Summary

• Issue 350 of Spawn is a perfect jumping-on point for new readers, as it wraps up a storyline that began in issue 100.
• The vacant throne in Spawn's story will finally be filled in issue 350, which will have significant repercussions for the Earth and other comic books in the Spawn universe.
• Artist Brett Booth will be taking over Spawn, while Carlo Barberi will be moving to Gunslinger, in order to bring fresh perspectives to the characters and keep the artists engaged.

Todd McFarlane has several projects in the works, from his beloved toy company to the ongoing Spawn comic book series and the long-developing Spawn movie. Spawn was first created by McFarlane in 1992, and he first announced a new movie nearly ten years ago, in 2015. The movie is a ion project of McFarlane's, and there has been quite a bit of buzz around it recently.

Jason Blum revealed how he hopes Blumhouse can make a mark on the superhero genre with Spawn during New York Comic Con. However, McFarlane seems to be growing impatient and has made it clear that he is willing to make this movie himself if there isn't movement soon. Spawn's story has continued to grow, with the ongoing comics reaching a milestone of 350 issues very soon.

Screen Rant interviewed Todd McFarlane about his comics, toys, and the Spawn movie. He gave some interesting insight into what he is hoping to explore with the Spawn movie and whether Jamie Foxx is still attached. McFarlane also explained why Spawn issue 350 is a great starting point for new fans and teased McFarlane toy releases that collectors can get excited about.

Todd McFarlane Talks 350 Issues Of Spawn

Screeen Rant: Todd McFarlane, it is always great to see you. Look, congratulations. I know you're about to celebrate your 30th anniversary of your Todd McFarlane Toys, which I'm a huge fan of. I have my Aquaman toys over there, but I should just have brought them out. Anyway, I wanted to start off by talking about Spawn, though. Spawn is never going to reissue numbers, but issue 350 is a fantastic jumping on point for new readers. What can we expect from issue 350? And how will that affect King Spawn, Gunslinger and Scorched?

Todd McFarlane: Yeah, so it seems like 350 shouldn't be a good spot to jump on, but it actually is because, and although it seems a little bit wieldy, it's finishing up a story that you could argue began in issue 100, right? People go, "What? I'm 250 issues behind?" No, in issue 100 Spawn killed his maker and he sat on the throne of hell, and it's been vacant for 250 issues. Throughout those 250 issues, I've mentioned it throughout the storyline. And so, some of the other writers, but we've mentioned it. I'm just saying, it's vacant. It's vacant, it's vacant. And it's only been recently that there's been a concentrated effort for somebody to now fill it. That's what 350 is.

350 is basically all you need to know as a new reader. The throne's empty, people have been scrumming for it for 250 issues. And in this issue, somebody's finally going to sit in, right? So, that's all the information you need. You don't have to go read the last 250 issues. If you want to buy the trades, go ahead, God bless you. But that's it. So, you're going to get the big answer, "Who sits upon the throne?"

It's so funny because that literally leads into my next question.

Todd McFarlane: But the thing is, which is why it's a good jumping on point. You get this big giant answer to what we've been building up in the books literally for the last couple of years. But overall, in a big arc for 250 issues, but you get the answer. So, you go, "Boom, I got this answer. Everybody else had to read 250. I just had to read this one, and I got the answer," sort of like seeing the highlights on ESPN you get the winning touchdown without having to watch the whole game. So, you get that answer. And then, the reason it's a good spot because the answer to that question has repercussions moving forward for Earth. So, it does affect all of the other books going forward.

So, if all of a sudden, you're reading the other books going, "Hey, something's a little off," it's because of what happened in 350. So, you can go, "Oh, I see what happened. And now, I'm going to start reading the new consequence of whoever is sitting on the throne moving forward. And it's going to touch all the books. Not in a big giant way, not in a way that you have to buy all the issue journey of that. But just, if things are different, then you go, "Oh, it was that 350 mode."

We definitively will have somebody sitting on that throne in 350, correct?

Todd McFarlane: At the end. At the end, yup.

Oh, I'm excited about that. Now, we also have a new interior artist taking over. Brett Booth s the book. Why was he the right choice? And what are you excited for fans to see with his artwork?

