? So I was like, well, this is my nod to Batman Forever, the Joel Schumacher, right? Like. Like. Like, here's the shoe, right? When they. When they're suiting up. And it's like the Butts right on the screen. Right. You're like, oh, there it is. Right? Like, yeah, so that was. [00:18:22] Speaker B: And then bat nipples. [00:18:25] Speaker C: Yeah, I tried to get nipples in the issue, but we just couldn't make room for it. Yeah. [00:18:32] Speaker B: I mean, it's. Because it wasn't 1997. That's why. That's. [00:18:36] Speaker A: Yeah, it's gotta be. [00:18:39] Speaker B: It's wonderful. Or. [00:18:40] Speaker A: David famously was not allowed to see Batman movies, but then he was allowed to see Batman and Robin in the theater. So that is. That was your introduction to Batman. Right? [00:18:51] Speaker B: So, yeah, yeah. Because my mom thought Batman Returns was disgusting, so I wasn't allowed to watch that. And then she really didn't like Jim Carrey. But it wasn't until Batman and Robin that I actually really got to see a Batman movie. And that was probably the worst one for. The worst one for a 10 year old boy to start on because. Yeah, a lot of questions. A lot of questions with. [00:19:16] Speaker C: Yeah, I'll be. [00:19:18] Speaker A: Questions about Uma Thurman. [00:19:21] Speaker B: No, no questions there, Johnny. [00:19:23] Speaker A: Yeah, you're only 10. [00:19:24] Speaker B: I've been. I've been writing that one for like 20 years now. That's a Uma Thurman. [00:19:30] Speaker C: I was. [00:19:30] Speaker B: She's very good. She's very good at what she does. [00:19:32] Speaker C: I was at the. There was a panel room for movies at Comic Con. It was much smaller in the 90s and like one room was where all the movie stuff. So I would just sit in there. And then I knew the Warner Brothers thing was coming up and they'd been handing out these Batman Robin pins, which was a logo. And I thought the logo looked great. Like the little Nightwing. I thought I was. I was like, oh my God, it's gonna be amazing. So we go in there, we're waiting, and the Spawn stuff was gonna be right in there. So I'm like, I'm just gonna sit here. I'm gonna see Batman and Robin, I'm gonna see Spawns. It's gonna be the best day ever. And. And so the, the Batman stuff comes up and they start showing concept art and just gets real quiet in that room, man. Like, because like Mr. Freeze has like snow bunnies and they're half naked and you know, like. And everyone's like, they just come off the heart of the Heart of Ice episode, right? Like in the Animated Series, that people were expecting Melancholy, his wife. And why is he got half naked? Stove. Why is he ripped? Like Bane? What is going on? And, and look, it wasn't going well. And so at the end I go, I Raised my hand, you know, for a question. And because I'm a kid, they picked on me, right. Like, yeah, you. I'm like, hey, man, will Danny Elfman at least be coming back? Because I wasn't a fan of Elliot Gold Goldsmith's score on Batman Forever. And he immediately went, yeah. And people, for the first time throughout this presentation. Applause. Right. Just like, oh, there you go. [00:21:03] Speaker A: Oh, wow. [00:21:03] Speaker C: Yeah. And then they. They cover the microphones and they're talking and they go, sorry, sorry, sorry. That. That's for Space Jam. He's coming back for Space Jam, people. This movie's gonna suck. You know, and so it just did not go. Did not go well at all, you. [00:21:20] Speaker B: Know, and it has. It hasn't gone downhill since then. No. Well, definitely not. Best, best remembered Batman movie, if you. [00:21:27] Speaker C: Ever want to know. I went to a screening of it a month before it came out. It was roughly 30 minutes longer. I mean, it was a real rough cut. That the credits were. The Batman Forever credits. Yeah. And, man, I got. It was great because we got to read it. I was like, I can't wait, man. This is gonna really suck, dude. This is gonna. I. I knew it. And everyone, when the credits came up and it was the Batman Forever credits, and people were cheering. Yeah. Val Kilmer. [00:21:53] Speaker B: Yeah. [00:21:53] Speaker C: Jim Carrey. And. Yeah, man. About five minutes in, people started leaving, you know, like. Yeah. And the theater was half full by the time the thing got done. Yeah. Wasn't. We could. [00:22:07] Speaker B: Oh, man. [00:22:08] Speaker C: And I was laughing at the. The. The movie people. You know, I was a little. [00:22:15] Speaker A: Sure. [00:22:15] Speaker C: I was a jerk. And I was like. And I'm like, in that movie. And I pointed to this. This cutout of just like this. There was a prop preview. It was just a big fake steel wall, and it said Titanic. I'm like, and that's gonna kick your ass like the sinks. [00:22:32] Speaker B: Right? [00:22:33] Speaker C: And. And I. I was just being a wise ass. But it. It's true. It. It did kick its ass that year. Like, Batman and Robin did not do well. [00:22:43] Speaker A: No. [00:22:44] Speaker B: This might be a sad admission, but that Batman and Robin is actually where I saw my first ever clips of the Heat Miser and Snow Miser. [00:22:55] Speaker A: He watches that, doesn't he? [00:22:56] Speaker B: Yeah, because they. They watch it. He has them sing the Snow Miser song and they're. [00:23:00] Speaker A: They're freezing. [00:23:03] Speaker B: I had never seen A Year Without a Santa Claus before that. [00:23:06] Speaker C: But that's why they're. [00:23:07] Speaker A: Rectify that. [00:23:08] Speaker C: That's why there are butt cheeks in issue one, because that's my n. Okay, Joel Spawn mocker in. Right. Yeah. [00:23:20] Speaker B: I just wasn't sure if there was a sort of something like. Because Nightwing. Nightwing's butt has become a thing. I didn't know if there was a gunslinger version of that that we had missed out on. [00:23:32] Speaker A: Well, it's starting. I mean, there is now. [00:23:35] Speaker B: We can. We can help perpetuate it in any way we can. I'm pro Pro butts. We're pro Butt podcast here. So. [00:23:42] Speaker A: So just to run through the credits real quick before we dive in, we've got script plot by John Layman, who we are huge fans of here. We love his run on Scorched, and we're loving this as well. Art by Rob Sketchcraft Awanus, color by Robert Nugent. Lettering by John Lehman. [00:24:01] Speaker C: Yay. Yeah. [00:24:01] Speaker A: It's giving me yay. We already covered the covers. [00:24:05] Speaker B: Sure did. [00:24:06] Speaker A: Creative director is Tom McFarlane, and editor in chief is Mr. Thomas Healy. Yeah. And so previously in Spawn Kills. Every Spawn Spawny held trous to join his new team. His new version of the Scorch is about to wreak. Having. Yep, that's it. That's what happened. [00:24:25] Speaker B: We start off. [00:24:25] Speaker A: But he didn't pick the Baywatch ladies. He didn't get them on the team. What was up with that? Come on. [00:24:29] Speaker C: Yeah, you got. You gotta interview John about that. [00:24:32] Speaker B: All right. [00:24:33] Speaker C: Like, the Spawn ladies was like, not, like, initially, it was just supposed to be a bikini chick, But Todd's giving me very few, like, feedback, right? Like, don't. This doesn't work. And he goes, the last page doesn't feel like an ending. Needs to feel like an ending, you know? And I'm like, what does that mean? Like, I don't write the scripts. You know what I mean? Like, I don't. It's a bikini chick, man. I don't. So I'm like, well, I guess we'll do three of them, right? Because I just remember if I'm in a 90s 90s night, Baywatch. So I just remember the old Baywatch poster. I'm like, I'll just do Bass Bonds. Like, I guess that'll like. I don't know what to do. [00:25:13] Speaker B: That works. [00:25:14] Speaker C: Yeah. [00:25:15] Speaker A: Nice punctuation on it. [00:25:16] Speaker C: Yeah. [00:25:16] Speaker B: I have made sweatier Portmanteaus on this very podcast. So, yeah, you know, Bass Bond works for us. [00:25:23] Speaker A: I remember in the 90s, like, not only was there Baywatch, but there was Baywatch Nights, which I remember seeing as well, where it was David Hasselhoff's character became like, a PI at night, and that it was like, the spin off but, like, it was so. It was like, man, this guy's busy. [00:25:40] Speaker C: Yeah. There was like, werewolves and stuff. It was ridiculous. [00:25:42] Speaker A: Yeah. [00:25:43] Speaker C: They were like, we could do Buffy, too. We can do Buffy with. With Baywatch. [00:25:47] Speaker B: Like, that sounds amazing. [00:25:49] Speaker C: Yeah. [00:25:49] Speaker B: I don't know. I was always. I was always shuffled out of the living room when Baywatch came on. [00:25:54] Speaker A: Oh, yeah. [00:25:55] Speaker B: Nobody then ended up watching it. But I just like to make sure that, I guess the temptation was removed. [00:26:01] Speaker A: Let's get you out of there. [00:26:02] Speaker B: Just giving. Get it out. [00:26:05] Speaker A: So we open on, like we said, the poster version of the COVID And we've got. [00:26:11] Speaker B: We've got Professor Chibi Spawn himself trying to teach us how to become the newest. The newest super team that's to take down Spawn and the Scorched. And I do like that. He is stacked. He is standing on a big stack of books that. Next to it is a book that Johnny and I both know pretty well there. [00:26:33] Speaker A: Yes. [00:26:33] Speaker B: The. [00:26:34] Speaker A: The old Necronomicon. [00:26:35] Speaker B: Necronomicon ex mortis. [00:26:37] Speaker C: Roughly translated, Book of the Dead. [00:26:41] Speaker A: Yeah, there's some great. There's some great famous books in here. You got the Spawn Bible? [00:26:46] Speaker B: I forgot to pull out my Spawn Bible. I've got it over there. [00:26:51] Speaker A: I appreciated the Tobin Spirit Guide as a big Ghostbusters fan. I was like, oh, hell, yeah. I got the Tobin Spirit Guide in there. [00:26:57] Speaker B: Or Lopin's Hegemonic Book of Sorcery and Chinese Black Magic. [00:27:02] Speaker C: Yeah. [00:27:02] Speaker B: Yeah. [00:27:03] Speaker C: I'm a giant Big Trouble in Little China fan. [00:27:06] Speaker A: I just noticed. So those are the stones from Temple of