Spawn is a fictional comic book superhero who appears in a monthly comic book of the same name published by Image Comics

Image Comics

Image Comics is a United States comic book publisher. It was founded in 1992 by high-profile illustrators as a venue where creators could publish their material without giving up the copyrights to the characters they created, as creator-owned properties. It was immediately successful, and remains...

. Created by writer/artist Todd McFarlane

Todd McFarlane

Todd McFarlane is a Canadian cartoonist, writer, toy designer and entrepreneur, best known for his work in comic books, such as the fantasy series Spawn....

, Spawn first appeared in Spawn #1 (May 1992). Spawn was ranked 60th on Wizard magazine's list of the Top 200 Comic Book Characters of All Time, 50th on Empire magazine's list of The 50 Greatest Comic Book Characters and recently 36th on IGN's Top 100 Comic Book Heroes.

The series has spun off several other comics, including Angela

Angela (comics)

Angela is a fictional character in Todd McFarlane's Spawn comic book series. The character was created for the series by writer Neil Gaiman and artist Todd McFarlane, which led to a legal battle between McFarlane and Gaiman over the rights to the character.-Fictional character biography:In the...

, Curse of the Spawn

Curse of the Spawn

Curse of the Spawn is a spin-off of the popular Spawn comic book by Todd McFarlane. The book introduced other Hellspawns and characters in the "Spawniverse". It was published by Image Comics and has been collected into multiple graphic novels...

, Sam & Twitch, and the Japan

Japan

Japan is an island nation in East Asia. Located in the Pacific Ocean, it lies to the east of the Sea of Japan, China, North Korea, South Korea and Russia, stretching from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north to the East China Sea and Taiwan in the south...

ese manga

Manga

Manga is the Japanese word for "comics" and consists of comics and print cartoons . In the West, the term "manga" has been appropriated to refer specifically to comics created in Japan, or by Japanese authors, in the Japanese language and conforming to the style developed in Japan in the late 19th...

 Shadows of Spawn

Shadows of Spawn

Shadows of Spawn is a licensed Japanese manga adaptation of Todd McFarlane's American Spawn comic series, written and drawn by Juzo Tokoro. It was originally printed in Japan from 1998 to 1999 in the monthly manga magazine Dengeki Comic Gao!, published by MediaWorks...

. Spawn was adapted into a 1997 feature film

Spawn (film)

Spawn is a 1997 American superhero film loosely based on the comic book of the same name, by Todd McFarlane and published by Image Comics. Directed and co-written by Mark A.Z. Dippé , the film stars Michael Jai White in the leading role...

, an HBO animated series lasting from 1997 until 1999, and a series of action figure

Action figure

An action figure is a posable character figurine, made of plastic or other materials, and often based upon characters from a film, comic book, video game, or television program. These action figures are usually marketed towards boys and male collectors...

s whose high level of detail made McFarlane Toys

McFarlane Toys

McFarlane Toys, a subsidiary of Todd McFarlane Productions, Inc., is a company started by Todd McFarlane that makes highly detailed models of characters from movies, comics, musicians, video games, and sport figures...

 known in the toy industry.
Spawn enjoyed considerable popularity upon its initial release in the 1990s.