Todd McFarlane

Todd McFarlane is an author of Comic S Canadian born the March 16th 1961 with Calgary, Alberta.

At the end of the years 1980 and with the beginning of the year 1990, McFarlane is a success almost without precedent in the field of the Comic S thanks to its work on Spiderman at Marvel Comics. In 1992, it takes part in the foundation of Image Comics and created the Super-héros occults Spawn, which becomes one of most famous years 1990 and encourages the fashion of the comics managed by their creators.

For a few years, McFarlane has drawn very little and concentrates on the management of its business. Its company McFarlane Toys of figurines articulated with the meticulous details, imposed new standards in the industry of the toy. It also has a studio of Cinéma and animation named Todd McFarlane Entertainment.

McFarlane is also one of the joint owners of the Edmonton Oilers, a team of Hockey evolving/moving in LNH ( in English : NHL) and a large collector of balls of historical Baseball.

Biography

McFarlane was born with Calgary, Alberta but grew in the south of the California. Teenager, it discovers the Comic S and becomes fan of stars like John Byrne or Frank Miller, but it feels also a particular taste for the atypical drawings of Michael Golden and Art Adams (the influence of at the same time detailed approach and very " cartoon" of Adams is notable in work of McFarlane).

With the 1980s beginning of the year, McFarlane studies at the university of Washington Is, concentrating on graphic arts and the Baseball. He thought of becoming professional player once his diploma obtained, but he was not contacted by a team.

McFarlane then seeks work in the industry of the comics. For its years colleges, it has tried to bore in this field, and it will have received on the whole more than 700 letters of rejections.

The first work published of McFarlane in 1984 is a history of Coyote at Epic Comics. It then starts to work at the same time for Marvel Comics and cd. Comics. It illustrates several numbers of the incredible Hulk at Marvel, and some Batman and Infinity Inc. at cd.

In 1988, McFarlane joined the scenario writer David Michelinie on the series Marvel The Amazing Spider-Man . McFarlane modifies a little the appearance of the superman, by accentuating his side Araignée by stiff members and large eyes. This interpretation of the character will influence many artists who will succeed to him on the man-spider. McFarlane draws also the first appearance of Venom, malicious popular for the creation of which it Co-is sometimes credited wrongly.

With this work on The Amazing Spider-Man , McFarlane becomes a superstar industry of the comics. In 1990, Marvel launches a new monthly series on Spiderman, simply called Spider-Man , that McFarlane scénarise and draws at the same time. The first number is sold to 2,5 million specimens, partly thanks to the various covers used to encourage the multiple purchases by the collectors.

After one year on Spider-Man , McFarlane leaves Marvel to form Image Comics with Marc Silvestri, Rob Liefeld, Erik Larsen, Jim Valentino, Jim Lee and Whilce Portacio. Under its label Todd McFarlane Productions, it launches an occult superman then there: Spawn. The first number runs out to 1,7 million specimens, which always constitutes a record for comics independent. The series generates spectacular sales through the years 1990s, and remains one of most famous of Image, which was often criticized for its surface scenarios and its characters without interest. But the difficulties of McFarlane of leaving its comics at the date envisaged cause a fall of the sales and the booksellers are sulky it. Spawn always continues in 2005 although the series lost market shares.

Todd McFarlane Productions published many series derived from Spawn, but contrary to its fellow-members from Image, McFarlane forever sought to concentrate on its company of edition. Instead of that, it was interested in other markets and, in 1994, it ceases being the official draftsman of Spawn .

This year there, McFarlane launches McFarlane Toys. Its collection of articulated figurines and thoroughly carved defines new standards for the detail and the artistic smoothness. The company recovers the rights to produce figurines of athletes among the four major sports in North America - Baseball, Hockey, American football and Basket-ball - as well as the rights on various successful films, like Terminator, Matrix and Shrek. They launch also figurines of musicians of rock'n'roll like Jim Morrison, Jimi Hendrix and the members of the group KIS.

In 1996, McFarlane founds Todd McFarlane Entertainment, a studio of Cinéma and animation. In collaboration with New Line Cinema, it produces the Spawn film in 1997 which has a moderate success. They produce also the animated series Spawn , diffused on HBO between 1997 and 1999.

The studio produces also clips with success like that of KoЯn " Freak One has Leash" in 1999 - McFarlane illustrated also the small pocket of the album of Korn Follow the Leader - and that of Pearl Jam " C the Evolution" in 2000, the first clip of the group since 9 years. They off produce also a segment animated of the film The Dangerous Lives Altar Boys in 2002.

McFarlane is a large fan of Baseball and it bought with the biddings many balls of the race to the record of the greatest number of home run in only one season than delivered Mark McGwire and Sammy Sosa in 1998. McFarlane thus holds the balls of the 33e, 61e and 66e home run of Sosa, and the first, the 63e, the 67e, the 68e, the 69e and the 70e of McGwire (the 61e of Sosa was the ball which equalized the record of Roger Maris, and the 70e of McGwire defines a new record - beaten in 2001 by Barry Bonds).

End 2001, McFarlane revealed a new logo for the team of NHL the Edmonton Oilers, which it holds then partly. This logo is reproduced on the 3rd shirt of the team (in NHL, the teams have a shirt traditionally clearly when they play in residence and a dark shirt for the matches outside, and since 1995 one 3rd shirt which they can carry for 10 to 15 matches per season).

Recently, McFarlane lost much money during two lawsuits. The first in 2002 when it disputed to the scenario writer Neil Gaiman the rights of the British superman Miracleman and the second in December 2004 when the hockey player Tony Twist attacked it because it had given his name to a character of the Maffia in the Spawn series. After McFarlane had lost this second lawsuit, its label Todd McFarlane Productions was declared in bankruptcy, but the comics of Spawn continue to be published.

External bonds

Biography on Spawn.com

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