Doom. [00:27:10] Speaker B: It's everything from every Indiana Jones movie. You've got the stones, you've got the fertility idol. You've got the crystal skull. You've got the crucifix from the beginning of the third one. And I'm going to assume that's the Spear of Longinus in the background there. [00:27:24] Speaker C: Oh, yeah. [00:27:24] Speaker B: For the newest one. [00:27:26] Speaker C: Yep. [00:27:27] Speaker A: Yeah, yeah. You got all the Indiana Jones stuff. That's right. I didn't even notice that. [00:27:30] Speaker C: And. And you got One Eyed Willies from Goonies down there, too. [00:27:35] Speaker B: There's a. There's the cup of a Carpenter down there. [00:27:38] Speaker C: Yeah. [00:27:39] Speaker A: The penitent man kneels. David. [00:27:42] Speaker B: I like that. The. The teabag has a little skull as the tag. [00:27:45] Speaker A: And you got Baddy. There is his is his assistant. [00:27:48] Speaker B: He's got the. He's got his little nerd glasses and his bow tie and his. His pointer. It's great. [00:27:54] Speaker C: He's. He's wearing the same outfit that Professor Jones wears when he's teaching. Oh, he is, Yeah. [00:28:01] Speaker A: I would have write I love you on my eyelids and blink at him. I love him. [00:28:07] Speaker C: Now you're giving John just nonsense to write, right? [00:28:12] Speaker A: Yeah. [00:28:12] Speaker C: Yeah. [00:28:13] Speaker A: You got Creech in a jar. Who doesn't want Creech in a jar? [00:28:16] Speaker C: Yeah, well, that's also. That was in an issue with spawn in the 70s. There's, like, one issue where Cogliostro and Spawn go into a room and there's all this vaulted stuff, and then they put the Creech stuff in there because they were just, like, teasing out the new series. And I was like, I'll put that exact jar right there. I just put Creech on it so people knew what the hell it was, you know? [00:28:39] Speaker A: Yeah, I remember that. It's the issue where he, like, brings him into his little attic. I know what you're talking about. [00:28:43] Speaker C: Yeah. Yeah. [00:28:43] Speaker B: I haven't gotten there. I think I'm. I think I've. I've left off on the older stuff at 70, because then we started doing this, and I ran out of time to read Spawn for fun. [00:28:53] Speaker A: Yeah, it's Thomas Healey's. Definitely made it hard to keep up for us in a good way. There's just so much. There's a plethora of Spawn right now. [00:29:01] Speaker B: There's a lot of good stuff on this page. It's a good page. We can't. We can't say everything that's there because we'll be here for a whole week. [00:29:07] Speaker C: Yeah. We'll make a whole episode out of it, to be honest with you. [00:29:11] Speaker A: Pretty much. [00:29:11] Speaker C: Yeah. [00:29:12] Speaker A: But we get. We get his version of the Scorch. The Spawn Force. [00:29:15] Speaker B: Spawn Force, which is very. A very 90s titled. Everything with Some Kind of Force or Other. [00:29:21] Speaker A: Yeah. With Chainsaw Spawn, Saguaro Spawn, Maniac Spawn, and Giant Poisonous Spider Spawn. [00:29:29] Speaker B: And Bromine Monochloride Spawn. [00:29:31] Speaker A: Oh, I missed that. Yeah, Bromine, Which. [00:29:34] Speaker B: Which. I appreciate that he wears a monocle as a monochloride, which. [00:29:38] Speaker C: Well, how do you make a. A cloud of gas Evil. You give him a monocle. [00:29:44] Speaker A: Promised me to do it. [00:29:45] Speaker C: Yeah. I initially tried a female. Like, there was like, a gas. With. With boobs. I thought that'd be funny, but don't look too nice. He didn't look evil enough. Yeah. So I was like, this will be the Toby Jones of Spawns. Right? [00:30:02] Speaker B: I like your. I like your. Your famous killing quotes. Did you come up with the killing quotes yourself, or were those mandated by John himself? [00:30:11] Speaker C: No, no, I. I did that to myself, like. Yeah, yeah, I know. Look, I'm gonna be honest. Sometimes when I put that stuff in there, I'm not helping John with like, letter placement. Right. It's like, well, you just ate up half the page, Rob, with, you know, stuff that doesn't matter, you know, But. But yeah, no, I. I thought it would be funny to put things on the. I mean, he's teaching them like night. Like night class. You remember Stripes with like Harold Ramis, Right? Like, yeah, yeah. I imagine it's kind of like that scenario, right? [00:30:47] Speaker B: Just like in his loft. [00:30:48] Speaker C: Yeah. [00:30:49] Speaker A: And of course he asked the class after they have any questions and they ask Chainsaw Spawn gets sassy and asks. You has an actual plan. [00:30:57] Speaker B: Yeah, yeah. His perfect plan is to start taking out the weakest spawns first and move their way up. And then they're like, hey, we. We went on the same Internet that you were on and we found out that you are the weakest spawn. So why don't we just buy you. We get this great. This great two page spread of Chibi Spawn fleeing the Spawn force, complaining that the book is called Spawn kills every Spawn. Not every spawn kills me. And yeah, it's. Everybody's just going after him. [00:31:29] Speaker A: I love that. Batty's like just shooting backwards with his double guns. [00:31:32] Speaker B: Yeah. [00:31:32] Speaker A: He's got his back. And of course, the Todd. The Todd, like it's Andy on Toy Story is a great touch. [00:31:40] Speaker B: I like all the skull shaped windows in the cityscape. [00:31:43] Speaker C: Yeah. My challenge is to count the skulls because I can't. I've lost track. [00:31:52] Speaker A: Too many. [00:31:53] Speaker C: Yeah. I just kept doing like. Even some of the buildings are shape like skulls. If you look and. Yeah. [00:31:58] Speaker B: Oh, yeah. [00:31:59] Speaker C: Yeah. [00:31:59] Speaker B: Nice. [00:32:00] Speaker C: Yeah. It's ridiculous. [00:32:02] Speaker B: Well, I mean, first for Spawn World, that's what you got to do. Everywhere there can be a skull, you put a skull. [00:32:09] Speaker C: That's what I tell myself. That's. That's how I justify, you know. [00:32:14] Speaker B: If. If they were to make a spawn, a Spawn World Amusement park, that would be the mandate. Instead of having hidden Mickeys, you'd have, well, hidden spawn skulls. [00:32:23] Speaker C: I'm not gonna lie, guys. I initially pitched a story featuring. Featuring the Spawn World Amusement Park. [00:32:32] Speaker A: Oh, nice. [00:32:33] Speaker C: That was my initial pitch. And they just looked at me like I was weird, but I was like, you know, he could get trapped there. And each realm would be like Gunslinger Land and Medieval Land. And it'll be like Battle Royale, you know, and he's trapped in there. He's gonna kill the spawns. And they just were like, I don't know. I don't know. [00:32:49] Speaker B: That sounds awesome. Yeah, well, that sounds amazing. [00:32:52] Speaker C: I tried. I tried. Maybe. Maybe we'll get there one day. [00:32:56] Speaker B: Maybe. Well, you can. Speaking to tie it into earlier, you could turn it into a pitch for a new video game where it's kind of like Mario, where you got to go through each of the worlds, beating all the villains. Right. [00:33:09] Speaker A: I can see a Chibi spawn side scroller. That could be fun. [00:33:13] Speaker C: Yeah. I can't imagine one pixel artist wanting to animate the little spikes. Like, that's. That's. Let me tell you something. One thing about the Chibi spawn is. Is so the previous iterations of this character, he. He was drawn chubby, right? [00:33:29] Speaker B: Like. [00:33:29] Speaker C: Like a. Yeah. And that makes him actually easier to draw, because when he's thick, then everything else is kind of like, nubby, too. It's easier to get the shapes. But I was. I don't know. I. I always thought it'd be funny if he was closer to Zim or Ren or Calvin. You know, like, you can look derpy. Like, Calvin could look derpy, but then he could look maniacal, which means he has to have thinner limbs. And that presents problems because you have to scale things differently almost panel to panel, Like. Like, you know, like it. He. The. The size of that boot changes dramatically depending on how, you know, you need work. But it's no easy thing, getting that little glove, you know, like, to. You know, when you do want to do things like pick up something or emote, you're like, there's these spikes in the way, man. Like. Like, okay, here's the thing. He's got the. The. The glove, right? With the little hook and the prong. But when he holds his hands at you, where's that prong gotta go, right? Like, when it comes at you, it just. It becomes fingers or it. So it's. It's. It's a little tricky. [00:34:38] Speaker B: Well, I mean, as Todd McFarlane himself said, the suit is alive, so that's why it changes. It could just change between panels. [00:34:44] Speaker C: That's what I keep telling myself. I'm like, no one. I don't. I think. I think it's 30 years raw. They probably got the. They got the hint. [00:34:51] Speaker A: Yeah, there's a great. On one of the older issues, probably in, like, the 20s or something, there's someone writes a letter that's basically kind of complaining about stuff like that, and just like, why does. Why is this suit like this? Why is it like that? And Taj is like, because it's alive, okay? Leave me alone. [00:35:05] Speaker C: I, too. When Nate started Spawn.com in 95. I. I was a TA in the. The computer lab. We had this nice Mac donated computer lab. And so I immediately went to their website and submitted a complaint. And it was, why aren't there any Sam and Twitch figures? Like, when are you gonna. Why is there a Viking spawn and these made up ninja spawns, but no salmon? Twitch figures. Ridiculous. And he published it in issue 45. [00:35:36] Speaker B: Oh, really? [00:35:37] Speaker C: Yeah, it's in there. It's a Robin 586 aol.com because. Because I had a 586 DX50. And that's awesome. He was like, oh, we're gonna do it now, bud. But you know, the reason why is because no one's gonna buy those stupid figures. You know, like, he's right. I mean, the salmon touches is for nerds like me, but. Yeah. [00:35:58] Speaker B: And like us. [00:35:59] Speaker A: I've got mine in the other room. [00:36:00] Speaker B: