Who is Todd McFarlane

Todd McFarlane is a comic book artist who got his start in the early to mid- 1980's working on such titles as Coyote, All Star Squadron, Infinity Inc., and Detective Comics (featuring Batman).

It wasn't until the late 1980's when Todd McFarlane began working on Amazing Spider-man that his career really took off. His Amazing Spider-man run, beginning with Amazing Spider-man #298 is considered one of the tops all-time for that character. Among the highlights of this run is the origin and first appearance of Venom (in Amazing Spider-man #300).

McFarlane's run on Amazing Spider-man was so popular that it led Marvel Comics to create a brand new title (the adjective-lessly named Spider-man) to showcase not only his art, but his writing ability as well.

The Spider-man series was extremely successful with the the first issue selling copies in the millions. Todd McFarlane was not satisfied to rest on his newfound success. He along with a half-dozen other Marvel artists broke free from Marvel Comics to start there own comic book company called Image Comics in the early 1990's.

Each Image Comics' creator was given the opportunity to create and control their own comic book properties (maintaining full ownership). McFarlane used this opportunity to create Spawn, whose comic book proved to be very successful as it sold copies in the millions, and was the top selling comic book each month for much of the early 1990's.

The artist would take full advantage of his character Spawn by using the character to help launch his own toy line McFarlane Toys. The early toys in this line stood out on the toyshelves. They were hulking figures that dwarved the other super-hero action figures on the shelves and were much more highly detailed than there toy shelf neighbors.

McFarlane Toys branched out from McFarlane's own Spawn line to include movie and television properties as well. Todd McFarlane's love for sports showed through with his introduction of sports action figures that proved popular with collectors of baseball cards, and other sports memorabilia.

McFarlane essentially built an empire in the early 1990's, and he was able to parlay his considerable wealth to purchase Mark McGwire's then record homerun ball for over $3 million dollars. Though McGwire's record was later broken by Barry Bonds, and his popularity seriously nosedived after testifying before Congress amidst baseball's steroid scandal, McFarlane still credits the $3 million purchase as being well worth the "free" advertising it generated both himself and his various business ventures.


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