
“I do not stand by watercoolers and complain about bosses. I quit jobs and start my own companies. As a creative person, if I’m going to complain about how the business works, then I will go and become my own businessman.”
— Todd McFarlane
Todd McFarlane (@Todd_McFarlane) is an Emmy- and Grammy-winning director/producer and creator of one of the world’s best-selling comic books, Spawn. He is best known to many comic book fans for his work as the artist on The Amazing Spider-Man, for which he co-created Marvel’s top villain, Venom.
Todd is the CEO of Todd McFarlane Productions, McFarlane Toys (one of the US’s top action-figure manufacturers), and McFarlane Films. He is also a co-founder of Image Comics, which debuted Spawn in 1992, selling 1.7 million copies of the first issue. In 1997, Spawn was made into an Emmy Award-winning animated series on HBO and a live-action feature film that grossed over $100 million. In 2019, Todd made history with Spawn #301, earning the Guinness World Record for longest-running creator-owned superhero comic book series.
Please enjoy!
The transcript of this episode can be found here. Transcripts of all episodes can be found here.
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Want to hear round one with Todd McFarlane? Listen to our conversation in which we discussed the art of compelling storytelling, meeting deadlines, Todd’s voluminous library of rejection letters, how the industry status quo led to the founding of Image Comic Books, the happy accident that brought Venom to life, spaghetti webbing, competitive bladdering, and much more.
What was your favorite quote or lesson from this episode? Please let me know in the comments.
SCROLL BELOW FOR LINKS AND SHOW NOTES…
SELECTED LINKS FROM THE EPISODE
- Connect with Todd McFarlane:
Website | Twitter | Facebook | Instagram
- Spawn | Image Comics
- The Amazing Spider-Man | Marvel
- Todd McFarlane’s Spawn | HBO
- Spawn | Prime Video
- Spawn #301 | Image Comics
- Todd McFarlane, Legendary Comic Book Artist — How to Make Iconic Art, Reinvent Spider-Man, Live Life on Your Own Terms, and Meet Every Deadline | The Tim Ferriss Show #639
- How Stan Lee Changed Spawn Creator Todd McFarlane’s Life When He Was 16 | CBC Radio
- The Comic Book Greats With Todd McFarlane and Stan Lee Part 1 | YouTube
- The Comic Book Greats With Todd McFarlane and Stan Lee Part 2 | YouTube
- The SNL/Shatner ‘Get A Life’ Video | Boing Boing
- Here’s Every Stan Lee MCU Movie Cameo, Ranked | MovieWeb
- Iron Man | Prime Video
- Stan Lee | Hollywood Walk of Fame
- Todd McFarlane Talks About His Stan Lee Photos and Interviews Robert Kirkman | Comics Beat
- Reenacting Stan Lee’s ‘Thor’ Movie Cameo | Todd McFarlane, Instagram
- The Very First Image Comics Meeting | Todd McFarlane, Instagram
- Join the Dance Party! | Teletubbies
- Star Wars
- What It’s like to Be a Digital Toy Sculptor at McFarlane Toys | SYFY Wire
- Todd McFarlane: The Art of Making Action Figures Toy Fair 2000 | TV Days
- McFarlane Toys Office Tour: Todd McFarlane on How and Why He Makes Toys | SYFY Wire
- Steve Jobs iPhone 2007 Presentation | YouTube
- Play Reimagined | Toy Fair
- Toys”R”Us
- A Nightmare on Elm Street | Prime Video
- The Terminator | Prime Video
- The Matrix | Prime Video
- 1994 in Tech: A Rabbit Hole into the World Wide Web | Fourteen East
- Coca-Cola is the Strongest Brand in the US, With a Brand Strength of 93.3 | New World Report
- The Story behind Mark McGwire’s 70th HR Ball and How Much It Sold for Is Wild | BarDown
- Quite a Pair: McFarlane Adds Bonds Ball to Mac’s | ESPN
- More Than Meets the Eye | Transformers
- The Home Of The Players | NHLPA
- NHL | McFarlane Toys
- Todd McFarlane’s Spawn | Emmy Awards
- DC Multiverse | McFarlane Toys
- Cirque du Soleil
- Ranking the Chicago Bulls’ Six NBA Championship Wins | Sportskeeda
- Hot Topic
- Todd McFarlane | Grammy Awards
- Do the Evolution (Official Video) | Pearl Jam
- Solutions That Empower Media Creators | Avid Technology
- Splash Racquetball Scene | YouTube
- How to Increase Your Luck Surface Area | Codus Operandi
- SDCC 2022 Interview: Spawn Creator Todd McFarlane | Screen Rant
- The Rise and Fall of Orange County Int’l Raceway | NHRA
- Why NHRA Funny Cars Are Called Funny Cars | Autoweek
- Spawn Funny Car | Toddfather Talk
- Batman/Spawn | DC
- Doom | Prime Video
- Gunslinger Spawn | Image Comics
- Braveheart | Prime Video
SHOW NOTES
- [05:58] The wit, wisdom, and work ethic of Stan Lee.