Yeah, we've got the. We. We both have an old set and a new set. [00:36:06] Speaker A: Yeah, we have. Because they're a variant on the old set. There's one where they look a little happier, and there's one where they look angry. [00:36:12] Speaker B: Yeah. [00:36:12] Speaker A: And I think David has. [00:36:13] Speaker B: I have. I have the happy set. You have the angry. I have the happy set because it comes with the donut, Right? [00:36:18] Speaker C: Donut. That's the one I got. [00:36:20] Speaker B: It's good. [00:36:20] Speaker A: But there's one where they're like the one I have. They look really mean and angry. I don't know if they're just. There are two variants of it. [00:36:25] Speaker B: Twitch is in, like, a tactical suit. [00:36:28] Speaker A: Yeah, yeah, it was the. More like, action version of them, I guess. [00:36:33] Speaker B: Love. We love us some Sam and Twitch here. So you are. You are. You are in a safe space, Salmon. Twitch wise. [00:36:39] Speaker A: So Chibi Spawn gets home, and mom's there to greet him. She looks like she's crocheting. [00:36:45] Speaker B: She's just knitting there on the couch with a. With a glass of green wine because everything's necroplasmic. [00:36:53] Speaker A: Mm. Green wine. [00:36:54] Speaker B: Green wine. I mean, orange wine is a thing now. I'm sure green wine will come through. [00:36:59] Speaker A: It could also be an appletini. [00:37:01] Speaker B: Oh, that's true. She's drinking a manly drink. What's going on there? [00:37:04] Speaker A: And Ruff comes and greets him I like with his exposed brain. [00:37:10] Speaker B: I was confused by this, because in all previous issues, everything associated with the dog has him labeled as brains, but in this issue, he becomes rough instead of brains. [00:37:20] Speaker C: Yeah. [00:37:21] Speaker B: Was that intentional, or was that just a tipsy? [00:37:23] Speaker C: Well, I. I called him Brains. I figured if I put it on his bowl and I told John, his name is Brains. John. John does what? John. Look, I don't control. You know what I mean? All you can do is just like, put it all out there. [00:37:37] Speaker B: Well, Brains. Brains would have ruined the, the superhero name joke later on, so I, I can get that. [00:37:46] Speaker C: Yeah, right. I mean, look, it, it all works, but hope Columbines. It's just. I thought it would be funny if, if his, he was a hellhound, right? Like, like he was like, he's an undead dog, so his, his brain's popping out, you know? [00:38:04] Speaker B: Yeah. [00:38:05] Speaker C: But I think it's great, you know, whatever. Fun. Fun fact, though. The exterior of Chibi's house is based on the poltergeist house, but the, the interior of his house is based on my cousin's house who lived in Cerritos, not too far from Simi Valley. So when her exterior of the house kind of looked like the poltergeist house. So it, it's just like I was like, oh, I get to put two. Two in there. [00:38:31] Speaker B: Well, there would have been a lot of open space in the original poltergeist house. [00:38:35] Speaker A: So don't, don't talk to me about it. I'm gonna get nightmares. I think it was the second one that freaked me out more because there's the part, I think it's in the second one where the braces go crazy and like, his braces, like, trap him to the wall. That just gave me. [00:38:49] Speaker C: Yes. [00:38:50] Speaker A: It scared the shit out of me. [00:38:51] Speaker C: The floating chainsaw messed me up for quite a while. Yeah, I like the first one I love. But the second one is just a mean movie. [00:39:00] Speaker A: Yeah, yeah, it's mean. We get, we get a mean reference to that spawn video game here in. Once we get to Chibi spawns room and we get, we get the side scroller on the tv. Super Nintendo controllers with some more. [00:39:14] Speaker B: With some more Spaz Cola. [00:39:16] Speaker A: Yep, that's a two. We thought it was a great deep cut because that's the guy from that did all the ILM stuff, right? That's where that comes from. [00:39:22] Speaker C: Yeah, that's. Yeah, yeah. [00:39:26] Speaker A: Because there's, because they referenced him in some earlier spawns too. [00:39:29] Speaker C: Well, I, I, I was like, if I put dip on there, it would get a little too obvious. So I was like, you know, if they do complain, I could just say it's a take on Jolt, right? Joel Cola. It's Spaz. Like it was. So I kind of gave myself an out. I think the only thing Thomas ever Told me we had to watch out on was references to the movie. I'm like, what about people who worked on the movie? You know, like. And so they were cool with that. [00:39:55] Speaker A: That's interesting. They had to watch out for references in the movies just because they don't have full rights or something like that. [00:40:00] Speaker C: Yeah, well, I did warn them. So there's that scene in the first issue where Chibi's walking down the street. And Todd had written that page. Initially. Initially, he was supposed to go to his hotel room and he was going to be in his hotel. And so I called that the Bravura Hotel, which you guys picked up on, by the way. You got that reference, so congratulations. And. Yeah, and. But on the. The building, there's a movie billboard for, like, Todd had the thing. It's one of the. The Spawns. I don't know. He told me he wanted this movie billboard, and so I drew it, and I'm like, I need movie stuff. So I did grab the credits from the Spawn poster. Like. Like the movie credits there. You'll know. You know, they're tiny. But yeah, I did warn them. Like, that is in there. And they're like, oh, it's fine. I'm like, all right. [00:40:55] Speaker A: Yeah, it was. It was Plague Spawn. I believe it was a plague spot. [00:40:58] Speaker C: Right. [00:40:59] Speaker A: Was on the billboard. [00:41:01] Speaker B: That would be an awesome movie. Just a Plague Spawn movie. [00:41:04] Speaker A: That'd be hilarious. They just started Plague Spawn. [00:41:07] Speaker B: You could do it. You could do it Blair Witch style, where somebody's just. They heard tales of the plague. The plague witch living in the. [00:41:15] Speaker C: In the woods, voiced by Zelda Rubenstein. Right? Plagues. Yeah. [00:41:23] Speaker B: And I like. I like that there's the Felix the Cat. So that. That one guy who only reads comics that has Felix the Cat in it can read it. [00:41:29] Speaker A: So is that the story that Todd Farley put those in there because there was a guy or. What's the story behind that? [00:41:36] Speaker B: Yeah, so it was in. It was in one of the early letter pages that he met a vet who his. His tether to the real world was Felix the Cat. And so he could only read comic books that had Felix the Cat in them. So Todd McFarlane drew Felix the Cat in every issue. And it was like, you could read my book. [00:41:54] Speaker A: Have you ever, Rob, have you ever seen the insane? We talked about this the other week because of the. We were talking about number two, where there was a Felix the Cat. But have you ever seen 80s Felix the cat movie? [00:42:04] Speaker C: Yes. Yeah. [00:42:05] Speaker A: It's so wild. [00:42:06] Speaker C: He was. He was. He was like, My favorite character as well, when I was a little kid, so. The Magic Bachelor. Yeah. That all those 80s movies were insane, man. [00:42:15] Speaker A: Like there was a weird Nether Realm. It's so weird. [00:42:18] Speaker C: Yeah, there was this weird Pinocchio movie too that wasn't made by Disney, but it was like all dark, you know, and the Care Bears movies was dark and everything was dark and violent. So totally weird. Yeah, the Felix movie was pretty out there. [00:42:34] Speaker A: Yeah. [00:42:34] Speaker B: I feel like I need to go watch this now. I didn't even know it existed. [00:42:38] Speaker A: It's worth checking. I think it's just called Felix the Cat. The movie, I think is what it's called. But it was a favorite of my brother and I, so we never owned it. We rented it pretty frequently, which is funny to consider this day and age that. [00:42:50] Speaker B: Re renting. [00:42:52] Speaker A: Re renting a vhs. Yeah. [00:42:53] Speaker B: At a certain. At this. At a certain point, you just buy it. Like if. If there was a book I got from the library like six times or more, my mom was just like, fuck it, we're going to buy this book. [00:43:04] Speaker A: So Chibi Smot decides to take a bath and he takes. [00:43:08] Speaker B: He takes a bath with one of his little bum bum buddies. [00:43:11] Speaker A: Yes. From the two. Number two. [00:43:15] Speaker B: The bum bums crack me up so much. [00:43:17] Speaker C: Yeah. I try to draw them more like Spongebobs rather than like eggs because I was like, I don't know how to make an egg emote, man. Like, I don't. [00:43:24] Speaker B: They. Yeah, they're much less menacing this way than they are. And the just sort of orb with no mouth. [00:43:33] Speaker C: Yeah, that. That was my problem with a lot of this stuff. I was like, I. I need these guys to emote. And even. Yeah, even the. The previous iterations, he didn't really have a mouth much, you know, like. Yeah, the. The version. So I was like, well, they're getting mouths now, man. You know. Hope everyone's cool with that. [00:43:52] Speaker B: We get our boys. Our boys show up Johnny. We get Sampu and Twitch Condition. [00:43:59] Speaker A: Yeah, that's right. Oh, man, I would buy some of that. That's another 90s thing, is the shampoo with the character's head on it. I remember getting Ninja Turtles ones was big. Had to get the Ninja Turtle shampoo. [00:44:10] Speaker B: Like his little scrub brush is the Violator. He's got a lot of. He's got a lot of violator memorabilia for somebody who's a big Spawn fan. [00:44:20] Speaker A: Well, he's about to meet some violence. [00:44:22] Speaker B: He might be a little bit of a. Of a violator stand. [00:44:26] Speaker A: I think so. [00:44:28] Speaker B: But he's he hears him. He hears Batty out there making a ruckus, and he's like, what are you doing out there? He walks out and Batty's just like, ta da. Because he did some stuff to the bike, to the little tricycle, and he also turned it into a spawnformer. I love the transforms. [00:44:44] Speaker