Todd McFarlane Reveals Spawn's Earliest Origin and Costume

Image Comics co-founder Todd McFarlane has been writing and/or drawing Spawn pretty much nonstop since the early '90s, and just last week released a Director's Cut of Spawn #1 which sold out and is coming back for an Encore Edition...but today on Facebook, he shared a special look at the character's pre-Image history.

In the post embedded above, McFarlane shared one of the earliest images of Spawn, whom he said was originally a space character before McFarlane shelved him, and years later brought him back as a character from Hell.

The Spider-Man influences are certainly still visible, although ironically the "Cosmic Spider-Man" look with the Captain Universe suit woud not have existed yet when McFarlane created this take on Spawn, which has a similar blue star field in its design.

"When I first created Spawn as a kid, it was more of a sci-fi story," McFarlane explained. "To me...sci-fi means space. Space is cold. Cold is BLUE."

"Many years later, when I pulled out my portfolio, I decided to make Spawn from the pit of HELL!" McFarlane continued. "Hell is HOT so I played around with the colors and ended up with the Spawn you see today."

Interestingly, the only other book besides Spawn that has been published throughout Image Comics's entire 25 year history is Savage Dragon -- a book in which the title lead turned out to have been from space even though in his earliest appearances there was no clear proof of it.

The Spawn #1 Director's Cut is being released to commemorate the 25th anniversary of Image Comics. Spawn was one of the first titles published by Image in 1992. The first issue of Spawn sold 1.7 million copies.

The Spawn #1: Director's Cut reprints the entire first issue of Spawn, which was written and drawn by McFarlane, with some extras: original Spawn #1 storyboards, commentary by McFarlane, and other "vintage surprises" from Spawn's early days.

The Spawn #1 Director's Cut goes on sale this week, May 17, in comic book stores and through digital comics apps.

Spawn #1 Director's Cut
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(W) Todd McFarlane (A/CA) Todd McFarlane

2017 marks the 25th anniversary of SPAWN, created by TODD McFARLANE. Spawn debuted to the public, selling 1.7 million copies in 1992 and is on track to be the longest running independent comic ever.

Director's Cut edition of SPAWN #1 includes:

• Original SPAWN #1 art boards

• Page commentary by TODD McFARLANE.

• Vintage surprises from the early days of SPAWN

In Shops: May 17, 2017
SRP: $4.99