(born 1961), Canadian-born comic book illustrator. Todd McFarlane, a strong contender for the title of North America’s hottest-selling comic book artist of the 1990s, was the creator of Spawn and his archenemy, Clown. Before a $45-million live-action movie introduced Spawn to a mass market in the summer of 1997, sales of 110 million ‘Spawn’ comic books and spin-offs in 21 languages introduced the superhero to fans in 118 countries.
McFarlane was born in Calgary, Alta., on March 16, 1961. After spending most of his childhood in California, he moved back to Calgary with his family in 1975 and completed high school there. His two great loves were comic books and baseball. He played semiprofessional ball for a Seattle Mariners tournament team and tried out as a pitcher for a Toronto Blue Jays farm team. In January 1981 a baseball scholarship took him to Eastern Washington State University in Cheney, Wash., where he studied art and design.
His dream of pitching for the major leagues ended when he broke his ankle sliding into home plate. Having drawn comic characters for years, he started submitting drawings to comic book publishers. More than 700 rejection slips later, Marvel Comics offered him a temporary assignment in March 1984 on the obscure ‘Scorpio Rose’ line. McFarlane completed his bachelor’s degree that spring but stayed in Cheney with his fiancée, Wanda. They married in July 1985. By December, when she graduated, Todd had a full-time job penciling on ‘Infinity, Inc.’, for DC Comics.
The newlyweds moved to British Columbia. While his wife taught high school biology, McFarlane penciled ‘The Incredible Hulk’ for Marvel Comics and did several one-time assignments, including a Batman issue for DC Comics and a Canadian anti-censorship benefit book, ‘True North’. His big break came with drawings and covers for the March 1988 to December 1989 issues of Marvel’s ‘Amazing Spider Man’. McFarlane thinned the superhero to spidery proportions, twisted him into spidery poses, and gave him spidery eyes. ‘Amazing Spider Man’ jumped from ninth to first place in comic book sales.
McFarlane demanded and got his own Marvel title to write as well as draw. His first ‘Spider Man’, released in June 1990, sold an unprecedented 2.75 million copies. While ‘Spider Man’ held its top ranking, McFarlane and Marvel argued over promotion and control. In August 1991, McFarlane left Marvel to form his own company. He and his wife moved to Portland, Ore., with their baby daughter, Cyan.
Early in 1992 McFarlane and other dissatisfied Marvel artists established Image Comics, an independent publishing company in which each artist kept control over the characters he or she created. In a break with comic book publishing tradition, artists made their own licensing decisions and reaped the profits individually.
McFarlane’s creation, ‘Spawn’, appeared in May 1992. The first issue sold 1.7 million copies. As sales expanded, McFarlane introduced new characters and spun off several miniseries. In 1994 he and his wife moved to Arizona, had a second daughter, Kate, and introduced the first Spawn action figures from Todd Toys (later renamed McFarlane Toys). Having rejected licensing offers from larger toy companies so as to keep creative control, McFarlane made and sold 10 million action toys by 1997. That summer HBO ordered its second “adult” animated ‘Spawn’ series for cable television, and the New Line movie ‘Spawn’ opened across the United States.
