Home Columns Classic Comic Compendium Classic Comic Compendium: HELLSPAWN, a rare Bendis foray into horror

Classic Comic Compendium: HELLSPAWN, a rare Bendis foray into horror

Ashley Wood's haunting, expressionistic artwork brings to life a horrifying array of stories.

10/07/2024 11:00 am

When you think of Brian Michael Bendis, you probably don’t think of horror.

Like, at all. You might not even think of crime noir anymore. Even though his brilliant work on Jinx and Torso really brought him to the dance. Or Powers, that showed that he could work cross genre brilliance. These days, it’s likely more his superhero work that sit prominent in your mind. Co-creator of Miles Morales, Riri Williams, Jessica Jones, and seemingly the page filled with back and forth dialogue patter.

He brought a storytelling style to comics influenced by writers like David Mamet and Aaron Sorkin, focusing on dialogue, often interjected by seemingly trivial and pop culture matters, that captured readers. And the attention of Todd McFarlane as he first offered him Sam & Twitch, and then something different. A new horror title. For a little while, at least. Before he was tapped for those Marvel superheroes.

“What are you doing to these people?”

Hellspawn by Bendis, Steve Niles, Ashley Wood, Bill Sienkiewicz, and Richard Starkings & Comicraft’s Oscar Gongora is dark, nasty stuff in those first six issues. I say that in the nicest way, but it’s really unsettling. It takes McFarlane’s horror-adjacent superhero, eschews most of the superheroics, and tosses him into more violent, disturbing stories that feel topical.

It’s weird in that these stories still feel timely now. Not so much the opening “Clown” two-parter with the long time antagonist goading people into committing suicide. But in the second, a religious extremist is going on talk shows to incite hatred against anyone who’s not a white heterosexual. Feel familiar? Granted, you should be forewarned that there are racial and homophobic slurs used in these issues, making it a bit more uncomfortable. Throw in a twisted obsession with the news media and you’d swear that Bendis was writing this today.

Ashley Wood’s artwork can be divisive. Sometimes it hints at action. Sometimes things blur together. It’s something that you have to pay attention to in order to really appreciate it. A kind of expressionist and surrealist approach, with an emphasis on scratchy figures and dark colour splatters. It works really rather well for weird horror.

Due to a penchant for wordiness in some of his dialogue, there’s a definitely a balance to be had between Bendis and Wood, with Richard Starkings and Oscar Gongora’s lettering having to implement the design. I like the style developed here, merging some of the open mixed-case approach from Starkings and John Roshell did on Sam & Twitch with the more traditional style Tom Orzechowski gave to the mothership Spawn title. There are also some chat windows for part of the running side commentary.

“I told you to stay away from my world!”

The first six issues of Hellspawn by Bendis, Niles, Wood, Sienkiewicz, Starkings, and Gongora are bathed in shadows and pain. It features Wood’s haunting, expressionistic artwork bringing life to a horrifying array of stories dealing with suicide, racism, prejudice, torture, and more. It’s very effective at creating an unpleasant feeling, even just thinking about the subject matter.

Wood would continue on as artist after Bendis left until issue 10. Then Ben Templesmith came on as regular artist, teaming with Niles up to the end of the series with issue 16. The series became a more restrained horror title in line with the broader Spawn tone, though still entertaining. A new paperback edition of the Hellspawn: The Complete Collection is scheduled to be released March 18, 2025.