Spawn is now a teenager in the world of monthly super-hero comics, sixteen years old and counting since 1992 when creator Todd McFarlane moved out of Marvel’s House of Ideas to help form Image and launch his own flagship title.

In 2008, Spawn is trying to reinvent itself and attract more readers and interest in an era when attracting new readers for superhero monthlies is a big hurdle for anybody.

In issue 185, due out on Wednesday, Todd McFarlane will return to the book with Whilce Portacio taking on main art duty to kick off a new storyline called “Endgame”. Brian Holguin, a Spawn veteran, will be working with McFarlane on story and script.

With promises of new directions and changing how people look at the book, issue 185 is its own milestone with three confirmed covers by Todd McFarlane, Whilce Portacio, and Greg Capullo, along with its own website that’s been teasing readers for the past few weeks.

As Spawn closes in on a major milestone of 200 issues, I had the opportunity to chat with McFarlane over the phone about his return to Spawn, where the book has been, and where it’s going.

ComicMix: Spawn 185 kicks off a new storyline called “Endgame”. What is “Endgame” about?

Todd McFarlane: It’s a jumping on point for readers to get in on the ground level and not have to have a lot of backstory. That’s it, just sort of saying “hey, we’re going to come in here and dust some stuff off and make it accessible and start pushing it and creating new stories and situations within the Spawn mythology that hopefully you haven’t seen in the first 184 issues.” 

CMix: Where do you want this new story arc to take the Spawn comic book and how does it fit into the overall story and mythology of those past issues?

TM: In the big mythology, it becomes sort of the next step in trying to neutralize the two big forces that have always been in the book which are Heaven and Hell. And again, the idea behind it has always been this man put in between these colossal forces. And is there a way for man to come out on top and not be beholden to any force? If you read the book, I’ve not made it a “good versus evil” in the classic sense of it and so we’ve said in the book and when people have asked, that in this mythology, Heaven and Hell are essentially the same thing; it’s just one guy has a better PR firm. But they both want the same thing: the souls and domination and to annihilate the other guy.

Which is why Spawn has not necessarily been about breaking away from Hell to go work for Heaven; he just wants to break away from it all and be a free man, pushing towards that big concept.
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Walt Disney Studios Home Entertainment is reaching into its vault for more anniversary editions.  Coming February 9, Oliver & Company will be available in a two-disc special edition. Overlooked by the snash success of The Little Mermaid, this was really the beginning of a new cycle of animation when things dramatically improved for the studio.  Based on Charles Dickens’ Oliver Twist, the vocal cast of Billy Joel and Bette Midler signaled new times for the studio.

Oliver will come with a behind-the-scenes featurette on the making of the movie, as well as the classic Disney short “Lend a Paw,” a look back at other animal characters in Disney films, and more. Suggested retail price for the DVD is $29.99.

BONUS FEATURES

Games & Activities
• All-New Game

Backstage Disney
• The Making of Oliver & Company
• Puss Café – A delightful animated short starring Disney favorite Pluto and friends
• The History of Animals in Disney Films – A Disney animated featurette
• Return of a Classic – A look at the 1996 theatrical re-release of Oliver & Company

Bonus Short
• Lend a Paw— Pluto rescues a kitten and saves the day in an Academy Award® (1941 Short Subject -Cartoon) winning animated short. 

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R-E-S-P-E-C-T / Find out what it means to me / R-E-S-P-E-C-T / Take care, TCB

When Otis Redding wrote that song back in 1965, I doubt he could foresee its impact on our culture. Everybody related to its sentiments, and today it’s common do see the word used as a major bone of contention in virtually all types of disputes, from labor negotiations to street gang antics. It makes sense. We all want to be respected for who we are and what we do.

Over the past couple years the comic book medium has started to receive its proper respect – but comic book fans have not. Matt Groening’s Comic Book Guy on The Simpsons is breathtakingly clever, but we forget that the guy is also a member of Mensa. I only know a few comic book fans that actually look like CBG, myself included, but a good many of those were Mensa members. One even dated Marilu Henner; sadly, that wasn’t me.

Mensa members deserve respect as well. They’re nerds; they don’t get respect. The only nerds that get respect are rich computer wizards, with the emphasis on rich. Wealth gets respect, and therefore I assume there’s a lot less respect going around this month than there was last month.

That shrine to our popular culture, the San Diego Comic-Con, is astonishingly successful. It pumps millions and millions of dollars into the local economy – a sum further enhanced by the several successful comic book publishers in the area – yet San Diego mayor Jerry Sanders felt it save to piss all over the comic fans last year. “We’ve put up with the superheroes and now we’re on to the people with actual talent,” Mayor Ungrateful Jerk said. What an ass. I guess he knew the Comic-Con was locked into a contract for several more years. (more…)

Terence Howard was interviewed on NPR recently and he addressed, for the first time, his removal from Iron Man 2.

"It was the surprise of a lifetime," he said. "There was no explanation. [The contract] just…up and vanished. I read something in the trades implicating that it was about money or something, but apparently the contracts that we write and sign aren’t worth the paper that they’re printed on, sometimes. Promises aren’t kept, and good faith negotiations aren’t always held up."

Maybe it’s something personal.  Maybe it’s something professional.  Or maybe we’ll never know but it sounds pretty darn final to us.
 

Max Payne is the first video game-inspired movie in a while and it did something its predecessors failed to do, capture the number one spot in its first weekend and get reasonable reviews.

The film opened with $18 million in tickets sold, according to Box Office Mojo. It was clearly the number one film for the weekend, with Disney’s Beverly Hills Chihuahua clawing onto second place with $11.2 million in its third week of release.

Oliver Stone’s much-talked about W., starring Josh Brolin and a well chosen cast, opened in fourth place, collecting just $10.55 million Washingtons. "For me, an Oliver Stone film about George Bush doesn’t necessarily scream big box office," Paul Dergarabedian, president of box-office tracker Media By Numbers told the Associated Press. "A film like this is very tough to gauge, but this is exactly what I thought it would do."

In third place was the debut of the civil rights-era film, The Secret Life of Bees, taking in a respectable $11,050,000. Rounding out the top five was Eagle Eye, adding an additional $7,343,000 in its fourth week, bringing its total to $81,335,000.

The other newcomer was Sex Drive, which took in just $3,566,000. Films in their second weekend slid by about half with Body of Lies taking in $6,880,000 and Fox’s Quarantine    scaring up just    $6,300,000. City of Ember, which looks great, seems to be turning away audiences and took in just $1,725,000.

As fall settles across the country, clearly diversionary films are in order.  Payne could have easily played over the summer but is the dose of fresh air people want as they tire of the economic nightmares and political mud slinging.  Clearly, high minded efforts such W. and Bees may be Oscar bait but they may be too serious today.

Movies that have okay word of mouth and marquee names seem to be hanging on but none are doing spectacularly well or poorly. The freshest of the bunch, Nick and Norah’s Infinite Playlist, has garnered a nice buzz, is diversionary and was produced on the cheap so its haul of  $26,707,000 after three weeks means its almost at the breakeven point which is good news for Sony.

The Dark Knight is just about out of gas and its worldwide total stands at $990,869,000  so breaking the billion mark will be tough as it sheds screens in favor of holiday fare.