Todd McFarlane
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Spawn #1 (1992), featuring one of McFarlane's most popular creations |
Todd McFarlane (born
March 16,
1961 in
Calgary, Alberta,
Canada) is a
cartoonist,
comic book writer, artist, and media
entrepreneur.
In the late 1980s and early 1990s, McFarlane became a comic book superstar with little precedent due to his work on
Marvel Comics'
Spider-Man franchise. In 1992, he helped form
Image Comics, pulling the
occult hero
Spawn from his high school portfolio and updating him for the 1990s. Spawn was one of the 1990s' most popular heroes and encouraged a trend in
creator-owned comic book properties.
In recent years, McFarlane has illustrated comic books less often, focusing on entrepreneurial efforts, such as
McFarlane Toys, whose meticulously detailed
action figures have set new standards in the toy industry, and
Todd McFarlane Entertainment, a
film and
animation studio.
McFarlane is also co-owner of
National Hockey League's
Edmonton Oilers and a high-profile collector of history-making
baseballs.
Early Life
McFarlane was born in
Calgary, Alberta. He graduated from William Aberhart High School. As a teenager, he discovered
comic books and was a fan of stars such as
John Byrne and
Frank Miller, but was especially drawn to the more atypical art of
Michael Golden and
Art Adams (Adams' detailed but cartoon-ish approach had a noticeable influence on McFarlane's work). Gil Kane was also a major influence on McFarlane.
University
In the early 1980s, McFarlane attended
Eastern Washington University on a
baseball scholarship and studied graphic art. He sought to play baseball professionally after graduation but was not contracted by a professional team. During his time at EWU, McFarlane worked at a comic book shop in
Spokane, Washington. Drawings he had done of Marvel and DC superheros were sold at local shops.
Early Career
McFarlane's first published work was a 1984 backup story in
Epic Comics'
Coyote. He soon began working for both
Marvel and
DC Comics. He illustrated several issues of Marvel's
Incredible Hulk and DC's
Infinity Inc. and various
Batman series. In 1987, McFarlane joined writer
David Michelinie on Marvel's
The Amazing Spider-Man. McFarlane changed the character's appearance, making him more
spider-like with wiry limbs and large eyes. His interpretation would influence those of many subsequent
Spider-Man artists. McFarlane also helped to create
Venom, a wildly popular villain.
McFarlane's work on
The Amazing Spider-Man turned him into an industry superstar. In 1990, Marvel launched a new monthly Spider-Man series, simply called
Spider-Man, which McFarlane both wrote and illustrated.
Spider-Man #1 sold 2.5 million copies, partially thanks to the variant covers that were used to encourage
collectors into buying more than one edition.
Spider-Man #1 is seen by many as the beginning of the comic speculation boom that lasted through the first years of the 1990s (reaching its bust with DC Comics "Death Of Superman" storyline of mid-1993.)
After a 29-issue run of
Amazing Spider-Man, McFarlane told editor Jim Salicrup he would be leaving the book with issue 328 to write his own work. He'd grown tired of drawing other peoples stories. Jim offered Todd a new Spider-Man book to both write and draw. It was a massive success in sales until Jim was replaced by editor Danny Fingeroth with issue 16. [
1]Mcfarlane quit over a creative dispute with that very issue. McFarlane did issues 1-14, and 16. Most issues were crossovers with characters such as Wolverine, Ghost Rider, and X-Force.
The Breakoff
McFarlane then left Marvel with six other popular artists to form
Image Comics, an umbrella company under which each owned a publishing house. McFarlane's studio, Todd McFarlane Productions, published his creation, the
occult-themed
Spawn.
Spawn #1 sold 1.7 million copies, still a record for an independent comic book.
Spawn
McFarlane was artist/writer for the first 7 issues, he brought on writers Alan Moore, Neil Gaiman, Dave Sim and Frank Miller for issues 8-11 which McFarlane remained artist. He continued on to issue 15 until bringing in Greg Capullo and Grant Morrison. He returned as writer/artist for issue 21 and remained so until issue 24. Greg Capullo took over as pencil artist with issue 26, McFarlane remained writer and inker on the book until issue 73.
McFarlane eventually would hand off scripting duties (while still overseeing plotlines) to other writers, and the book continued to retain a respectable following. He still has story input today with over 150 issues published and will ink covers once in awhile.
In 2006 McFarlane announced plans for Spawn/Batman with artist Greg Capullo which Todd will write and ink. He also began taking an active role in comics publishing again, publishing collections of his Spawn comics in paperback form. The first collecting issues 1-12 minus issue 9 was a success in December of 2005. The second collecting issues 13-33 is due at the end of July 2006.
McFarlane's defense of the Image Comics ethic during its early years led to a noteworthy "style versus substance"-themed feud with comic book writer
Peter David. McFarlane's assertion was that comic writers were secondary in importance to artwork in terms of commercial success which was quite true at the time. Of course, his comments were quickly taken out of context by his critics, many of which had platforms in industry publications. Understanding the way artists of that day worked, most often from very vague scenario descriptions, the artist then composed the scenes visually, with the dialogue and narration written afterward, McFarlane's point is less controversial. During this time, iconic characters such as Batman and Superman found their books selling near cancellation numbers without popular artists attached, while self published work by superstar artists topped the sales charts. So taken in the context of its time, McFarlane's comments rang very true, to the dismay of many.
