It’s become a yearly tradition for me to attend Todd McFarlane’s panels at San Diego Comic-Con. Part of that is because McFarlane knows how to hold a room’s attention; his energy is probably only matched, or exceeded, by fellow geek legend Kevin Smith. The other half is because he’ll often drop hints about the future of Spawn, especially in the comics space.
This year, McFarlane decided to switch it up. Instead of doing big reveals, he held a casual conversation with Image Comics’ VP of Business Jim Viscardi, which was a truly unique experience. First was the discussion of how San Diego Comic-Con’s grown into the massive pop culture event it is today; McFarlane remembered that he started attending the con when he was 16, while Viscardi said that he was able to build his own career writing about big comic book movies in the wake of The Avengers – especially writing articles about who Thanos was.
McFarlane was also open about evolving to meet fans, especially in an age where social media has become prevelant. “You gotta meet fans where they are,” he said, talking about how he uses Discord and does Instagram live streams to keep fans updated. He also encouraged fans to get out there and go to conventions: “If you want to get into this industry, you have to go to conventions!”
This led to a rather hilarious story, where McFarlane recalled how he saw the late Jim Shooter at an early SDCC and waited until Shooter had to use the bathroom to ask him questions about the craft. Another touching story involved Peter David and George Perez; at a con, McFarlane and David had a debate that Perez moderated – David won due to help from Harlan Ellison, but later Perez would send McFarlane one of his signature Hawaiian shirts.
McFarlane is happy that more fans are coming to Comic-Cons, even if it’s by unorthodox means. He said his daughter loved The Dark Knight and started asking him questions about comics, and that more people probably recognize him for co-creating Venom than for creating Spawn. While he mentioned that he’s taking off Sunday to spend his 40th anniversary with his wife Wanda, he thanked everyone in attendance.
As for Spawn comics, a slideshow teased upcoming titles, including Spawn ’77 by McFarlane and Mark Spears which is based on McFarlane’s original pitch for the hellish antihero he crafted back in 1977 (he still has the 45 pages he drew for the concept). McFarlane is constantly changing things up, so it’s safe to say that next year’s panel will be even more unique.
You must be logged in to post a comment.