The show is based on the character Spawn from Image Comics, and won an Emmy Award in 1999 for Outstanding Animation Program (Longer Than One Hour).

[1] The series revolves around the story of former Marine Force Recon Lieutenant Colonel Al Simmons, who worked as a government assassin in covert black ops.

The pact was a simple one: Simmons would become a soldier in Malebolgia's army (known as a "Hellspawn" or "Spawn" for short) in return for the ability to walk the earth once again in order to see Wanda.

He had been given a different body which was a festering, pungently cadaverous, maggot-ridden walking corpse that had a massive living red cape attached to it.

Spawn finds help along the way in the form of a disheveled old man named Cogliostro who was once a Hellspawn that overcame the demonic powers resting within, amongst a number of other characters.

It is revealed that there is a prophecy that the child of a Hellspawn will play the deciding factor in Armageddon, and may be the real reason Spawn was allowed to return to Earth.

[3] McFarlane said that since the comic had started selling more than kid-friendly titles such as X-Men, the network executives thought that the show would be able to work as a Saturday-morning cartoon.

"[4] McFarlane believed that since HBO was a cable network, the audience would mostly be over 16 and a "young college crowd", which aligned well with the core demographic Spawn was aimed at.

[4] McFarlane had approached his deal with HBO the same way he dealt with work in the comics industry, insisting on creative control and a sizable share of profits generated by his vision.

[4] Work on the series occurred in Los Angeles, although McFarlane lived in Phoenix, Arizona at the time, stating in a 2021 interview, "I was flying into Century City every week while we were doing that, for three years.

[7] HBO Animation was led by Catherine Winder, and in an interview from when the first season was in production, she said the company decided to choose Spawn as their first project since they were drawn to the visuals and the storyline.

The Korean studio working on the first season of Spawn was also simultaneously producing several kid-friendly American cartoons, which McFarlane likened to Care Bears.

[8] The score and opening sequence theme was handled by Shirley Walker, who had earlier composed background music for Batman: The Animated Series.

Other former production crew from Batman: The Animated Series were also involved, including director Frank Paur and producer Eric Radomski.

In 1997, The Tampa Bay Times said that the supernatural feel from the comics translated to "bloody, broken arms, dismemberment and worse for Mafia killers" in the HBO adaptation.

"[3] A child killer character named Billy Kincaid, who appeared in one of the comic's most controversial issues, is introduced in the second episode, and in his opening scene he is luring a little girl with a ice cream truck.

There were debates amongst the production crew as to whether they should include a character like Overt-kill, since they didn't want to lean too heavily into the fantasy elements of the comics.

The first season introductions (excluding the pilot) are followed by short clips recapping the previous episodes, and it then cuts back to McFarlane saying to the viewer, "and now Spawn, so turn off your lights."

Spawn's live action introductions were filmed by future Hollywood director Doug Liman, who at the time was a roommate with one of the HBO executives.

At the beginning of August 1997, a live action Spawn film was released by New Line Cinema, which coincidentally was owned by Time Warner, the same parent company of HBO.

[3][13] McElroy subsequently claimed in 2017 that he was able to write freely and in his own voice on the show, dropping in ideas he was unable to add to the film.

On October 31, 1997, St. Louis Blues hockey player Tony Twist filed a successful, 10 year long lawsuit against HBO and Todd McFarlane Productions, after finding out that the mob boss character from the first season was named after him.

[15][16] He stated, "I'm in pink thong underwear, smoking a cigar, ordering the kidnapping of a child while two women are naked on the couch making love to each other.

John Leekley who served as the head writer and showrunner for the second and third season revealed that some of the ideas for the scrapped fourth season involved the return of Angela looking to avenge the death of Jade who was her previous lover, several one time characters would've returned and had larger roles, a gang war spiraling out of control led by the ruthless Barrabas, Spawn befriending a runaway teenage girl named Kristen with a case of pyrophobia, a now disfigured Wynn looking for redemption, Chapel breaking out of the asylum and winds up a pawn for Angela, Merrick having to team up with Twitch to save her daughter, and most of the characters coming to the realization of Spawn's identity.

[18] It has achieved a small but loyal cult following who praise the animation, writing, voice acting, music, and dark tone, whereas the graphic violence and intentional unresolved cliffhanger has attracted criticism.

"[19] A more mixed review at the time came from The Dallas Morning News, they questioned why anyone would "want to subject themselves to such a relentlessly grim, gruesome dehumanizing experience.

"[20] In 1997, the Tampa Bay Times remarked that the first three episodes "unfold in a disjointed, abstract style that owes as much to the animated movie Heavy Metal as the Batman trilogy.

"[12] In a 2022 article on the 25th anniversary of the live action film, Inverse reflected that, "HBO's Spawn animated series, which also launched in 1997, proved to be a far better adaptation overall.

[22] Horror website Bloody Disgusting stated in 2018 that it was "still the character's best incarnation",[23] while the Comic Book Herald commented in 2021 that "it almost plays like an adult extrapolation of Batman: The Animated Series".

[24] In 2017, CBR praised the show's music, stating "[Shirley] Walker’s work on Spawn takes the gothic elements of her Batman: The Animated Series compositions to an even darker place.