true evil is never what or who you expect for all you know I could be true evil scary huh in the winter of 2004 Todd McFarland sat in his office surrounded by the comics he had made the awards he had won the millions of dollars of sports memorabilia he' bought and filed for chapter 11 bankruptcy just a decade earlier he had been the biggest comic superstar in the world and a hero for Independent Artists but now a series of legal defeats had destroyed both his reputation and his finances and spawn the comic he had poured his life into had lost 95% of its readers he must have sat there and wondered what the hell just happened but Todd McFarland was far from done McFarland had been down before he'd been broke before in fact he'd been broke most of his life McFarland's father was a bluecollar guy a hard worker who just wanted to provide for his family but McFarland watched time and time again as his father was taken advantage of by the the big companies he worked for McFarland decided at a young age that he wanted to be just like his dad a provider for his family but he was never going to let anyone push him around and those two forces turned him into a Relentless competitive machine in the first place that competitiveness took him wasn't Comics but baseball he didn't pick up his first comic until he was 16 years old and it was like being hit by a bolt of lightning but being a young Canadian workingclass kid the idea of getting a job in comics didn't even occur to him he knew that Comics were made in the distant land of New York City his plan was to be a baseball player who just happened to read Comics but it almost feels like the universe had other plans he's flipping through the channels on his TV and sees somebody holding up a copy of his favorite comic John Burns X-Men he pauses why is someone holding up X-Men on Calgary Public Access TV well it turns out that it's not just anyone holding up X-Men it's John burn himself and it turns out that John burn lives only 3 miles from McFarland McFarland realizes that maybe a smalltown Canadian kid could become a comic book artist so he starts doodling a little bit he comes up with his own superhero comic called spawn it's co-plotted and edited by his high school girlfriend Wanda Cola magic I don't think 16-year-old McFarland and 14-year-old Wanda had any idea the significance of that little comic they had made but we're not there yet because in McFarland's head he's still going to be a baseball player he gets into college on a baseball scholarship to study graphic design but then in a game with their Arch Rivals the ultra competitive Todd McFarland gets an ankle injury and that injury likely changed the course of comic history because McFarland takes all of his competitive Drive and finally puts it into Comics he decides he's going to be a comic artist and nothing is going to stop him but first he has to learn how to draw comics and that's not going to be easy for him he and Wanda have moved into a trailer park together and in addition to his college classes he's working two jobs to make ends meet but each night after work he gets back to their trailer huddles over his drawing board and from Midnight until however long he can stay awake he practices drawing Comics his teacher is his comic collection he studies how they work he spends a week drawing hands or arms or legs eggs after months of diligent work he has the body more or less figured out he starts putting together sample pages to understand storytelling and Comics he finally develops enough confidence to send a sample of his work off to Marvel Comics and soon after a letter comes back a rejection letter now the thing with Tod McFarland is that every time someone tells him no he only becomes more determined to succeed so he creates a chart of every single editor of every single comic every single company in the entire North American comic industry and every week he draws he zerox he stamps and mails packages out to five or 10 of the editors on his list and the rejection letters keep coming in some even offer advice stop drawing Splash Pages focus on your storytelling improve here or there and so he does he listens despite the growing pile of rejection letters he keeps at it and through all this rejection Wanda supports him she doesn't push him to give up or get a real job she believes he will become a professional comic artist which couldn't have been easy because he keeps getting rejected for a year and a half most comic artists break in at 18 or 19 mcin was already 24 years old and no one had offered him a job but one day coming home after a shift Wanda is waiting for him outside the trailer she starts shouting as soon as she sees him Todd Todd who is Steve Engelhart he's a Comic Book Guy why Todd says he just called and wants to offer you a job Todd McFarland after receiving over 700 rejections 700 NOS had finally gotten a yes he's a professional comic artist now things would get bumpy again pretty quickly but before we get into that let's actually take a look at some of his early work Coyote's not available digitally so I actually picked up a few copies to show you guys what it looks like the big thing that jumps out here is that McFarland is not really that great he's not the Todd McFarland we know right out of the gate but here's the thing McFarland knows that what matters now is that he keeps improving and because he's getting paid he can draw for 10 hours per day instead of two and improve his skills much much faster at least that would have been the case but Coyote's canceled just four issues after he starts on it four months after becoming a professional comic book artist he was back to being unemployed so he goes back to his drawing board back to sending out packages just like before he's not going to give up and again this could have been the end of his career if it weren't for more of his