Episode 84 - Scorched 25 with guest Mark Spears

[00:00:00] Speaker A: An hour ago, they were innocent bar patrons. Unfortunately, they made the mistake of picking a fight with the members of the scorched the team, sent them away battered and bruised, and then viscerator made them into something monstrous. Good evening, and welcome to the Mal bulge. This is regarding Spawn, the world's best spawn podcast. I'm your co host, Jon Fisher. [00:00:55] Speaker B: And I am your co host, David Williams. And Johnny, it seems like it's a special day here at the old Respawn studios, isn't it? [00:01:03] Speaker A: I think it is. It is a special day. Yeah. We've got kind of a monumental guest, someone we've really admired their work of for a long time, and it's really exciting to have them here with us, I would say. [00:01:16] Speaker C: Yeah, indeed, indeed. Definitely. [00:01:19] Speaker A: Without further ado, I just want to say we have spawn cover artists in monster extraordinaire. Mark Spears with us today. Welcome, Mark. [00:01:27] Speaker C: Welcome, welcome. Thank you. [00:01:30] Speaker A: So you did this last year in 2023, you did a series of four spawn covers. It was in March, I think, or somewhere around there. [00:01:38] Speaker D: Yeah, it's, uh, I guess it's anniversary, right? That's, uh, about a year ago, so. [00:01:43] Speaker A: It was about a year ago. Okay. [00:01:44] Speaker D: It was the artist spotlight. Uh, my first four. Um, and those came out, I think one came out in April just because of the way things were. It was. I think it was spawn 340. [00:01:57] Speaker B: This one came out in April. [00:01:59] Speaker C: Yeah, that one. [00:01:59] Speaker D: It really was hit march, but you know how. [00:02:02] Speaker C: You know, so, you know. [00:02:05] Speaker D: But, uh, basically, they were supposed to. [00:02:06] Speaker C: Be out in March, but, yeah, awful. [00:02:09] Speaker D: Came out pretty decent hits, I think, because of. [00:02:14] Speaker C: From what I heard, a lot of. [00:02:16] Speaker D: People went to their shops and couldn't find them. [00:02:19] Speaker A: So they're very striking. Like, all your work is just so visually striking, it's hard to pass up. [00:02:25] Speaker B: I will let you know that spot, this particular issue at my local shop is almost $20 in the back issue bin now. So that's a man. [00:02:35] Speaker D: I need to know where you live and sign some. [00:02:37] Speaker C: That's pretty good that Todd liked that. [00:02:41] Speaker D: One the best of the covers when I talked to him, and he ended up putting that one with a sin on the. What was the San Diego Comic Con? The big display. If you all saw, he had the big display banner. [00:02:59] Speaker C: Yeah, yeah. [00:03:00] Speaker D: I want to say 25 of the biggest covers or whatever some of all time. I had a bunch of Todd stuff over there. Had Alex Ross, Greg Capullo, had Scott Campbell. And then I see people start texted me and stuff, mark your covers up there. And I'm like, whoa. And I'm like, that's awesome. [00:03:23] Speaker C: Yeah. So very happy with it. [00:03:27] Speaker B: Those are the ones that he auctioned off shortly after, right? [00:03:29] Speaker D: Yeah, he auctioned them. I was, I went on there because I was like, you know what? I'll spend some money to get that thing back because it was going to be a huge banner right where he's cut it off and he's going to sign it. And I was like, man, that would look great in my, my little studio. And, man, now that bidding went way past what I was going to. I was thinking I could, I could cough up 500, $600. It went for, I want to say, 1200 to 1500 range. Oh, man. Wow, that's awesome. [00:03:58] Speaker B: That's nice. I mean, it's, it's worth every Penny, I'd say. [00:04:02] Speaker D: Yeah, it's, it was, you know, it was nice, though, that people wanted that much. [00:04:06] Speaker C: So, and I want to say that. [00:04:08] Speaker D: Was probably the 340 was probably the COVID I signed the most when people sent them to me, or I did with CGC favorite. But the clown cover I keep hearing. [00:04:19] Speaker B: About, it's my particular favorite of this. [00:04:22] Speaker D: Yeah, I really liked it too. It was actually the first cover I did in order because I didn't know what they were going to be attached to yet. They didn't like, hey, this will be on spawn. This will be on Gunslinger. So they gave me a list of characters that I would do. They said Sienn was a definitely gonna be done. I was gonna be clown. The other two, Jericho and freak, they, they said, but they had some leeway on, like, if I wanted, you know, they gave me a little list of different ones. At one was Billy Kincaid. And, man, I was like, oh, man, I really like, do that, but I. [00:04:58] Speaker C: Was like, he is more human. [00:05:01] Speaker D: So that would be sin kind of would go with that. So I was like, let's do something really weird looking. And so we did freak. And then at the very end, they decided, I don't know if Jericho had another person that they were weighing, but I know that Jericho was the last one added. And in order of way I did them was, I did, started with clown. [00:05:25] Speaker C: First we got done with clown, got it approved, went on. [00:05:32] Speaker D: I started doing sin. And the only thing we had to change up with sin was the, the round, glowing things on his suit. I had to make a little bit bigger. Todd, one of those bigger. [00:05:44] Speaker C: Okay. [00:05:45] Speaker D: By that time, okay, I'm already working on freak. [00:05:49] Speaker C: Uh, and then it comes back. [00:05:52] Speaker D: Greg Capullo had just turned in some pages for the spawn Batman special, right? Last December, came out. [00:06:02] Speaker C: Yeah, yeah. [00:06:03] Speaker D: Because I'm working on these probably in, um, October to November around in that area. So he. They get some pages back, and they said, hey, Todd's decided to change the minions, what they, what they call little goonies. [00:06:16] Speaker C: Yeah. [00:06:19] Speaker D: And I'm like, what? They're like, yeah. He doesn't want them look because I had originally drew them. They were the old man looking ones. You know, they look like the original clown. Yeah. Where it looks, you know, big faces and the hair coming out. So they said Capillo has come up with this new design, and they give me a pencil sketch, a one, one panel pencil sketch of one goonie, and say, can you make them all look like this? And I'm like, how do I do that? It was stressing me out, because when you try to paint something versus having something on a little sketch where you don't know how it turns around, what it looks like, what's, you know, how the mouth moves and all that stuff. So I was all, man. [00:07:07] Speaker C: So I spent about a week, I. [00:07:09] Speaker D: Went back in there, redesigned them. I think we tweaked the hair a little bit. I think I originally had them all having the same hairstyle. I think there's three or four of them in the picture. And Todd said, hey, Matt, give him a different hairstyle. So I went back and tweaked the hair a little bit, and then that was approved. They liked it. [00:07:29] Speaker C: So there is. [00:07:29] Speaker D: There does exist another clown cover with it never got printed, but the picture, I need to post it one day on Instagram. I've never posted it. It's got a red background, looks totally different. It's not like, even the same layout. Because I was so nervous when I was doing these at the fur at first, because, you know, it's Todd McFarland. [00:07:49] Speaker C: It's spawned. [00:07:50] Speaker D: And I was told by Thomas Healey at the beginning, he was like, you know, todd doesn't really like exaggerated colors, like false colors. And I was like, what are you talking about? And they were like, well, like, when the sky is purple, you don't like that. You know, it needs to be realistic colors. I'm like, realistic colors, okay? They said, so don't make things too bright and everything. And that's what I was kind of known for, you know, some of my colors. [00:08:17] Speaker A: And I'm like, right? [00:08:18] Speaker D: And so I was nervous. Like, I didn't want to go too much. [00:08:22] Speaker C: Then I realized I was. [00:08:26] Speaker D: When I was. When I. After I finished the first clown and I was working on sin, and sin is not too colorful. He's kind of muted. Then I was like, you know what? I'm going to make them come back to me and say, you need to turn down these colors. So on the other ones, if you even notice on Jericho, the very last one, I did no revisions on it at all. It has a purple background. [00:08:49] Speaker A: He got away with the purple sky. Yeah. [00:08:51] Speaker C: Yeah. [00:08:51] Speaker D: Because Todd has this rule, if it. [00:08:53] Speaker C: Looks cool, it's okay. Right? And so that's. [00:08:57] Speaker D: That's what I went with. And it did. It did well. [00:09:02] Speaker C: But the. [00:09:02] Speaker D: All of them, I didn't have many revisions on them after I. Like I said, I was nervous at the first one. [00:09:08] Speaker C: I think the freak was. [00:09:10] Speaker D: Was always going to look like that. I changed the background color a little bit before I send it in. It was the knife, though, originally, the knife was not rusty, and it just blended in too much with the background, like, shining. So Thomas Healy was like, hey, what if you made that rusty? And I was like, that's a perfect idea. And I changed it. It was. It, you know, within an hour. And it was. It was perfect on that. So. But, yeah, I was really excited with all those covers. I've done some more since then. They haven't been released. [00:09:44] Speaker B: Oh, nice. [00:09:45] Speaker D: Yeah, I believe they will be. Give you a little scoop right now. I won't say what. What's on it, but here, you'll be hearing it here in the next couple of days because it's in the June solicits. Oh, cool. [00:09:59] Speaker B: Okay. [00:10:00] Speaker D: Spine 355 is one of my covers, so awesome. [00:10:07] Speaker C: I'll just. [00:10:07] Speaker D: I'll tell you this. It's another bad guy. [00:10:10] Speaker C: Oh, okay. Okay. Okay. All right. [00:10:14] Speaker D: Since I did those, I have nine spawner. Spawner titles of covers I've done. They just haven't come out. Last year, they were supposed to come out about three covers and last winter, but I don't. I'm not sure what happened. And then they saved them for this year, and then. But I think there's. I can tell you at least what I've done, because I have no idea, you know, when it's coming, you know? Yeah, yeah. [00:10:44] Speaker C: Interesting play. [00:10:45] Speaker D: Places like DC or stuff. When you're doing it, you're. You're doing that. [00:10:49] Speaker C: No number. [00:10:50] Speaker D: Right. They'll tell you. This is for Action Comics 1065, right. With a spawn, it's different because what's on the COVID they want to match kind of what's inside, you know? [00:11:01] Speaker C: So if you drew a, like, sag. [00:11:05] Speaker D: Or fighting spine, they don't want to just throw that on a issue Cyborg's not in. Right. So they have to wait for. [00:11:12] Speaker C: For that to happen. Yeah, I did. [00:11:16] Speaker D: Let's see, last year, I did. Or coming out, I would imagine coming out this year sometime. I did some salmon twitch stuff. [00:11:24] Speaker B: Oh, hell, yeah. [00:11:25] Speaker