Spotlight On Beloved Comic Book Creator Todd McFarlane At WonderCon 2025

Todd McFarlane took to the stage at WonderCon 2025 to share his journey through the comic world with an audience of captivated fans. The artist most known for his work on The Amazing Spider-Man, Spawn, and Venom, projected a series of images meditating on his rise through the industry as he provided an anecdote for each.

McFarlane spoke to his fans as though he knows each of them personally. He often prefaced material with phrases like, “You guys already know this, but…” He also offered heartfelt advice, commenting that he wishes everyone could feel the same love he feels for his wife.

The through-line of his modest talk seemed to be the domino effect of the seemingly random occurrences of our lives. For example, he shared about getting fired for the first time ever from G.I. Joe because of personality clashes (“All the joy was getting sucked out of it”), but then was called minutes later to work on Batman, the character he wanted to do most.

During his time working on three of the four parts of Batman, he became increasingly frustrated with inkers. He talked about how he leveraged each of his editors at the time to ensure he was the one inking: “I’ve never inked before but if I don’t ink I gotta quit.” McFarlane moved back and forth between Marvel and DC because “that’s what you did back then.”

Ultimately, McFarlane moved over to Image Comics where he is currently President of the company. He advised, “I haven’t drawn one page for a competitor, which doesn’t include Spawn.” McFarlane has been offered to draw Venom many times but refuses because he believes it’s not good for his business image.

In detailing each step of the journey to becoming the recipient of the Guinness World Records title for longest-running creator-owned superhero comic book series for his creation of Spawn, McFarlane briefly mentioned his departure from Marvel. As in, “It was death by a thousand cuts.” He quipped that he couldn’t handle things like redrawing The Hulk over and over.

If anything was clear throughout his talk, it was that the Canadian-born creator has an infinite amount of love and affection for his family. Not only did he mention his wife and their children several times, he also provided comical stories about his parents. McFarlane made mention of how despite working for over two years, his parents didn’t feel as though he had made it until they found out he was animating The Hulk: “I didn’t even make any more money, but they knew the word Hulk.”

McFarlane later told a story of providing Issue 298 of The Amazing Spider-Man to his father who cut it up in order to fit it into a picture frame. The crowd responded to this tale with a collective moan. McFarlane then added that it decreased in value by $100,000.

One of McFarlane’s most uproarious stories was during his explanation for the birth of Venom. “Can we get rid of the black costume? That’s why we got a character called Venom.” He reflected, it was one “big giant happy accident because I didn’t want to draw a black costume.”

After an inspiring talk, McFarlane closed with a heart-felt shoutout to his dear friend, Stan Lee. He projected the selfie they took from Lee’s final public appearance. “If I knew that, we would have given that man a grand, grand send-off and we didn’t.”