A: I love the transcription of the Transformers. Noise is very good. Chee choo choo chee. [00:44:51] Speaker C: Oh, yeah. That's the exact sound it makes in the Transformers comics when Optimus prime transforms. Yeah, I did some transformers covers for IDW, you know, and, and back in 2017 and they offered me a series and I was like, I don't want to draw these dudes, like, like lines, man. It's too many lines on every character. So like, I, I drew him transforming here. But I, when Todd, when I first met Todd, he goes, just tell me what you like to draw, you know, because he was like, brett likes to draw dinosaurs. And now we got to put dinosaurs in the book, you know? And I'm like, I just told him I just wanted to draw all of his characters. I always wanted to draw all Sam and Twitch and all the spawns. And so that's why he came up with spawn kills Every spawn. So I could get a chance to draw these characters. John came on and never asked me what I, I, I made the mistake of not mentioning things I don't want to draw. And I was like, I don't want to draw transforming robots, like, and I don't want to draw dinosaurs. And I'm gonna tell you, like, yeah, so this is the first and last time I ever draw this dude. Transform. I just, just like magic bubbles after this, you know, I'm like, yeah, I don't, I don't. I mean, because how do you do it, right? Like, it never, you know, some guys. [00:46:11] Speaker A: Yeah, that's tough. [00:46:12] Speaker C: Yeah. Yeah. I mean, it's one thing when you're, you know, like I did it once on T shirts when I, because I used to do a licensed apparel. And when I first started, they have these like, they call them doublers with like long sleeves for boys, right? And you had to put, gotta put images. It was like generics. And I just, like, I drew a military copter and I was like, can you put something. What do you do for a helicopter in a sleeve? I made it transform into a robot, you know, like a Pat Lee style Transformer. And I learned that I don't ever want to do this again. Like, I don't. And so here I'm like, oh, man. The hand, you know, like. Like, I'm trying not to draw as many, because how do you make it move? Right? Yeah. [00:46:57] Speaker B: As. As somebody who personally had trouble just giving the action figures to transform at all, I can totally appreciate that Drawing the transformation is probably not the funnest thing in the world. [00:47:10] Speaker C: And you got a deadly. Like, I gotta get this page done, man. Like, I'm trying to. I can't imagine Todd asking me where the book is. I'm like, well, I'm trying to figure out how the big Wheel transforms into a ro. [00:47:20] Speaker A: Yeah. [00:47:21] Speaker C: Where does. [00:47:21] Speaker A: Where does the wheel go? [00:47:22] Speaker C: No. No Spawn artist has ever had this problem, you know, like, in the history of Spawn comics, so. But that's why when I designed the robot, I made certain he didn't have tons of lines. I'm like, no. Bold shapes. Bold shapes. Because I was like, I don't want to do that again. [00:47:40] Speaker B: Magic. Magic. I like how. I like how he has the. The classic Spawn Dragster, the Spawn Mobile paint job with the different colored flames. [00:47:52] Speaker C: That was something I had to constantly remind. The color is like, no, no, no, no, no. It's half and half, you know, Like, I did a design sheet, you know, just before I started, but very quickly, you know, you just realize there's lots of little bits that. That can get lost it. That. That no one designed that. That Spawn Mobile to be drawn, let alone as a robot, you know, so, you know, it was. [00:48:20] Speaker B: It was designed to look cool, going very fast. [00:48:23] Speaker C: Right? [00:48:24] Speaker B: Like, so maybe as a tease towards where Chibi Spawn goes later in the issue. There are a lot of Violator issue covers on his wall that we have not seen previously. [00:48:40] Speaker A: Yeah, he's got 1, 2, and 3 right there from the old mini scene. [00:48:43] Speaker B: Including the one that our partners in crime, the Spawnography team, find. There's. There's one of those covers that the face that the clown is making on one of them cracks them up all the time. They call him a. Oh, what's the word? Well, he looks like he's. He looks like he's having more of a fun time than he should on the COVID It's very gleeful. [00:49:09] Speaker A: That's a fun miniseries, though. [00:49:11] Speaker B: That's. Have you. Have you. How, man? It's a good miniseries. It's way better than it needs to be. [00:49:17] Speaker C: I bought it when it came out. [00:49:19] Speaker A: Hell, yeah. [00:49:20] Speaker C: Yeah. No, guys, I. I was there. I was buying everything. Guys, I was buying. I mean, I was buying all the miniseries. And. And so. [00:49:30] Speaker B: So we are. You. Plus 25 years, minus lots of Talent. So that's. [00:49:36] Speaker C: That's good to know. [00:49:37] Speaker B: We're in a good spot, John. [00:49:39] Speaker A: Yeah. Yeah. I was, I was, I was like, my brother had some spawns when it first came out, but I was not allowed to get them. And, like, only till after I saw the movie, I was able to convince my mom to let me get some spawn stuff because she was like. I was like, I've seen the movie, you know, I've lived it. [00:50:01] Speaker C: Well, I was in that room at Comic Con, right? And sure. Todd comes up to announce the spawn movie, and he's going to say, I want to let you know who's gonna play Spawn. He goes, stand up. And the guy literally next to me stands up, right? And I was Michael with this guy like, like, I didn't know is Michael. I was like, guy just played Tyson, you know, on hbo. So I was like, I was just blown away. He'd been sitting next to me for, like, at least five minutes, you know, and yeah, we were all super excited. [00:50:32] Speaker A: We are, we are on the record as being. We're fans that we were. You know, it has its flaws, but the movie is, is fun and it is, it's. It's a, it's. It's a hoot. [00:50:43] Speaker B: Yeah. For. For all of, for all of its faults, it is an enjoyable time. [00:50:48] Speaker C: Well, it's better than the Phantom. [00:50:51] Speaker A: There he is. Oh, don't get David started on the Phantom. He has a lifelong fear of microscopes. Because the Phantom, like in that movie, someone stabs a guy with a microscope. [00:51:02] Speaker C: I listen to that. [00:51:02] Speaker B: Puts it into the focus notes. [00:51:04] Speaker C: Yeah. I listen. [00:51:04] Speaker A: Oh, nice. [00:51:05] Speaker B: Yeah. [00:51:06] Speaker A: David. David can't look at microscopes and unfortunately he has to forget his job. [00:51:10] Speaker B: Yeah. Whatever it happens, we all do a little bit of stuff we don't want to do from time to time. Right. It's. It's sad though, because Phantom comics are really fun. Maybe, maybe a bit problematic with what they are, but, you know, well, still big in Australia. [00:51:28] Speaker C: My. My friend Lauren Marshall, she's a really good cover artist. She's doing the Phantom covers right now over there. And because she's like, oh, could you help me? You know, give me some tips? And. And I'm like, this is still going on. Like, we're still doing this. Like, she's like, oh, it's really big over here. I'm like, okay. You know, like, they're. [00:51:49] Speaker B: They like their superheroes to have zebra print panties, you know? [00:51:52] Speaker C: Yeah. [00:51:53] Speaker A: And a gun. Basically, Chibi Spawn decides he has all he needs right here. He's Got his Transformer. He's got Baddie. He's got Ruff. He's got the Bum Bums. [00:52:04] Speaker B: No, no, because he's got his team. And then. And then we get the. The. The previously mentioned joke about superhero names for. For Ruff. Because Ruff needs a superhero name, and it's Ruff is what they come up to. Just spelled different. [00:52:22] Speaker C: Oh, yeah. It's very clever. I like it. [00:52:26] Speaker A: So then we get a classic what, like, Spawns like to do. Standing on rooftops and looking down, which is a pretty classic Spawn maneuvering. [00:52:34] Speaker B: Yes, indeed. [00:52:34] Speaker A: And he has this epic sky that's like something out of a Todd McFarlane toy. Is that from something specific or that's just from your imagination? [00:52:43] Speaker C: No, I've always wanted to give Spawn to Scythe. And I keep trying to put it on the. I got tons of thumbnails with him on the COVID and Todd always doesn't pick it, you know, so I'm gonna get. [00:52:53] Speaker A: Seems like a good match, though. [00:52:54] Speaker C: Look, I even tried. I even tried to get it on the fifth cover, and he made me take it off. Like he doesn't like it or something. So as I'm gonna get it somewhere in his damn issue, you know? [00:53:03] Speaker B: So, like, it looks so cool because it looks like it's. It's a being that got cursed to be an object. It's got so much menace, just because it's all teeth and eyes. [00:53:13] Speaker C: I initially threw it. I did some concept art with it in black and white, and I had it like, you know, it drinks from the blood of the non believers, and, like, they're just like Todd's heads on the ground. You know, it's just soaking up all the. Just maybe he didn't like it or something. I don't know. [00:53:30] Speaker B: Maybe. Maybe. Maybe Todd's the only one who can show violence to Todd in the issues. [00:53:36] Speaker C: It's possible. I should have asked. [00:53:38] Speaker B: I like that there's a haunt billboard in the background there. Look at that guy. [00:53:42] Speaker C: Oh, yeah. [00:53:43] Speaker B: Up on the. Up on the top panel. [00:53:45] Speaker A: Oh, yeah. Okay. And so they decide they're gonna go look for all the Scorch, and they look for all the places where Scorch hang out. Yeah, Albania. We know they like to go to missions there. [00:53:56] Speaker B: Yeah, yeah. That's ground zero for the Spawn tastrophe of, you know, Spawn hits zero for his necroplasm and then explodes. Very. [00:54:08] Speaker A: Green world. Of course, Angel Station, which we haven't seen in a minute. Like, that's where they sent down the Redeemer from yeah. [00:54:15] Speaker C: Issue 18 or 16 