A: Oh, really? Oh, great. [00:11:26] Speaker C: RAT CitY, which is very little different. [00:11:30] Speaker D: For my stuff, but I thought that would be fun. [00:11:32] Speaker B: I think your colors would adapt to it very well. And that little cyberpunk aesthetic. [00:11:36] Speaker C: Yeah. [00:11:37] Speaker D: I'm thinking that might be out this year because they didn't have much, you know, they think about it. There's a file cabinet somewhere virtual, I guess, of covers that they got ready to go. Right. [00:11:50] Speaker C: Yeah. [00:11:51] Speaker D: With rat city and Sam and twitch. Those are two new titles, so it's not like they have a huge backlog. [00:11:58] Speaker B: Yeah. [00:11:58] Speaker D: So I'm thinking those will be out this year. Nice. Awesome. And then there's that other. Oh, what is it? Deadly tales. [00:12:07] Speaker C: Yeah. [00:12:09] Speaker D: I'm crossing my fingers. I said, man, I want to. Thomas Healy. I want to issue one, the tales of the gunslinger or deadly tales. [00:12:17] Speaker B: That would be amazing. [00:12:18] Speaker C: I don't know if it's gonna be. [00:12:19] Speaker D: Issue one, but it's, uh. It was done, so we'll see. [00:12:24] Speaker A: You've got. You do the great western art as well. I've seen so. [00:12:28] Speaker D: Yeah. [00:12:29] Speaker A: Great mix of the western and the horror. [00:12:31] Speaker C: Yeah. [00:12:31] Speaker D: And I did the bright colors on it and everything. The only ones I did bright colors on because they had said, hey, this would be better. Dark and gritty was the salmon twitch stuff, which I agree. And it was fun to do those. Cause it's a little different from my normal thing. But, um, since it's past narcissists, I'll tell you this. I was originally going to do a cover for 350. [00:12:56] Speaker C: I think it was cover a. [00:12:57] Speaker D: And it was going to be. The original idea was it was going to be four covers. And this, I got told this back July or August, right after San Diego Comic Con, and they were telling me about, you know, putting, you know, a new person on the throne. They want it to be like a tease. You didn't know which cover when you bought it was the actual person that's gonna be on the throne. [00:13:23] Speaker C: Okay. [00:13:23] Speaker A: Oh, nice. [00:13:24] Speaker D: I was gonna draw spine and. And then the three other characters that were in the running, and then I was like, okay, well, what's the throne look like? [00:13:33] Speaker C: And then they were like, oh, well, they. [00:13:36] Speaker D: We've put it, the comics, it's just like a concrete thing, you know, so whatever you want to look. [00:13:42] Speaker C: And I'm like, oh, so it took. [00:13:45] Speaker D: Me a month to design what throne I was going to put on these characters, right? If you had to put it on, each character had to be on this throne. So I did all this detailed work on the throne, thinking, well, I could re put somebody else on it. Wouldn't have do as much detail then. [00:14:01] Speaker C: And it. [00:14:03] Speaker D: I turned in. They liked it, but, I don't know, miscommunication or something. It took about a month or so before they got back with me on. It was a color variation, because I sent them different, four different color variations of the background, basically. By the time they told me back, yeah, we, like the red one. [00:14:24] Speaker C: They said, hey, I don't think you're. [00:14:25] Speaker D: Gonna have time enough to do all for. Let's just go with this one. We'll move it to something else, and we're going to do something else on 350. [00:14:34] Speaker C: So I was like, oh, man, that. [00:14:36] Speaker D: Would have been great. I wish. I wish I could have got it. But, you know, things like that happens because you work. So you try to work so far ahead of time. Spawns got stuff right now set for September or October, right? Yeah, exactly what's coming out at that time. So, um. But that's, uh, that's once. It's kind of weird. Uh, a lot of people, um, were. Have asked me, like, why haven't you done any spawn stuff? You know, where's your response stuff at? And I'm like, well, it's. [00:15:06] Speaker C: It's there. [00:15:07] Speaker D: It's just not out. But soon, you're going to get an overload of Marc. [00:15:11] Speaker C: So, uh, you'll be happy. [00:15:15] Speaker D: I can also tell you this a little bit, because this has got released by Todd himself. [00:15:20] Speaker C: So I'm not telling you anything Todd. [00:15:22] Speaker D: Hasn'T said to other people. [00:15:24] Speaker C: Sure. So if you. [00:15:28] Speaker D: Do y'all have the. Do y'all get the newsletter? The Tom McFarland productions newsletter thing, the. [00:15:34] Speaker B: The email that they just started? [00:15:35] Speaker C: Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. [00:15:37] Speaker D: So that came out, what, about a week or two ago, they come out with a new one, and it was telling you about the projects coming up, you know, rat city, seven, twitch, and then some other ones that I hadn't even heard of. Like, was it a dark age spawn or something like that? [00:15:54] Speaker A: Monolith. I didn't even realize that was, you. [00:15:57] Speaker D: Know, I thought I was in the know on some things, and I wrote my. Wrote, and right after I read that, I wrote Thomas Healy, and I said, had no idea he was doing a monolith. I said, give me a cover of that, man. I'll make it dark and gritty. He said, man, it's only three issues. And they've already. [00:16:13] Speaker C: The guy who did it and did. [00:16:14] Speaker D: The COVID So I'm like, okay. But they, at the very last, they say in spawn 77. And everybody's like, what's spawn 77? [00:16:25] Speaker C: Right. Yeah. [00:16:26] Speaker D: Me and Todd's project that he greenlit last. It was around this time last year. I had pitched an idea to him, and he took it and said, yeah, let's do that. He's announced it over there in, like, discord, uh, an odd key and stuff like that. So I can. I can let people know about it a little bit. Um, before there's a huge announcement for everybody. But it's, um. It's basically going to take place in 1977. [00:16:54] Speaker C: Uh, and it's going to be all. [00:16:57] Speaker D: New characters, uh, that I designed. Uh, I've already put in a bunch of concept art for it. It's a new spawn, but it's the spawn based on the spine, uh, original sketch Todd did when he was 16. [00:17:12] Speaker B: Okay, the one they just made the action figure out of. [00:17:15] Speaker C: Yeah. [00:17:16] Speaker D: That they just make the action figure out. And actually, when I was talking to him last year at this time, after me and his interview cut off, I was telling him, I said, man, I drew a picture of this, and it blew up. People love it. And he goes, okay, you know what? We should have make an action figure of that. [00:17:29] Speaker C: And then he did. [00:17:33] Speaker D: And it sold out that day, like, within a few hours. [00:17:36] Speaker C: Yeah. Yeah. [00:17:37] Speaker A: That's hard to find. [00:17:38] Speaker D: I'm excited for it. It'd be really cool. It's gonna be spawn in 1977. A brand new spine. You could pick it up if you never read Spawn. But if you're a big spawn fan, you could still read it. So I figured that would be a great way, you know, to bring in new spawn readers. Cause a lot of people go, man, I don't know. I didn't catch up. I didn't get on this one to list you this number. And I'm like, well, this will be good. Supposed to be a mini series. Maybe. Maybe it's longer if it does well or something. They were talking about doing a, like, 240 pagers, you know, like that. Unwanted violence. [00:18:19] Speaker C: Sure. [00:18:20] Speaker D: Or it might be just a regular miniseries. You know, like six issues, eight issues. I don't know. I've read the plot. Todd's gonna ride it. I'm doing the interiors and the covers, so. [00:18:33] Speaker C: Don't know yet. [00:18:34] Speaker A: That's awesome. [00:18:34] Speaker C: That's great. [00:18:36] Speaker D: We're waiting to get the go ahead. Then I'm, you know, I'll start the next day. But there's a lot of spawn stuff coming out this year, right? So I know I at least start on it this year, but it might get pushed back in the schedule till next year if. Because there is so much related. Spawn related content that you want it to be in a spot that month or the months that it's released, that there's not as much. [00:19:02] Speaker C: Right. You don't want all these. [00:19:04] Speaker D: There's a lot of mini series and specials coming out this year. So along with, you know, deadly tales, cemetery, Rat City. [00:19:14] Speaker C: Yeah. What is that? [00:19:16] Speaker D: Mercy? Is that another one? [00:19:18] Speaker B: I think mercy. No home here. [00:19:20] Speaker D: No home here. Or then there's, like we said. [00:19:26] Speaker C: Monolith. [00:19:27] Speaker D: Which I don't know. So I'm shocked how they're going to get all this fit into a schedule finally. [00:19:32] Speaker A: Thomas Healy's got to be a busy man. [00:19:35] Speaker D: I mean, he signed up. There was one comic, right? There was. Yeah, we were talking. There was going to be one month where ten spawn things will come out, right. Lord, I'm not crazy. So I think it's great for fans. And Todd said it's like a buffet. Pick what you like. You know, if you don't like the. The crime stuff, don't pick up Sam and twitch, then, yeah, don't like the character monolith, don't pick up that one. You know, so it's a. It's a good buffet of whatever you like. You know, you don't have to get them all. You can if you want. So. So that's a nice little thing there. But, yeah, I love, love spawn universe, so more spawn stuff is never a bad thing. [00:20:17] Speaker A: Never a bad thing. [00:20:18] Speaker B: Never a bad thing. [00:20:19] Speaker A: Were you into spawn back when it started in the nineties, or did you follow it all? [00:20:23] Speaker D: Oh, yeah. Right at the beginning, I was a big McFarland fan on a Hulk and Spider Man. [00:20:29] Speaker C: I had all those awesome. [00:20:32] Speaker B: His gray Hulk was. Was exceptionally terrifying. [00:20:35] Speaker C: Oh, yeah. [00:20:36] Speaker D: I loved. I loved all this stuff. I would go back and try to get anything. [00:20:43] Speaker C: Let's see. [00:20:43] Speaker D: What was that thing he did DC the with? [00:20:47] Speaker B: I know he. I know he did Batman year two with. [00:20:50] Speaker D: I couldn't afford that. Even back then, I couldn't afford that book. Right. Yeah, a little bit before the Spider man stuff, and they were selling that book for, like, 20, $30 back then, and I was like, I can't. [00:21:03] Speaker B: But what, with Reaper? [00:21:05] Speaker C: Yeah, yeah. And there's. [00:21:08] Speaker D: There was a character that he did. What was he doing over infinity Incorporated? Wasn't that it infinite incorporated something like that. [00:21:15] Speaker A: I'm not familiar. No, but yeah, it sounds right. [00:21:19] Speaker D: It had a guy in it called, like, mister Bones or something that had the color scheme of spawn. And a lot of people were like, oh, this is like the early spawn. But it's nothing really like it. But. [00:21:31] Speaker C: But it was just me. [00:21:32] Speaker D: I. Being an artist and looking at Todd stuff, I just had to consume anything Todd did because it was any cover he did of the