For Todd McFarlane, his greatest achievements of all time were launching Image Comics and launching his title owned by creator Spawn – both happened in 1992. Now, 29 years later, he has a plan for something he feels will be so great – or possibly bigger.
Spawn universe.
“As I have been formulating this for months and months, I did not want to bring it up until we were ready to pull the trigger, but we are here and I will abandon that,” he told Newsarama.
McFarlane’s longtime Spawn title will now be the main title in a line of several ongoing titles in the corner of this Image Comics character – with its own interconnected continuity, storylines, teams and more. Everything will work under the name ‘Spawn’s Universe’, which will also be the name of the unique event book that will launch everything later this year.
The first wave of titles in the Spawn Universe is from three books: King Spawn, The Gunslinger and The Scorched. It all starts in June with Spawn’s Universe # 1, followed by King Spawn in August, The Gunslinger in October and The Scorched in December.
For this ambitious endeavor, McFarlane recruited a list of talent stars for the series. So far confirmed Donny Cates, Frank Quitely, Greg Capullo, Marc Silvestri, Jim Cheung, Sean Gordon Murphy, Arthur Adams, J. Scott Campbell, Mike Del Mundo, Aleš Kot, Jason Shawn Alexander, Carlo Barberi, Brett Booth, Javier Fernandez , David Finch, Jonathan Glapion, Kevin Keane, Puppeteer Lee, Sean Lewis, Ben Oliver, Paulo Siqueira, Stephen Segovia and Marcio Takara.
“There should be five or six names there that should attract retailers’ attention,” he said. McFarlane is also open to working with new creators and helping to create new talent.
“I know that many of the best guys and vets I want will be busy at some point. Sometimes, I’m scouring Instagram for new talent. I have a keen eye and I want to train them and increase their name recognition.” He joked about creating not just a new Todd McFarlane, but a dozen in the near future.
McFarlane will act as a creative consultant and more on the editorial side than actively participating in these new titles. He said he needed to be realistic in what he could and couldn’t do as a natural person and wanted to bring in some of the leading names in the comics to help him take the first step.
He also says it is more of a guide than telling people what to write or draw, but he also encourages them to take what has been established and go crazy with it. The big rule is not to paint over your brush strokes, but to add them. McFarlane added that he would come and say not only for things that he felt violated the rules of the Spawn Universe, but there is no real way to make a story.
“Come to me with your biggest idea and I’ll tell you if it breaks something that I planned or was stored,” says McFarlane. “If it works, I’ll give you options on how to make your story work. If it doesn’t work, that’s also amazing. Say you want character X to marry this other character, but they’re already married. Well, ok, I think that we have to divorce them for that to happen, but we will get there. “
Getting here has been a 37-year journey since his debut in 1984. Along the way, he co-created Venom, released a Spider-Man solo title that remains the best-selling character of all time, launched Image Comics with six other artists, created Spawn and launched a toy company that grew and became one of the giants in the sector. With all these achievements, however, McFarlane sees the Spawn Universe at the same level – above even most of those mentioned (sorry, Venom).
“From my point of view and my professional career, this is the third biggest thing I announced. Behind the foundation of Image with my partners and Spawn # 1, so if I do my job right, this is number three, ”says McFarlane. “By the end of this year, I will have gone from one monthly comic to four monthly comic books. I am taking on a big task here.”
McFarlane is not the type to name his favorite son, but he calls the Gunman to be his own Punisher or Wolf.
“He’s going to make Spawn look like a Boy Scout. This is the guy who looks at Spawn and says ‘shit, man, you’re playing this very conservative way,’ ”says McFarlane. “This guy is going to show Spawn how to improve his game and march with his own drummer. At some point, though, I want Spawn to be removed from his title and he is just called Gunman.”
The Scorched will be the book by McFarlane’s team, designed for readers who “want to see a handful of characters and how they interact with a rogue, first-rate cast.” The team will consist of Spawn, Gunman, She-Spawn and the Redeemer, with a few others that will come and go.
“If you want your most courageous books, take a look at Gunslinger or King Spawn or even the Spawn book in progress. Now you can get your fix several times a month,” says the co-founder of Image Comics. “You don’t have to go out and buy them all because the continuity will be very close. I won’t do that with readers. It will be a shared universe and if you are inclined, you can go into your store and get your dose now weekly.”
Most of the founders of McFarlane’s Image Comics launched lines for their sectors of the company quickly in the 1990s, and although McFarlane did spin-offs from time to time, he considers Spawn’s Universe his first real attempt to create a formal world for his characters. Because now? We asked him and got a surprising answer.
“At some point, I have to become obsolete,” says McFarlane. “That should be the goal in the comics, right? I cannot be the epicenter of it all. I should be like Frank Sinatra, who had fun in the sun, but my kids don’t care. They like music “Yes. Do they have their favorites? Yes. Doesn’t caring about Sinatra affect your lives an iota? Not a second.”
“This is the next evolution and the question shouldn’t be ‘why do it now?’, But more ‘why did you take so long?’. I hope that in 30 years’ time it will have an equally big impact. So why not? “
Spawn’s Universe will be available simultaneously in comic book stores and on digital platforms – and more than 300 editions of Spawn are already there, at your fingertips.
For the best digital comic reading experience, however, check out Newsarama’s list of best digital comic readers for Android and iOS devices.