around there. [00:54:18] Speaker A: Yeah. The Is the Grant Morrison issues, right? [00:54:22] Speaker C: Yep. [00:54:22] Speaker B: Yeah. Because the, the pool. What's his head up from? Jason. Jason went up from. [00:54:29] Speaker A: Right. [00:54:29] Speaker B: Beating guys up in the. Doing like, he was fighting some ninjas, and he was like, you guys are bad ninjas. You're fired. [00:54:37] Speaker A: And they suck him into heaven. [00:54:40] Speaker B: I do like the. I'm a big, big fan of a fishbowl helmet for a spacesuit. And I like. I like the. The fishbowl helmet for. For Robo Spawn has the little whoops for xantenae. [00:54:54] Speaker C: Yes. What else are you gonna do? Right? Like, you gotta do it. [00:54:58] Speaker A: You got Hell. [00:54:59] Speaker B: Hell. I'm going to assume Demon Chicken Pollo is from another John Layman book. [00:55:09] Speaker C: Shoe. Right? Shoe. [00:55:10] Speaker B: Shoe. [00:55:11] Speaker C: Yeah. [00:55:11] Speaker B: I have. I haven't read you, but I assume so because the chicken appears on the COVID B as well. [00:55:17] Speaker C: Right. So Rob Gilleroy, who did the alternate covers, the art is from Chu as well, so. [00:55:23] Speaker B: Oh, nice. Well, that makes sense. That's Hell. Yeah. [00:55:28] Speaker A: And then bringing it all together, they go to redacted. They go to see that it's Gotham. Back country. [00:55:35] Speaker B: This is back country. Got to go through it. How was it. How was it drawing Vengeance? How was it drawing the knight? [00:55:45] Speaker C: Well, drawing. It was fine. The bigger issue was how do I get my colorist on board with this page? This was a complicated page. And guys, like, I, I. I've traditionally always colored my own work for the last 20 years. So, like, I always know, like, like what I'm signing people up for, because I've done it to myself, you know? And on this page, I was. I just did a color guide. This is the first page I did throughout all the issue, I would have, like, reference images, and I, I would build a. There's a program called Pure Ref. It's really awesome. And you can make. You could put images in there and make an unlimited canvas. And so I'd make a canvas for every issue, and I'd make a video and walk the colorist through this, this, and that so he doesn't have to think about what is all this stuff supposed to be? You know, like. Right, right. And so on this one, I just physically, I just colored the whole thing because I knew I wanted the animated series on the bottom because. Because, like, pod. Like, I initially colored pages the Spawn Con, and I did, like, this green background because I thought it would be more like Zim or Sam Ray Jack in the color palette. And Todd was like, the cons can't be green. That's not life. And I'm like, I don't know. I don't know for life, Todd, but he was like, red skies, unless you're in some fantastic area. So I was like, oh, man. So when I knew we were gonna do the Violator thing, I, I. You guys ever read wizard magazine? [00:57:13] Speaker A: Oh, yeah, I used to read Wizard. Yeah. [00:57:15] Speaker C: So wizard magazine, there was this issue that came out during Christmas. Turned out to be the Halloween issue, but, you know, for Christmas. And it was this Violator cover that Capullo drew. It was like, issue 45 or something like that. And it's these. These Violators just ripping these kids to shreds for Halloween. And it had nothing to do with an issue. He just did it for the COVID So I. I was like, I'm going to make that the Violator town. Like, I want to make that cover continuity, you know? Like. Like, that's just, like, my dreams as a kid, that that cover needs to be continuity somehow. So to me, that was the founding of that town. Like, Violators ransacked it, killed everyone, took over the town. And so I knew I wanted that red sky, but I was afraid Todd might complain about red skies. So I'm like, well, if I do the Batman thing as red, I can transition into red skies. And he can't really complain about Batman having red skies. Right, right, right. So I even made certain that the Batman on there is the Todd. Like, Kate from your. [00:58:12] Speaker B: Yeah. [00:58:13] Speaker C: Or whatever. It's just kind of like no one. No one cared. But, like, I was like, I'm always. I'm always used to dealing with licensers and. And editors who really, you know, fight back, but they're all cool with it. But that was just, you know. [00:58:30] Speaker A: I love the Animated Series color palette. That's great. [00:58:32] Speaker B: Oh, man. Loved the Animated Series so much. It was my. It was my favorite. It usually came on right before my mom picked me up from. From after school care. And, like, if the episode wasn't over, I would refuse to go home. I was like, mom, we gotta stay until Batman's up. [00:58:49] Speaker C: Right, Right. [00:58:50] Speaker B: It's very good. We. We have heard when we talked to Mark Spears, he had a similar. A similar kind of back and forth with Todd about needing to have naturalistic colors in his backgrounds. And he was like, but I snuck one in, but I stuck one in. [00:59:05] Speaker C: Yeah, I love the man, but when it comes to color, I'm like, no, I hung out with Steve, Olaf, and hey, Roland. I don't agree with any of that. Like, I get. I get 30 years. They change it. But I'm like, no, old school Spawn did not have real purple nights, you know, And. [00:59:22] Speaker A: Yeah. [00:59:22] Speaker C: And just come on, you know, like, get out of here, you know, it's fine, it's fine. [00:59:28] Speaker B: We'll let, we'll let the man have his idiosyncratic. [00:59:31] Speaker C: Yeah, yeah. I, I, I always, I always acquiesce. You're right. That's a great idea. And then just, I'll just change in the other issue when he's not looking. That would I change. You got me, you know? Yeah. [00:59:45] Speaker B: And then, and then we get like, he's like traveling through a, through a tunnel. He's, he's basically shadow blasting, as we say, the old school school necroplasmic transport system. Everybody's on a bike and rough is just like, I like that baddie is carrying rough around this little bitty bat, this big dog. [01:00:08] Speaker C: See, this is, this is a problem where you're like. John's like, yeah, and they drive to Violator Bill. I'm like, what does that mean? They drive to Violator Bill. Like he's on a Big Wheel. What do I do with the dog? Like, I don't. Guy like, you know what I mean? Like, I don't know. Like, yeah, I, I, you could write that, but I'm, I don't. So I guess he's, he's bad. Bad. He's gonna carry him, you know, like. And I don't. Yeah. So, And I, I didn't have any, like, real because I knew the next page I was gonna have a reverse shot of the bike. I didn't have a cool front shot of the bike. So I just tried to make the most out of this, you know, And I was like, we'll just go green because it's gonna be a lot of red coming up. So. [01:00:52] Speaker B: Yeah, well, it's also, it's also very Calvin and Hobbes, where I have no idea where the hell Calvin lived. That he had all of those pristine hills to sled down just like right outside of his house. So it's right, you know, he's just sledding somewhere. He's just big biking somewhere. But yeah, we get a nice little description of Chibi Spawn's idea that if you're looking for Spawn, you gotta look for his number one bad guy, the Violator. And then very lovingly rendered first violator shot you've got there from when he's ripping out the heart of the mob bosses. I like that you kept the hearts very potatoey. Yeah. [01:01:37] Speaker A: Because in the old issues, we Always call them the potato hearts. They look like a potato with, like a couple strings coming out of them. [01:01:42] Speaker C: Right. So. Well, first, let's just. This is because someone's going to call it out. I, they, they, they misprinted the word balloon. Right? We all know that. So we can get past that. Oh, sure, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. It was so much energy. It knocked the words right out the balloon. But so, so he's just supposed to be driving down streets. And I knew I was going to be drawing these cartoony violators. So I'm like, in my mind, I'm like, who's going to come? What are they going to complain about? They're going to complain. Maybe the fans will complain that the violators are cartoony because I'm drawing them with rubber arms. You're right. Like, that was the decision I wanted to do because I. Those bendy arms. Everyone hated when the toys came out. Me too. I even hated. [01:02:19] Speaker A: Sure. [01:02:20] Speaker C: But then I came to love, you know, those bendy arms later on. Like, Like, I. I don't know why. I just love stupid rubber bendy arms. So I was like, all right, I'm gonna. I just deleted what was in the script. And I was like, I need a real violator. Right? Like if, like, Like a real. With the hearts and the blood. So before we see all the derpy ones, right? Like, I can at least say, yeah, guys, look, we can draw real violators here, you know, like, you know? [01:02:50] Speaker B: Yeah. But yeah, gives you a good chance to make that super, super long jaw. Yeah. [01:02:57] Speaker A: Oh, yeah. We love that impossible jaw. Well, there's a great. There's a great adaptation of that in the Moon Over Violatorville because it's like the moon has the long jaw. [01:03:07] Speaker B: It's like, Mac tonight got the violator virus. Although that looks like the vacillator's. Ey. So it's kind of like vacillator moon. [01:03:15] Speaker A: And you get the Warner Brothers. The water tower with clown's face on it. [01:03:20] Speaker B: It's got a very welcome to Halloween town kind of welcome sign with the pumpkins and the jack O lanterns and the bushels of grain. [01:03:31] Speaker C: Yeah. How does he drive into town? I'm like, I gotta do an establishing shot of a city. [01:03:37] Speaker B: Yeah. [01:03:37] Speaker C: And he's gonna try. So I just, like, he'll just have to jump a hill so I can see the top of this. I guess I'll just jump and he'll just land there, like, you know, problems. And the second panel is the actual. The background is the. I just recreated the COVID from that wizard