X Men, like special X Men classic. He did some covers, Quasar. I got everything that he. That he had. But Spawn was just something else, man. When that came out, it was just amazing. It was something so different. [00:21:53] Speaker C: Yeah. Yeah. [00:21:55] Speaker A: It was striking. And, like, I was. I was a kid, and it was just like, so it seemed, like, illicit because it was, like, scary, but it was exciting. And the art was just so thrilling and, like. [00:22:05] Speaker C: I don't know. I always loved it. Yeah, it wasn't that. [00:22:10] Speaker D: It was a 92 or 94? [00:22:11] Speaker C: 92. [00:22:13] Speaker D: So I was in high school when they come out, and I was like. [00:22:17] Speaker B: Oh, man, perfect dates. [00:22:18] Speaker C: Yeah. [00:22:19] Speaker D: Cuz I could actually afford them. [00:22:21] Speaker C: I don't know if I could drive. [00:22:22] Speaker D: Yet at that time. So I was. But I was getting them. I was comic book store. And that was a huge event at that time. Image comics. Right? [00:22:30] Speaker C: Yeah. Thing. [00:22:31] Speaker D: And so, I mean, I got young blood, I got wildcats, all that stuff. And. And spawn still standing, though, man. It's crazy. [00:22:40] Speaker C: After. [00:22:41] Speaker D: I never would have thought it would have turned in what it did. [00:22:44] Speaker C: Yeah, I kind of figured it would. [00:22:46] Speaker D: Be a thing where Todd would do so many and say, okay, that story's done, and maybe move on to a different character. I didn't think Spawn would become an icon like he is. I mean, he's. He's some kid Spider man, if you think about it. Like Todd was talking about when he got on this Spider man book, there was only 300, like 200 something issues, 290 something. Yeah, spawn is 350. [00:23:12] Speaker C: And. [00:23:13] Speaker B: And even up to. Even before all the ones that are supposed to slated today, I think we've counted it was something like 25 total series and mini series and one offs that they've done since then too. So that's. [00:23:27] Speaker C: That's a lot of. [00:23:28] Speaker B: That's a lot of story. [00:23:30] Speaker C: Oh, yeah. [00:23:31] Speaker D: It's just crazy. And when. And to think that I bought, you know, got the first issues. Got all those issues. I probably collected a whole run up till when Todd started getting off the book, not doing the artwork as much. I didn't collect as much as the. [00:23:44] Speaker C: Capillo stuff, but then at one time. [00:23:47] Speaker D: I. I had a comic book store that I owned, so basically, I had everything. Because when you own the comic book store. [00:23:53] Speaker C: Yeah. [00:23:54] Speaker D: I could read any comic I wanted. My personal collection went back door because I was sitting there thinking, like, y'all got runs of every. I got runs of Iron Man. I got runs of a spot. And so, you know, it didn't really matter then. I had everything. I could read it any day I wanted. [00:24:09] Speaker C: So that was neat. But just to think that when I. [00:24:13] Speaker D: Went in and I saw, like, 340 on the shelves, and I was like, that's my cover to that same spawn series that I started reading back in 92. That was a crazy moment. [00:24:28] Speaker A: I bet. [00:24:29] Speaker C: Yeah. [00:24:29] Speaker D: Because, you know, gunslinger and all that still is good. But, you know, you're thinking, that's. That's the same spawn title. [00:24:34] Speaker C: That's just so, so very happy. [00:24:39] Speaker D: And I'm happy the next one will be on, like I said, spawn 53, 55. That's. That's kind of nice. I'll get to go back to the regular spawn. [00:24:48] Speaker A: That was a great kind of intro here to the episode, man. You gave us a lot of. That was awesome. But to get on track a little bit, we do have an issue to talk about, and today, we don't usually like getting on track. We like to get off track. It's the best part of the podcast. But today we're covering a scorched issue 25, which we've all had a chance to check out. [00:25:10] Speaker B: Unfortunately, not one that you drew a cover for, but unfortunately not. But that's only because we've covered them already. [00:25:16] Speaker A: Yeah, we did those issues already, so we couldn't really cover them again, unfortunately. But those episodes, we were huge fans of your cover. [00:25:26] Speaker B: Very, very kind. In the compliments department, we're very kind. [00:25:30] Speaker A: So if you ever want to feel good, go back and listen to some of our earlier episodes, and we'll get a good kick out of it. [00:25:35] Speaker B: I'm actually pretty sure that the. The cat was my rating metric for that one. Gunslinger, too. [00:25:41] Speaker C: Oh, yeah, I forgot. [00:25:41] Speaker A: I love the cat on the clown. [00:25:44] Speaker D: Isn't that a little hot tip? All the seven twitch cover that already turned in, that got approved and everything. The cat's back. Same cat on that cover. And I didn't say anything to Thomas Healy or Todd when I did it, because I was like, I wanted to prove. Because then I could tell people, hey. [00:26:02] Speaker C: Say cat and say word. [00:26:05] Speaker D: They just let it go. They were like, yeah, sure. But I got that cat back in it. That's gonna be like a running gag. I wanna start putting that cat. [00:26:14] Speaker B: I've heard that that's something that some creators like to do. Like, they've got one particular animal that they like to keep in every issue. And a lot of times during interviews, they'll come out and they'll be like, you're not drawing a fucking dog in this issue. [00:26:27] Speaker C: You hear me? [00:26:29] Speaker B: And they're like, yeah, whatever. [00:26:30] Speaker C: We'll see. [00:26:31] Speaker D: I always thought that it would be hilarious if we somehow one day, like, actually say something about the cat, like, in an issue. That same cats in there. Maybe we could do it in spawn 77. That. That's like an. An angel that came down and they turned into a cat or something. Who knows? [00:26:53] Speaker B: We could head cannon it right now with. It's just the cat that violator talks to in the. In the alley all the time. Mister Kitty. [00:27:00] Speaker D: There you go. That's Mister Kitty. [00:27:02] Speaker C: Yep. [00:27:03] Speaker A: He's been there since the beginning in the early issues. [00:27:06] Speaker D: Yeah, that works. [00:27:08] Speaker A: Anyone that'll listen, but, yeah, so we got scorch 25 today, all the way back from January 2024. So just a few months ago. And we picked this one for your episode, mark, because it's got a lot of monsters in it. [00:27:20] Speaker D: Yeah, that's my thing. [00:27:21] Speaker A: Yep, that's your thing. And we always start with the covers and this issue, we've got two covers, as they do with the more modern ones. Which cover do you have, David? [00:27:32] Speaker B: I've got the Jonathan Clappian one, the Greg Capullo homage cover up. My blur is blurring. [00:27:39] Speaker D: Oh, it's blurry. [00:27:39] Speaker A: I see. [00:27:40] Speaker C: Yeah. That's a good one. [00:27:42] Speaker A: And I've got the Federico 17 e cover, which is the Jessica Jessica cover where she's shooting downward with this impossible. [00:27:55] Speaker C: You know. Yeah. [00:27:56] Speaker D: So your favorite covers, the ones you got are the both. You agree the one you have is. [00:28:02] Speaker C: Your favorite of them? [00:28:03] Speaker A: Usually I pick the one that I like the most when I get it. Sometimes I get both, but not always. And now they're getting so many stuff out. I'm gonna have to not get both because I gotta have enough money to get Sam and twitch and everything else. [00:28:15] Speaker D: Yeah. [00:28:15] Speaker C: Yeah. [00:28:17] Speaker D: 299. [00:28:19] Speaker C: Yeah. [00:28:19] Speaker A: No, that's amazing. That's almost a no brainer. [00:28:22] Speaker C: Yeah, yeah, I think usually. [00:28:25] Speaker A: Yeah, I think this is. I'm a big Jessica priest guy, so I'm a big Jessica fan. So I always love that. I love the absurdity of just, like, shooting downward with this insane, like, big. [00:28:36] Speaker D: Nineties gun with, like, 20 handles. [00:28:39] Speaker C: I do. [00:28:39] Speaker D: I do like the Capulo homage kind of COVID Too. That was. That's a good. It's a tough one to me. [00:28:46] Speaker B: Yeah. [00:28:46] Speaker C: Yeah. [00:28:47] Speaker D: But they're both awesome for different reasons, so. [00:28:50] Speaker C: Yeah. Any. [00:28:51] Speaker B: Anything that. That clearly expresses that crazy ink style. [00:28:55] Speaker C: That both Capulo and Todd McFarlane have. [00:28:58] Speaker B: That'S the COVID I'm going to gravitate to first. And that's why I like this one. [00:29:01] Speaker C: Because it's got that heavy inking style. [00:29:06] Speaker B: That is very indicative of them. [00:29:08] Speaker C: Yeah. [00:29:09] Speaker A: And Jonathan Glapion will be doing no. [00:29:11] Speaker C: Home here, as we know, so that's exciting. He has a really cool style. [00:29:17] Speaker A: The inks and his stuff are really excellent. [00:29:20] Speaker C: Also. [00:29:20] Speaker B: More skulls, more better. [00:29:21] Speaker A: More skulls, the more better, as always. So we pop this bad boy open, and we usually run through the credits here, but we got script plot by John Layman, who just started unscorched a few issues ago, and he's been knocking it out of the park. Really? Like, his stuff's been excellent. [00:29:39] Speaker C: He's been doing a great job. [00:29:41] Speaker A: There was this previous issue where they all went to a bar together. It was just like the old X Men where they're playing volleyball. It was great. So it's been fun. Um, and we get the additional script by Todd McFarlane. You know, he's got to come in there a little bit. [00:29:57] Speaker C: We always like art. [00:29:59] Speaker D: Okay, go ahead. [00:30:00] Speaker B: I was about to say, we always like to try to figure out which additional script is what Todd McFarland put in. Be like, where. [00:30:07] Speaker C: Where's. [00:30:08] Speaker B: Where's his flavor? [00:30:09] Speaker A: Yeah, you got to keep an eye feel for it. [00:30:12] Speaker D: That's a tough thing. You think you guys can spot it. [00:30:14] Speaker C: That's a. [00:30:15] Speaker D: That's a tough one. [00:30:16] Speaker A: Sometimes when they talk about tactics, because he likes to talk about tactics, like the pincer maneuver and stuff like that, we think maybe that's Todd McFarlane getting his voice in there. The art is Steven Segovia. This issue has been doing most of the scores this whole run. I think there's only a few that he didn't do. [00:30:32] Speaker C: Yeah. [00:30:33] Speaker A: I also really liked his work on the new Wildcats of DC was awesome, too. [00:30:38] Speaker B: That was a fun. [00:30:39] Speaker C: That was a fun book, but, yeah. [00:30:41] Speaker A: Steven Segovia on art. Colors by J. David Ramos, lettering by Andworld Design. We covered the covers already, and then we got creative directors. Todd McFarlane and editor in chief is Mister Thomas Healy. The busiest man in showbiz. [00:30:57] Speaker C: Yeah, definitely. Oh, man. [00:31:00] Speaker A: So, previously in the scorch, it says, the long lost sister of the violator has returned to seek revenge against her ancient enemy, medieval spawn. Yeah, we kind of open on our friend, an old friend, an old classic monster. Mister