Steve Ditko’s famous sequence from Amazing Spider-Man #33 (1966).

My Summer Lair Chapter #162: What Is Todd McFarlane’s “Image” In Comics?

A Confession: I have never read an issue of Todd McFarlane’s Spawn and I’ve had since May of 1992 to do so. As you may know, Spawn was among the initial release of comics that launched Image Comics along with Rob Liefeld’s Youngblood, Erik Larsen’s The Savage Dragon, and Jim Lee’s WildC.A.T.s. (Cue the Simpsons Wildcats reference.)

That literal revolution of those wildly popular and profitable gang of artists leaving Marvel to start Image Comics is such a pivotal comic book business moment. It’s like Under Armour today trying to take on Nike and Adidas. I mean really? Can you imagine if somebody tried to start a soft drink to take on Coke and Pepsi?

That’s crazy, right? There are hundreds of legit reasons why to take on the Big 2 in any industry is madness; especially if it’s Marvel and DC. Spider-Man and Batman. Come on man.

Yet…
When we say it can’t be done it’s because fear is a monopoly emotion.
When we say this will fail it’s because we’re flailing.
When we say you will not succeed it means we doubt you
When we say you are not good enough it means we like to settle for good enough.
When we say you’re crazy it’s to dismiss you.

Truth is none of those reasons no matter how legit are reasons to stop or give up or even acknowledge. There will always be critics and it takes no courage to walk the sidewalk…that’s the path laid out for everybody.

And hence the title of David Oster’s documentary Todd McFarlane: Like Hell I Won’t. Todd McFarlane isn’t everybody he is a somebody.

Like Hell I Won’t follows McFarlane as he attempts to publish Spawn 300 making Spawn the longest-running independent comic book series of all time. Through flashbacks Oster’s documentary asks and answers the question how did we get here…how did 300 issues happen? How did we get from crazy to cool?

Featuring interviews with those close to McFarlane, like Marvel’s Joe Q, The Walking Dead creator Robert Kirkman, NFL player Larry Fitzgerald…I mean that list speaks to the size and impact of Todd’s world and work.

Also? Shout Out to producer Tara Ansley for the hockey assist in making this episode happen.

So let’s get into this, shall we? This is my conversation with director David Oster spawned from the documentary Like Hell I Won’t.

Todd McFarlane: Like Hell I Won’t @ W • T • F

Host Sammy Younan

Recorded: Sunday July 26, 2020 at 6pm EST

It’s #SetTheVCR and yes I am aware Valentine’s Day is fast approaching and as such I’m providing a broad range of romantical tv choices. If you are single; if you have somebody you treasure or if you are trapped in a cold dead faithless marriage I got you covered!

Woah: are Januarys always this good and this hectic and crammed with so much good stuff? This feels like a special month. Savour it.

Spider-Man: Far From Home is more like Far From Good…what the hell was that?!

Walking around with no mask…we’re done with “secret” identities?

Mysterio as a “good guy” that “twist” is what rendered Iron Man 3 and Captain Marvel as inferior MCU movies.

Quentin Beck / #Mysterio: “Regarding Beck’s relationship with Parker, Director Jon Watts says that “If Tony Stark was sort of the mentor in the previous films, we thought it would be interesting to play Mysterio as almost like the cool uncle.”

That’s Stupid Not Clever. So Fired.

Even “I wanna be the next Iron Man” emotions? That’s not Peter Parker at all.

Pink Slips to all involved. This opens on July 2, 2019 as the next phase of the MCU however it might be time to start phasing out Marvel movies. We had a great run!

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At the Yonge-Dundas Cinema and the couple in front of me are contemplating date-nerd-night.

Is this good?
Will this be good?
Every movie trailer answers or challenges those 2 questions. The ham-fisted rebuttal comes swiftly, however: no you don’t need to always see a movie to know it’s tank.

Do you really need to sit through a Michael Bay Transformers movie to know for sure? Tank is Tank. And Fresh…well Fresh is always Fresh. I’m down like I’m Brown for that.

It’s November 2nd…the last 2 months of 2018 are a crap carnival coming soon to a cinema near you…

Sony’s Spiderific Fall…

Venom
October 5, 2018

The Girl in the Spider’s Web
November 9, 2018

Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse
December 14, 2018

One of these has to catch you in their box office web…

So I know today’s focus is all Venom however Sony (Sorny!!) is also releasing Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse on December 14. This is a Mile Spider-Man movie.

As for the main event: you know Venom has decent…Carnage: I’d be willing to bond with this odd movie.

Thing is: Is Venom gonna be Sony’s Iron Man and kick off a new (Marvel-ish) universe or just be another weak monster movie like Tom Cruise’s Mummy taking with it all the glorious possibilities of the Dark Universe? 

I still long and fiercely hope Dark Universe returns. I’m probably the only one.

Sammy’s Status: I believe Tom Hardy can have fun with this and I’d be willing to take a chance on it.

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This. Book. Is. Everything. One of my favourite comics. I am grateful my parents spent the time teaching me how to read. One of the last times Spider-Man would be baptized in darkness: he’s now Marvel’s gateway drug to seduce children and sell em bed sheets. Damn.

There’s so much I wanted to say…about where we are and where we’ve been: I just didn’t have the vocabulary. Damn.

Still here’s Andrew and I talking Kraven’s Last Hunt…thanks for listening. As always on Facebook you can like Back Issue Bloodbath and Geek Hard for more nerdery.

Listen NOW!
If you’re gonna geek out, GEEK HARD!

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