dumb luck see there's a Justice League spin-off called Infinity Inc and the artist Don Newton was a bit of a health nut well someone told Don Newton that unpasteurized milk was good for you so Newton tries drinking some and it ends up killing him and that sudden death sends DC scrambling to find a replacement who can take over and get the job done fast and sitting on top of some editor's desk was a package from Todd McFarland they call him and ask can you do these Pages quickly he says yes Todd McFarland is back in the industry and he's going to make sure he never loses that opportunity again he knows he's still working on his drawing skills but he's got to stand out so he pulls out the Ace of his sleeve the graphic design skills he had learned in college check out these page layouts they're essentially an early sign of his marketing genius a way for this newbie artist to raise his hand and say look at me look at me he knows he isn't the best at drawing but he wants to make sure he holds on to this job and it works he becomes the regular artist on Infinity Inc and I just want to point out again how different McFarland was from his peers when most artists get that first big job their first real paycheck they go go and get a car or a bigger apartment but McFarland buys an engagement ring Comics are a job to him marrying Wanda is arguably the most important thing to come out of his work at DC the other important thing is that he gets to improve his skills just as he had on coyote he treats every day as a chance to get better I mean just look at how much his work evolves from his early issues to his later ones and while Infinity Inc isn't the biggest sales success his graphic layouts and growing Talent get him noticed across the industry and that's how he gets offered the job on the Incredible Hulk and while the Hulk was hardly Marvel's biggest title it was the perfect V for Todd McFarland first of all the Hulk is a single character on Infinity Inc he had a whole team to draw so you'd have to shrink each one down into these tiny portraits which didn't suit the big and loud style he was developing second he can finally Flex his love of horror well he was influenced by the superhero guys the John Burns the George Perez's and the Lesser known guys like Michael golden and art Adams when asked what his Desert Island Comic would be he picked Jee cen's run on Tomb of Dracula that love of monsters of Shadows Of Darkness that would become his signature can finally emerge and it would be transformative for the Hulk just look at how the Hulk was portrayed in the issues just before McFarland as muscular and superh heroic but McFarland brings the monster back to the Hulk taking the heavy brow Frankenstein of Jack Kirby's original design and pushing it further making him even bigger and more grotesque and McFarland is paired with an equally great writer Peter David was at the beginning of what would be a nearly 10year long critically acclaimed run on the Hulk that combination of David's character defining writing with McFarland's fresh art style would help Hulk rise in the sales rankings but all this just leads up to one of the sing single most important issues in Todd McFarland's career The Incredible Hulk issue 340 where everything comes together for three key reasons first McFarland had always wanted to draw Wolverine but the X-Men editors really didn't like lending Wolverine out to other departments because well everybody wants to draw Wolverine and they knew if they started saying yes he'd end up in every comic which is kind of what happened in the early 2000s but Peter David before becoming a writer had worked in Marvel's marketing department and knew how to maneuver within the company so he moves Heaven and Earth to get permission to use Wolverine Green in Hulk 340 the second thing that happens is that McFarland drops one of the all-time most iconic covers in superhero comic history I mean just look at it I don't need to tell you that it rules the last piece is that McFarland had been growing frustrated with the inkers on his pencils he was developing a new style but he felt like they didn't understand what he was going for and would ink his work to look more traditional so how did he channel that frustration he taught himself how to Ink but Marvel still wouldn't let him ink on the Hulk so he got a job at DC where they'd let him ink his own pencils and showed them to his editors at Marvel to convince them to let him start inking and they agree he can ink his own pencils on Hulk 340 and man when McFarland inks magic happens all the little details the grotesqueness the textures begin to pop just look at the before and after this is Todd McFarland and so incredible Hulk 340 hits comic stores with an all-timer cover featuring a fan favorite character and people opening it are treated to this wild original art style Todd McFarland had arrived now not only has McFarland taught himself to be a better artist he's taught himself to be faster and he wants more work so he's always hustling when he visits Marvel in New York he makes sure to pop his head into every editor's office seeing if anyone has any extra assignments one of those editors was in charge of Spider-Man and he had an opening coming up but McFarland had been warned to stay far far away from the Spider-Man office why well let me set the stage because if you're under 40 Spider-Man in 1987 is probably not what you're imagining Amazing Spider-Man had dropped from Marvel's top title down to number 22 see Spider-Man's initial artist was Steve ditco who defined the character visually before quitting suddenly Stan Lee needed a replacement and found a great artist stuck doing romance Comics at DC who would be perfect to transform dito's style into something more commercial and appealing that artist's name was John romita and he would become the defining artist on Spider-Man