Mal bullshit. [00:31:19] Speaker C: Yeah, in his full glory. [00:31:21] Speaker B: He's got his goatees, got his hair, everything. [00:31:23] Speaker C: And the pot bellies back. [00:31:26] Speaker A: That would be an excellent cover. If you could do a Mal Bolger villain cover now, there would be a good one. Hopefully he comes back one day. I always love Mal Bolgia. [00:31:34] Speaker C: I do. [00:31:35] Speaker D: I do too. I'm hoping maybe he'll show up at least in a panel or two of spawn 77. [00:31:41] Speaker B: Yes. [00:31:42] Speaker A: I mean, he's still alive. [00:31:43] Speaker B: I mean, back in the seventies, honestly, he's got disco written all over him. So, like a sparkly. A sparkly suit with foot long lapels. And he's good to go. [00:31:55] Speaker A: He's got that luscious, luscious hair. [00:31:57] Speaker C: Yeah, man. [00:31:59] Speaker B: Now I just want to see disco spawn. [00:32:03] Speaker C: It could happen. [00:32:04] Speaker B: That should be a new character. We actually just recently read over the issue that kind of builds out of this mark. It's violator fighting the original medieval spawn, and he fails, and they get sent back to Malboulgia and says, I was praised for what I did. And here we learned that he wasn't actually so much praised for having been killed as gets punished, which is very exciting. [00:32:32] Speaker A: Gets a bit of a dressing down from Mister Malbolzer here. [00:32:35] Speaker C: Yeah. [00:32:36] Speaker A: But in the background, you've got someone kind of whispering, playing the devil in his ear. Yeah, the worm tongue. Yeah, exactly. [00:32:46] Speaker C: And it's viscerator, who we met last. [00:32:50] Speaker A: Issue, who is one of the fleabiac. [00:32:54] Speaker B: Siblings, is the fleabiac sister. [00:32:57] Speaker C: I don't know if you're familiar, but. [00:32:58] Speaker A: We were just reading the violator miniseries, Mark, with, like, all the Fleabiac brothers that Alan Moore wrote. So that was really fun, too. [00:33:05] Speaker D: So there's a sister now? There's. [00:33:07] Speaker A: So this is the. This is the sister that's in this issue. Yeah, yeah. [00:33:10] Speaker B: So this is literally, they were four brothers. [00:33:13] Speaker A: Right, right, exactly. But this just introduced the previous issue. [00:33:18] Speaker B: Okay, so she's brand new. [00:33:20] Speaker C: Brand new. They're retcon. [00:33:25] Speaker A: Exactly. I mean, yeah, you need another sibling sometimes. Basically, you find out that the dragon here vaporized the violator. [00:33:35] Speaker C: Yeah. [00:33:36] Speaker A: And then he got cut in half as well, so he got pretty well destroyed. [00:33:40] Speaker B: Yeah, he got pieces of himself handed to himself, so. And, yeah, as punishment. As punishment for that, he turns him into the clown. So this is also the genesis of the clown Persona, which is hilarious. [00:33:52] Speaker C: Look at him. [00:33:53] Speaker B: Look at his little fool outfit. [00:33:55] Speaker D: Yeah, I love the full outfit that I've never seen. [00:33:59] Speaker A: Yeah, it's, um. Man, that's a fun little clown version of him, actually. Maybe that'll show up in the. Oh, yeah, cuz that's another one. They're doing another violator miniseries. [00:34:08] Speaker C: That's what it is. [00:34:09] Speaker A: That's another one of the ones we forgot. [00:34:11] Speaker D: Aren't they also doing the medieval. Medieval spawn series too? [00:34:14] Speaker C: Yes. [00:34:14] Speaker A: Yeah, I think so. [00:34:15] Speaker C: Yeah. [00:34:15] Speaker D: I can't even get the book, man, everyone. [00:34:20] Speaker C: Yeah, that's crazy. Wow. [00:34:23] Speaker D: I'd love that panel, though, where he's turned into a clown, man. That's almost reminds me a little bit of Todd on those hands. You know how he's adding all that detail and stuff? Oh, yeah, yeah, the Todd. [00:34:36] Speaker B: But those are some great hands. [00:34:38] Speaker C: The. [00:34:38] Speaker B: The thumbnails, especially are real nice. I'm a big, I'm a big comics hand guy. I will sometimes put a, like, set a comic down and stop reading it if I don't like the hands. [00:34:51] Speaker D: Rough critic, right? The face. [00:34:55] Speaker C: You know, actually, I have a friend. [00:34:58] Speaker B: Who used to work at a city, Morgan. They said that they were taught the first two things to cover up is faces and hands, because people can recognize hands. [00:35:07] Speaker C: Yeah. [00:35:07] Speaker B: Like 75ft away or something. [00:35:09] Speaker D: Okay, here. Here's my two cent of why I saw this so far. [00:35:12] Speaker C: That pit. [00:35:13] Speaker D: That clown picture is someone else helped on that. Look at the other artwork, right? [00:35:20] Speaker C: Yeah, that nut, it doesn't, I mean. [00:35:22] Speaker D: It looks like the same artist, but what I'm thinking is someone come in there and ink a little bit more of that. [00:35:27] Speaker C: Yeah. [00:35:28] Speaker A: Yeah. [00:35:28] Speaker D: I'm thinking I might have been taught saying, you know what? [00:35:30] Speaker C: Give me that. [00:35:31] Speaker D: And started adding on those hands. I could see that because I've noticed their hands and the look at the teeth and the gums. Right? [00:35:40] Speaker C: Yeah. [00:35:40] Speaker D: Little gum is great. That's great stuff. But look at other people. Look, when he draws the violator or the clown any other time, or there's no detail on the gums like that or where the gum should be. So I'm thinking that might have been Todd. Todd likes to grab a page and say, give me that thing. [00:35:59] Speaker C: Let me fix it. [00:36:00] Speaker A: Really? Okay. Yeah, that's awesome. Yeah, I could definitely see that. [00:36:03] Speaker D: Yeah, I could see that. Unless the guy just said, hey, for this one panel, I'm going really detailed with some really fine pins. I think it's. I think Todd might have helped on. [00:36:13] Speaker C: That a little bit. [00:36:14] Speaker D: But it's a great picture. [00:36:16] Speaker C: I love it. Yeah, I know. [00:36:17] Speaker A: It's hilarious. And it's a good, like, birthing point of the clown kind of looks like it kind of reminds me of original toads costume from X Men. He had, like, that kind of green and yellow thing, right? [00:36:29] Speaker C: Exactly. [00:36:30] Speaker D: I would like to see more of that clown and that. Maybe that's what we'll see in that miniseries. Maybe they'll flash back to this, hopefully, because I wouldn't mind seeing that an action figure or a little series of him in that suit. I've never seen that suit. [00:36:43] Speaker C: I could. [00:36:44] Speaker B: I can see a little scene of him hanging out in, like, a. An edwardian. Not edwardian. Earlier than that. Like a 16th century alleyway talking to a horse instead of a cat. [00:36:56] Speaker C: Yeah. Oh, man. [00:36:58] Speaker D: Wouldn't that be something? [00:36:59] Speaker A: He's telling all his stories. [00:37:01] Speaker B: He's making fun of the Shakespeare troupe that's behind him. [00:37:05] Speaker D: Yes. [00:37:05] Speaker B: Like, wow, who needs that? [00:37:06] Speaker D: That outfit? Oh, perfect. [00:37:10] Speaker A: So the viscerators in his ear just being like, hey, listen. Yeah, I can take my brother's place. You don't even need this guy. He's a joke. [00:37:19] Speaker B: Like, I'll take care of this medieval spawn. [00:37:22] Speaker A: And we find out that she doesn't. That, in fact, she buried her. [00:37:29] Speaker B: She also gets her head cut off. [00:37:31] Speaker A: She also got her head cut off and defeated by him. And has been buried for 500 years now and is now unleashed. And we cut back to the present. [00:37:43] Speaker D: Gone all this time. Okay. [00:37:45] Speaker A: Yeah. So it says, basically, you find out that she had been buried under the cathedral, that John of York or the medieval swan had banished her under there. And this one character just. [00:37:57] Speaker C: Just let her out. [00:37:59] Speaker A: So she's been banished for 500 years. [00:38:01] Speaker D: I'll buy that. That's a good. That's a good way to include someone like that, to also not have them around for all that time. [00:38:08] Speaker A: Yeah, they're out of commission. [00:38:10] Speaker B: I think they just did that with urizen too. So he popped up. He popped up in the scorch for a little bit after having been supposedly dead for a while, but he was. [00:38:20] Speaker C: Just under a mountain, hibernating, sleeping. [00:38:24] Speaker A: Then we cut back to the presence of this story where you've got the scorched are fighting viscerator outside this bar they were at. [00:38:31] Speaker C: Yeah. [00:38:32] Speaker A: And they just try to take her out. [00:38:35] Speaker C: Yeah, they're. [00:38:36] Speaker B: They're doing a good job of just ruining everything around them, aren't they, boy? [00:38:42] Speaker A: Yeah, pretty much. [00:38:43] Speaker B: Lots of collateral. [00:38:44] Speaker A: I love the big, the big spread here. She's fighting medieval spawn. That's pretty great. [00:38:48] Speaker C: Yeah. [00:38:49] Speaker A: Here's your favorite line, David. She calls him an anti spawn. [00:38:52] Speaker C: Yeah. Yeah. [00:38:52] Speaker B: And he says, I'm not. I'm not an anti spawn. [00:38:55] Speaker C: I'm a redeemer. Ah. [00:38:57] Speaker B: We've also recently covered the history of the anti spawns and the Redeemers, so. [00:39:03] Speaker A: It'S interesting to see a callback to that. [00:39:05] Speaker D: I was. Yeah, when I started drawing the spawn stuff, I needed to know all this history stuff. So I started watching all these YouTube videos, and I was like, holy cow. The Redeemer. All that stuff that could make. That could be its own history. [00:39:21] Speaker C: Right? [00:39:21] Speaker D: There's so much history. [00:39:23] Speaker C: Yeah, I've. [00:39:24] Speaker B: I tried watching some of those. Those spawn history videos before I started reading the comics a whole lot more, and they. They honestly made no sense. It's like, they did what now? They did what now? [00:39:36] Speaker D: Kind of go and check out those issues to know what's going on, because there's so much history now. I mean, 350 issues. [00:39:45] Speaker C: Yeah. [00:39:46] Speaker D: Other stuff do off the side, so. [00:39:49] Speaker C: Yeah, well, like, they were pulling. [00:39:51] Speaker A: They would pull villains from the past into the scorch, and we didn't even know they were old villains because we hadn't read everything. Or we forget, and you're like, is this a new villain? Or this guy already exists. [00:40:00] Speaker C: You know, I'm trying to get him. [00:40:03] Speaker D: To bring back Houdini, man. Remember. Remember Houdini? [00:40:06] Speaker C: Oh, man. [00:40:07] Speaker D: For, like, I think two issues, and then they had his own little mini series. But I was like, oh, man, bring back Houdini. I want to draw. [00:40:15] Speaker B: I mean, according to Thomas Healy himself, he loves. He's a self proclaimed lover of Houdini. So I think that if you were to write a Houdini story. [00:40:25] Speaker D: Yeah. I might have some to do, like, a little Houdini miniseries again. That would be fun. I tried to get him to be put in spawn 77, but I think that that wasn't gonna fly, so. But maybe he could, uh, do something else with him. [00:40:40] Speaker A: Yeah, he had, like, a flying