Todd McFarlane: It's actually, Brett being on the book is me constantly checking in with my artist. And so, Brett had been on Gunslinger for a while. And Carlo Barberi had been on Spawn for a while. And part of keeping artists around is having them enjoy their work. And sometimes, although you enjoy doing a character, after a while you can say, "Hey, I'm looking for just a little bit something different in my diet," right?

So, what I thought would work, and I talked to both Brett and to Carlo is, "Hey, you've done a bunch of Spawn, Carlo," and he'd done a bunch of Gunslinger. I've seen a little bit of Brett do Spawn. He does a really good Spawn. "And I've seen you do a Gunslinger, you do a killer Gunslinger, Carlo, why don't we flop? Given that it's also going to be an anniversary, and people are going to be coming on hopefully as a starting on point, and then you become the new Gunslinger guy, Carlo, and he becomes the new Spawn guy. And you guys both get a little bit of freshness in the pages and it's not just the same thing you've been drawn for the last few years."

Now, both of them are really dedicated workers, right? And both of them are just such kind, talented gentlemen that they're like, "I can stay on the book and keep doing more if you want." But I'm always leery that it's like by the time you do burn them out, it's too late to get them. So, I was just being a little proactive of saying, "Hey, let's make the swap." So, both Brett and Carlo are on issue 350. It's a 40-page book. It's 40 pages for $4.99. Again, I just did a thing on my Instagram. It's going to be the best value you're going to get this year, 40 pages when you buy them. There's a bunch of comic books that are 20 pages that are $4.99 right now, right? So, I'm going to give you a free comic book basically compared to their prices. But so, it's going to be a 40 pager, and then Brett will then stay on Spawn and Carlo moves over to Gunslinger.

It's absolutely incredible. Now, there's a few books I want to highlight that are coming out. Look, I was a big fan of Jimmy Palmiotti's run-on Jonah Hex in DC. I think he has such a great way of telling these fantastic Western stories. Now, he's ing the Spawn universe with deadly tales of the Gunfighter. What insight could you tell us about deadly tales of the Gunslinger?

Todd McFarlane: We call it Gunslinger Spawn, but I just like to call him Gunslinger. I want him to have his own identity. Gunslinger is in modern times right now in his own book, the one I write. And so, but he's popular and there's a lot of backstory still to be told. A lot of history to be told when he was back in pre-Civil War time. And I didn't want to keep using the regular book to keep doing flashbacks because you can only do that so much, and you're going back and forth. And I don't want to send mixed messages.

So, when Jimmy came along, and again, he had that big long run as you mentioned on Jonah Hex, right? That it was like, "Oh, well, we all came to the idea, why we just do a book that is modern, which is the one I'm doing with Brett, and now Carlo Barberi. And then, you could go off and do your thing, Jimmy, and tell those Western stories and we don't have to feel like we've got to rush it, and then pull it back into my time."

So, there can be the old book and the new book with this character that I think fits both times and has interesting stories on both of it. So, that was how we got there. And Jimmy, one of the perfect choices because he's done those kinds of stories for so long, and so well.

Spawn The Dark Ages is returning after 25 years with artist-writer Liam Sharp. This book takes place in the 5th-century Britain. What else can you share about the return of Spawn The Dark Ages?

Todd McFarlane: Yeah, Liam actually did some covers way back when on the original one. So, he poked his head out and it was like, "What? Liam?" I didn't even know he even ed he did it. But he came to us and said, "Hey, I've got this idea about the Dark Age. I'll never stopped thinking about it, but I'd like to write it myself." And he pitched it to us, showed us a couple of pieces of art and I go, "Man, that looks cool."

Again, Medieval Spawn is another guy that got pulled. All these characters got pulled forward. They all have this history from where they came from, and I need to be able to give room for it. I also think that Medieval Spawn done right and can be, I think a very popular character just in that sort of Game of Thrones, Lord of the Rings mentality.

And then, from time-to-time, you see him do his thing in modern times. But we haven't really dove into his past as much as we can. And that's basically, what Liam wants to do. So, and it's going to be gritty. It's going to be dark and gritty and dirty, which is what that time period is visually. And so, yeah, I'm looking forward to it.