issue. So that's why the mag on the mailbox, it says after Greggy, so. [01:04:00] Speaker A: Oh, okay. [01:04:01] Speaker C: Yeah. If you ever go dig it up, you'll see. [01:04:04] Speaker A: Well, I was actually. I was. I read wizard, but I was more of a toy fair kid. I loved that magazine because I was like a. A toy head. [01:04:11] Speaker C: They came a little later. This was, like, in 95. [01:04:15] Speaker A: Okay. [01:04:15] Speaker C: Yeah. Boyfriend came around. [01:04:17] Speaker A: I couldn't even read it at Borders sometimes because it was in the plastic because they always had, like, a trading card with it, Right. So you'd have to wait till someone ripped one open because I was too scared to. [01:04:26] Speaker B: Oh, man, I miss going to the. To the bookstore and just reading magazines and not paying for them. [01:04:32] Speaker C: That's why they don't exist anymore. [01:04:34] Speaker A: Yeah, exactly. [01:04:35] Speaker C: Right. [01:04:36] Speaker A: You kill them. [01:04:37] Speaker C: Yeah. [01:04:37] Speaker B: Oh, man. Sorry about it. And so. So Spawny finds himself in Violator Ville, just surrounded by all flavors of violator. Oh, man, I love all the different violators. There are the. I also love how erudite they are. Like, the nastiness of the regular violator is like an outlier to these actual. [01:05:02] Speaker C: Yeah, these are. These are domesticated. Domesticated violators. Right. Like, they've got. They got hats. [01:05:08] Speaker A: I love the right angle on the horn, too. Just like. It's like. Yeah, I love that. [01:05:14] Speaker B: I like when he. He says there's a new spawn in town, and they're all guessing what his name is.8 lead paint in kindergarten Spawn. [01:05:23] Speaker C: That's a good. [01:05:23] Speaker B: Dropped on his head as a baby spot. [01:05:25] Speaker C: This is where you gotta really appreciate John doing the lettering because, you know, like, taking the time to create violator war balloons. You know, some of them might not do that. [01:05:36] Speaker A: You know, like, he always gets the fun word balloon. There was some fun violator word balloons in Rat City in, like, the fourth or fifth issue. But, yeah, here he is in Violator Ville, and. [01:05:49] Speaker B: Yeah, he tells. He tells the town folks to feast their eyes and be dumbfounded and amazed. And he does the. The old smooch of the. The bicep switch. [01:05:59] Speaker A: The bicep. [01:06:00] Speaker B: I like how he. He very much has the bicep of somebody who. That's the only. The only exercise they know is the bicep curl. So they've got the bicep, and then everything else is just kind of weenie. [01:06:12] Speaker C: Yeah. Flexing on your big wheels. [01:06:18] Speaker A: It's a choice. [01:06:19] Speaker B: I'm pretty sure that was, like, the entire conceit behind Bobby's World. [01:06:24] Speaker C: Yeah, I was a huge fan of Bobby's World. [01:06:26] Speaker B: I loved Bobby's World. Oh man. The episode where he, he, his mom says they're having a yard sale and he imagines somebody coming by and taking his yard. Scared me way more than it had because I was like, but what if somebody comes and takes our yard? [01:06:46] Speaker A: What do you do? So Chibisman decides to wait. And he's waiting in the playground. [01:06:51] Speaker B: Yeah, he's, he's very, he's the classic, the classic spawn waiting pose with the. [01:06:56] Speaker A: Impossible cape and the, the arms crossed. [01:07:00] Speaker C: The brooding on the jungle gym. [01:07:03] Speaker A: Yeah, on the jungle gym. Right. [01:07:05] Speaker C: I know he's not cool enough to. [01:07:06] Speaker A: Be up on like some skyscraper. [01:07:08] Speaker B: No, I like there's also another, another shout out to. Isn't. Is that kid even actually in continuity? [01:07:16] Speaker A: Yeah. [01:07:18] Speaker B: And so as, as they wait, everybody starts to sleep. RoboSpawn needs to shut down to conserve energy. Ruff is just like, eh, wake me up when stuff gets here. Even the little bum bums are taking a nap. [01:07:32] Speaker A: Soon Spawny himself falls asleep. [01:07:35] Speaker B: Yeah, he's talking in his sleep. Of course. He talks murderous thoughts in his sleep and then gets sucker punched awake. Look at that. I, I have to say, I, I love an automatopoeia that is actually just the thing instead of a noise. So I very much appreciate the sucker punch. [01:07:55] Speaker C: Yeah. It's also just economy of storytelling. Right. Where you're like, yeah, all right, so one, there's no fights in this issue. So I need to make this hit count, you know, But I gotta really push the extremities on this one, you know, like. [01:08:13] Speaker B: Yeah. [01:08:14] Speaker C: And then, yeah, he gets sucker punched. And I guess there's only one way to describe that, you know? [01:08:19] Speaker B: Yeah. Well, it's, it's either do it this way or have him be like, how you sucker punched me. [01:08:24] Speaker C: Yeah. You can never suggest to a writer what to write. He doesn't try to suggest too much or be what to draw. Right. So. [01:08:30] Speaker B: Yeah, yeah, you're right. [01:08:33] Speaker A: They got. I just, I noticed the rubbery arms now. I didn't even think about that, but that's so perfect. Yeah, they would have the. [01:08:38] Speaker B: I like that rubbery arms. I like that. Instead of seeing birds, he sees little Todd McFarlane's. [01:08:44] Speaker C: Yeah, yeah. The little Todd faces. [01:08:48] Speaker A: And we meet Chibi Violator here. [01:08:51] Speaker B: Yeah. And he's got the, he's got the same, same hang ups that Chibi Spahn has. Who. He's like, you can call me anything, just don't call me by the name my mom calls me. So presumably this little Chibi Violator's mom calls Me, the Philip Phillip a fell a filiac. [01:09:10] Speaker A: And he wants to be the top violator, just like Chibi Spawn wants to be the top spawn. [01:09:14] Speaker B: I like how he is. He is literally like instead of the. The tall gangly Violator, he basically just looks like Taz. A little short guy. [01:09:23] Speaker C: Yeah, he's. He's an evil St. [01:09:25] Speaker B: Mouth with legs. [01:09:25] Speaker C: He's an evil. [01:09:26] Speaker A: Yeah, he's like. Yeah, exactly. [01:09:27] Speaker C: He's an evil stimpy. Yeah. I tried calling him the. The. The. The Chibilator, but I think. I think. And I can't prove this, no one ever has my emails, but I think. I think there was like disagreements over what to call them. So I think John turned that into a running gag because, you know, I think there was like multiple. He should be this, he should be that. I just think John turned that into a gag in the book. Yeah, it works. [01:09:54] Speaker B: That's. It's. It's good. I like a. I like. You forget what somebody's called and just give them a new name every time. [01:10:01] Speaker C: Yeah. 100% violator. [01:10:03] Speaker A: Chibi violator reveals that he also has a team. [01:10:06] Speaker B: Yeah, because. Because he. He refers. He says we instead of I. And little Chibi Spawn's like, wait, what do you mean we? The singed. Who is the Violator? Chibi Violators Violator team that wants to do the same thing that Chibi Spawn wants to do is destroy Spawn in the Scorched. By starting at the the weak Spawns and going up, the team consists of Sir Violates a lot Buckaroo Violator, who presumably also has a good butt, and the Violatrix man, that Buckaroo. Buckaroo Violator looks like he belongs in Wraiths of the Broken Land. Johnny. [01:10:45] Speaker A: Yeah, he's terrifying. [01:10:46] Speaker C: Yeah. This is one of those. Those. So when he said. When John was like, yeah, you know, some evil violators, I was like, man, I don't wanna. I don't wanna do naked violators again. You know? Like. Like they're always do naked violence. We got violators with clothes. Easier said than done, right? Like, so, yeah, I drew them as ridiculous as they could be because they're 90s violators, right? So they. You know, they got. They got life. It's like Violatrix is like got liefeld cybernetics, glowing eyes, and even made her horns look like the. The young blood, the weird things life, I would put on their ears, you know, I don't know what those things are. And Buckaroo like an evil trigun, you know? [01:11:37] Speaker B: Yeah. [01:11:37] Speaker C: All right. Like he's got. [01:11:39] Speaker B: He's got like six belts and the little bitty tiny glasses, right? [01:11:42] Speaker C: And then survival. It's just. He doesn't fit on the page very well, but he's ridiculous. And I was like, oh, this. This would work so much better as a double page spread. But it's got to go vertical, bud. I was like, oh, man. So. Poor Robert, man. He's just like. I. I could tell, you know, so, you know, I might get as far as you can and whatever, you know, you. I'll fix it, you know, so all the renderings. His. But I did a lot of tweaks to as best I could. I mean, I don't know what to do. Like, sometimes you just, like, I want craziness, but I would love to make all of it visible. I think the problem is, in my mind, it all moves really well. Like, they'll all work great as toys, you know, it doesn't mean, like, they're the best figures to manipulate on a page, but at the same time, I don't know. You know what I mean? [01:12:38] Speaker A: Like, what was the. What was the inspiration for Chibi Violators? Funny little hat. [01:12:45] Speaker C: Animaniacs. That's just a nod to. [01:12:47] Speaker A: Okay, I thought. It looks so familiar. [01:12:50] Speaker C: Yeah. Well, I had thought they would come out of that water tower, like when the singed come out of there. And. And I kept saying that to. And it's not. It's like there's nowhere to put that in the script. So I'm like, technically, that towers in that shot where he's on the gym. Because I'm like, oh, they. They're. They're watching him, right? In my mind, that's that, you know, like, they can see him from there. And. Yeah. [01:13:14] Speaker B: I wonder if they also have baloney in their slacks. I don't know. I. I have a feeling that if. If little Chibi Violator knew there was baloney around, he would be like, you. [01:13:23] Speaker A: Would eat it all. [01:13:26] Speaker