This Isn’t Gotham City– Talking ‘Bloodletter’ With Writers Joseph P. Illidge and Tim Seeley

Todd McFarlane’s The Spawn Universe continues to expand with a new five-issue miniseries, Bloodletter, which launches June 18. Written by Joseph P. Illidge and Tim Seeley, Bloodletter tells the story of Tasha Thornwall, a former CIA operative who gets outed by Spawn’s Al Simmons. In an interview with Comicon.com, Illidge and Seeley discuss how Tasha uses magic to try to get her revenge on Spawn.

Tom Smithyman: While Tasha is a part of Al Simmons’ past, we haven’t met her before, have we?

Joseph Illidge: You haven’t met Tasha Thornwall before, but if you’re a longtime Spawn reader, she was there in the shadows. Behind you. In the other room. She may have left before you walked in that room with Jessica Priest, Overtkill, or The Redeemer.

Tasha is part of the secret history of the Spawn Universe, and in Bloodletter, we’ll start showing you her various points of presence and importance in the timeline.

Tim Seeley: The way the original Spawn series unfolded, it nicely left large sections of Al Simmons’ life story up to the reader’s imagination. We knew he was a bad ass, we knew he was a company man, and we knew he didn’t deserve redemption – but was going to seek it anyway. We’ve created Tasha to fit in very well into the excellent framework Todd has set up over the 30-odd years.

Smithyman: From Violator to Clown, there are a lot of unique characters in the Spawn universe. What sets Tasha apart from the rest?

Illidge: The Bloodletter is much less flamboyant than Spawn’s rogue’s gallery of villains. Sometimes you know she’s coming, and other times you’re dying by the time you sense her attack.

Also, parkour and sneakers. Tasha knows how to run up, down, and across to use the environment as a mode of travel, and her footwear is some of the best in Spawn’s world.

Seeley: Spawn is a comic, character, and world set up around two seemingly different things: espionage and the supernatural. Spawn tends to fight villains who are firmly rooted in one side or the other. Tasha fits perfectly between those two.

Smithyman: Why is it important to tell Tasha’s story at this time, as opposed to five years ago or five years from now?

Illidge: In the timeline of the Spawn continuity, the revelation that Al Simmons is alive as Spawn is a very recent incident, and that’s all I’ll say because it’ll land differently when you read Bloodletter #1.

It would have been impossible from a story and character standpoint to tell Tasha’s story five years ago, especially since the explosive phenomenon that was the official launch of the Spawn Universe of books hadn’t quite happened yet. Five years into the future, and there’s a distance that diminishes the emotional impact of this point in Tasha’s journey.

Seeley: Yeah, we needed that very specific plot point to launch into this story. Plus, we live in a world right now where no one trusts anyone, and the government is the villain again…so, perfect timing!

Smithyman: The Spawn Universe is pretty dark to begin with, but it feels like Bloodletter takes it down an even blacker path. Why go to that storytelling extreme?

Illidge: I wouldn’t say Bloodletter takes the Spawn Universe down a blacker path, because the world of Spawn has no limits in terms of peeling back the layers of mankind’s depravities. Serial killers, angels, and demons in violent battle, Spawn himself being dismembered quite a number of times…it’s all backed into the DNA of the insanely bizarre world Todd McFarlane birthed and many creators have explored.

All of which is to say that for Tim and I to write Bloodletter, we had to be fearless. Go into the dank, smelly places where creatures most people can’t name lurk. This isn’t Gotham City. It’s much, much worse.

Seeley: Right, if Spawn is street level, this is the level BELOW the street. This is a character who has fallen off the map and thrived in the spaces between.

Smithyman: If Spawn is an anti-hero and Tasha is an anti-hero, does someone play the role of an anti-villain?

Illidge: I see Spawn as the hero in his universe, and Tasha is an antihero in the most general sense, but I’d say the character of Casper has the most humane perspective in the series. She’s Tasha’s sidekick, the surveillance savant of Bloodletter, and the relationship between Casper and Tasha will definitely be impacted by the mission to kill Spawn once and for all.

Smithyman: How do you two divide the writing responsibilities? And what is your back-and-forth like with artist Christian Rosado?

Illidge: With Tim and I, it’s a nicely balanced divide. One person comes up with the general story idea/plot, the other person takes a story and character scalpel to the idea to make it better and more resonant. Then the story originator writes draft 1 of the script, the co-writer pens draft 2 of the script, and then both of us will do final tweaks.

Each issue, we go back and forth on who kicks things off, which is fun and allows us to develop different muscles depending on how you’re entering the process. We’ve developed a pretty good partnership shorthand, and we’re hardwired in similar ways regarding the tone and vision we have for Tasha and her dangerous journey.

The back and forth with Christian Rosado is a dream because the man’s so damn talented, we mostly praise his storytelling savvy and sit in anxious wait for the next time our inboxes are blessed with more pages from him!

Okay, maybe I’m more anxious than Tim, but still!

Seeley: Hah, I’ve worked as part of a writing partnership before, so I feel pretty comfortable leaning into my co-creator’s strengths, and just letting the dark alchemy happen. I love collaboration because I end up being part of co-creating something I never would have on my own. That’s a kick.

Smithyman: If you wanted to make an enemy out of one of the Spawn characters, who would it be, and how would you get your revenge against them?

Illidge: I’d make an enemy out of Jason Wynn, and as for how I would get revenge on them…

…let’s see if I can convince The Toddfather to let me write the story!

Seeley: I dunno man…all Spawn Universe villains are evil as hell. You don’t want any of them as an enemy. Like at all. Not even The Freak. They will wreck your shit.

I’ll sidestep those psychos and pick a parallel character, as he was created by Todd.

I’ll take BOOF. Boof is my enemy now.

Smithyman: I have a feeling Todd is going to have some words with both of you soon! Good luck with the new series.