car. [00:40:42] Speaker C: Yeah. [00:40:43] Speaker A: If I. Or something like that. [00:40:45] Speaker C: He. [00:40:46] Speaker D: Todd doesn't really own the rights to it. Well, of course it's Houdini, but it was the letterer, uh, the guy who lettered so many spawn issues. [00:40:54] Speaker A: Oh, Tom Wozykowski. [00:40:55] Speaker C: Yeah. [00:40:56] Speaker D: He actually came up with the idea of that Houdini. So he even wrote the story of the miniseries of that one. [00:41:02] Speaker C: But, I mean, they're good friends. [00:41:04] Speaker D: He could just say, hey, man, we'll put in this little mini series. I'm sure it would be no big deal, but, yeah, I think that would be neat. Then he could make an action figure of them and stuff. I don't think they've done that before. [00:41:15] Speaker C: And I don't know. [00:41:17] Speaker D: Yeah, that's. That's good. You know, I might try to pitch that next year when they don't have as much fun stuff. Maybe they'll do something like that. [00:41:24] Speaker C: That would be fun. Yeah. [00:41:26] Speaker A: We had Thomas Healy on the show a couple months ago, and he said that the Houdini stuff, some of his favorite stuff, so he would you probably. [00:41:34] Speaker D: If you can. Yeah, if he's. If he's on board that leap, that helps so much more to get it a pitch and stuff. [00:41:41] Speaker C: So. Yeah, he's just. [00:41:43] Speaker A: He's. He was great. He's been so supportive of, oh, yeah. Everything, and he just seems like a really awesome guy. [00:41:48] Speaker D: Hey, hey. He was the guy that got my first stop, cuz. Uh, really, he. What happened was some people started tagging, uh, Thomas's name in some of my spawn work. I just put some spawn stuff on instagram, said, I'd love to spawn cover one day. [00:42:04] Speaker C: Yeah. [00:42:05] Speaker D: Thomas writes me and says, hey, man, I'm getting all these tags. We did. We should talk. I like your stuff. So within a month or so after that, they got the thing. I think that's what started the artist spotlight. They decided, hey, nice mark four covers, but we'll do, you know, some other guys like that, too. And. But what was funny is Thomas talked to, at the beginning, it was like, todd don't really like your stuff that much. He says won't work. He said, todd doesn't think your stuff. [00:42:35] Speaker C: Will work as a cover. [00:42:37] Speaker D: And then I don't know what. What he actually saw, he didn't see. They didn't show him sponsor. They showed him some, like, dracula and stuff like that. [00:42:45] Speaker C: Yeah. [00:42:46] Speaker D: But once he saw what I did, he just. He loved it. After. After I turned in those four issues, he just thought that was something else. So, yeah, he's a big supporter of mine. Uh, both of them, you know, I wouldn't be where I am now, doing. I'm doing DC covers. I've done, uh, yeah, I saw that. [00:43:06] Speaker B: Lobo cover that's coming out. That looks incredible. [00:43:09] Speaker D: Here's a little fact. Uh, then we can get back to the book. There's, uh, since last October, I mean, last March, right when those four issues come out, I have drawn, uh, for, boom, DC and spawn stuff. Uh, 31 covers. [00:43:26] Speaker B: Nice. [00:43:27] Speaker D: Not counting the first four I did. If you count those, then it's 35. But just since a year. And I believe for a first year. [00:43:34] Speaker C: Comic book guy, that's the. [00:43:36] Speaker D: That's the most ever, I believe, like, like in the twenties, because you don't use a first year guy, you don't give that much work. [00:43:42] Speaker C: So. So I've been happy. [00:43:44] Speaker D: I didn't, like I said, nine spawns since then, I've done seven Power Rangers and eleven DC's. [00:43:51] Speaker C: So sounds to me like you need. [00:43:54] Speaker B: To follow in Todd McFarland's footsteps and get that certified as a record. [00:43:59] Speaker D: I did world comic cover. [00:44:04] Speaker C: Yes. [00:44:04] Speaker D: Illustrator record done by a first year artist. What the most ever by any artist is, but I can't find out. [00:44:11] Speaker B: That's probably a lot. [00:44:13] Speaker D: Oh, one, you know, one month. Alex Ross did a cover for every Marvel book. Right. So he's probably got, like, 40 in a year or so. [00:44:23] Speaker B: But, uh, but famously doesn't do interiors anymore, so he's just. He's just doing all the covers, and. [00:44:29] Speaker D: I'm begging for interiors. I was begging Thomas healed to put me on gunslinger, man. At one time. I was like, dude, put me on gunslinger just for a few issues. I said, I just want to do it. I said, I'll make that thing awesome. And, yeah, I said, just as a fill in artist, let me do it. But they picked someone else. That's right. When I, Booth was leaving to go to regular spawn, but maybe one day. [00:44:54] Speaker B: So Dexter soy. Dexter soy got in there. Dexter stories. Pretty groovy, though. [00:45:00] Speaker D: So I think a lot of them, they won't accept my stuff as a regular book until I get, like, my own project out there, like spawn 77 or something like that, where they can see it. Then I think they'll be like, okay, let's get you another one. [00:45:14] Speaker C: Yeah. [00:45:15] Speaker D: Once they see it out there. [00:45:16] Speaker C: So. Yeah. [00:45:18] Speaker B: And then they could also use you as a guest artist to feature. Feature the new series. [00:45:22] Speaker C: So. [00:45:23] Speaker D: Right. See, that would be. That would be great. I would love to do, like a, you know, one or two issues. Three, four, whatever they need me to do. Then get off and let someone else get on, feel in for people because, you know, people got to take vacations and stuff. [00:45:35] Speaker C: Yeah, yeah. [00:45:36] Speaker D: And I don't think sales would go down. I think they would actually go up when somebody goes, whoa, that's the interior. I'll grab that. [00:45:43] Speaker A: So, uh, it definitely would look unique. That's for sure. [00:45:45] Speaker C: Yeah. [00:45:46] Speaker A: Something you wouldn't normally see. [00:45:47] Speaker C: Yeah. [00:45:48] Speaker D: Something a little different. [00:45:49] Speaker C: Yeah, we'll get a little different here because we get. [00:45:51] Speaker A: These people's heads are turning into spider people. Yeah, it's the thing. [00:45:58] Speaker C: Yeah. Oh, boy. [00:46:00] Speaker A: It's the. I guess the viscerator. She must have had a supply of, like, eighties movies when she was locked up for 500 years. [00:46:05] Speaker D: Yeah. [00:46:06] Speaker A: And she saw the thing. I was like, that's a good idea. I'm gonna steal that. [00:46:09] Speaker B: Yeah, well, I mean, Johnny, that's. Anybody who ever saw the thing was like, that's a good idea. [00:46:13] Speaker C: I should steal it. [00:46:14] Speaker D: That is. That's awesome. [00:46:16] Speaker C: I love the. I love the look of that. No, they're cool. [00:46:20] Speaker A: That whole scene there, that scared the crap out of me when I was young, when I first saw the thing, the head spider was too much. [00:46:27] Speaker B: The thing was genuinely terrifying. [00:46:30] Speaker C: Yeah, it'll get you every time. [00:46:34] Speaker A: So we get to the. Basically explains. These are the bar vic, the bar people they fought with. She turns them into these creatures. [00:46:41] Speaker D: Yeah. [00:46:41] Speaker A: And is attacking them. [00:46:43] Speaker D: Where are we at still, though? Are we in the. Where the bar used to be? Because the backgrounds, they kind of got to where they were like, man, I ain't drawing that background again. [00:46:51] Speaker A: So, yeah, they're outside the bar. There's. [00:46:53] Speaker C: Okay. [00:46:54] Speaker A: They just went outside this bar, and then there's, like, fighting outside of it. But it's, like, so much smoke and dust that now. Yeah, it's kind of weird. [00:47:01] Speaker D: They did a really good job. The colors for the smoke, like, in that panel and this one, so that's. They did good to cover that up. [00:47:07] Speaker C: Yeah, yeah. [00:47:08] Speaker A: Eviscerator's got some. [00:47:09] Speaker C: Some gnarly, like, arc like wings. [00:47:14] Speaker A: Yeah, those are some crazy. [00:47:17] Speaker B: She's, uh, she's. She's monologuing. She's doing the villain monologue while they're fighting, and she's like, I'm gonna. I'm gonna. [00:47:23] Speaker C: I'm gonna sit. [00:47:24] Speaker B: Sit on Mel Bolger's right hand, uh, and be his trusted advisor, maybe his queen. [00:47:31] Speaker D: I'm not that balboa. I don't like there as much as the earlier one. That looks too. [00:47:37] Speaker B: Yeah, his jaws too. His jaws too short, is it? [00:47:40] Speaker D: Yeah, he looks plump and little like. He looks like a giant. But I like him when he's real thin and got the. Like you said, the pot belly. Where's he. Oh, I see what it is. [00:47:50] Speaker C: It's actually the. [00:47:51] Speaker D: It wasn't really the. Yeah, you're right about the jaw. It's. The colorist has made the knee look kind of like background to me, like, with the smoke and fog. [00:48:01] Speaker A: Oh, yeah. [00:48:02] Speaker D: See how long he is? He's actually very long. [00:48:05] Speaker C: Yeah, yeah. [00:48:07] Speaker A: If you cover up, you. You don't really see it. No, you're right. [00:48:09] Speaker D: But, yeah, I think it's a. Yeah, it's just a little miscommunication, I guess, there on the colors, but in the the knee on the left side should have been more foreshortened, you know, like, bigger. Yeah, but that's good. [00:48:23] Speaker C: Yeah. [00:48:24] Speaker D: I do like anything. [00:48:25] Speaker A: Get a really long jaw, though. I do like. [00:48:27] Speaker C: So, yeah. [00:48:28] Speaker D: Like. Well, like, Todd's version, the best. [00:48:31] Speaker A: Of course. [00:48:31] Speaker C: Of course. She gets the. [00:48:33] Speaker B: She gets the bad news that mal bullsh. [00:48:35] Speaker C: Is dead. [00:48:35] Speaker B: Oh, no. [00:48:36] Speaker D: Like 20 years back in 800. [00:48:38] Speaker C: Yeah. [00:48:38] Speaker A: Issue 100. That was, like 1999. [00:48:40] Speaker D: That was like a liar. Don't tell me she's got turn good and join them. [00:48:47] Speaker B: I doubt it. I think she's just gonna go see them become more and more evil. [00:48:52] Speaker C: I don't think. [00:48:53] Speaker B: I don't think any of the Fleabi x could be turned to be good guys ever. That's just not in their maker nature. [00:49:02] Speaker D: Her other brothers alive still? [00:49:04] Speaker A: Oh, they haven't really been addressed, like, in a long time. As far as I know. They are. They're just out there somewhere. [00:49:11] Speaker C: Because they all. [00:49:12] Speaker A: They survived the miniseries. I mean, they had, like, holes blown in them, but they were still alive. [00:49:18] Speaker C: Yeah. [00:49:20] Speaker D: So I don't know. [00:49:21] Speaker B: Was there any fallout around issue 100 when Malbolsha was killed? [00:49:25] Speaker C: Johnny, do you remember? [00:49:26] Speaker A: No, they didn't. I would remember the fleebiacs. They weren't really in it. They kind of kept them their own thing. Sounds like maybe they're out there somewhere. [00:49:33] Speaker B: They'll probably show up in the new violator series, actually. [00:49:36] Speaker A: Oh, yeah, of course. [00:49:37] Speaker B: I'd be surprised if they didn't. Maybe we'll see a