C: Yeah, I mean, he definitely likes his. His processed meats, you know, like, who doesn't? Yeah. [01:13:35] Speaker A: And it ends with to be continued. Painfully. [01:13:39] Speaker B: We got the. The classic skull to. In the issue. And there's the. The ads for all of the current new generation, new stories, new you. What do you think of. What do you think of the title, the new you, Rob? [01:14:00] Speaker C: Well, I mean, it was just described that people didn't know they were spawn books. So he wants to put stuff on there. He's put a little stamp on there. I'm like, all right, man, I don't know. You know, like, I just think if you put the Spawn logo on it, probably do the same deal. Like the little eyes, you know. [01:14:15] Speaker B: Yeah. [01:14:16] Speaker A: Well, my comic shop, when they come out, it's always. Even if it's not in the title, it's like Spawn colon. The Scorch is like, it's under. Everything's under Spawn on the order sheet. [01:14:25] Speaker C: Yeah. You. [01:14:27] Speaker B: You reading any of these titles, Rob? Reading the same case files or the violator of Nights vs. Samurai? [01:14:33] Speaker C: I picked up Violator because Mark, Mark, I'm familiar with him. He was on a game, this game show called Movie Trivia Schmodown for a number of years, Right. And so when we had a. We had a little meeting, he was in there and I go, I go schmo. Down he goes, oh, no. You know, you're one of the. So, so, yeah, Violator I pick up Way Shack's issue is awesome. [01:15:03] Speaker B: Yeah, it's. It's groovy, this Violator series. [01:15:06] Speaker C: Yeah, yeah, yeah. They told me the ending, like before it even came out, you know, and I was like, oh, yeah, I'm definitely picking that up. So it pays off. Yeah. [01:15:15] Speaker A: Did you keep up with Nice Versus Samurai, David? [01:15:17] Speaker B: I got the, the third issue came out this week, last week. I haven't read it yet because I'm still behind on everything. But yeah, it's, it's, it's wackadoo. It's so much fun. [01:15:28] Speaker A: Yeah. Because that's like the, the one TMP Productions. That's not Spawn. [01:15:33] Speaker B: Yeah. [01:15:33] Speaker A: And then we've got the spawn Origin. [01:15:35] Speaker B: Collections, Volume 1, still 9.99. [01:15:38] Speaker A: Absolutely. Witchblade AD, which David has also been enjoying. [01:15:43] Speaker B: It's very good, very good. Thoughts on which Blade Ruby? [01:15:47] Speaker C: Oh, yeah, I was there when that came out. Right. Mike Turner, you know, and all that twitchblade hits and then they figure out the Darkness. And that's when Top Cow started to make a lot more sense. [01:15:58] Speaker B: You know, I'm a, I'm a big, I'm a big fan of Marguerite Bennett. Basically, if she's gonna write it, I'm probably gonna enjoy the hell out of it. So. [01:16:06] Speaker C: Nice. [01:16:07] Speaker B: It's very fun. [01:16:08] Speaker C: Yeah. I love the color. [01:16:09] Speaker A: And then we have the Movie Maniacs I had, which are not the same as the Movie maniacs from the 90s, let me tell you. Because this one, on this ad, you got 40 year old virgin Wooderson and. [01:16:21] Speaker B: The dude, the dude with his, with his half and half. [01:16:24] Speaker A: Yeah, the old Movie Maniacs were crazy. Well, I just always enjoyed those. [01:16:28] Speaker C: If he gets Walter in The Jesus, then I think it'll. [01:16:35] Speaker A: Yeah. I mean, that is the issue. [01:16:38] Speaker B: That is the issue. Yes, indeed. And, well, you know, within this. Within this issue, there. There exists a puppy. So in Spawn, Chippy, Spawn's universe, there are puppies, which means that we gotta rate this puppy. [01:16:55] Speaker A: Johnny, it's time to rate the puppy. [01:17:00] Speaker B: So that means that, Rob, we get to ask you to rate your own work. Ooh. [01:17:08] Speaker C: Oh, no. [01:17:09] Speaker A: You don't have to if you don't want to. But we always rate the issues. And I'll start. I guess. I mean, I just thought this was, like, the other two issues so far that we've covered. It's just a lot of fun. It's explosive. It's vibrant. It's just something that I think the Spawn universe needs because it's very ridiculous, but it's very serious. And it's nice for them for you guys to take that very serious universe that is ridiculous and really play up the ridiculousness of it. It's very refreshing. And it's just like, I had a friend that I was showing this to, and he was cracking up. Just me. Like, I can't believe there's, like, a funny Spawn book. And, like, it's great that it exists. I really enjoyed this issue. It's a hoot. I love the introduction of, like, his little foil with the chibi violator, But I'm gonna give this four empty Albanias is my score. [01:17:59] Speaker B: Nice. Nice. Would you like to go second or last, Rob? [01:18:06] Speaker C: Well, look, can I rate the writing and the coloring and the art separately? [01:18:10] Speaker B: Yeah, whatever you want to do. [01:18:11] Speaker C: Yeah, Yeah. I, I, I give the writing a solid 8. 8. Right. The coloring is solid 10, and I give me a 2, you know. [01:18:19] Speaker A: Oh, no. [01:18:21] Speaker C: Yeah. Yeah. [01:18:22] Speaker B: You're always your own worst critic. That's just the way it goes. [01:18:25] Speaker C: It's the way it is. It's the way it is. [01:18:28] Speaker A: It's true. [01:18:29] Speaker C: I'd give John a 10, but he changed the dog's name, you know. [01:18:35] Speaker B: Ooh, that's a. That's a. That's a massive. That's a massive hit. Remind me not to change his names. [01:18:40] Speaker C: I'm gonna see him Friday. I'm gonna see him Friday, and I'm gonna hear about it, you know? [01:18:44] Speaker A: Yeah. One might say that's a little rough. [01:18:49] Speaker B: But what's not rough is what I think of the issue, which is. I think it's fantastic. I've been loving the series. It's fun. I love it. Feels a little bit like a challenge every time one comes out. Like like that you, Rob, have specifically been like, I dare you to find all of the references in the background here. And like, I was talking, when we were talking about issue one, I literally wasted an entire train ride just looking at the two page spread at the convention. I could usually read two issues of comics on my train ride, but I spent that whole ride on those two pages. [01:19:28] Speaker C: Thank you. [01:19:28] Speaker B: I appreciate that. It's a great escape. This is a great escape. [01:19:33] Speaker C: You know, to, to most people, it's gotten. It's gotten a lot of love, you know, everyone has its critics, you know, and I'm fine with that. I. I'm used to working on. Look, I worked on crash Bandicoot 4, you know, and it didn't. It wasn't reviewed well when it came out for what. I don't know why now everyone loves it. You know, it's just. I. I don't know. You know what I mean? Like, so I've heard some people go, the art is weird. You know, It's a lot of stuff. How am I supposed to see everything? I'm like, you're not. I just. I'm trying to trick them into printing a giant version of it. Like, yeah, like, the files are at 600dpi. When they print, I even try to tell them it's called the oversized edition, guys. Oversized edition, right. Like, we could, we could, we could theme this sucker, you know, and you're going to see more, you know, like, you can. [01:20:22] Speaker B: You can make them in the, like, artist editions that Todd's been putting out for the older, the older spawn stuff. [01:20:29] Speaker C: Yeah, yeah. 100. [01:20:31] Speaker B: I guess I need to give this a rating. Actually. I'm gonna give it four and a half Indiana Jones references because there's three solid ones and then two that we kind of half, half pretend. [01:20:44] Speaker A: Hey, Dial Destiny was pretty good, man. I thought Dial Destiny was pretty good. [01:20:48] Speaker B: It was. It was better than Crystal Skull, but it's. [01:20:50] Speaker A: It truly was. [01:20:51] Speaker B: It's just impossible to. To meet basically. The Last Crusade. That's. That's the pit. [01:20:57] Speaker A: Really? Oh, no, it's the Raiders, baby. Raiders. [01:21:01] Speaker B: It was the one I saw first. I didn't even know Raiders of the. So we had Raiders of the Lost Ark and Last Crusade on vhs. And I didn't even know that Raiders of the Lost Ark was an Indiana Jones movie for like six or seven years. [01:21:14] Speaker A: Because it didn't say it in the title. [01:21:16] Speaker B: Because it didn't say it in the title. [01:21:17] Speaker A: Yeah, no, I'm a Raiders guy. I like Last Crusade, but I feel like that's where it. I feel like once they did, okay, so you do Raiders, they do Temple do, which is completely fucking different. [01:21:28] Speaker B: Yeah. [01:21:29] Speaker A: And that was cool. But then once you do Last Crusade, which is kind of a remake of Raiders, you know, like a Judeo Christian object, very similar trajectory of story with the Nazis, then, like, everything since then has just been kind of a remake of Raiders, where if they would have gone more swerves, it could have been a little more interesting. [01:21:46] Speaker C: Well, I have a theory. [01:21:47] Speaker A: I think. [01:21:48] Speaker C: I have a theory about this. I have friends at Lucasfilm and. And stuff, and I. I've. I've complained endlessly about this situation. I'm like, look, here's the problem. The problem is when World War II, when Pearl harbor happens, the fun and games on Indiana Jones kind of had to stop. [01:22:07] Speaker B: Right? [01:22:07] Speaker C: Right. Because you can't be having. They're dropping bombs on us. Like, it doesn't. It doesn't work. I had thought one of two things. One, Saving Private Ryan could have been an Indiana Jones story, just a far more serious one. Right. He's a teacher who goes over. Could have got short round, you know what I mean? Like, could have seen that nuclear bomb blast at the end, you know, could have given up on America. And then. And then I always wanted to see Indiana Jones and the War of the Worlds. I thought, if you're gonna do the 50s, actually have alien invasion, like, actually do the. Yeah, and I was told that that actually was on the plate when