What can you tell me about Medieval Spawn by Rory McConville?

Todd McFarlane: Rory's, again, Rory is another guy. He's doing Spawn right now on the Spawn book. And I had a conversation with him, I'm just saying, I think that Medieval could be kind of like my Thor, if you will. This mythological character, but he's in modern time. And so, there's some stories we have to fill on the backstory, but I also want to make him his own person in a big way, even in modern times, right? Without him having to be a guest star on a team and/or a couple of pages in Spawn or whatever out.

I don't want all my books to be theme book, theme or book, which is why we started the Scorch because it's like, "Hey, we can go there." But Spawn, I think Spawn works best alone. I think Gunslinger works best alone. And to some extent, I also think that that's true for Medieval. He just doesn't have his own pages to be able to show that off. And so, Rory has got a story that hopefully, will up the value and the ranking of Medieval Spawn amongst some of the fans, and who they think is their favorite Spawn.

Todd McFarlane Has High Hopes For The Spawn Movie

I want to talk about the Spawn movie for a second because I know you'll be reading the script this month at some point by Scott Silver. What elements are needed?

Todd McFarlane: They started and they're bouncing it around, right? Matt Mixon, Malcolm Spellman, and Scott Silver is the Joker writer. Malcolm's the Captain America: Winter Soldier writer. So, again, two heavy hitters doing their thing. And then, Matt is coming on to help give a voice because sometimes you need a little bit of youth in the puzzle as we all get a little bit older. But yeah, they've been throwing the script back and forth doing their thing. They're the pros, and they're just pushing it all together here. So...

What elements are needed to get Spawn right for the big-screen adaptation this time around?

Todd McFarlane: Interesting question because arguably, our answer and a studio answer might be two different things. The one thing that I'm excited about is in my conversations, and mostly with Scott Silver, that he is just hell bent, and don't say that as a pun, literally, of wanting to do something different. Every conversation, he just is like, "We just can't do Marvel Lite. We can't do... We've got it..."

And again, we don't want to just go, and he doesn't want to do horror because that is its own thing. He goes, he's just fighting to try and see if we can do something slightly different. We'll let the audience. I've always said when you try to do something different, you let the audience decide whether that's better or worse, right? They're the paying customer.

But he said something to me the other day that I thought was almost perfect. That he said, "I want to do a story that's dangerous." And he didn't mean it in that there's danger in the story per se. He meant that it would be a little bit of a risk to do this movie because it's not going to fall into an easy formula, and I'm all for that. I'm all for trying something different in his word, dangerous. That's music to my ear.

Again, do people who spend a lot of money making movies, do they want something that's dangerous? I don't know. We're going to find out. I mean, if they read the script and it's as strong as we're all hoping it'd be, they should have some big curiosity. And hopefully, appetite to go, "Oh, my God, this is a little bit different."

Look, right now, we're seeing potentially a little bit of a lull in the formula of superhero movies. And it might just be good timing to just go, "Yes, everybody wants to know how do you tweak the formula that's getting maybe a little soft? And you need the right character to be able to try something different." And I think Spawns built for that, right?

He's not Superman who's perfect, and you can't then go, "Hey, well, let's try this or this." His box isn't that big per se. Spawn is still relatively unknown outside the bubble of Geekdom. And to make a movie successful, you're going to have to sell it to a lot of people who don't know or have never read a single comic book before.

So, yeah, I don't know. Again, fingers crossed, we all have high hopes to do something at a time that's slightly different at a time when people are maybe looking for something slightly different, right? So, I mean, I don't know. Who knows? We might be done right at the right place at the right time, and that could help. I don't know. We don't control all of it. Obviously, you need the studios and everything to get in, but that's the recipe we're all looking for right now.

You're right, the box office numbers haven't really been there the last year or two for those superhero movies. And I think that something unique and completely different, a completely different approach may be the way to do that.

Todd McFarlane: No. Again, I hesitate to use big words like unique but different, just different. And oh, by the way, the formula that is there is still a very successful formula. I'm not saying that that shouldn't exist. There should be some satellite add-ons around it for when you want to try other stuff. We all go through it. I mean, we do it in comic book.