disco violator. [00:49:43] Speaker D: I can't wait for that. [00:49:44] Speaker A: He's got a spindly arm. [00:49:46] Speaker C: He'd be good at it. [00:49:47] Speaker A: I like the vision that the viscerator has where she has all the heads on, like, spikes. [00:49:51] Speaker C: Yeah, she's just, like, giving him spawn's head. [00:49:54] Speaker A: It's like a little cocktail olive. [00:49:56] Speaker C: Yeah, love that. It's real good. I like. I like that. [00:50:02] Speaker B: After eviscerator runs away, the bar keeper is just like, you folks need to. [00:50:08] Speaker C: Get out of here. [00:50:11] Speaker A: And Jessica just, like, slaps the gun out of her hand, is like, no, okay. But, yeah, you ask nicely. [00:50:16] Speaker C: Okay. [00:50:20] Speaker B: And then, you know, they're like, we should. We shouldn't really feel viscerator as much as the person she trusted enough to release her. [00:50:27] Speaker C: And then, you know, we come back. [00:50:29] Speaker B: To see who released her, which was. [00:50:31] Speaker C: A man named Bishop. [00:50:32] Speaker B: He seems to have had the same sort of career arc as haunt did, where he was, uh, very devout and. [00:50:40] Speaker C: Then kind of corrupted individual. [00:50:43] Speaker A: Well, we don't really know much about him yet, other than he. Well, in the next issue. We find out a little bit about him. [00:50:48] Speaker C: Yeah. But I don't know. [00:50:50] Speaker A: It'll be interesting to see what happens with Bishop here, this little foreshadowing where he's got, like, a big demon shadow behind him. [00:50:56] Speaker D: Yeah, I love. [00:50:58] Speaker C: Yeah. Yeah. [00:51:01] Speaker A: But he doesn't like Jessica priest, that's for sure. He says Jessica priest has always been a fraud, and she's not worthy of being the she spawns. [00:51:08] Speaker C: I don't think so. Oh, my issue has a little bit. [00:51:11] Speaker B: Of an error in it. There's a little bit of word bubble there by. [00:51:17] Speaker A: Oh, yeah, it does. A little bit. [00:51:19] Speaker B: A little bit of word bubble action going on. [00:51:22] Speaker C: Oh, yeah. [00:51:22] Speaker A: I didn't notice that. [00:51:24] Speaker B: Printing errors, they happen. It doesn't appear to be in the digital version, so I don't see it. [00:51:29] Speaker C: Okay. Yeah, they got rid of it. [00:51:33] Speaker A: And then you get the scorch logo. And that's the issue. That's the issue. A nice, like, breezy but awesome fight with eviscerator. [00:51:44] Speaker B: So all layman's issues so far have been quite breezy in a good way. They just, like, they just go right through them. They just trot on through. [00:51:53] Speaker D: What would you say if you had a list your. The four main spawn titles in order of how you like them the best. [00:52:02] Speaker C: What would you say? [00:52:04] Speaker A: I would probably go. [00:52:07] Speaker C: Like, currently. [00:52:10] Speaker A: That's tough because, like, it change. It fluctuates a little bit. Right now, I feel like I'm on. [00:52:15] Speaker C: To, I think scorched King Spawn, and. [00:52:21] Speaker A: Then, like, spawn court scorched King Spawn gunslinger spawn. [00:52:26] Speaker D: I think I would rank it. [00:52:28] Speaker A: I'm just really loving this John layman scorched right now, and I just been really enjoying it. And King Spawn is probably my personal. [00:52:33] Speaker C: Favorite out of the four, but I've. [00:52:36] Speaker A: Just been loving scorched recently. What about you, David? [00:52:39] Speaker B: I would normally put scorched Gunslinger spawn, king Spawn. But I think Gunslinger's kind of slipped down to the bottom right now for me because it's very much feeling in transition. So it'll bounce back up there. [00:52:55] Speaker C: But, yeah. [00:52:58] Speaker D: I know a lot of people were saying there were huge gunslinger fans about a year ago, and with the transition of booth getting off of it, going to spawn that, I was wondering, would that change and make spawn go up higher, Gunslinger down lower? But it sounds like the, I would call them the satellite titles. You know, the, because there's basically spawn and then you got the other titles around. It sounds like they're more interesting because there's more things you can do with those if you think about it. [00:53:26] Speaker C: Yeah, yeah. [00:53:27] Speaker D: They're appealing to the people a bit more. So, of course, spot will always probably, regular spot will probably have the more sales every month just because it's the one. A lot of people get it, never even read it. Bag aboard it, put it up, you know. [00:53:41] Speaker C: Yeah. [00:53:41] Speaker D: So they'll have a whole ride. [00:53:42] Speaker C: But, yeah, I'm interested. [00:53:44] Speaker A: That 299 price point. [00:53:46] Speaker D: Yeah, exactly. I mean, I know a lot of guys go, man, I always buy just for the covers because it's 299. And the be interested when deadly tales comes out. Right. I believe that's going to be ongoing, and it's a new gunslinger book. And, and I'm wondering, like, how do you guys like the new gunslinger look? I, personally, I like the old, I like the old where he looked like spawn to me. [00:54:10] Speaker C: Yeah. [00:54:11] Speaker A: I prefer the older one. I know it's growing on me. I prefer the older one, though. [00:54:15] Speaker C: It grew. [00:54:17] Speaker B: I'm a little, I like it a little more. When I thought about the fact that he looks more like Zoro now. [00:54:23] Speaker C: Yeah. [00:54:23] Speaker B: But I still do prefer the original. [00:54:25] Speaker C: The original design. [00:54:26] Speaker D: I wish you would take the white hood and make it black. I think that would make it actually look a little bit better, maybe. I don't know. I haven't never tested it to see, because then it would look more like Zorro. Yeah. [00:54:39] Speaker C: And give him the, you know, the. [00:54:41] Speaker D: Green eyes with the black hood. Of course, he already has a black, you know, kind of, you know, face, so I don't know if that would. [00:54:47] Speaker A: Right. [00:54:47] Speaker C: Yeah. [00:54:48] Speaker D: Something about the whiteness on it just looked odd to me when they, when they did it. [00:54:53] Speaker C: So, uh, I don't know how long. [00:54:56] Speaker B: It'S right to be a hellspawn. [00:54:58] Speaker C: Maybe it'll, it'll stay up until someone. [00:55:01] Speaker D: Uh, does something and says, hey, Todd, what about this? And he goes, yeah, it looks better. [00:55:06] Speaker C: Let's do that. [00:55:08] Speaker D: You know, remember Marvel in the eighties, right? Everybody, Thor came up with so many different outfits. [00:55:13] Speaker C: Oh, yeah, yeah, outfit. [00:55:16] Speaker D: And so everybody, you know, changes every, every now and then. [00:55:19] Speaker B: So, yeah, the same thing with Batman. Everybody's always, every time there's a new, a new artist on Batman, they're like, what's, what's the cow gonna look like? What them gloves gonna look like? [00:55:30] Speaker D: Is that I figured out, yeah, it's crazy. [00:55:32] Speaker C: And then we get a spawning, just. [00:55:34] Speaker A: A little bit of spawning grounds in the back, and it's just got some fan art there. The fan art, which all looks pretty cool. [00:55:41] Speaker C: Yeah. [00:55:41] Speaker B: It's all just a Caprice, specifically. [00:55:45] Speaker C: It is. [00:55:46] Speaker D: How do you guys, like the spawn contest they got, they, they named 20 winners. [00:55:51] Speaker C: 20 winners. [00:55:52] Speaker D: Yeah. [00:55:53] Speaker A: That was amazing. I mean, there were so many good entries. I couldn't even imagine trying to figure it out. I just saw so much good art those that month that it was going on. [00:56:03] Speaker D: Like, I can't imagine doing that because I think he says, like, week one, week two, we might be talking about the winners. [00:56:10] Speaker C: I guess. [00:56:11] Speaker D: He's talking about the winners of those week. Yeah. [00:56:13] Speaker B: Of those weeks. [00:56:13] Speaker D: They're going, is he going to release. [00:56:16] Speaker C: Five covers of those to, like a spawn? [00:56:20] Speaker D: Right. [00:56:21] Speaker B: That's what we were, that's what we were wondering. [00:56:23] Speaker A: I'm not sure. [00:56:24] Speaker B: Is each one gonna be a variant? [00:56:27] Speaker D: Because if you. I don't know if you did that, though, honestly, it won't, it won't sell as well for those books. If you said, hey, let's say like, scorch 26 has five extra covers that are all fan art, basically. And you have, say you still have your two regular, or maybe you get rid of the two regular and just say all of. We're gonna have five issues. [00:56:49] Speaker C: Five's a lot. [00:56:50] Speaker D: I don't think a lot of people go, I'm gonna buy all five. [00:56:53] Speaker C: Right? Yeah. [00:56:55] Speaker D: So if he reduces it to one, say, releases one as cover b from now on, that would take 20 weeks, though. Yeah. See, that's a lot of time, too. [00:57:05] Speaker B: That is a lot of time. [00:57:06] Speaker D: I don't, I don't know, uh, I don't know how they're doing it. I was like, whoa, man, you turned this in from, from four issues to 20 issues. [00:57:15] Speaker C: I don't know how they're gonna put. [00:57:17] Speaker D: Them out there, but it'd be interesting to see. And it's, it's great for the fandom. I think artists, man, to be able to, like I said, to walk in there and see your book on the shelf is, is crazy ordering wise. I'm glad I ain't got an order because you don't know, like either my little good team, but people like, yeah, I don't want to get those. Or they might be like, I'll, I'll get them, but I don't want to get all of them. [00:57:42] Speaker C: Yeah. [00:57:43] Speaker B: It's like every issue of a red Sonja book that dynamite puts out has like 24 variant covers. Every issue? [00:57:50] Speaker D: Every issue. [00:57:51] Speaker B: How. How are you supposed to deal with that? [00:57:53] Speaker C: That's a lot, dude. [00:57:54] Speaker D: I. Because I'm doing the DC covers and I. They put me as incentive covers, right. So you got about 25, or then you'll get a Mark Spears cover. I hate that, though, because I want, you know, my fans to be able to just walk into a comic book store, say, I want this book, which they'll get to do that on Neil before dawn. I got to do that when that one's coming out in April. But besides that one, these others, man, like Lobo, it's going to be an incentive, it looks like. [00:58:22] Speaker C: And I hate that. [00:58:24] Speaker D: I hate, like you said, though, even when you have, like, red Sonny, they're not even incentives. They're just 20 covers. [00:58:30] Speaker C: Yeah, yeah. Wild. That is. [00:58:34] Speaker D: That's the problem. The industry. Todd does it better because he's like, okay, I'll do two. [00:58:39] Speaker C: Yeah. [00:58:40] Speaker D: Every now and then he'll do more, like, with a sketch cover. Like, you add that sketch cover to it or something. Are something special, you know, like, 350 had a few extras, I understand, right. [00:58:49] Speaker A: There's like five covers for three or something. [00:58:51] Speaker B: Like, for Batman Spawn. [00:58:53] Speaker D: That's huge. And Batman Spawn had some. Todd does it the right way. I wish. I wish they would listen to him over Marvel and DC and