Thursday, May 6, 2010

A Plea to Todd McFarlane to please make money



Dear Todd McFarlane

Steve Niles is now a very popular writer, he is famous now for 30 DAYS OF NIGHT, and you might remember when Niles wrote Spawn the Dark Ages and Hellspawn. I'd very much enjoy paying the little money I have to you in exchange for collected versions of those runs.

Thank you
Alex Ness



Dear Reader...

Spawn: The Dark Ages in my opinion was a comic book series worth collecting as a trade paperback (TPB).

Lord Covenant is a 12th Century knight killed in holy crusade and is returned to earth as a Spawn from Hell. He is faced then with a choice that marks him as either hero, or demon. Does he choose to defend his people, his countrymen, or, does he join in the deathly task of killing and causing havok.

The setting is perfect, the Norse wars are just about to peak, the violence of the era palpable, and, the first 14 issues of the book established an interesting world. But, whatever the quality of those issues, Steve Niles, Nat Jones and Ashley Wood took the book, and made it incredibly powerful, even if not a lot of people bought it. The raging choices of morality, decisions based upon his flesh versus soul, and the imminent threat to his land lead Covenant to make decisions that remind the reader why they read heroic fantasy.



The mood is horror, the setting is medieval and violent, and the work, while somewhat raw, is very well done. Niles is in his perfect place, being able to show horror while depicting the thoughts and emotions behind the decisions. Nat Jones is decidedly perfect for the genre, the work is angular and jagged, depicting the emotions of the story. And, Ashley Wood kicks major ass upon the work on most of the covers, particularly the last few of the run. i.e. If you enjoy horror this book has it. If you dislike other versions of Spawn, this one has meat to the story that goes beyond gore. If you like heroic fantasy, this book works in that fashion too.

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