Todd McFarlane Talks McFarlane Toys and The New Spawn Movie | NYCC 2018

Automatically transcribed; may contain errors.

there's a penciler in comic books and there's an inker so I want a pencil and ink just because then I thought that depends on the ink would be truer to my art because when I was given my pencils away to incres I didn't think it was conveying what it was that I had in my head so I go the easiest way to just let me do both and then and then once you get that job then you go hey I wonder if I could write right let me let me try some writing and then you just use the value of your art to basically go I'll give you my art if you let me have a chance to write so you know you go give you this big thing called Todd the artist if you if you do this little thing which is Todd the novice newbie rookie writer and let me put those two together which they did starting with spider-man number one so it's interesting it's fine number one this record-setting book is well probably the biggest selling book I'll ever do as a writer and it was my first book so technically it's my worst book it's am I gonna be my biggest selling book right so I'll have that sitting on my shoulders still a hell of an accomplishment though yeah you get better the sales get worse so it's interesting concept but then eventually you know we left Marvel a handful of us who started our own company image comic book so you know most people know Marvel and they know DC but if you ask the next question who's number three it's image comic books and we have been for 26 years right so we've turned we turned out 70 books a month you know done stuff like you know the Kingsmen and Walking Dead you know my partner created Walking Dead so a lot of our books is about 20 of them that are in production the deadly class is about to come out of the TV show we've got lots going on I created a character called spawn and it was somebody I had created as a character when I was in high school and so I go okay I'm writing producing this book and the sales went up so people then started coming at me and one of the air arena's they came at me was a movie so we made the movie TV we made the HBO series won a couple of Emmys for that did some video games but the fourth the fourth pillar that I wanted to build upon the brand of spawn which toys I thought to everybody that was public at that point they had big toy companies and I I i didn't feel personally that they sort of got what I was trying to do which was this simple I think we need to do non-traditional toys looking why it's the way that we designed them and take those non-traditional toys and then sell them in non-traditional stores at least a portion of them because we're geeks and we don't necessarily sort of shop all the same spot so I think if you make this sort of geeky toy and sell it in these geeky places I think it'll work they they couldn't get their head wrapped around it so I just did what I've always done which is sort of ask the question well how hard can this be right I mean starting image comic books it's more complicated than what I'm about to say but it's still putting ink on paper we're making comic books it's ink on paper every time you write a note and you stick it on the fridge you're basically doing ink on paper it's not overly complicated toys is a little bit complicated it's just plastic and shapes right but still not overly complicated so I start my own toy company and along the way starting your own comic company starting your your own toy company you have to then learn a language and this language is called business and if you don't learn the language of business you better hire people that know the language or you're gonna fail and so I became bilingual so I'm fluent in business now right ask me a question I'll throw the switch and talk to you like a CEO that I've been for the last 20 years I can talk CEO I can put on a three-piece suit walk into a bank and they actually think I'm a businessman who happens to do art right so good I fooled I fooled all them now is we get to something like how do you get to write produce and direct potentially your own movie you just say no and so after the first movie came out and and Hollywood was coming I mean what are we talking about we're doing all these superhero movies they're all blowing up so Hollywood's making a path to my door going oh my god we can't get Marvel stuff because Disney owns it we can't get Warner Brothers stuff or DC stuff because Warner brother owns it so now all the other companies you know the Paramount and Sony's and universals and Lionsgate in those companies Fox they now have to walk outside Marvel and DC and that's us natural ones go to number three and spawn had a successful track record already so it was already there but I went in there and I said hey I'll give you the rights we can do this thing called spawn except for I have to write produce and direct non-negotiable that's it that's and they and they said maybe foolishly okay where's the script you write a script let us see it and if we like it and you can put together a project then we'll think about funding it so I've written the script I put a producer Academy award-nominated producer of whiplash and get out and and hopefully soon to be black clansmen and and then all the horror stuff that he's done with the Persian and Paranormal Activity Blum house productions and I think in two weeks when Halloween comes out it's gonna it's gonna set a record for the biggest opening I think this weekend venom is going to set the record for October's biggest opening ever and that record is only the last two weeks because I think Halloween's then gonna go Bam Bam is we're gonna get two records literally in two weeks and then I attached Jamie Foxx to the lead role of spawn character and then Jeremy Renner who is an Academy Award nominated actor Jamie is an Academy Award winner for a Rey and so I'm put and then we added Greg Nicotero who does costume effects and did all the zombie makeup for Walking Dead and has directed more Walking Dead episodes than anybody else he's on board and we've created the costume together I just saw it today I met with him earlier he printed out my costume might my spawn I physically saw my spawn that's gonna be in the movie today I'm one oh my god that's it that's what I've had in my head all the that's gonna be amazing yeah it was a good morning he goes I got something I want to show you and I thought okay whatever and then I walk into his room and it was just sitting these multiple things sitting on his desk I want the baby has come out of the womb it's not just an ultrasound anymore the baby is now physical I went ball so that's gonna be good I'll be able to take all that now into Hollywood and show them when I do presentations for but you just you if you if you if you just get stubborn enough and and you you have to have a decent amount of success then you can start to assert yourself into the process if you think that you've got something valid to say so like I said it it's it's been 30 years we're up to issue 290 of the Swan comic book by Tom you and I are talking next year at comic-con near comic-con 2019 su 300 will be out big anniversary issue and then issue 301 which will be the longest running independent comic book and in North American history right I'll have this sales record for spawn I mean for spider-man and then I'll have the sales record for spawn number one so I'll have the independent record and then I'll have the longest-running comic book which would still be spawned and so it it's just time a lot of time or a lot of effort so it's about time and that's not bad for a penciler from Canada Wow you know I have my daughters off camera here I've shown people a picture of me the day I was shining spawn number one right June 4th 1992 and I'm holding my my baby daughter don't know why I had my baby daughter that signing because I flew to that signing so hi Scott brought the baby and but she's sitting over there she's a doctor now so that baby is a doctor so that's how long it takes to do what it is I did so it's not a leap I didn't make a leap I made this grind this grind to where I'm at right now oh yeah I mean again you know I think there has to be certain personalities - I just have the personality that I'm okay for the fight I don't I don't fear I don't fear confrontation I don't fear fight when I think people are not being fair that's not my fight you're not about winning because I want to beat them but it my fights are I think you're being unfair because corporations like to come in and like to swallow everything and give you crumbs sometimes I don't even want to offer the crumb they want to give you close to nothing and I don't think that's fair well at the time you were in a hugely successful comic book but someone else's IP and you went and threw it away and and you said you know the hell with it I'm ready to start my own comic book and you didn't even have to look back so it's much success in my time at Marvel and we had a good time do you know I mean I did Hulk and Batman over DC and spider-man and and created co-created venom with David McLean II that's just a movie that's out right now so well yeah I was it was a good life I would just have moved on from it right to me I always say Marvel in my life is high school you know I had a good high school career too I loved the people but I don't plan on going back right I'm looking forward into my life so I've I've I've been very fortunate and and I enjoy coming to meeting the fans of these conventions so it's definitely well deserved and again it's such a pleasure to meet you in person thank you so much for speaking with me yeah much success [Music] you [Music]