What happens when Todd McFarlane does back-to-back panels at WonderCon 2025? He just keeps talking. And that’s exactly what happened, as he was scheduled for a McFarlane Toys panel — which was just him solo — with a 15-minute break, followed by a Spotlight panel. Instead, McFarlane just kept taking questions in the “break” because he can’t stop, won’t stop.
…But I missed most of the Toys panel and when I got there he was talking about golf, so no recap for that panel! Instead, let’s break down what happened at McFarlane’s solo spotlight, right after the official panel synopsis.
Todd McFarlane takes the stage to share his journey of breaking into comics. From his start with DC and Spider-Man to co-creating Venom, he went on to revolutionize the industry with Spawn, Image Comics, and his ever-expanding empire in entertainment and collectibles.
After an actual break to clear the stage, McFarlane came back on joking, “We’re gonna shift now from toys, to Todd!” He then continued to joke that “I like to say I work in paper and plastics” on his work for comics and toys.
More seriously, McFarlane is going to do a fundraiser to help victims of the LA Fires. Details TBD, but it sounds like he may do a signing tour, and charge a little for signing (which he doesn’t usually do), then match funds through McFarlane Toys. He and his wife are working on how it will all work, so look for an announcement soon.
Jumping over to his career, McFarlane talked humbly about how amazing the competition is now and says he would rate his art a “five” if he was trying to break in today. This was followed by actually showing off his early experiments with comic book art, including how he was inspired by George Peréz. Showing off a panel of The Thing he said was based on the “machinery” of Peréz’s art, that, “I did one panel, and I said, ‘f**k it, I’m not doing a whole wall!’ And I’m sixteen and full of energy!” McFarlane couldn’t understand how Peréz did what he did.
Not only that, but he talked about one of his first experiences at a comic convention, where he met some “bad guys.” But seeing how Peréz treated people, he swore that if he ever made it in the industry, he’d be more like him. And as a kicker, McFarlane recalled getting a shirt in the mail Peréz wore during a contentious debate between McFarlane and Peter David in Philadelphia… A week after Peréz passed away.
“The only thing you get to take to your grave is your integrity,” McFarlane finished up. “Your reputation is all you have.”
Jumping back to his art journey, he showed off a proto-version of Spawn inspired in part by Star Wars, including a pink sidekick character named “Saul Lami.” And in fact, McFarlane still has the original 40 pages of pencils from the proto-Spawn comic, which he floated to the audience, “Would you buy” this? Of course the audience would, as they all applauded. But will Spawn ’77 hit stands sometime soon? TBD.
After a brief side trip to talk about his wife, Wanda, who he called “the love of my life,” it was over to talking about rejections. He went through dozens of rejections for both work for hire and for Spawn, including from DC, Marvel, and others. “If you’re looking to take someone’s job at a company, never look at the best person,” McFarlane said. “Look at the worst person.” Instead of X-Men, which was being drawn by John Byrne and was untouchable, he went for Coyote. He got offered a backup story in the book. Not only that Tom Oriechowski was the letterer on the story, and Oriechowski ended up lettering more issues of Spawn than anyone else.
Four months later, Coyote was canceled… But now McFarlane was able to say that he’d done work with Marvel and use that as a selling point. “Artistically and skill-wise, I was not one ounce better,” McFarlane said, noting he had only done 40 pages of comics. But he was able to get a gig on DC’s Infinity Inc. because, unfortunately, the regular artist suddenly died. Specifically, Don Newton, who died of a heart attack, which haunts McFarlane to this day… If Newton hadn’t died of a sudden heart attack, would he have a career?
Cut to two and a half, three years later, and McFarlane got a gig drawing the Hulk… Which is the first time his parents thought that he had made it. He was also getting faster, so he was able to do G.I. Joe, which he got fired off of, after one issue — the only book he ever got fired from. McFarlane says that he was “always clashing” with the writer of G.I. Joe – who was Larry Hama – and “someday I’ll talk about it.” But as of today, he just mentioned that he was let go, and then immediately got hired drawing Batman: Year Two.
However, there was a problem. The inker on the book was inking lines going in the opposite direction from him. Shouted McFarlane, “If I wanted to draw lines going f**king that way, I would have drawn lines going f**king that way!” So he went to Denny O’Neil, who was writing Batman, and explained that even though he had never inked before, he needed to ink the next issue. Once O’Neil agreed, he went to the Hulk editors and told them he was inking Batman, so he should ink Hulk as well. And when Amazing Spider-Man came up, he said he wanted to ink his own pencils there, too.
That segued into explaining that he hated the black costume and asked for the return of the red and blue costume — which is why Venom exists. Knowing that the now classic cover of Amazing Spider-Man #300 would be the black costume, but revealing the classic comic at the end of the issue, he asked if he could do a cover with the red and blue costume as well. The response? “Todd, who would ever buy two covers of the same comic book?”
McFarlane then went on a little victory tour, talking about how his solo Spider-Man title is still one the best-selling comics of all time, and Spawn is, as well. And that transitioned into why he quit Marvel, which he called a “death by a thousand cuts.” But specifically, there was a page in Spider-Man #16 where he wanted Shatterstar to stab Juggernaut through the eye. He showed off a page with the sword coming out of the eyeball, which Marvel objected to. They went back and forth, gave them several options — and quit.
But, it’s okay! They started a little something called Image Comics. “I haven’t drawn one page for a competitor, which doesn’t include Spawn,” McFarlane noted, “which I get fifty percent of the proceeds.” He added that you can’t imagine how many times he’s been asked to draw Venom, and he always says “no.”
…And then in under a minute, he ran through 300+ issues of Spawn, leading up to the title winning the Guinness World’s Record. Then it was all about his family being part of the book — and his friends, including Stan Lee. “My only regret I have with Stan is that picture on the right,” McFarlane said, showing a picture from Ace Comic Con. The reason? It was the last time Lee did a panel in public, about six months before he passed away.
“The one thing that Stan would say to me over and over,” McFarlane said. “Todd, we’re the luckiest guys, right? We get to do what we want. We get to have to have fun.”
With that, the panel was over, as McFarlane thanked everyone for the great life he and his family and wife have had. “If not for you, I don’t have my career,” said McFarlane.
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