Talking With John Layman About ‘Spawn Kills Every Spawn!’ From Image Comics

by Olly MacNamee

Spawn Kills Every Spawn! #1 and #2 are out and, if you’re lucky, still available from Image Comics. I’ve always found John Layman‘s darkly comedic writing highly entertaining and irreverent. He shoots from the hip and takes no prisoners. So a “funny book” like this one was the perfect gig for him as he returns to comics in a big way this year. Always happy to catch up with him, I managed to grab him in between comic cons to discuss this new entry into the Spawn Universe.

Olly MacNamee: In your new series, it’s a lot more complicated than L’il Spawn simply taking out every other Spawn, as the first two issues would suggest. I mean, he has got motivation, right, even if it’s a rather shaky motivation for a murder spree?

John Layman: I’ve murdered people for less.

MacNamee: Am I right in thinking you enjoy leaning towards the more comical and ridiculous? You certainly seem to have great fun writing this series if the first issue is anything to go by.

Layman: This is actually my first time writing humor since Chu and Chew/Outer Darkness. The abrupt cancellation of Outer Darkness right during the onset of Covid lockdown really did a number on my confidence, and writing humor was something I was not sure I was ready for, and was reluctant to try again. I think I succeeded, but I suppose that’s for the readers to decide.

MacNamee: You have your L’il Spawn break the fourth wall a good deal of the time. Why choose this particular narrative perspective for this book?

Layman: A book like this, anything goes, so I might as well take advantage of that. I also think and hope maybe it helps give the reader a little more connection to this character who is, at least initially, a little two-dimensional and unsympathetic. By the end of the book, I think he gets downright lovable. There’s a supporting cast that slowly gets introduced as well.

MacNamee: When I look at the double-page spread set at a comic con in issue one, or the one in issue two parading a gaggle of Spawn from across the multiverse, I wonder how dense a script for a comic like Spawn Kills Every Spawn! is. There’s certainly a lot to take in in terms of sight-gags and in-jokes. Can writing humour be harder than writing, say, something more serious and mainstream like Detective Comics?

Layman: Here’s a funny story. I came on because Todd’s schedule is simply too insane right now, and about seven or eight pages were done, including that first convention spread in issue #1. The idea was I would just start at Page 9 or whatever and just take the story where Todd set it up to go. But to me, that didn’t feel like I’d get enough creative ownership of the story just having the baton passed to me, so I Frankensteined the existing pages into my own story. That convention scene in #1 was largely Todd, and the scene went on, and I cut the second half and those pages actually appear in Issue #2. The last two Spawn Kills minis have rotated around comic book conventions, and I didn’t want it to start the same way. The books is called Spawn Kills Every Spawn!, after all. I thought I’d get straight to the mayhem and use it as a framing device, which is how #1 got the beginning that it did.

MacNamee: Speaking about that double-page spread of multiversal Spawns. Who gets to choose the Spawns to be included? Is it a joint effort, or are you a merciless dictator when it comes to writing.

Layman: I though out a laundry list of ideas, and Rob “Sketchcraft” Duenas was free to pick and choose as he saw fit, and add whatever tickled his fancy.

MacNamee: Now a comical script needs the right artistic touch. And Rob Duenas certainly fits the bill. Manic, frantic, kinetic and just a joy to take in. Where did you find this guy?

Layman: Rob was already part of the team before I came aboard. Credit has to go to Todd McFarlane or Editor-in-Chief Thomas Healy, but I can’t take any credit, as much as I’d like to.

MacNamee: Two issues in and L’il Spawn is finally showing signs he has a plan. So, what can we expect for the rest of the series? More mayhem and maiming, I imagine?

Layman: The only thing I can guarantee is every issue will go in a direction you won’t expect. I’ll also tease that next issue —Issue #3— sees a cameo from a book I did with a different Rob— Rob Guillory, who is also doing a variant cover for the issue!

MacNamee: John, always a pleasure, so thanks for finding the time to chat. All the best with the remainder of the series.

Layman: Thanks right back to ya!

Spawn Kills Every Spawn! #1 and #2 are out now from Image Comics. And you can read my reviews for issue #1 here and issue #2 here.

August 30, 2024August 30, 2024 Olly MacNamee 942 Views Image Comcs, John Layman, Spawn, Spawn Kills Every Spawn! #1, Todd McFarlane

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