Spawn

Specials

 * Angela by Neil Gaiman and Greg Capullo. A bit silly and not quite up to Capullo's later standard.
 * Blood Feud by Alan Moore and Tony Daniel / Kevin Conrad. This is how it should be. Original story, a hint of horror and a glimpse of a new aspect of Hell, with detailed, yet clear drawings. Great!
 * Spawn & Batman by Frank Miller and Todd McFarlane. Batman is the strong-willed, focused veteran, and Spawn takes the part of the powerful and sinister newcomer. Much like Miller and McFarlane themselves :).
 * Violator by Alan Moore and Bart Sears. Very funny and brutally violent and gory drawings. Not as good as Blood Feud but still well worth the read.

Related Series

 * Youngblood by Rob Liefeld. This is where Chapel comes from. The series is a mess, sporting a lot of one-dimensional, yet ill-defined characters and a storyline that is too primitive to be entertaining.
 * Operation: Knightstrike. Prequel to Spawn, takes place in 1986. It's about killing a lot of Soviet troops with big guns. Less confusing than Youngblood, but just as crappy.
 * Bloodstrike. Features Chapel. This is a parody of a real comic, the drawings by Richard Horie are hopeless.
 * Violator vs. Badrock. The story is by Alan Moore, which is evident in the original ideas and the scale of the events; "You think the powers of darkness are scary? You wait until you've seen the light!" Pity that the drawings by Brian Denham are ugly and primitive. The human characters look like the work of a child.

Spawn Authors and Artists
Todd McFarlane (Spider-Man)

Authors:
 * Alan Moore (Watchmen, V for Vendetta): Violator, Violator vs. Badrock
 * Neil Gaiman (The Sandman, Mirrormask, Beowulf (movie)): Angela

Artists:
 * Bart Sears : Violator
 * Gregory Capullo (Quasar, X-Force, KoЯn cover art): Spawn

- see also Spawn creative teams on Wikipedia

Spawn Continuity Guide
This is just a list to help me read Spawn in the correct order. It is in no way comprehensive, and probably not accurate.

Medieval

 * Spawn: The Dark Ages #1 (1999-03)

Present Day

 * Operation: Knightstrike #1-3 (1995-05 - 1995-07) Chapel and Al Simmons in 1986


 * Youngblood #0 (?)
 * Youngblood #1 (1992-04): "Hassan Kussein" is killed by Psi-fire
 * Youngblood #2-5 (1992-06 - 1993-07) vs. Darkthorn
 * Youngblood #6 (1994-06)


 * Spawn #1 (1992-05)
 * Spawn #2: The Violator is introduced
 * Spawn #3-5
 * Spawn #6: Overt-Kill is introduced
 * Spawn #7-8
 * Spawn #9: Angela is introduced
 * Spawn #10: Crossover with Cerberus - dream
 * Spawn #11: Story by Frank Miller
 * Spawn #12-13 (1993-07 - 1993-08): Spawn vs. Chapel (Chapel gets a new face :)
 * Bloodstrike #7-10 (1994-01 - 1994-04)
 * Spawn #14-15
 * Spawn #16: Jason Wynn becomes Anti-Spawn
 * Spawn #17-18


 * Spawn #19-20 with Houdini are absolutely horrible (in a bad way) - and seem to replace the great Spawn & Batman in the continuity. There must be legal issues at play, because artistically this is just wrong.


 * Spawn & Batman (1994)
 * Spawn #21 (1994-05)
 * Violator #1-2 (1994-05 - 1994-06)
 * Spawn #22 (1994-06)
 * Violator #3 (1994-07)
 * Spawn #23 (1994-08) Overt-kill wanders off to attack the Youngbloods
 * Youngblood #7 (1994-07) Overt-Kill vs. Badrock
 * Spawn #24 (1994-10)
 * Spawn #25: Big mutant mob hitman is introduced
 * Spawn #26: Spawn meets with Gabrielle


 * Youngblood #8 (1994-09)
 * Youngblood #9 (1994-10)
 * Youngblood #10 (1994-12): The death of Chapel
 * Spawn #27: Spawn resurrects Bobbie, The Curse is introduced
 * Spawn #28
 * Angela #1-3 (1994-12 - 1995-02): Spawn goes to Heaven and nails Angela ;)
 * Spawn #29-30 (1995-03 - 1995-04): Spawn is back on Earth, cape missing
 * Spawn #31 (1995-05): Phil Timber becomes Redeemer (Anti-Spawn), Spawn's cape grows back
 * Violator vs. Badrock #1 (1995-05): Occurs after Violator #1-3, Violator is captured, Celestine is introduced
 * Violator vs. Badrock #2 (1995-06): Violator defeats Celestine, Celestine opens a portal to Hell.
 * Violator vs. Badrock #4 (1995-08)
 * Spawn #32 (1995-06): Spawn attacks the offices of Heaven, and meets (a) God
 * Spawn: Blood Feud #1-4 (1995-06 - 1995-09)
 * Spawn #33-37 (1995-07 - 1995-11)
 * Spawn #38 (1995-12): Cy-Gor is introduced
 * Spawn #39 (1995-12): Christmas Special
 * Spawn #40-41 (1996-01): Revenge of the Curse


 * Celestine #1-2 (1996-05)
 * Prophet/Chapel: Super Soldiers (1996-05) Chapel has been to hell

Unsorted

 * Glory/Angela: Rage of Angels (1996-03)
 * Glory/Angela: Angels in Hell (1996-04)
 * Spawn: The Undead #1 (1999-06)
 * Aria/Angela: Heavenly Creatures (2000-02)

Future

 * Curse of the Spawn

Alternative Continuities

 * Spawn Godslayer