- [29:50] Todd’s four corners: video games, TV, movies, and toys.
- [41:46] Learning the art of toycrafting and beating the industry at its own game.
- [49:11] Dumb luck at Toy Fair.
- [1:03:31] Toy marketing and distribution circa 1994.
- [1:10:51] The play Todd made with a $3 million baseball.
- [1:18:08] Todd gets in a hockey fight.
- [1:24:12] Bringing Spawn to TV.
- [1:27:57] Being the dumbest guy in the room can win you Emmy awards.
- [1:31:17] Cancellation.
- [1:32:38] Todd is bilingual — in art and business.
- [1:38:50] How Todd finds time to create while managing his businesses.
- [1:43:49] Brand matters.
- [1:49:44] Making a music video, winning another Emmy, and almost killing Eddie Vedder.
- [1:56:33] The momentum of success.
- [1:59:15] The surface area of (dumb) luck.
- [2:01:07] Building worlds that will endure.
- [2:08:13] Building characters who will outlive their creator.
- [2:15:13] Today will not be perfect, so lower the bar and dance if you want to.
- [2:24:45] Is Todd’s wife married to a monster?
- [2:30:50] Be the second person.
- [2:35:48] Parting thoughts.
MORE TODD MCFARLANE QUOTES FROM THE INTERVIEW
“Build a Cadillac and sell it at Ford Motor prices, and you can sell that all day long because people understand value.”
— Todd McFarlane
“I do not stand by watercoolers and complain about bosses. I quit jobs and start my own companies. As a creative person, if I’m going to complain about how the business works, then I will then go and become my own businessman.”
— Todd McFarlane
“I’ve got plenty of people who’ve said nice things about me for plenty of years. I’m over me. Nobody’s more bored of Todd than me.”
— Todd McFarlane
“I consider creations to be creative children. Every parent has the same wish. You always want your children to outlive you.”
— Todd McFarlane
“I get up every day, and I don’t have high expectations of anything, not even with humanity. I’m not a religious person, but I do have a personal prayer, and it’s this simple, every day: ‘Today will not be perfect.'”
— Todd McFarlane
“Assume today’s not going to be perfect and assume human beings are flawed, and you will have a pretty good life. Because guess what happens? Some days, nobody cuts you off, nobody cuts in line, and nobody writes you a bad email. And it’s a pretty good day. It’s a pretty good day because discomfort didn’t come. Not that you won the lottery, not that your team won the championship. You just didn’t have a lot of aggravation. You didn’t get sued today. Cool. It’s a good day.”
— Todd McFarlane
“You know who woke up on the planet today with eight billion people and said, ‘I’m going to make Todd’s life better today?’ There was only one human being — one — and that was me.”
— Todd McFarlane
“There’s never been anybody in history that’s ever changed anything on any level and was liked by everybody. Get over it. Get over people liking you. Just figure out what your goal is.”
— Todd McFarlane
“If you’ve never been the first one on a dance floor, you’re probably not built to be an entrepreneur. Let me just put that there because that means you give a shit about the rest of the people in that room.”
— Todd McFarlane
PEOPLE MENTIONED
- Spawn
- Spider-Man
- Venom
- Stan Lee
- Fantastic Four
- Iron Man
- Hulk
- Doctor Strange
- Black Panther
- X-Men
- Walt Disney
- Thor
- Batman
- Robin
- Joan Boocock Lee
- Steve Nash
- Wayne Gretzky
- Superman
- Steve Jobs
- Don Newton
- Freddy Krueger
- The Terminator
- Tom Jones
- Mark McGwire
- Roger Maris
- Sammy Sosa
- Barry Bonds
- Aaron Judge
- Pavel Bure
- Mario Lemieux
- Wanda Kolomyjec
- Phil Jackson
- Michael Jordan
- Scottie Pippen
- Wonder Woman
- Eddie Vedder
- Madonna
- John Candy
- Jason Roberts
- The Kardashians
- Jerry Siegel
- Joe Shuster
- Mickey Mouse
- Cal Ripken Jr.
- Benito Mussolini
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It’s an acquired taste, as it is an awesome episode to listen to and learn! Thumb-up.
Thank you.