Todd McFarlane Announces Spawn’s First-Ever Blank Sketch Cover Release

In celebration of the 30th anniversary of Spawn and Image Comics, Todd McFarlane will release blank sketch covers on three of his newest titles: King Spawn, The Scorched and Gunslinger Spawn.

Along with the three titles from McFarlane, Image Comics also announced that the regular Spawn monthly comic will feature a blank sketch cover -- something that hasn't been done since 2019's Spawn 300. "This will be the first time that anyone will be able to get their hands on blank sketch covers of my three new titles (King Spawn, Gunslinger Spawn and The Scorched)," McFarlane told Image Comics. "Since the pandemic has been interfering with so many comic conventions across the globe, I wanted to get some of these books into the marketplace for customers who enjoy using these covers to get their favorite artists to do work on them when conventions are back to more regular schedules.... or they can send them through the mail for commission work, too. It is also a wonderful way to continue celebrating the 30th anniversary of both the very first Spawn comic and the formation of Image Comics itself."

To further commemorate the anniversary, McFarlane will also release a special blank sketch cover of Spawn's inaugural issue. According to Image Comics, this will be the only time in 2022 that retails will be able to purchase these black or white blank sketch covers for the respective issues.

Spawn #1 -- which was written, illustrated and inked by McFarlane, who also co-founded Image Comics -- was published in 1992. The series follows Al Simmons, a former mercenary who makes a deal with a demon after being betrayed and killed by some of the people closest to him. The demon transforms Simmons into a hellish-looking anti-hero. Spawn quickly broke sales records for its debut issue and inspired a number of spinoffs and sequels over the following years. Spawn got its own live-action film in 1997, which was directed by Mark A.Z. Dippé and starred Michael Jai White, John Leguizamo and Martin Sheen. A Spawn reboot has been in the works since 2015, with no release date yet set.

King Spawn, Gunslinger Spawn and The Scorched are all spinoffs created by McFarlane set within the Spawn Universe. "For the time, it's satisfying and gratifying, but I would say that any character that you do or story that you tell that lives for decades is going to have its high points and low points," McFarlane previously told CBR when talking about the new series and Spawn's 30th anniversary. "When you look at the history of characters like Superman, Batman and Spider-Man, we can all point to when everybody was really excited and when there was a sort of malaise with the books or the excitement of it. I do something for thirty years and, every now and again, you're going to phone me and go, "Todd, you're getting it right!" We don't do a lot of interviews when I'm getting it wrong."

Read the list of release dates for the upcoming blank sketch covers below.