it was romita Spider-Man that became the iconic version of the character the one that appeared on lunch boxes and advertisements and toys in addition to his long run on the comic but even after he stopped drawing the comic artists were instructed to draw in romita's style before the '90s individual artistic expression wasn't always encouraged at Marvel and so they promoted romita to art director at Marvel and he was known for Whiting out and redrawing parts of pages that didn't conform to the Marvel style so by the late 80s the insistence on continuing prm's style had left Spider-Man kind of a relic of the past sounds like the perfect environment for headstrong competitive anti-authoritarian Todd McFarland right immediately there is friction between McFarland and the powers that be had Spider-Man right away mcfar wants to change everything sacred about Spiderman the first thing on his list Mary Jane Watson ma had introduced her 20 years earlier designing her after an Margaret and byebye birdie and that wasn't exactly very 80s so McFarland flips through issues of Vogue gets the most current clothes changes her hair from straight 60s to curly 80s he gives Peter Parker a similar update turning him into a muscular stylish guy out of a fashion magazine but it was Spider-Man himself that got the biggest McFarland makeover mcfar said that Spider-Man had always been drawn with an emphasis on the man he was going to put the emphasis on spider he puts his love of the Monstrous to work he drew the eyes a few sizes larger giving him the bug eyes of a spider while previous artists had drawn Spider-Man swinging like a man mcf and draw limbs flying in every direction Benton Twisted Way Beyond the constraints of human anatomy and for his Dynamic graphic compositions to work he needed to change something else sacred in the 20 years of Spider-Man's history his webs had been drawn pretty much the same way as two lines with a bunch of crosses in the middle but M Fallin wanted to be able to shoot that webbing directly at the viewer and he had a solution from his early days of getting into Comics he'd been struck by a portfolio shop from Michael golden where he had drawn Spider-Man's web as multiple strands in the center with a wild strand squiggling around it he decided that if he ever got a chance to draw Spider-Man he'd use that technique and thus what came to be known as spaghetti webbing was born so with that stylish designs a more spider-like Spider-Man and spaghetti webbing McFarland had his formula for Spider-Man the only problem the Spider-Man editors don't like it one bit this isn't their Spider-Man but apparently Rita couldn't redraw parts of it without it looking too obvious so they printed what they had and told McFarland that in the future he'd have to stick with the house style but then something thing happened McFarland Spider-Man was a huge success people love his new look for Spider-Man and the sales reflect it so the process repeats itself mcin draws how he wants Marvel complains sales go up and he keeps doing it his way and he's not done learning I'm trying to put these pages in order so you can see just how much he evolves over his run this nearly 30 issue run on Amazing Spider-Man cement McFarland is one of if not the biggest names in comic books well there's some grumbling about his weaknesses in storytelling or his sometimes wonky Anatomy fans are loving The Amazing Spider-Man becomes the second bestselling monthly title at Marvel topped only by Uncanny X-Men and in the ultimate irony Marvel starts meing that other artists start drawing Spider-Man in McFarland's style his look was the new defining look for the character the first major update to The Lunchbox Spider-Man since John romita so what does McFarland do he quits because he had learned how to master penciling he'd learned how to master inking and now he wanted to master writing so he quit Spider-Man hoping to find a less popular series where he could develop his writing writing skills but his departure naturally sends the Spider-Man office into a frenzy in an effort to keep him they offer him a brand new Spider-Man title called simply Spider-Man that he can write and draw entirely himself now to understand what happens next we need to talk about the Speculator Market the Speculator Market is something I want to dedicate a whole video to but the short version is that in the late ' 80s and early '90s this idea that you could get rich speculating on consumer goods was taking off it had blown up in the trading card industry and now those retailers and consumers had turned their attention to comics powered by record setting sales of older Comics people began to see buying Comics as a chance to make a quick Buck this type of buyer the Speculator didn't really care about the contents of the comic it was just a big trading guard with some nonsense staple to the back and they began flooding into comic stores maybe the big companies should have been skeptical of this buyer but instead they doubled down and started marketing directly to this consumer that didn't even want to read their product they would offer multiple variations of comics so speculators would need to buy multiple copies and launching new number ones was a huge part of this strategy people saw that most most valuable Comics were Action Comics number one or Amazing Spider-Man number one so the number one became this important thing to speculators so giving McFarland this new Spider-Man number one serves his interest but it also serves Marvel's need to put out as many number ones as possible and Marvel goes even further they create numerous different variants of the cover and they offer some of them in poly bags meaning you couldn't even read the comic without destroying its Mint Condition value practically forcing consumers to buy multiples this whole thing would have disastrous