Darabont and Shyamalan and all them were working on drafts, but Spielberg refused to tackle aliens because of Independence Day. And I'm like, interesting. But then he went and did the damn War of the Worlds movie. Like, it doesn't. Like. [01:23:07] Speaker A: Right. [01:23:09] Speaker C: People have had a hard time. Indiana Jones Kingdom, it's not a. Not a Dial of Destiny. Sounds like something Stan Lee would say. The War of the Worlds. Like, come on. Like. Like, who doesn't. [01:23:21] Speaker A: Great title, right? [01:23:22] Speaker C: Like, sells itself, you know? [01:23:25] Speaker B: So the only problem is, how do you know that those aliens are the Nazis of those aliens. Aliens? [01:23:31] Speaker A: Well, maybe they're good aliens. Well, I mean, yeah, that's a great idea. That. [01:23:36] Speaker C: That. [01:23:36] Speaker A: Yeah. Because I think you're right. Those 90s, like, I think about the mid-90s, they're trying to get it going. The Darabont script was called. I think it was either Indiana Jones and the Saucer man or Indiana Jones all that's lame. [01:23:47] Speaker C: You know, it's sitting right there for him, you know, like destruction, you know. [01:23:51] Speaker A: But, yeah, that's perfect. [01:23:53] Speaker C: You know, it is what it is. But I. I put the. You got to put the lame stuff in because someone's always go, you missed this. I didn't miss it, guys. I didn't. I didn't miss it, you know? Yeah, I just somehow forgot, you know? [01:24:06] Speaker A: Like, this is usually the part of the show where we highlight a friend on Instagram, and today we just like to highlight Rob. So if you're not following Rob, make sure to give him a follow. [01:24:17] Speaker B: Yeah. [01:24:18] Speaker A: On it is at Sketchcraft. Hold on. At Sketchcraft. Just clean and simple. [01:24:23] Speaker C: Y. I'm sketchcraft.com. i'm sketchcraft.net. i'm sketchcraft on everything. Yeah. Except. [01:24:30] Speaker A: Is there anything you got coming up besides five that you'd like to plug? [01:24:35] Speaker C: Well, you could pick up a game. I helped work. Well, I worked on crash bandicoot4. You could always pick that up. Spyro Reignited. I worked on that. And there's an indie game right now on Switch and stuff you could pick up called Berserk Boy, you'd see my art right there. It's like, if you like Sonic and Mega Man X and kind of somewhere in between there, T. Lopes did the music. If you like T. Lopes's music, he did the music to the recent Turtles game and the Sonic Mania. [01:25:02] Speaker B: That was a great game. [01:25:03] Speaker C: Yeah. [01:25:03] Speaker B: Yeah, man. I love. I love those Turtles games. Those were. Those were good. It was a good. A good reboot of a nice classic, classic franchise. [01:25:13] Speaker C: It's got great pixel art, though, the old Berserk Boy. But right now, I'm just trying to get a word if they want to do more. If not, then I will. I will do my own thing, probably. [01:25:21] Speaker B: You know, that's excellent. [01:25:23] Speaker C: Well, yeah, no. No one. No one's really looking to hire a guy who takes a year to draw a cartoon book over at the Big. [01:25:28] Speaker A: Tube, you know, like, they got a. [01:25:32] Speaker B: Lot of units to sell. They. They don't even have enough. Like, their deadlines are so tight that they got, like, three or four people drawing each issue. [01:25:41] Speaker C: Yeah, I. I told Todd, I'm like, I don't do monthly comics. I want to live. I want to live, you know? [01:25:47] Speaker B: Yeah. [01:25:47] Speaker C: Yeah. [01:25:48] Speaker A: Well, while you're on the Internet checking out Rob's page, make sure to give us a follow. We're regarding Swan Pod. [01:25:54] Speaker B: Yes, we are. [01:25:55] Speaker A: And if you like our music on the show, make sure to Google Lonnie Bones. He does our music. Lonnie with a Y. And please make sure to rate, review, and subscribe. [01:26:05] Speaker B: If you. If you want to Contact us in longer form. You can always send us an email at. Regarding spawnpodmail.com and Johnny, would you. Would you. Would you allow me to see if Rob himself has a question that he would like, like, answered from the. The fans? [01:26:23] Speaker A: Yeah. So each week we asked a question for the email. Is there anything you'd like to hear about in regards to Spawnkill's every Spawn? Is there a question you'd like to ask the fans and listeners? [01:26:32] Speaker C: Oh, do I want to ask them a question? [01:26:34] Speaker A: Yeah. [01:26:35] Speaker C: Oh, do I want to ask. Do I want to ask them a question? [01:26:38] Speaker A: No one ever responds, so don't worry about it. [01:26:42] Speaker B: It doesn't even have to be Spawn related. It can just be. We. We often sometimes go off topic. [01:26:50] Speaker C: No, you don't say. [01:26:53] Speaker A: Really? [01:26:55] Speaker B: This has been the most cohesive conversation. [01:26:56] Speaker A: I think we did 20 minutes on Batman and Robin. About 20 minutes on that. [01:27:00] Speaker C: Believe me, guys, I've listened to the show. I'm like, oh, tangents. Here we go. I just. I got a good long lock, so I'm all. I'm up for all of it. I. Look, I just ask you, please, if you like, if you do like the book, go tell Thomas. You know what I mean? Like, sure, yeah. If I have a direct question for them, is can. Can you rough or brains? Rougher brains. Rougher brains. [01:27:27] Speaker A: Which one is it? [01:27:27] Speaker C: Which one is it? Which one is it? [01:27:30] Speaker A: I mean, it's his full name. [01:27:31] Speaker B: This is not even. Not even because you're here and John isn't. If John was here, I would still go with Brains. Brains is a great dog. A great dog. [01:27:40] Speaker C: You'd be like, you bastard. What are you doing? Love, John, but you know, I like Brains better. [01:27:49] Speaker A: Yeah, there you go. [01:27:50] Speaker C: I'm biased. [01:27:51] Speaker B: So. This was amazing. Thanks for coming by, Rob. We very much appreciate you sharing your insights and your time with us. This was a great, great time. [01:28:02] Speaker C: Oh, thank you so much. So happy to be here. So happy to talk to anybody about this book ever, you know. [01:28:09] Speaker A: Awesome. [01:28:10] Speaker B: Yeah, this is. [01:28:11] Speaker A: Well, Johnny and I have a couple more issues, so hopefully if you enjoyed it, maybe we can have you back for five or something like that. [01:28:16] Speaker B: Yeah. [01:28:17] Speaker C: Oh, yeah, 100. I actually, I got my issue fives the other day, so I already marked it up. [01:28:25] Speaker A: Oh, I got. [01:28:25] Speaker C: I got a practice remark, so I. I dinged it up quite a bit, you know. Okay. I already ruined a whole issue. Practice and remarks. [01:28:34] Speaker B: But that just means that it's an object that you can then sell as an object instead of as the book and recoup a little Cash. [01:28:42] Speaker C: Yeah, right, right, right. [01:28:45] Speaker B: I mean, if the bookstore that has the $8,000 uncorrected proof of catch 22 is any indication, uncorrected proofs go for a lot of money eventually. [01:28:59] Speaker C: Ah. So keep that in mind. [01:29:01] Speaker A: I'll put this up there with Cash in the Rye. [01:29:03] Speaker B: Yeah. Not. Did I say catch 22? Not catcher. [01:29:06] Speaker A: Oh, catch 22. I thought you said Catcher in the Rye. [01:29:08] Speaker B: I might. I might have. I meant if I had said Catcher in the Rye. I meant to say catch 20. [01:29:12] Speaker A: Catch 22 is a little more in line with Spawn kills every sponsor a little more zany. [01:29:16] Speaker B: Yeah, yeah. [01:29:17] Speaker C: Somewhere Mel Gibson's hearing what Catcher. [01:29:25] Speaker A: Awesome. And please join us. Next week we'll be covering Gunslinger 36 and scorched 34 back in our classic two issue format. [01:29:33] Speaker B: So, I mean, we've covered this book. We've gotten a good look inside of the brain of Rob Dwaynyes himself. Even though it is not exposed like brains is exposed it a little bit today. Yeah, a little bit. And you know, with that, I don't really have anything to say. Except for Johnny. Rob, may the scorched be with you. [01:29:55] Speaker A: And also with you, David. So, David, obviously, since Batman and Robin is your favorite Batman movie. [01:30:02] Speaker B: Oh, absolutely, yes. [01:30:03] Speaker A: Which is your favorite of the villains? Is it Bane, poison ivy, or Mr. Freeze? [01:30:11] Speaker B: It's definitely Poison Ivy. In the gorilla suit. [01:30:18] Speaker A: In the pink gorilla suit. [01:30:19] Speaker B: In the pink gorilla suit. Because it's an amazing reveal. You don't know it. You would never expect. [01:30:26] Speaker A: And it's the same scene where Batman pulls out the bat car. That lasts forever. [01:30:30] Speaker B: Yeah, but that. That's also the same scene where he's got the rubber lips. Right. [01:30:36] Speaker A: Wow. We know way too much about this movie. [01:30:38] Speaker B: We have now become a Batman and Robin podcast, so. [01:30:44] Speaker A: Well, we got the right person for it because Rob was there on the front line when they. When they were talking about it. So next. [01:30:49] Speaker B: Next. [01:30:49] Speaker C: People walked out, folks, when those jokes were being made. [01:30:54] Speaker A: Also, I can't imagine that movie with 30 more because it's already pretty stuffed. I can't imagine with 30 more minutes. [01:30:59] Speaker C: Unfinished visual effects, the whole bit. Yeah, just people left, you know, it. [01:31:05] Speaker B: Was 30 minutes of additional Schwarzenegger one liners. Johnny. [01:31:09] Speaker A: It was just bang or ice puns. It was just bang. Going monkey business or whatever he says. I think he says monkey business. [01:31:18] Speaker B: I was always freaked out when they pull his venom cords out and he like shrivels up. He basically looks like Chibi Spawn when he shrivels up. [01:31:25] Speaker A: And he kind of does again. Thank you, Rob, so much. [01:31:28] Speaker C: Oh, no, thank you, guys. [01:31:30] Speaker A: Thank you, everyone, for listening. And we will see you guys next week. [01:31:38] Speaker B: Yeah. Bye. For real this time.