Todd McFarlane
Well known graphic/comic book artist/entrepreneur
Todd was born on March 16th, 1961 in Alberta, Canada. He began drawing at a very young age and he picked it up as a hobby. As Todd got older his interest of comics grew and he accumulated many of them. He then would replicate the drawings within and would grow his skill as an artist. His favorite comics came from the creators like Jack Kirby, John Byrne, Frank Miller and many others.
After High School, he attended Spokane Falls Community College for a 1 year then transferred to Eastern Washington University. He designed his own program to focus more on graphics and art. He worked as a janitor to fulfill part of his baseball in which he had to get an on-campus job. Unfortunately, due to multiple serious injuries, his pursuit of professional baseball had ended. Later that year, he graduated with a bachelor’s degree. When his hopes of playing baseball didn’t play out, he worked at a comic book store to help finance the rest of his college tuition.
When he first began his career, he would draw pencil/pen, and/or ink. As he got more and more commissions, he started to use early forms of computer programs to draw out his images for cover art and comic panels. Coming into the more recent present, he has evolved to the use of very, very, very expensive drawing tablets. He can get the basic shapes done of whatever character he has done, then quickly fill in the base colors and shading within a matter of minutes to then have the finished result done in less than an hour. With his skill and today’s technology, he can make some really amazing pieces.
He worked for both DC and Marvel comics with his most prevalent icons being Batman and Spiderman. Though, two of his most famous creations are the alien symbiote Venom and the supernatural solider of Hell, Spawn.
McFarlane created Spawn back when he was in high school, he established basic drawings then enhanced them over the years. The early versions of Spawn looked a lot like Spiderman, but McFarlane has since changed the color scheme, added more muscle, and the very iconic demonic cape.
In most recent times, he has started up a toy collection line that anybody can enjoy and has made many appearances at many Cons from San Diego to New York City.
Many versions of Spawn have been made, but this is one of my favorite pieces.
The use of lines and highlights to show movement of his symbiotic like cape, the build of Spawn’s stature along with the symbolism of the giant, metal cross on top of the cathedral where Spawn made his home.