We, for the most part, start and we read our superhero. Sometimes, we start at Archie. And then, we graduate to superhero comic books Marvel and DC and we devour and devour. I did the same. I collected all of it. And then, you get to a certain age where then you're starting to look for something like Saga or The Walking Dead. Again, not on a steady dime, but you add it to your superhero reading, and then all of a sudden, it's like what used to be 100% to zero now becomes like 90/10.

And then, as you get a little bit older, then it's like, "Oh, now, maybe it's 70/30," right? It started to evolve of being, I like both. But as I get a little bit older, I don't just want all of one thing. I want to experiment and try different things. So, yeah, we'll see. And like I said, I think it's good timing for it.

Is Jamie Foxx still attached to the project? And I also know that Jeremy Renner was rumored to be on the project. But Jamie Foxx is still attached?

Todd McFarlane: Yeah. I mean, here's the thing about Hollywood. It is you have people at certain times that are attached. But again, there's also scheduling. So, the one thing that, I could want the greatest director. But if they say, "You've got to go project and you've got a window, and you've got to shoot it in this time," and that director isn't available, then you go, "Oh, man." You only got two choices, you either wait or you have to go to your other choices or whatever else.

We're all hoping, fingers crossed that the team that we assembled at the beginning will still somehow all be involved, but we'll have to let it all play out, right? And because again, I think those big decisions ultimately are the people spending $100 million bucks are going to be the ones that are going to dictate it. But Jamie, Jamie's my guy. So, until somebody tells me otherwise, Jamie is my guy.

McFarlane Toys Continues To ImpressI want to switch gears and talk about McFarlane Toys. Congratulations on the 30th anniversary. What will you guys be doing to celebrate that 30th anniversary at McFarlane Toys?

Todd McFarlane: Some of it will be dipping back into our history to remind people that we've been around this long, right? I mean, again, if you were just born when our first toy came out, you're an adult and are 30 years old. So, that's a long time, and you may have missed out on some of the cool things that we did.

So, we're going to go back, dive into some of the brands that we did, go back and do a wink to some of the original packaging that we did. The look that people got excited about those first four or five years of going, "Oh, man, when we started, we were swimming in the ocean by ourself. Nobody else was really doing collector adult stuff in a meaningful way."

And then, and since us coming upon the world with our toys that it's inspired dozens of other companies to do it. So, they're brilliant companies making terrific toys out there, which was always my master plan. It was like, if I can show that you can do it and make it successful, others will follow. And that means, that toys will get better. And I'm a geek. I like to collect stuff, that means more stuff for me. I don't have to make it all. I'll let other people make it.

So, it's worked the way that I want it, that you now go to Toy Fair, you go to San Diego Comic-Con, New York Comic-Con, and you see hundreds and hundreds and hundreds of brilliant toys that are out in the marketplace. So, we're just going to do a little bit of a tip back to our original history and have a little bit of fun with that, yup.

Are there any other plans to kill or still expand that with maybe more Arrowverse figures from Legends of Tomorrow or Black Lightning? We just recently saw the Ben Affleck Batman BvS costume. That figure is coming out soon. So, what else is down the pipeline when it comes to some of the cinematic and television shows from DC's past?

Todd McFarlane: A couple of things. One, sometimes there are starts and stops of what we can and can't do via our contract and who's willing to sign off on talent, whether they even have the rights for some of the talent could took a long time even to do like Adam West because there was some legal issues there.

So, we're constantly asking those questions. And yes, it's cool when you do stuff that is based on TV and movie and whatever. But interestingly, the data still shows that if you do a good figure that's just based on the character, whether it's derived from a look in the comic book directly or not, but just in of the romantic version of that character, those for the most part, outsell the movie versions of it. And maybe, it's because you don't have to have a specific knowledge of it. I agree, I think the Batman-Robin toys came out really nice, some nice likenesses, even the build a figure.

Yeah, that Mr. Freeze build-a-figure looks amazing.

Todd McFarlane: Right. So, it's one of... And again, this is that frustrating part about making toys. When you go, "Man, that's Florida." And they go, "Why can't we do this with all of our faces?" So, again, making toys is a very inexact science. So, we'll be going through and we've constantly gone through some of the stuff you were thinking about, and then adding it and asking, are we better off with that?

