NYCC 2017: Todd McFarlane Spotlight Panel Live Recap

Todd McFarlane is one of the most prolific people working in comics, having created Spawn as one of the founders of Image Comics as well as started his own toy empire with McFarlane Toys.

With a new Spawn movie announced from Blumhouse that he himself will be directing, McFarlane took the stage at New York Comic Con to answer questions for the fans in attendance.

The panel began with Todd running up to the stage to applause. After a minor issue with the microphone, Todd thanked the fans and the city of New York for hosting him.

“For all you people, I’m going to give my PSA speech right here,” McFarlane said. “Today is the best day you can bring your idea forward.”

McFarlane stressed that fans should not be afraid to make their own stories or creations, and not to talk themselves out of creating.

The Dark Side of Comics

The storyteller began talking about how Marvel and DC Comics are at the top of the movie industry, explaining why he supports Disney’s decision not to push content featuring the X-Men and Fantastic Four. “If I spent $6 billion dollars on my car, I’m not going to let anybody else drive it,” he said.

He spoke about the other studios not owned by Disney and Warner Bros. who are scrambling to get in on the comic book action being locked out. So they have to look at Image Comics and the many properties they publish.

McFarlane went back and provided a history lesson, how he started drawing when he was 16. He thought he was going to be a professional baseball player by day, and draw comics at night. After hundreds of samples and rejections, he finally got his first gig. Unfortunately, his dreams of playing baseball didn’t pan out.

He revealed some industry deceptions used by studios and comic book companies when people freelance. “Before we started Image Comics, I wanted to start a union,” McFarlane said, advocating for the creators who work on the major franchises and are abused by the big publishers.

The Founding of Image

McFarlane spoke about starting Image Comics, born out of discussions with Rob Liefeld and Erik Larson. All three of them wanted to do their own books, and they decided to do them together. Liefeld brought in Jim Valentino, and they set a meeting in New York City with Marvel and DC.

McFarlane met with Jim Lee by coincidence the day before, and after a two-hour conversation where he pitched his idea, Jim Lee was in as well. And Lee brought in Whilce Portacio. McFarlane spoke about how big that was, because Jim was a “golden boy” who was most important.

They met with Marc Silvestri, and asked if he wanted to quit Marvel and join them, telling him he had to decide before their meeting the next day.

At the meeting with Marvel, they told Todd DeFalco and then walked out of the building. McFarlane said people at the publisher doubted their abilities to create a publishing company.

McFarlane said you work for Marvel, get mad, then work for DC, then get mad, then go to Marvel. So when DC sees a creator come into their office, they know someone from Marvel pissed them off.

So when they went to DC Comics, the editors and executives saw Jim Lee and started salivating at the opportunity. They had a meeting, and then McFarlane and co. dropped the bomb.

“We’re here to say we’re not going to work for you,” McFarlane said.

McFarlane said they wanted to give them their reasons why, just like they did to Marvel. He said the intention was that he wanted the companies to do something about it and change their practices, so they won’t drive off seven more creators from doing the same thing.

Creating New Business

The seven creators immediately went from being artists to becoming businessmen. Now Hollywood, toy companies, everyone else was beginning to call them because they owned the properties, no one else.

This gave Image some clout, and they would invite new creators to come and join their new company where they would make more money on one issue than they ever did in a year working for Marvel or DC.

And though some young creators would make a ton of money, many of them forgot about the taxes they owed. Now they had to pay a ton of money to the government, and they didn’t save, so they were back at square one.

McFarlane mentioned the success stories like Robert Kirkman, Brian K. Vaughan, and Mark Millar. He didn’t take credit for their achievements, but said that he wanted to give them the power to make those decisions themselves.

He pointed out how those creators decided to stop writing Marvel and DC altogether and work on their own properties, calling it the way to be a true success in the business.

Spawn, The Movie

McFarlane spoke about some artists choosing to make money by going to conventions and doing sketches, making more money than McFarlane would offer to do 12 comic books per year. He said it’s fine for short-term financial stability, but long term it doesn’t pan out, because they’re not building a body of work.

“If you do sketches based on other people’s characters for the rest of your life, you can do all right,” McFarlane said. “But you’re not going to get big job offers and you’re not going to get offers for the rights because you don’t own the characters.”

He mentioned that he’s offering different flavors for his products, mentioning the Twitch from the Spawn movie will be different from the version in the Sam and Twitch TV show.

He then started talking about the new Spawn movie. He spoke about Jason Blum from Blumhouse producing the film, who made movies like Insidious and Get Out. They’re budgeting the film now, they have the IP, the script, and production planned.

They’ll be able to get a different deal because they have those aspects in place, but they need distribution. With Blum’s first look deal at Universal, they could go there if they wanted to. But they don’t have to, because Blum is working for McFarlane for the movie.

This will give them an opportunity to work with many different studios and play the game, getting a deal that a studio won’t want to take because they want the IP, the script, and everything else in place to maximize their profits.

Spawn Filming Begins Next Year

McFarlane said they hope to have pre-production started after Christmas 2017, with filming set to begin in January or February next year.

He promised to have a Facebook Live post every day giving people updates on the production because he doesn’t like when people sign NDAs and cannot say a single word about the movies they’re making.

Spawn will be a dark film, a character drama that will be relatable and won’t require you to suspend too much disbelief. He spoke about movies like The Thing from John Carpenter, saying if you take out the alien it’s just a movie about people who are trapped and cold.

He says Spawn will never be fully shown in the film. “Instead I will show a shark in black water,” McFarlane said. “And if you’re not looking, you are gone. And he will f**k you up.”

McFarlane teased that he got a script for an IP they sold to Showtime, and he will make an announcement if it gets greenlit.

He revealed McFarlane Toys got the rights to make Stranger Things toys, and said Five Nights at Freddy’s was the company’s most successful property in its history.

Questions and Answers

Asked how he could be a director if he’s never directed, McFarlane said, “I didn’t know how to make comic books, but I made comic books and won awards. I didn’t know how to make toys, but I made toys and won awards. I don’t know how to make music, but I have a Grammy.”

He didn’t know how to make animation, but when he sold the rights to HBO, he demanded to be in charge. That series was nominated for Emmy awards.

“They were going to get some young punk, a newbie to direct the film anyways, so why not me? I’ll be the newbie,” McFarlane said.

McFarlane revealed how he came up with ideas for character names, revealing Violator came from when he saw a no parking sign that said “Violators Will Be Towed.”

He said he would never go back to Marvel or DC for even a guest cover, calling it a conflict of interest for the President of Image Comics.