My Summer Lair Chapter #162: What Is Todd McFarlane’s “Image” In Comics?
A Confession: I have never read an issue of Todd McFarlane’s Spawn and I’ve had since May of 1992 to do so. As you may know, Spawn was among the initial release of comics that launched Image Comics along with Rob Liefeld’s Youngblood, Erik Larsen’s The Savage Dragon, and Jim Lee’s WildC.A.T.s. (Cue the Simpsons Wildcats reference.)
That literal revolution of those wildly popular and profitable gang of artists leaving Marvel to start Image Comics is such a pivotal comic book business moment. It’s like Under Armour today trying to take on Nike and Adidas. I mean really? Can you imagine if somebody tried to start a soft drink to take on Coke and Pepsi?
That’s crazy, right? There are hundreds of legit reasons why to take on the Big 2 in any industry is madness; especially if it’s Marvel and DC. Spider-Man and Batman. Come on man.
Yet…
When we say it can’t be done it’s because fear is a monopoly emotion.
When we say this will fail it’s because we’re flailing.
When we say you will not succeed it means we doubt you
When we say you are not good enough it means we like to settle for good enough.
When we say you’re crazy it’s to dismiss you.
Truth is none of those reasons no matter how legit are reasons to stop or give up or even acknowledge. There will always be critics and it takes no courage to walk the sidewalk…that’s the path laid out for everybody.
And hence the title of David Oster’s documentary Todd McFarlane: Like Hell I Won’t. Todd McFarlane isn’t everybody he is a somebody.
Like Hell I Won’t follows McFarlane as he attempts to publish Spawn 300 making Spawn the longest-running independent comic book series of all time. Through flashbacks Oster’s documentary asks and answers the question how did we get here…how did 300 issues happen? How did we get from crazy to cool?
Featuring interviews with those close to McFarlane, like Marvel’s Joe Q, The Walking Dead creator Robert Kirkman, NFL player Larry Fitzgerald…I mean that list speaks to the size and impact of Todd’s world and work.
Also? Shout Out to producer Tara Ansley for the hockey assist in making this episode happen.
So let’s get into this, shall we? This is my conversation with director David Oster spawned from the documentary Like Hell I Won’t.