Or is there's this cool character we haven't made yet or a variation of a character we haven't made yet? That's from the comic book, video games or someplace else that we can put out there. So, there'll be more for sure. I don't know that we're going to go, "Hey, let's do 50 movie TV things in a row before we go back." And so, it's going to be a mixture.

Todd, I cannot wait for those figures. You're going through it in your head too?

Todd McFarlane: Yeah, I mean, the library. I mean, look at that, DC Comics has been around since 1936, right? The Action Comics #1, right? That vault, and they've opened it to us. That vault is, I mean, I'll die before I even get halfway through that vault. So, it's the frustrating part. So, there's so many characters still to dive into, and while you're doing it, Warner Brothers who owns DC are making video games, more video games, TVs, movies, and other things. And we can just say, they just keep adding to the pile that we're never going to climb to the top of the pile. They keep adding to it.

And so, it can be a bit overwhelming because there are literally tens of thousands of options, and that's what we go through as we're trying to call through some of it. And yes, I know it can be frustrating because everybody has their favorites, and they're like, "Man, I got this guy." Especially, once you get down to the less than all-star team. Then, everybody has their personal favorite. And when you don't do them, then you get to email.

How come you're not doing this guy? Or this gal? Or this character? Or this villain? Or whatever. But we'll just keep pumping them out, and hopefully having a decent response so we can keep doing it.

Your new partnership with Hasbro is expanding the line. We'll be getting Transformers, GI Joe, Dungeons & Dragons, and the one that excites me the most is Power Rangers. Will these be in the six-inch line or the seven-inch scale?

Todd McFarlane: We're going to start small to start with, so the page punchers. And then, we'll expand the sizes on a couple of them because we have restrictions on, some of them on a theme and can't do, as you can imagine because there are things there. But it's more of jumping in and playing with some brands that are well-known, especially in the toy side, and seeing whether we can do something meaningful. And if that works, then what normally happens is the people who give you the contract, you then ask for more favors, if you will.

And then, they're like, "Well, that last thing worked, hey, let's try it." And so, we're at the beginning of it. And every relationship we end up having, that's a little bit new. You learn to walk before you run.We're going to walk. And then, if it all works out, then both parties get excited and we both come up with razzle dazzle ideas, and we keep going, so we'll start it as paid punchers and we'll go from there. Success breeds success, right? So, which is why, again, times where people are like, "Oh, Todd, you're just money hungry or celebrity driven, or whatever it is you want to say. Again, it's okay, you can have your opinion.

The answer, if you were in my brain, you would know that's actually not true. The reason that I need success, and I've said it a thousand times, the reason that I need success, and if part of the success means that I've got to go out there and promote my companies and myself to do and help that success. Means, that when you're successful, they'll let you do it again.

And if you're in the art business and you do it on a regular basis, you have to do it again and again and again and again to the point in Spawn, we're up to 350 again because we've got issue 350. They don't give you chances to do it again if you don't succeed. This is the piece, like, guys, I don't want the success because I want to buy a fucking Lamborghini. I want a success so I can make more figures and more comics and more cool stuff. That's why I want to succeed, so I can do art. Oh, by the way, if you're successful, the byproduct is money, right?

So, that just comes as doing it right. But yes, you're not going to have a 40, 50, 60-year career doing something in any field if you don't have some momentum behind you. So, yes, I make no apologies for us trying to succeed. Nobody else, and neither should anybody else who's trying to advocate for their career.

Couldn't agree with you more. Now, look, personal questions because I love Power Rangers. I absolutely love Power Rangers. Are we starting off with the Mighty Morphin Power Rangers, then hopefully expanding out through the other seasons?

Todd McFarlane: Yeah, yes.

And then, Transformers, I'm assuming we're going to start off with the G1s, right?

Todd McFarlane: Yeah.

Dungeons & Dragons, are those going to be based on the tabletop game or the film?

Todd McFarlane: No, the tabletop. Yeah, yeah. I mean, again, we're going to try and make it the have or so. We're going to try and make it retro. I mean, again, a little bit of like, "Oh, man, cool. Oh, yeah, I this. Oh, I those brands. I that look. I ..." Just make it fun.