consequences down the line but at that moment in 1990 it was a huge deal a superstar artist plus a variety of covers and gimmicks turned Spider-Man number one into the bestselling comic book of all time but it was also McFarland's first comic as a writer and would have a disastrous impact on his reputation when most people get to practice on lowprofile books McFarland had the industry's biggest comic stage to try and learn how to write Neil Gaiman one of the most respected writers of this period later recalled how he first came across Spider-Man number one of the DC offices where everyone was laughing at it McFarland was the first to own up to his shortcomings as a writer but but that didn't matter to him what he wanted was to draw what he wanted to draw and being free from a writer allowed him to do that and this for me is Peak McFarland despite the cringey dialogue his layouts and art are just absolutely Next Level so I'll put some links down below if you want to check it out for yourself and while Pi may have been criticizing him McFarland's solo Spider-Man run was a huge sales success but for McFarland personally things weren't working on every visit to New York he'd still have to listen to editors and Executives telling him what he should be doing differently he had assumed that eventually reached a level of success where they would leave him alone but even after creating their bestselling book he still wasn't there he was getting rich off the royalties from these books but I think he still felt like his dad The Working Man Who was getting pushed around by management he wanted respect a thank you some recognition someone to listen to him and all he got was more demands and then in the 16th issue of Spider-Man came the Fateful moment mcf Fallen turned in this page and Marvel went ballistic they demanded he change it they said sword penetration was okay but it couldn't be in the eye they told him no no no he had to change it that was the last no that McFarland would tolerate from Marvel he turned in the redrawn page along with his resignation his fouryear character defining run on Spider-Man was over with an unceremonious by Todd added to his final cover and with that McFarland disappeared not only from Marvel but from Comics entirely but as is often the case with McFarland there's more to the story it wasn't just frustration with management as later as to why he left Marvel he said 90% of why I quit was I had a baby daughter after he and Wanda had baby Sayan mcellin realized he couldn't keep up the monthly pace of working for Marvel anymore he had saved up the money and could afford to take a break and plot his next move to come up with a business idea that would allow him to strike back at Marvel and build something bigger than he ever could as an artist alone enter front row cards using his name and his art he would modernized the trading card business the same way he had modernized Comics each card would be double-sided with a photo of an athlete on one side and a McFarland drawn version on the other he wanted to keep drawing just without the pressure of a monthly deadline line and he'd be able to hurt Marvel he'd spoken to Rob lield and Jim Lee two of Marvel's top artists about hiring them to draw cards as well so he buys the photos does the drawings puts together a foil and boss sample of the cards and lands a meeting with the NHL he goes to the NHL headquarters and gives them his pitch his grand plan to reinvent the trading card business the NHL rejects him the name Todd McFarland doesn't mean anything to these Sports guys McFarland's dream of using his art to break into the sports world was crushed but McFarland wouldn't stay down for long he came up with another plan since the early days of his career McFarland had tried to get his fellow artists to unionize well he didn't have the reputation to make it happen he had never given up this idea of banning artists together to strike back at the fat cats in management for years he'd been talking with fellow artists Rob leld and Eric Larsson about breaking away from Marvel and starting something new but finally lield the eager Young Gun of the group advertises his own independent comic and receives legal threats from Marvel so the three of them decide that the time has finally come to break up with Marvel and start their own company even though McFarland isn't actively doing any work for Marvel he wanted to tell the execs to their faces that he was now going to be their competition he knew that his employees they only had the power to hurt Marvel as a group and he worried the three artists wasn't going to be enough but in New York the night before their meeting with Marvel McFarland had another Stroke of Luck he's attending a comic art auction at sou bees and runs into Jim Lee and yes I know you all want a Jim Lee video I want to make a Jim Lee video but I'm pretty determined that I need to interview Jim Lee to make one that's worth watching so maybe one of you guys who's on social media can help me out with that so here the back row of an art auction McFarland has Jim Lee Corner Marvel's Golden Boy unlike Rebels like McFarland and lield Lee was the company man and the most commercially successful artist Marvel hat if McFarland could get him to leave Marvel Comics then they would hurt and so he gives him the pitch and look I've listened to hours of interviews with Todd McFarland and the guy is pretty intense talking about anything so I can only imagine exactly what Jim Lee was subjected to in the back row of that art auction by the end of it Lee is sold and McFarland's ability to run into people doesn't stop there back at his hotel he runs into Mark sylvestri of the group Vester is the OG a respected artist and not a young hothead so mcin gets in the elevator with him follows him to his room and doesn't stop talking until midnight let me know by 7 