High quality data are presented of neutral hydrogen emission and absorption in the fields of eleven of the nearest spiral galaxies .
Multi-configuration VLA observations have provided angular resolution of 6 arcsec ( corresponding to about 100 pc at the average galaxy distance of 3.5 Mpc ) and velocity resolution of 6 km s ^ { -1 } , while accurately recovering the total line flux detected previously with filled apertures .
Previous experience suggests that this physical resolution is sufficient to at least marginally resolve the \ion H1 super-cloud population which delineates regions of active star formation .
A high brightness filamentary network of \ion H1 super-clouds is seen in each galaxy .
Emission brightness temperatures in excess of 200 Kelvin are sometimes detected at large radii , even in relatively face-on systems .
All galaxies display a systematic increase in the observed brightness temperature of super-clouds with radius , followed by a flattening and subsequent decline .
In the few instances where background continuum sources allow detection of \ion H1 absorption , the indicative spin temperatures are consistent with the super-cloud brightness temperature seen in emission at similar radii .
These data suggest substantial opacity of the \ion H1 in the super-cloud network .