5 Quick Questions with Todd McFarlane

Todd McFarlane is a Canadian cartoonist, writer, toy designer and entrepreneur, best known for his work in comic books, such as the fantasy series Spawn.

McFarlane's first published work was a 1984 backup story in Epic Comics' Coyote. He soon began drawing for both DC Comics and Marvel, with his first major body of work being a two-year run (1985–1987) on DC's Infinity, Inc. In 1987, McFarlane also illustrated several issues of Detective Comics' Batman: Year Two storyline. From there, he moved to Marvel's Incredible Hulk, which he drew from 1987–1988.

In the late 1980s and early 1990s, McFarlane became a comic book superstar due to his work on Marvel Comics' Spider-Man franchise. 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 was a popular hero in the 1990s and encouraged a trend in creator-owned comic book properties.

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,[citation needed] like the short lived Spawntastic Apparel, a T-shirt line. 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 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. He has also created figures of rock musicians, including the members of Kiss, Jim Morrison, and Jimi Hendrix and toys related to video games, like Halo 3.

In recent years, McFarlane has illustrated comic books less often, focusing on entrepreneurial efforts, such as McFarlane Toys and Todd McFarlane Entertainment, a film and animation studio. In September, 2006, it was announced that McFarlane will be the Art Director of the newly formed 38 Studios, formerly Green Monster Games, founded by major league baseball pitcher Curt Schilling. McFarlane used to be co-owner of National Hockey League's Edmonton Oilers but sold his shares to Daryl Katz. He's also a high-profile collector of history-making baseballs.



He agreed to answer 5 Quick Questions

1) What would you say is your greatest achievement in comics?

Probably putting personally touches Spider-man into the new world, currently getting to be one of founding fathers of image comics. Getting to a point where one of the character there, Spawn, is heading towards his 200th issue, as a independent comic book. I guess making an impact in mainstream comics & independent comics.

2) Who was your favorite writer or artist that you worked with & why?

Artistically without a doubt it’d be Greg Capullo. I believe he’s one of the true unsung heroes of comic books. Not only currently, but in the history of comic books. There are handful of guys that I think that are tremendous, tremendous artists that don’t get their due, because of guys like me, happen to be a bit more flashy. A little more glittery. Skill wise, storytelling wise, nowhere as near the skill level of some of the people that are put in the shadows of our popularity. From a writing point of view I would say that Brian Bendis did a nice run on Sam & Twitch. I wasn’t the artist on it. It was Angel Medina, but Brian Bendis did a nice run on Sam and Twitch for a couple of years.

3) What character you have never worked .., would you like to do & why?

I would have like to have done more with Batman. Again, Batman is sort of a cool guy. Kind of falls in the same vain as Spawn. I sort of used to tackle each character as brand new & fresh, when I took him over artistically. Even though I might not have personally have liked them, I found elements that made them interesting, once I got on board. I always felt I could take any character and 4 or 5 months, fall in love with them. Just based on the aspect on what it is that makes them that character. I can’t say I have a hankering for any single character I know right now.

4) Who are your influences?

Artistically, when I first started in comics, guys like John Bryne, Frank Miller, George Perez, Michael Golden. But then later on I because aware of some of the old guys that were fantastic. The guys that sort came before all of us. Guys like, obviously, Jack Kirby, the King. Gil Kane, who you can see a lot of his stuff in mine. Even guys like Russ Heath, John Buscema, Alex Toth. More for storytelling, not so much about style. In terms on how they tell stories. They made it dramatic and big and fantastic.

5) What hero or villain would you like to change if you could and why?

You know it’d probably be someone like the Penguin or even somebody like Red Skull. Some of the guys that seem they been sort of passive of late, that I think, that you do a lot more sinister with them. The Penguin is always the short little fat guy that you go “how’s he ever going to be threat to Batman. But I think that done right, and there are petty of writers that could do it right, that you could make the Penguin very formidable that he was on par with the Joker, if you actually wanted to spend the time on him.

Check out Todd at his website at http://spawn.com/

Brian Isaacs
Story Editor