tomorrow mcin says and finally he goes to bed in the morning he gets the call sylvestri is in and so McFarland Wanda lield and Lee marched to Marvel's office and announced their departure Marvel protests saying we PID you guys well why are you so annoyed they don't understand Todd McFarland he doesn't care about the money he just wanted respect he wanted to be listened to he wanted people to stop pushing him around and thank him for what he had done it was too late to heal the wounds they were leaving Marvel and they were going to fight the message from Marvel was clear you are going to fail you're going to lose and lose a lot of money people read our comics for our characters they don't care about you guys Image Comics is born and the fight is on so that very night in his hotel room McFarland draws this image which will be the world's first introduction to the character he had created 15 years earlier now before we get into all the drama let's talk about spawn he unlike say Rob lield mfin rarely created new characters for Marvel he had co-created Venom but he didn't want to give his ideas away and so he held on to spawn for himself spawn the comic he and Wanda had made 15 years earlier meant everything to him visually spawn is everything McFarland loves drawing he has the agility and contortions of Spider-Man where Spider-Man had webs flying everywhere spawn has chains but unlike Spider-Man he exists in a world of Darkness he comes from hell and lives in an alley he's part Spider-Man part Batman part Dracula and he's covered in skulls his design is both a 70s throwback and the most '90s thing that could possibly exist and finally he's got a cape oh please let Todd McFarland never stopped drawing capes and then there's spawn story McFarland channels his intense need to be with his family and gives that motivation over to spawn in the most dramatic way possible spawn is a guy named Al Simmons a soldier who is betrayed and killed and makes a deal with the devil to come back and be with his wife Wanda and his daughter cyan the overriding importance of family of Wanda to McFarland is evident on every page agage of Spawn and just like when they were teenagers McFarland creates the comic and Wanda is his editor but spawn in his desire to be with his family is tricked by the devil maybe the devil is supposed to be Marvel who am I to say he's reborn as a monster and naturally becomes a vigilante superhero not a Batman beat people up vigilante but a pure engine of Rage at anyone's spawn deems an enemy of society mcon has been very clear that he wants to be spawn killing anyone he deems a threat to his vision of a wholesome Society the final piece of Spawn that is important is McFarland's dedication to his fans well he may rub some people in the industry the wrong way he is legendary for how well he treats his fans signing for hours without breaking for food water or even to go to the bathroom and that's evident in how he produces spawn he invests in better printing better Paper Stock he prices it affordably and only puts out a single cover and look I know I said I would read all 300 issues of Spawn but one there're actually over 600 issues of Spawn and two a full analysis of Spawn would make this video 6 hours long but if you want a 6-h hour Quint reviews style overview of every issue of Spawn just let me know in the comments below so all in all spawn is an interesting blend of ideas and influences how will it fair in the market well in 1992 almost 6 months after that meeting with Marvel spawn finally launches and it instantly becomes the bestselling independent comic book of all time there's no variants no gimmicks no foil or plastic bags he sold 1.7 million copies of an independent comic on its own merits just as McFarland hope he's causing Marvel pain the image announcement caused a huge drop in Marvel's share price and they take a significant bite out of Marvel's market share whatever you happen to think of Spawn or Todd McFarland their achievement in this regard is unbelievable he and the other image Founders took a risk and prove to the industry that creators mattered to fans Not Just IP but of course not everyone is happy it's often hard during this period to tease out the legitimate complaints from the jealousies and raging egos but a lot of people in the industry start taking shots at the image guys and McFarland in particular creators basically go to open a war in the pages of magazines like Wizard and the comics buyer guide slinging mud and opinion coms and interviews this is a battle for the soul of comics between those who think Comics need to grow up and be serious and the mcfarlands of the world who are proudly making comics for kids many critics particularly Target McFarland's writing ability his seemingly proud disregard for the craft of writing in general this is how to put the pressure on the writers you draw what you want to draw you draw it exciting and I guarantee it you give them 10 panels they write in 10 panels you give them two panels they can write that same story in two panels guys they just put a little bit more word balloons here and there and some of these attacks have to hurt because they were coming from people McFarland respected Peter David the writer on his Hulk run who' worked so hard to get Wolverine for him becomes one of McFarland's fiercest critics the argument gets so heated they agree to a live debate at ComicCon in 1993 David eloquently rips Todd again and again who seems to not care he showed up to the debate in his boxer shorts after the debate George Perez one of the major influences on McFarland as he was getting into Comics sides with David summarizing the debate with this drawing of Hulk's smashing spawn through a wall and John burn the man he'd seen on Cali republ Access TV who first gave him the idea to work in comics frequently rails against McFarland in his