say, hey, yeah, you know, of having cover m and cover in, we should just have. [00:59:07] Speaker C: Cover a and b. Yeah, you'll actually. [00:59:09] Speaker A: In Spawn con, I learned from Thomas Healy that it wasn't their decision to do all those chase variants for Batman Spawn because it was a DC joint, that they actually were the ones to decide. That's why they're all the one in 25 variants and stuff for that was because that was a DC decision because like you just said, mark Todd likes to keep it to just a couple, and they're the same price, and they're just. [00:59:30] Speaker C: That's it. Yeah. So nice. Yeah. [00:59:34] Speaker D: I'll tell you, the most covers I think you should have around three if you're going to have, you know, something too normal, and then either sketch cover or something kind of special, you know, for the third cover, that's it. Which. That's why I like the spot, man. Spawn at 299. [00:59:49] Speaker C: Yeah. [00:59:50] Speaker D: And then he doesn't even get you with the covers. Right. He gets afford to get all the covers, and there's no incentive, like, well, you have to buy 100 issues of spawn to get this one issue. [01:00:00] Speaker C: Nope. Right. So, uh, I don't know. [01:00:03] Speaker D: I hope one day DC and Marvel will look at that and say, man, maybe we should do something like that too. [01:00:09] Speaker C: Yeah. [01:00:10] Speaker B: I mean, image comics, definitely the best deal in comics for your money worth right now. [01:00:15] Speaker C: Oh, absolutely. Yep. [01:00:17] Speaker D: Has really changed over the years. I remember back in, let's say, like, 98, 97, when they was going through the phase of where Rob had left and Jim Lee left, all those guys. Anything could get printed in image. I mean, I would see books, because I own a comic book store at that time. There were books that you just could not sell it, you know, black and. [01:00:38] Speaker C: White, you know, just nothing, you know. [01:00:41] Speaker D: Like miniseries and stuff like that. You know, anybody who came along, they would actually green light, you know? Sure. You know, we'll print this. So now it's like an exclusive club over there. Image, man. It's gonna. If it's got the image logo on. [01:00:55] Speaker C: It, it means quality. [01:00:57] Speaker D: It's going to be something good. [01:00:58] Speaker C: Yeah, they. They said. [01:00:59] Speaker B: They said enough. Yes to enough people, enough times that they were able to mine gold out of walking dead. [01:01:06] Speaker D: Helped along. [01:01:07] Speaker C: Yeah. [01:01:08] Speaker D: What saga. But, man, everything over there now, Eric Stevenson is doing a good job of picking the right stuff, it looks like. [01:01:17] Speaker C: So, yeah, it's. [01:01:20] Speaker B: It's nice to see that they're more excited about more original ideas than just, like, clones of already existing. [01:01:28] Speaker D: The same thing over and over again. [01:01:31] Speaker B: At the end of every issue, we. [01:01:32] Speaker C: Have to rate it. [01:01:33] Speaker B: But I almost always have a puppy with me because I've got lots of them here, and I got a little puppy, so. [01:01:40] Speaker C: So this is the part of the. [01:01:41] Speaker B: Show where we have to rate the. [01:01:43] Speaker C: Puppy, which is the issue itself. [01:01:46] Speaker A: It's time to rate the puppy. So this week we read spawn. Not spawn. [01:01:54] Speaker D: Scorch. [01:01:54] Speaker A: I got spawned on the brain. We read scorch 25. We just read it. Scorch 25. It was a fun, action packed. I mean, it was just, it had, it starts with Malbolgia, and then you go to the big fight, and it brings back in stuff from early spawn with the medieval spawn fighting violator. I just thought it was a really great issue. I loved the introduction of the viscerator. I loved the Malbolgia stuff. I love the fight. It's just like I said, john Layman's just been killing it on this scorch run. And then you always got Steven Segovia supporting him with the art. [01:02:28] Speaker C: Hell, yeah. [01:02:29] Speaker A: I think I'm gonna have to give it five malbolgia bellies out of five. [01:02:33] Speaker C: Hell, yeah. [01:02:34] Speaker B: I think we've used the belly as a metric numerous times. [01:02:37] Speaker A: I think we have, but I gotta do it. I love Malbolgia. [01:02:39] Speaker C: It's a good. [01:02:40] Speaker B: It's a good metric. That's a good metric. Would you like to rate second, or would you like to go last? [01:02:45] Speaker D: I'll go last. Okay, let's see what your rating is first. [01:02:48] Speaker B: Okay, great. [01:02:51] Speaker C: On a curve. [01:02:52] Speaker B: I agree. I agree. It's fun. This is a good. It's a good little fight. I think so far, half of the issues of scorch have just been fight. And this is one of the best just issues of fight that the scorched has had for this whole run. You know, art is great. John Layman's doing a really good job on it. [01:03:14] Speaker C: I don't want to fatigue it because. [01:03:15] Speaker B: I think I've given every John Layman issue of scorched a five already. So I think I need to vary it up a little bit. [01:03:22] Speaker C: So I'm going to give it four. [01:03:23] Speaker B: Skulls, because conveniently, there are four skulls on the COVID and Monolith's faith's here, so I'm going to give him the four cover skulls there. [01:03:33] Speaker D: Four out of five. Where I'm trying to think what metric I could use because you took the skulls. I was going to do that one. [01:03:41] Speaker C: Oh, sorry. [01:03:45] Speaker D: You took it. I think the artwork was good. If I picked it up off the, you know, not knowing what it was, I don't know if I to buy it just because the artwork, you know, there's guys out there like Gary Frank, Allen Davis, I'd pick it up and go, getting this. I don't care what it is, but I would say the story and plot is so good. That's even makes the artwork even better. Then I would also say it reminds me of something I would read back 30 years ago in Spider man, where Scorpion comes to town and something. Right. It's a great, like, one off, but then again, it's, like, tied to a deeper thing, you know, so you can enjoy the battle. Then you can also go, oh, what happens next? So it really reminds me of something of back with Marvel was actually really good. [01:04:33] Speaker C: So, uh, I think, uh, honestly, I. [01:04:37] Speaker D: Would give it, um. I'd give it five medieval spawn helmets out of five. [01:04:41] Speaker C: Oh, hell yeah. [01:04:46] Speaker D: I would highly recommend it. I think it's really good. And it's, like, for 299. [01:04:50] Speaker C: Yeah. I think you could pay another dollar. [01:04:53] Speaker D: And still feel like you got a great deal. [01:04:55] Speaker A: Oh, absolutely. I love the stock of the covers. Yeah, the hard stock is really unique. I love that. It really makes them a lot more sturdy. [01:05:04] Speaker D: The coloring, the lettering, all that stuff look great to me. [01:05:09] Speaker C: High quality book. [01:05:10] Speaker D: But I really enjoyed it. I wish I had a cover for it because I could be very proud to sit there and put a cover on that. [01:05:20] Speaker B: You and us both, dude. [01:05:22] Speaker C: Yeah, I'll come. [01:05:24] Speaker A: Great. Viscerator or I'd love to see your version of that medieval looking. [01:05:29] Speaker C: Oh, I'd love to see. [01:05:31] Speaker B: Yeah, the little medieval clown just up there. [01:05:33] Speaker D: Oh, man, that would be great to draw. [01:05:35] Speaker B: You could have him dancing in front of Melbolgia like the fool he is. [01:05:39] Speaker D: If I might draw a cover of that and send it in. And if he's already got plans for when he's going to use that, because, see, it wouldn't make any sense. Put that on a spawn book unless they're referencing that somehow. [01:05:51] Speaker A: Yeah, they gotta use that. It's too good. Yeah, hopefully they will in the violator series. Speaking of your art, I do love, I love all the universal monsters stuff. One of my favorite was that you did a fan of the opera that I saw. That was just amazing because that's one of, that's probably my personal favorite, the universal monsters. So it's been funny because I've been actually watching, if you ever heard of. [01:06:13] Speaker C: Pluto tv, they have a, they have. [01:06:16] Speaker A: A universal monsters channel they just added. So I've been watching that a lot, which is pretty cool. It also shows some of the hammer stuff and other things too. [01:06:25] Speaker D: They're doing down in Universal in Florida. Universal Studios, they're actually adding for epic land or something like that. They're calling it a whole new park. And they're going to have a big section of that park devoted to just universal monster. [01:06:39] Speaker B: Oh, hell yeah. [01:06:40] Speaker A: Oh, cool. I can't wait for that. [01:06:41] Speaker D: I mean, because you should, right? Those are classic monster stuff. [01:06:45] Speaker C: Yeah. [01:06:46] Speaker D: I actually have my own that I kick chartered last year that will be coming out here in May. My own monster series. Comic book series. So I'll send it to you guys. [01:06:58] Speaker C: Oh, yeah. [01:06:59] Speaker D: Review it or enjoy it or read it or something. So it's a, it's pretty good. It's eight issues so far. And then we're, I'm talking to massive and mad cave about publishing and get. [01:07:12] Speaker C: It into comic book stores. [01:07:14] Speaker D: So maybe, maybe I can do that. I would love to keep doing it because I love drawing monster stuff. It's fun comic because you can draw whatever you want. [01:07:24] Speaker B: I love, I love this cover you made that makes it look like it's a beat up old paperback. [01:07:29] Speaker D: That's, that's, yeah, yeah, that's a, that's, that's a cover for the series. So, yeah, if you like monsters, science fiction stuff set in the eighties, you're gonna, you're gonna love it. It's, it's a little bit the crime. I got my own little Sam and twitch in there kind of guys. I got two detectives. [01:07:48] Speaker C: I got I got some heroes. [01:07:52] Speaker D: I got my own little monster slayer guy who's kind of like a gunslinger spawn kind of guy and nice. [01:07:58] Speaker A: And if they, if people are listening and they miss the Kickstarter, could they still get them? [01:08:02] Speaker C: Yeah. [01:08:02] Speaker D: Yeah. You can go right now. If you go to the Kickstarter, you could still click a button and go to a website and pre order it. Or just message me or reach out to me on Instagram and I get it to get it to you, but. [01:08:14] Speaker B: We'Ll put the link in the show description. [01:08:16] Speaker C: Yeah. [01:08:17] Speaker D: Like I said, I'm looking for a retail version, you know, because all these were, like, extrater versions, so the price was, like, $20 just because, you know, had to do to do that to make it. [01:08:27] Speaker C: But, uh, if we can do a. [01:08:28] Speaker D: Retail version, you know, it'll be down to, you know, 499 or less and be in stores before the end of the year. [01:08:34] Speaker C: So that would be awesome. [01:08:37] Speaker D: I'm excited about it. I'm hoping. [01:08:40] Speaker C: I'm hoping it'll. [01:08:41] Speaker D: No matter what. One company talked to me about it too. We can at least get it into every comic store by October. Like, no, issue