Bring a little bit of fun to it. And then, we can start, like I said, having the conversations with Hasbro and our side, and just going, "Oh, how do we expand each one of these?" But you have to get that first step of success to keep going, right? We may find, in all honesty. We may find, we put out a bunch, and there's more demand for one of those brands than another. No harm, no foul. I mean, we'll make more of them than other ones. Okay, cool. If we do the same when we were doing sports did way more New York Yankees than we did Florida Marlins, right?

I want to talk about the bimonthly Whatnot charity event. What can you tell me about that?

Todd McFarlane: I mean, I've been aware of Whatnot and I understand it. And I know why people use it. I sometimes come to meetings and I am trying to figure out how to get involved and/or use something, but I don't have the same need as other. So, sometimes the rules that apply to 90% of people don't apply to me. So, it's like, "Yeah, I go on whatnot every day and grab whatever I've got sitting around." Here's a comic book here, I could sign it and send it out, and make 40 bucks, whatever. I don't need 40 bucks. I'm good. I've got lots of money. I don't need money. What I do need... What I think is actually the most valuable currency is I need an audience.

And so, the question is, how do you build an audience? And for me, I think that you come up with some consistency, which is why we're up to 350 issues at Spawn. You give people quality, and you give it to them at a fair price. And you don't take advantage of them. If they're going to you, you don't say, "Oh, man, they're ing us, buying something for 10 bucks. Let's go to 15 bucks."

Sometimes, we can't help ourselves because our costs go and we get pushed on, but I think our toys are reasonably priced. I know that our comic books are the cheapest on the market to the point, I'm going to do a 350 double size issue, give you 40 pages for the price that people are giving you 20 pages. I am giving you twice as much at the same price. Could I charge an extra dollar or two and probably sell the same amount? Probably. But who's that? The only person that gains is me, I get more money.

I don't need more. I just told you, I don't need more. And who does it hurt? The end consumer. Like why? Why do I need two extra bucks from them? Probably, that two extra bucks, they can spend it on something else, maybe buy another comic book, I don't know. And I think that if you treat the customer in a fair manner like that, I think that they'll be loyal to you because he's not trying to pick our pocket. He's not trying to basically get us. He's not doing an event book every six months. He's not trying to do this thing on Kickstarter all the time and doing it.

So, that's a long-winded way of going back to whatnot, of just saying, "Dude, I'll use it the odd time. If we've got something, we need to make a buck here and there, because again, I got bills to pay." But I think what would be cooler is for us to make money and give it to people who need it more than us. So, why don't we take the community and say, "Hey, here's a book. Normally, we charge five bucks. We're putting it up for auction, you can pay five bucks, but just so you know, if you happen to go to six or seven, all the money, all the money is going to this charity," whatever it happens to be that day.

And again, trying to pick stuff that I think we can all agree upon. Charities that we can all agree upon that don't have a partisan bent to it, that it's just like, that seems cool, and go there. And so, it's like, yeah, I've got so much stuff lying around that is just hanging there. If we can convert it into money to help people, other people pay it forward a little bit, why not? So, why not?

So, that's it. Just trying to see if that platform will work for that. And if not, we'll try. I mean, what not to me is I've said before is just another experiment. It may work better than I think. It may work less, or we may need to tweak it along the way. But that's it, just want to have fun and engage myself with the audience, which is way more important, and then raise money for good causes.

I wanted to talk about Spawnuary 2024 Cover Challenge. I think that's such a cool thing. For the audience, for our audience that may not know exactly what that is, can you explain it to them?

Todd McFarlane: Yeah, and I may not even get it right. But we're doing a contest in which you hand in your artwork, I'm going to pick the winners, and the winners will get their artwork on one of my comic books. So, again, there may be people who are pros that submit, okay, fine, whatever. I didn't put any limitations on it.

And there may be people who are amateurs that are like, "Oh, man, I won and I'm going to be a Spawn, I'm going to be a Spawn cover artist." Cool. And so, I don't know, I just thought it would be fun that the people who have ed me and maybe grab a little bit of inspiration from what we do or what I do can enter and get. I mean, I would've done it. What are you talking about? When I was trying to break in, if somebody said, "Hey, do your Wolverine cover and you might get on the cover of Wolverine." Shit, I would've done 10 of them, right? Done.