editorials and constantly refers to him as the toddler it's probably worth noting that John burn doesn't really like anybody but still in response to this criticism McFarland gets more antagonistic to his critics McFarland proudly says that he doesn't need to write any better because people are going to buy spawn anyway but in private I think McFarland was taking the criticism to heart because his next move is like a big middle finger to everyone who said that spawn had bad writing mcin decides that he will get the four best writers in the comics industry to write on Spa those four people are Alan Moore Frank Miller Dave Sim and Neil Gaiman but first he has to convince them he promises he'll treat them better than DC Everwood no contracts no ownership just a nice $100,000 check for 22 pages of script it's arguably the worst decision he ever makes but we'll get back to that all four of his targets agree and of those four issues the Miller and more ones feel kind of phoned in the Dave sim1 is interesting because he writes this parable about creators rights but easily the most significant is Neil G's issue giman was the writer of Sam man for DC and is kind of Todd McFarland's polar opposite his work is thoughtful Serene and poetic and he' never really done superhero books before where McFarland is prone to misspeaking and rambling gon is polished and audite but despite all that a kind of friendship forms between them he's he's a polite he's a very influential person in the business right now and he's so polite he he's he's opposite of me where I like to like bug everybody said hey Neil it's the head my how would you like to do spawn I just think he needs to get a little bit more ory so if he gets a little more or I'll become a little bit nicer and then we'll still keep the balance in check and unlike the other Fe writers giman seems to take the assignment seriously he discusses his ideas with McFarland and the issue he turns in is arguably the best issue of Spawn there's ever been he introduces a new character called Angela a Warrior from Heaven as well as medieval spawn in kostro and enriches the Mythos of Spawn considerably and just to inject the nuclear hot take here I think in a universe where McFarland was a more willing collaborator with his writers and giman was slightly less high-minded the two of them could have been a Lee Kirby Claremont burn level comic Duo but what happened in this universe is just about the opposite of that but we're not there yet because for now McFarland's plan works and those four guest written issues each sell over a million copies McFarland takes back the reign of writing with issue 12 but his time as the soulle creative force on spawn was already coming to a close he would stop being the regular pencor of the series after only 15 issues less than nine years after his first published work McFarland set down his pencil and would never be the regular artist on a comic book again this was shocking to fans people assumed all McFarland wanted was to be working on his own book free of constraints but we know that just like spawn McFarland was desperate to be with his family his whole plan was to get out of the grind of regular comic penciling he didn't want to be Jack Kirby he wanted to be Stan Lee the guy whose name is at the top of the book and who is running an IP Empire see McFarland had seen the writing on the wall just as spawn was building momentum the comic book Market was imploding and what I'm sure comes as a huge surprise to you the Speculator bubble was bursting 2/3 of the comic stores in America close Marvel files for bankruptcy sales of new Comics plummet but McFarland had a plan to escape comics and the first step of that plan was toys as the image books had grown in popularity it was inevitable that they would be the target for big toy companies Action Figures were a big business in the '90s and every company wanted to grab new hot properties like spawn so they brought McFarland in and gave him their pitch showed them what they could do now if you take your Nostalgia glasses often look at action figures in the early '90s they're a bit not great the features are soft they barely move they're kind of small and unimpressive these were cheaply made toys that they could sell to kids to capitalize on their love of other properties but McFarland himself liked toys and so he pushed companies on this why can't you sculpt them better why can't you add more articulation or better paint cooler packaging and they told McFarland's favorite word no no it's too expensive paint adds a few cents per figure sculpting would be a penny here or a penny there maybe a nickel for better articulation what McFarlin was asking for would cost them millions of dollars in profit no no no that was music to Todd McFarland's ears screw big companies in their profit margins he would do it himself but unlike when he launched image McFarland was an unknown in the toy industry he couldn't just walk in and demand Walmart start selling his toys he couldn't even get a meeting he'd have to break in like everyone else so in 1994 he gets a booth at the New York City Toy Fair hoping to find a distributor for his toys across the street where Hasbro Mattel the companies who told him no who had multiple floors of toys on display he had a 5x5 booth and some concept drawings and styrofoam buyers from various retailers mingle around checking out the Wares but then a hush Falls over the room the buyer for Toys R R Us had arrived Toys R R Us was the biggest toy chain in the world and could make or break a toy company each exhibitor stood at attention next to their Booth sweating and nervous as they showed off their toys only to collapse as the Toys R Us buire walked right by finally he comes to McFarland's booth and walks right by him but then his assistant Taps him on the shoulder hey he says this is the guy I