Todd McFarlane — Emmy- and Grammy-winning creator of the comic Spawn, co-founder of Image Comics, and CEO of McFarlane Toys (one of the top US action-figure makers); famed Spider-Man artist and co-creator of Venom.
The gist
In this second Tim Ferriss conversation, Todd McFarlane closes out his Marvel chapter with stories about mentor Stan Lee before tracing how he built four business pillars: toys, TV, movies, and video games around Spawn. He explains his contrarian playbook for taking on Fortune 500 toy companies through quality, value pricing, and speed, and recounts audacious dealmaking moves like buying a $3 million baseball to get sports licenses. McFarlane covers how unrelated opportunities (HBO animation, a Pearl Jam music video) cascaded into Emmys and a Grammy, and how he protects creative time as a self-described 'five-ball juggler.' He closes with a raw philosophy on entrepreneurship, lowering expectations, emotional detachment in conflict, and choosing to be the best person rather than the richest.
Big reveals
- McFarlane first met Stan Lee at age 16-17 at a Florida Holiday Inn comic convention, where Lee pulled up a chair and let him ask questions for about five hours.
- McFarlane lays out his core business strategy: build a house with as many unlocked doors as possible so fans can enter however they like, and plant your brand in four pillars (video games, TV, movies, toys).
- He reveals his toy-pricing philosophy: sell a $6.99 toy by giving customers $7.99 of value, building 'a Cadillac at Ford prices' to beat big brands he couldn't match on name recognition.
- His big break in toys came at a New York Toy Fair with no prototype, just a foamcore cutout, when a Toys"R"Us buyer's assistant recognized Spawn and the buyer agreed to go storewide.
- McFarlane was the anonymous bidder who paid $3 million for Mark McGwire's 70th-home-run ball, every cent he had and then some, purely to generate headlines and force sports leagues to take his calls.
- His sliver of the DC Multiverse license last year outsold the master DC license plus everything Marvel and Star Wars, making his small comic and toy teams the number-one sellers in America and Canada.
- Spawn's 'living' costume mythology originated from McFarlane's own drawing errors; readers noticed inconsistencies, so he declared the suit alive rather than admit mistakes.
- He tells business students he won't teach them how to make money, instead challenging them to be the best person rather than the richest person someone would call in a crisis.
Things worth remembering
- Stan Lee began his movie-cameo career at age 85 and was doing energetic stage appearances up to age 93; he passed away at 95.
- For years McFarlane and a near-deaf Stan Lee ran a stage 'kabuki dance' where McFarlane relayed questions; Lee later got a hearing aid and said he should have done it years earlier.
- At the height of his Marvel career McFarlane was paid a maximum of $125 per page; royalties, not page rates, made his fortune. At Image he kept 100% versus Marvel's 4%.
- McFarlane credits Steve Jobs's iPhone success to adding '3% sexy' (glass touchscreen) to features that already existed, his template for innovation by improvement, not invention.
- McFarlane sculpts toy prototypes at twice the final size so detail survives shrinking, and showed buyers a step 1-to-10 process proving the production toy matched the prototype.
- He first secured the NHL players' union license (making generic-uniform figures), using it as leverage to later pressure leagues into full logo licenses.
- Pearl Jam's Eddie Vedder personally called McFarlane to animate the 'Do the Evolution' video because the band didn't want to appear; Vedder edited a Spawn-set demo himself on a home Avid.
- During the video edit, Vedder secretly brought baseball gloves to play catch with the left-handed McFarlane, then nearly collapsed from heat exhaustion playing in all-black clothes while smoking in 105-degree heat.
- McFarlane deliberately schedules combative lawyer calls for Friday 4:30 PM so opponents stew all weekend while he emotionally 'clicks off,' proving identical blood pressure to his fit wife during a heated call.
- McFarlane wings his Spawn writing with no advance plot, finishing the milestone Batman/Spawn crossover only when it was 'pried out of his hand'; Spawn reached issue 336.
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Spawn
Todd McFarlane
“creator of one of the world's best-selling comic books, Spawn. He is best known to many comic book fans for his work as the artist on The Amazing Spider-Man” — Tim Ferriss 00:00:13Find it on Amazon
The Amazing Spider-Man
Marvel (inferred)
“He is best known to many comic book fans for his work as the artist on The Amazing Spider-Man, for which he co-created Marvel's top villain, Venom.” — Tim Ferriss 00:00:13Find it on Amazon
Spawn #301
Todd McFarlane
“In 2019, Todd made history with Spawn #301, earning the Guinness World Record for the longest-running creator-owned superhero comic book series.” — Tim Ferriss 00:00:44Find it on Amazon
Do the Evolution
Pearl Jam
“It was called "Do the Evolution." I go, "What's it about?" He goes, "Oh, it's about all time, space, and dimension, but you've got to do it in three and a half minutes."” — Todd McFarlane 01:50:11Find it on Amazon
Batman/Spawn
Todd McFarlane
“I just finished what's going to be the biggest comic book in the country this just last week, the Batman/Spawn crossover.” — Todd McFarlane 02:08:07Find it on Amazon
Gunslinger Spawn
Todd McFarlane
“Anyways, The Spawn, we're up to issue 336. Went to the printers a couple days ago... I write a book called Gunslinger Spawn.” — Todd McFarlane 02:14:06Find it on Amazon
DC Multiverse (action figures)
McFarlane Toys
“Last year, our line of DC Multiverse toys, I don't even have the master license of DC Multiverse, I have a fraction of it.” — Todd McFarlane 01:34:29Find it on Amazon