So, we're going to do that. I think it's just, again, just a tip of the hat. Sometimes, I think you need to tip the hat to the retailers, and I think that sometimes you need to tip your hat to the loyal base, and this is a way of doing it. I also have an idea because this one is, you can say, "Well, if you're not an artist, you can't really enter," right?

But I have this idea, I'm just silly enough to think that everybody can draw something functional with a little bit of guidance that I want to do one that's actually even bigger than that, that maybe turn to the stores and say, "Okay, I need you to pick two people from your stores. One, what are your favorite artists who comes in or whatever, show me that one. And then, two, do a random one, and I don't care who they are, just do a random one." And whoever wins that random one, again, I'll eventually get to the final person who will pick the winner of the random that I see how good their art skills are.

For you, you might not be able to draw. But if I help guide you just a little bit, I think you can get something functional on the page, and then I'm going to ink the shit out of you. I'm going to ink you, and I'm going to make you look like as good as you can be. And then, I'm going to put a professional colorist on you, and all of a sudden, we're going to take somebody who's an ant, and they're going to be a cover artist one time, right? Again, I wouldn't want to do it on a steady basis because the skillset is not going to quite be there.

I think I can get there. I've done it before in the past where I've taken artwork that is a little bit ay, ay, ay and I just go in there and I just ink it. And then, it looks okay. So, I think I can do that for my wife, so why not do it for somebody who's just a fan of Spawn, not necessarily I want to be artist fan of Spawn. Anyway, we're hoping to engage with the fans a little bit this year. Have some fun.

You're doing it all, man, and I can't wait for this Spawn movie. I really can't. And congratulations on all the success. I really appreciate it, and I love talking to you every single time I get a chance. Thanks, Todd.

Todd McFarlane: Yeah, no, I appreciate you giving us the time. Again, every now and then, I can't say that every month we have something a big deal, but there are moments, again, here's the upside of doing something for a long time that you create these interesting events, moments and naturally anniversaries. So, January, the FOC have to come in, which is the orders from the retailers for 350. So, 350 comes out in February, and just that buzz hits. Then, officially, it was February 30 years ago when I went to my very first toy fair, right?

And so, then that one starts. And then, you go, "Oh, now we're coming out with a couple of number one issues," as we mentioned about before. I think the first one is going to be Sam and Choi, which again, for people who want something a little urban, it looks like a film. It's really spectacular.

And so, we've got these issue number one, and there's going to be a wide variety of them, so you can pick the ones you want. I don't assume everybody's going to buy all of them, just like everybody doesn't buy every Marvel, every DC. And next thing you know, the year's gone by and you've had seven, eight moments that you can talk about. So, I appreciate people like you giving us a chance to illuminate some of those. And then, every day, I appreciate the people who give us their hard-earned money, right?

Listen, I'm a fan. Sam and Twitch? I'm excited about that. It's going to be like a new war, right? Oh, see, that's right up my alley, Todd. That is right up my alley.

Todd McFarlane: I appreciate you being out there. Again, the people who got to get the gospel out there, you guys are providing a great service. None of us should get too high on our horse because it's really a team effort here that we have to create, you've got the companies, you've got the retailers, you've got people like yourself that have to get people inspired and have the knowledge of what they're... And then, you've got the consumers that pick and chew.

All of us have to be part of the equation. Neither one of us can be the king of any of it. So, we're all tied to each other, which means I think we should have a healthy respect for one another because without one of those pieces of the chain, it falls apart. It falls apart. We saw it during the pandemic, during the supply chain, right?

And I know exactly how that works. You've got your chain, and if one thing happens, you don't have enough dock workers to unload boats. It doesn't matter that you can build it. And it doesn't matter that you can truck it, you can't get it off the boat. And so, it shuts down everything. I tend to think that our industry is the same way that from consumer and fan, all the way to us who actually begin the process and make it, we're all relying on each other. So, I'm thankful for everybody that's out there.

Source: Screen Rant Plus