told you about with the cool comics the buyer comes back and looks at McFarland's meager display okay I'm going to put you in every Toys R Us in the country that assistant changed Todd McFarland's life and not only that but the fomo hits the other big retailers and now Walmart Kmart and the other big stores are putting Spawn toys Nationwide too his new company Todd toys has thousands and thousands of orders to fill but there's a problem because Mattel isn't happy with this upstart Outsider they threatened to sue McFarland for trademark infringement because his new company Todd toys might be confused with Todd Roberts Barbie's younger brother so McFarland accepts defeat and Todd toys becomes McFarland toys and the first six figures go off to stores if Mattel was scared of McFarland they had every right to be the Spawn toys are a huge hit they sell out across the country and retailers keep ordering more and more of each successive line and mcin keeps investing in better painting sculpting design and packaging and that success pressures the big companies to invest more in the quality of their toys to spend those pennies that they never wanted to spend mcf frin gamble transformed not only his own business but the entire action figure Market but it doesn't stop there because he spotted another weakness in those big companies they're scared of the adult toy buyer so McFarland makes two brilliant moves first he starts getting cheap licenses for properties that the big companies would never touch mainly R-rated movies like The Matrix or horror franchises and he distributes them to non-traditional Outlets he gets his toys outside the kids aisles and into the hot topics and Tower Records of the world I think it's fair to say that today's huge Market of offbeat Phantom toys being sold in non-traditional retailers can be traced back to McFarland's willingness to spend his own money to go after an older toy buyer but those toys would also plant the seeds for his greatest downfall because two of those early Figures were based on characters that had initially appeared in spawn number nine written by Neil Gaiman so gaimon undoubtedly stumbles across them in a toy store and gives McFarland a call what's up with these toys he wants to know am I getting a royalty so after some scrambling a $40,000 check goes out to giman but still no contract game begins being frustrated at the lack of clarities getting from McFarland McFarland kept insisting that he would treat Neil better than DC ever did but instead of giving him a contract he would just send out these love checks with without any accounting or explanation the back and forth over this issue would drag on for months with G sending over sample DC contracts to McFarland to use as a template and mcf frin doubting the accuracy of what he was being sent the distrust began to grow between them and as the months and then years dragged on mcin became less responsive one reason for that was probably because he had a lot going on following Stanley's blueprint McFarland knew that to make spawn a household name he needed more than just comics and toys to reach mainstream audiences he needed TV and movies first up was an animated show which ultimately found a moment HBO he hired creatives from Batman the Animated Series as well as the Anime Studio mad house to create something absolutely unique in the history of American animation here again mcfallen was bucking Trends producing cartoon show with a level of violence nudity and themes way too extreme for even the comic book this may not sound like a lot today but it was a big deal for American animation in 1997 cartoons were for kids liveaction shows were for adults anime had been slowly changing that perception but it was hardly mainstream here again mccrain was a Pioneer in an industry he was an outsider and shortly after HBO's spawn the boom and adult oriented animation would begin but like so many of the successes in his life would have a massive negative consequence for McFarland himself because somewhere in Canada a woman was watching this violent sadistic dark cartoon show and crying because the mobster in it was named after her son so she calls him up in tears and asks him Tony why would you be part of this filth but Tony twist had no idea what she was talking about see McFarland had a habit of naming characters after real people and named a number of his characters after friends or NHL players but nobody had asked NHL enforcer Tony twist for his permission McFarland had made Tony Twist's mom cry and Tony twist was going to make him pay for that but while Tony twist is preparing his lawsuit McFarland is hard at work on the Spawn movie big studios had wanted the film rates for spawn since early in the comics run but didn't want to give McFarland the creative control he wanted eventually he partnered with new line Cinema selling them the rights to spawn for only a dollar because they allowed him creative control and to keep the merchandising rights but the movie when it was finally released in 1997 was Spa's first big flop it was the first clear warning sign that Spa's popularity might be fading but it wouldn't be the last but McFarland would soon be too busy to notice as his legal troubles were just ramping up Tony twist had filed a lawsuit against McFarland and HBO the short version is that twist felt that McFarland had infringed on his rights by using his name without permission and done irreparable harm to His Image I'm just going to summarize because court cases are complicated but if you want the full in-depth story I really recommend you pick up Daniel best's excellent book The World versus Todd McFarland but the end result of the case was a massive loss for McFarland who's forced to pay twist $25 million in Damages he would appeal and they would go back and forth over the next few years but at the end of the day twist