Spawn Compendium Volume 1

This huge compendium collects the first 50 issues of spawn by Todd Mcfarlane. They have been reprinted in black and white, which might put some people off but I advise you not to be. Even though there is no colour it is the amazing artwork and the story which stands out. I am a fan of the walking dead which is also in black and white and that is still an amazing comic. I have never read spawn so I decided to buy this compendium which is a lot cheaper tham buying all the other collections individually. The story of how soldier Al Simmons is killed by a member of his own team and ends up in hell, where a demon tricks him into being one of his soldiers, a hellspawn blew me away and I was kept hooked all the way through. I can't wait for the next one!.

I love the black and white artwork, love reliving the early 90s. It's a great book for the price. Worth it for Spawn and McFarlane fans.

Spawn was the first "adult" comic book I picked up after a lifetime of spidey and 2000ad ,then I found this, a dark tale of a man murdered and selling his soul to a devil for one chance to see his wife again...at first it plays like batman if he had no morals and only gets better weaving a tale of cia and mafia plots whilst exploring a unique take on the classic good vs evil god vs the devil ... Spawn is a classic anti-hero up against such monstrosities such as the clown,a short fat clown in bright blue make up who shows his true form the wonderfully designed violator a true denizen of hell who is supposed to be training spawn but wants to discredit him so the "boss" will stop using humans as generals in his army...to a mafia don (renamed for this collection following a lengthy court battle) to a child-killing paedophile who uses a child's fingers as a collage whilst wearing her scalp a reminder that this aint a book for younger readers as it does explore the darker side of the world ... there are some weak points in this collection the "simmonsville" arc being the main one with Jason wynn creating a town over a portal to hell out of al simmons' (spawn) memories the art suffers a bit too and doesn't help this weak link in the chain... The black and white art is stunning by both todd McFarlane and Gregg capullo (you get to see quickly how Gregg's work evolves into what we know and love) and with stories included written by such luminaries as neil gaiman and alan moore with a weird little one shot by dave sim featuring his Cerberus character. Again don't be put off by the no colour thing ,I grew up in a time when colour was a luxury! Ok,sometimes the art can be sooo detailed it can look messy and confusing but this doesn't happen much but it should encourage you to LOOK at the panels and take it all in ... Great characters in a great story with great visuals roll on compendium 2!!!!!!!!!!!!1