number one, it's just the bigger comic company can go with, the easier it is for people to order it. Like, when you're a comic book store, if I'm looking through the thing. Oh, oh, this is mad Cave. Who do you know who's doing Flash Gordon and Dick Tracy? I'll order this monster thing. [01:09:03] Speaker C: Sure. [01:09:04] Speaker D: Or if I'm looking at massive, who's, you know, had a little bit of impact. Okay, I'll order that. But if you go to a place that has, like, zero. Yeah, you might like monsters. I don't know if I want to buy that. You know, because it's all selling to the book stores. [01:09:17] Speaker B: Right. [01:09:18] Speaker D: And then they sell it to the, to the consumer. So, um, hopefully, though, I can get it to a good publisher. I'll know within the next couple weeks, and, uh, and we'll know. But, uh, yeah, I'll be more than happy. I'll send you guys over the eight issues. I got a PDF of them. Oh, sweet. [01:09:35] Speaker A: Amazing. Thank you. [01:09:36] Speaker C: Yeah. [01:09:36] Speaker B: If I didn't know any better, I'd say you wrote this comic book specifically for Johnny. It sounds like something he came up with in a dream. It was like, it must exist. [01:09:45] Speaker D: Well, the phantom doesn't exist in there, uh, yet. [01:09:49] Speaker C: He's. [01:09:49] Speaker A: That's okay. [01:09:50] Speaker C: He's not. [01:09:51] Speaker D: In the first eight issues, you've still. [01:09:53] Speaker B: Got tens, dozens, hundreds of. You've got 351 at least. [01:09:58] Speaker C: Yeah. [01:09:59] Speaker D: There you go. [01:09:59] Speaker B: You gotta beat this record. [01:10:00] Speaker A: Well, that's why he's one of my favorites. Cause he's always used sparingly when he shows up, it's special. Cause he's. He's not. He's not one of the, you know, he's like the fifth or 6th monster you think of. And, like. So whenever he does show up, it always feels a little special. [01:10:12] Speaker B: He's always dramatic. He's extra dramatic about it. So it likes in your brain. [01:10:16] Speaker C: Oh, yes. I. [01:10:18] Speaker D: He's one of my favorite to draw, and actually, I do have big plans for him. The ones I don't like drawing much, I'm gonna kill off. [01:10:30] Speaker A: That's the beauty of running your own comic. [01:10:32] Speaker D: It is. Because I'm like, man, I didn't. I just. I'm getting tired drawing this guy, and I'm like, you know what? I'll kill him off. And people will be like, what? [01:10:39] Speaker C: You killed that guy? [01:10:41] Speaker D: And I always bring them back later on. [01:10:43] Speaker B: Safe. No one's safe. [01:10:44] Speaker D: No one's safe. I'm treating, like, Game of Thrones, man. [01:10:47] Speaker A: That's the way to do it. Keep them on their toes. [01:10:49] Speaker C: Yep. [01:10:49] Speaker A: Was there anything else you wanted to plug as besides the Kickstarter and your instagram will put a link to? [01:10:55] Speaker D: Yeah, share my Instagram on there. The only thing coming out here, if you want to go to a book store and buy my stuff, it'll be nil before Zod comes out in April. I think it's issued three or four. Can't really remember. And then you'll have spawn 350 in June. Make sure you buy five copies of my cover when it comes out. [01:11:18] Speaker A: Well, you better buy it, or there'll be $20 at David's comic shop. You'll regret it. [01:11:22] Speaker D: Yeah, I told you, man. [01:11:24] Speaker A: And get it early. [01:11:25] Speaker D: And then there's. I'm trying to think of something else coming out. Of course, Lobo and I have a bunch of those covers coming out with their incentives. If you really like that stuff, go probably eBay and get it the, you know, cheapest, uh, because, you know, stores have to order, like, 25 to get one of those. So those books are always going to have, like, a price tag of 25, $50 on it. [01:11:45] Speaker A: So this is how it goes. [01:11:47] Speaker D: But I do have a lot of spawn stuff coming out this year, I think, guys. And, uh. [01:11:52] Speaker B: Nice. [01:11:53] Speaker D: And the more you buy that, the more y'all tell, like, Thomas Healey and Todd that you like it, the more they'll get me to do more. So we'll let them know. [01:12:03] Speaker C: Yeah, but y'all come back when maybe. [01:12:06] Speaker D: When 350 comes out, we can review. [01:12:08] Speaker C: It together or 355. [01:12:09] Speaker B: 355? [01:12:10] Speaker C: Yeah, definitely. [01:12:11] Speaker A: We'll play for that for sure. [01:12:13] Speaker D: Todd. That's more information now about Spawn 77, which I'm thinking maybe San Diego comic Con or New York Comic Con. We will. I'll come back and we could talk about it more in depth and show some concept art and stuff. [01:12:28] Speaker C: You kidding me? [01:12:30] Speaker A: That's great. [01:12:30] Speaker C: That's fantastic. Yeah. [01:12:33] Speaker B: I just can't help but think that the detectives for Spawn 77 would be Charles Bronson types. And that's getting me very excited to have. [01:12:42] Speaker D: Well, Todd said a discord. He'd really like the movie french connection, Papa Doyle. [01:12:48] Speaker B: Okay. [01:12:48] Speaker D: Yeah. That's what they told me when I was designing the detectives. So it's. And Thomas Healey pitched it as spawn versus pimps. So, yes, the concept art. I have drawn some pimps. Can you imagine spawn walking down 1977 New York, beating up on some pimps? [01:13:10] Speaker C: That's going to be. [01:13:11] Speaker B: I could imagine his cape, instead of a cape, being just the most ludicrous fur coat in existence. [01:13:18] Speaker C: That's good. [01:13:19] Speaker D: I haven't. I haven't designed that yet, but that would be really, really good fun. Like, with a big fur coat, that little hat. [01:13:27] Speaker C: Yeah. Big, big head. [01:13:30] Speaker A: He's got to go undercover or something. [01:13:31] Speaker D: Yeah, gotta go undercover. [01:13:33] Speaker C: That would be great. [01:13:35] Speaker A: He saw the mask in a. [01:13:38] Speaker B: Good sav. One of those. Those, uh, those per you, purple car. [01:13:42] Speaker C: That's what he gets to drive. [01:13:43] Speaker D: If nothing else. That would be awesome as a cover. Right? If they go, that'll make sense. Yeah, the COVID spawn 77 with Spawn. [01:13:53] Speaker C: In a pimps would be. [01:13:55] Speaker A: People would love it. [01:13:57] Speaker B: I'd buy it. [01:13:58] Speaker D: That would take. [01:14:01] Speaker A: Well, also make sure to give, if you're following mark, make sure to give us a follow. We are regarding Spawnpod on instagram and regardingspawnpodmail.com. Make sure to hit us up and subscribe, like, rate, review, wherever you like. Podcasts. We are on there. [01:14:17] Speaker C: Yeah. [01:14:17] Speaker A: And speaking of podcasts, we will be doing another episode next week. And what are we reading for next week? [01:14:23] Speaker B: Well, next. Next we're reading a couple of more issues from. From Spawn's universe, Johnny. [01:14:27] Speaker D: We're gonna. [01:14:28] Speaker B: Our classic next week is gonna be Spawn 17, and our newer issue is gonna be Kingspawn 29. [01:14:34] Speaker C: Okay. [01:14:35] Speaker A: Yeah, Spawn 17. We're right in the middle of that. That's where Grant Morrison and great Capullo first take over. Yeah, we're covering that right now on our. We basically alternate between doing a classic and doing a new one like this one. So we kind of bounce back and forth. [01:14:48] Speaker C: So. Yeah, great. Capullo. [01:14:51] Speaker B: Greg Capulla does some very fine spawn. [01:14:54] Speaker C: Oh, yeah. I think it's really good. [01:14:57] Speaker D: Good at the beginning and then got even better as he went along. I mean, he got better and better at doing it. [01:15:02] Speaker C: Yeah. Yeah. [01:15:03] Speaker D: I love any kind of Greg pillow. [01:15:04] Speaker A: Stuff now, that late nineties stuff where they're really. It's like Sam and twitch heavy, where they're really popular. And, like, with, say, with spawn. That's some of my favorite spawn stuff is like that. It's like the stuff from, like, 97, 98, 99 around there. [01:15:18] Speaker D: I know Todd really likes the crime stuff. That's why he invented Sam and Twitch and stuff. I don't know if that's. Now that Todd's back on spawn, right. Writing spine with. With Booth, drawing it. If he will have more crime drama stuff in there or not. Not sure. Since he's also riding the same in Twitch series. [01:15:39] Speaker B: And focus still over there and say. [01:15:42] Speaker D: Now have spawn be, you know, something different? [01:15:44] Speaker C: Not sure. [01:15:45] Speaker D: Not sure how it's all going to play out, but, yeah, it seems like they used more. [01:15:49] Speaker A: The street level spawn stuff is now in king Spawn, and spawns kind of the more grandiose heaven and hell stuff. [01:15:55] Speaker D: More power supernatural stuff. [01:15:57] Speaker A: Yeah, more super. Exactly. Yeah, it kind of seems how they're doing it, but. [01:16:01] Speaker C: And maybe. [01:16:01] Speaker B: Maybe, like, Sam and Twitch will be more Gotham Central, where, you know, it's Batman adjacent. Doesn't need Batman every issue. [01:16:08] Speaker C: Yeah, I know that. [01:16:09] Speaker D: I think the first few issues is like, yeah, I don't even know if Spawn shows up in those. It's just. It's just a big problem story. And. [01:16:17] Speaker C: Which is neat. [01:16:18] Speaker D: There's something a little different, a little different flavor every now and then. [01:16:21] Speaker A: So, yeah, I do like, there's an old Sam and Twitch miniseries where they. The one from the nineties, and they show up. Swan shows up for one panel, and they're just like, get out of here. We're busy. Leave us alone. And he just leaves. [01:16:32] Speaker D: Yeah, I remember that, man. [01:16:33] Speaker A: We got our own stuff going on here. [01:16:36] Speaker C: Yeah. [01:16:36] Speaker D: Todd said, it's like, hey, these guys hang out with spawn maybe 20 days a year. The rest is, you know, let's see what they're doing the other times of the year. [01:16:46] Speaker C: Oh, yeah. [01:16:46] Speaker A: It's a good way to put it. [01:16:47] Speaker C: Yeah. [01:16:47] Speaker A: He, Swan's just a weird guy that shows up every once in a while and gives him a headache. [01:16:50] Speaker C: Yeah. [01:16:51] Speaker D: Yeah. [01:16:51] Speaker B: There was that one issue we read not too long ago where Sam Burke is just like passed out on the couch and spawn shows up and he's like, can't I just sleep a little more, please? [01:17:01] Speaker A: He has like pizza on his head. [01:17:04] Speaker C: Awesome. [01:17:04] Speaker A: Well, Mark, thank you so much for joining us. We really appreciate you having here. We'll definitely have you back soon. [01:17:10] Speaker C: Okay, sounds great, guys. Thank you. [01:17:12] Speaker B: Thank you. [01:17:12] Speaker A: Awesome. Well, that just leaves David, I believe you have one thing you got to say. [01:17:17] Speaker B: So yeah, it was a great, great time talking to you, Mark. I really enjoyed getting to pick your brain about your artwork and what you look for in other artwork. And, I mean, I've run out of things to say, which is hard to do, so I'm left with nothing to say. [01:17:34] Speaker C: But Mark, Johnny, may the scorch be with you. [01:17:38] Speaker A: And also with you, David. Hell yeah.