This came to a head during a public debate they participated in at
Philadelphia's Comicfest convention in Novemeber 1993, which was moderated by artist
George Perez. The topic of the debate was McFarlane's claim that Image was not being treated fairly by the media, and by David's weekly "But I Digress" column in the
Comics Buyer's Guide in particular. The three judges, Maggie Thompson, editor of the
Comics Buyer's Guide, William Christensen of Wizard press, and John Danovich of the magazine
Hero Illustrated, voted 2-3 in favor of David, with Danovich voting the debate a tie. David himself would eventually work on Image-created books, most notably
Dale Keown's book,
Pitt. However, this wasn't a shocking turn within the comics community, as Keown had previously worked with David during his acclaimed initial run on Marvel's
The Incredible Hulk.
Todd McFarlane Productions has also published multiple Spawn
spin-off mini-series, but, unlike other Image studios, such as Jim Lee's
Wildstorm, McFarlane's studio was never intended to focus on being a comic book company, and had always intended to diversify into other areas. McFarlane increasingly concentrated his own personal attention to those other ventures, which resulted in irregular work as an illustrator. By 1994, he ceased to be the regular illustrator of his own "signature" book, and would only re-visit
Spawn sporadically, or as a promotional stunt for the title.
That same year, McFarlane created
McFarlane Toys. Its line of meticulously sculpted Spawn action figures set a new standard for detail and commercialized action figures as art.
McFarlane Toys changed the entire industry by focusing on more mature consumers and non-traditional action figure inspirations such as musicians. The company has licensed the right to produce action figures of athletes in all four major North American sports - baseball,
hockey,
football and
basketball -- and several recent, successful film franchises, including
The Terminator,
The Matrix and
Shrek. It has also created figures of
rock musicians, including
Jim Morrison,
Jimi Hendrix and the members of
Kiss.
In 1996, McFarlane founded
Todd McFarlane Entertainment, a
film and
animation studio. In collaboration with
New Line Cinema, it produced the 1997 Spawn film and the sequel Spawn 2, which should be coming out in 2007 [1]. Spawn, while critically panned, was a moderate box office success. It also produced the animated series
Todd McFarlane's Spawn, (featuring voice work by actor
Keith David) which aired on
HBO from 1997 until 1999. The animated series received significantly more positive press than the film, and was a moderate success when eventually released on DVD.
The studio has produced acclaimed
music videos for
Pearl Jam's "
Do the Evolution" (1998),
KoЯn's "
Freak on a Leash" (1999) and
Disturbed's "Land of Confusion" (2006). They also produced an animated segment of the film
The Dangerous Lives of Altar Boys (2002).
McFarlane is an avid
baseball fan; he briefly tried to achieve a pro career in the sport as a young adult. McFarlane has bought, at
auction, multiple balls from
Mark McGwire and
Sammy Sosa's 1998 race to establish a record for the greatest number of
home runs hit in a single season. McFarlane owns Sosa's 33rd, 61st and 66th home run balls, and McGwire's first, 63rd, 67th, 68th, 69th and 70th. (McGwire's 61st was the ball which tied
Roger Maris' then-record, while McGwire's 70th set a new record -- broken in 2001 by
Barry Bonds.) He later purchased Bond's record breaking 73rd home run ball for $450,000.
In late 2001, McFarlane revealed a new logo for the
Edmonton Oilers NHL franchise of which he is a part-owner. This logo is featured on the team's
Third Jersey.
McFarlane also created the character
Necrid for the
console versions of the
video game Soul Calibur II.
In January of 2005, McFarlane announced that he was set to
produce a half hour anthology
television series for
Fox called
Twisted Tales, based on the
Bruce Jones' comic book to which McFarlane had purchased the rights.[
2] According to
The Internet Movie Database, McFarlane will serve as the series' narrator/host. [
3]
Recently, McFarlane lost judgements in two lawsuits. The first was a 2002 suit in which McFarlane contested with writer
Neil Gaiman over the rights to some supporting Spawn characters created by Gaiman in issue #9 of the
Spawn series and over payment for later works featuring those characters. In 1997 the two signed a deal in which Gaiman would give his share of characters
Angela, Medieval Spawn and
Cogliostro to McFarlane in exchange of McFarlane's share of British superhero
Miracleman (in reality, what McFarlane actually owned were two trademarks for Miracleman logos, not the character, which would become clear only after the lawsuit concluded). However, this deal was broken by McFarlane, which motivated Neil Gaiman to start the lawsuit. The jury was unanimous in favor of Gaiman. (The two are now involved in a dispute over ownership of Miracleman, but no lawsuit has been filed in that dispute.)
The second was a December 2004 suit in which hockey player
Tony Twist sued McFarlane because he named a mobster character in Spawn after Twist. After McFarlane lost the second suit, his publishing company, Todd McFarlane Productions, filed for
bankruptcy. This had no effect on the rest of TMP productions.
Todd McFarlane's work has won him numerous awards over the years, including a 1992
National Cartoonists Society Award for Best Comic Book.
Todd received footballs' Artist of the Year award for 2005, for his work on program covers for the
Baltimore Ravens.
*
Spawn.com features a biography and info about McFarlane's work*
press release on twist issue latest on twist issue*
Todd McFarlane credits on Spider-Man*
Comic Book Awards Almanac *
Interview on
SuicideGirls*
Interview with Todd McFarlane - CEO of
McFarlane Toys at
Dread Central*
Interview -
Now Playing magazine