still won a $15 million judgment against McFarland but despite his troubles McFarland was putting on a brave face he wanted to show the world that he was calm cool collected and in control but that too would have disastrous results see despite his success McFarland had never stopped longing to be a part of Major League Sports he had tried and failed repeatedly to get licenses for any of the leagues to make sports themed action figure years but then markk Maguire's record-breaking 70th home run ball came up for auction and McFarland had to have it now no one had ever paid more than $400,000 for a piece of sports memorabilia but at auction McFarland paid over $3 million for that baseball and even for McFarland this was a lot of money he claims it took every cent he had to buy it but it wasn't just for himself he bought the ball you see he had a plan because after years of ignoring him the sports guys finally wanted to meet him to meet the crazy guy with the $3 million ball his plan worked within 6 months months of buying that ball he had licenses to make action figures for the NFL the NBA the MLB and the NHL he was finally in the sports business but ultimately it would cost him because one of the people watching all those news stories about McFarland buying a $3 million baseball was Neil gaimon for gon it was just too much here was McFarland dragging out negotiations over his contract while spending millions of dollars on baseballs they meet again to try and negotiate over what gaming was owed for his contributions to the spawn universe but they just couldn't come to any agreement as gaan stood up to leave McFarland threatened him I'm going to bury you it's going to cost you $250,000 in legal fees to fight me Gan responded calmly well I'm just going to have to write another $250,000 screenplay on the plane ride home but at some point gaming thought of an even better way to get back at McFarland he would have his fight funded by McFarland's number one enemy Marvel Comics see Gan had never written anything significant for Marvel but they always had wanted him to so we finally agreed to write a new limited series for them if they would fund his fight with McFarland the resulting comics 1602 would bear the dedication to Todd for making it necessary and with that he took the legal fight to McFarland again I'll summarize here and suggest you pick up Daniel best's book but in short giman argued that he was co-owner of Angela kly Ostro and medieval spawn and not only had McFarlin been using those characters in multiple mediums without properly compensating him when Gan had tried to get them back McFarlin had created Dark Ages spawn Tiffany and Domina as knockoff to try and get around G's ownership after years of back and forth the courts ultimately delivered a huge victory for Gaiman in the resulting settlement McFarland got back medieval spawn cogliostro but Gaiman got anela and in a final blow to McFarland Gan promptly sold Angela to Marvel doing the one thing McFarland hated giving Marvel ownership over his creations and while the monetary damage was significant the Damage Done to McFarland's reputation was arguably worse stripped of the legal complexities about contracts and verbal agreements the public suic Farland the one-time champion of creators rights battling and losing against the Creator he had hired to work for him in the eyes of the public he was the ultimate hypocrite he' become the very thing he had set out to destroy and so between two lawsuits the legal fees and the diminishing sales of Spawn McFarland Productions was forced to declare chapter 11 bankruptcy but McFarland's story doesn't end there it would have been easy for him to close up shop at this point to stop publishing spawn to go back to Marvel and get a big paycheck for drawing Spider-Man but he doesn't stop publishing spawn despite the dwindling readership he puts it out every single month why what makes McFarland able to keep fighting through defeat well I think this is his real secret he already has the thing he always wanted and no critic lawyer or competitor can take that away from him he has his family that's what it's always been about for him he can support his family and his family and Wanda in particular can support him so just like he had when he was living in a trailer trying to break into Comics he plows ahead and Wanda believes in him even as spawn continually fails to find success but her support doesn't flavor and in all of the interviews I've watched with McFarland the only time I've ever seen him get emotional is talking about Wanda's support during this period when he had been trying and failing to find an audience for spawn for the past 15 years I I think I can be tiresome I think I can be weary I think I can be aggravating in a pain all the above so it's it's I I I'm amazed that she continues that she continues to deal with it but finally in 2019 things start to change this trailer comes out for Mortal Kombat 11 and people are hyped a whole new generation of kids is introduced to spawn and later that year when spawn 300 comes out it becomes the second bestselling comic of the year in 2020 mcfar starts a Kickstarter to raise funds to produce a remastered version of that very first spawn toy he sets out to raise $100,000 for this specialty item for nostalgic collectors he ends up raising nearly $3.5 million and then in 2021 a Spawn comic becomes the bestselling comic of the year for the first time since 1992 McFarland never gave up Wanda never stopped believing in him and the character that they had introduced 45 years earlier the series that he wrote as a love letter to her is a as strong today as it ever has been thank you guys so much for watching I hope you enjoyed this extra long episode I know I don't upload very often so please make sure you subscribe and hit the Bell so you don't miss the next one see you
