Jim Lee and Todd McFarlane Give Wondercon 2025 attendees insight into their work before setting up the image comics and infamous conference for the Marvel Comics office. In the duo’s “Two Legends” group, comic fans hear the start of Lee and McFarlane’s work in the comics, their less serious competition and a famous morning meeting at Marvel, letting their office know they’ll go their own way.
McFarlane explained to comic fans: “We didn’t plan for this panel, but it would be a little X. We’re going to talk about where we start, get together in the image.”
The group started with Lee’s quick background in childhood and comic book, and was not taken seriously and regarded as a childish hobby.
McFarlane started the conversation and said, “So let me ask a question because I came across comics when I was young.
“Because you are a Jock!” said Li.
“Yes, I’m a Jock, but when they found out you’ve collected comic books, they thought you were arrested, right?” McFarlane asked.
Li, reassured the crowd, “That might be true. (Laughs) It’s not you.”
“So my parents hate comics, it’s just a barrier, but I remember then you would go to the barber shop and they would have a bunch of comics on the table to keep the kids busy. I remember it was a Talzan fight problem, I tried to find that comic book, but almost every 3 comics were playing cheetah,” Lee said.
Retelling his earliest connection to comics, Lee continued, “But I remember that image and again, I didn’t have an allowance. My parents weren’t really fond of me reading comics,” “I would basically steal, beg, borrow. There were a bunch of other kids in the neighborhood that had comics. There was this one older kid who literally had a cardboard box, like a big box and all the comics were just piled in there. Not even bagged and boarded, just a pile of comics.
McFarlane then took a little time to question why some fanatics are socially acceptable and why comics weren’t considered “cool” when he was young.
“It’s weird to let me say something else. Those who make fun of me with a 16 or 17 comic collection. They’ll go: ‘Oh, Todd, do you collect comics? Look at each other side and open your eyes. But I will ask. What are you doing? ‘Oh, we’re going to Star Wars and Indiana Jones and the James Bond movie where the car jumped off the cliff…’
McFarlane smiled and said, “It’s totally OK like they can have fantasy because it comes out in the theater and everyone is doing it, but then I can’t have my fantasy, so you have to hide it from people.”
“Yes, James Bond wasn’t wearing underwear outside his pants, so I think that’s part of it,” Lee joked.
They continue to go back to those days, comics are something you have to hide, and most people don’t think much of it, especially Jim Lee’s parents.
“Yes, my comics will be in the closet, and I’ll come home from high school every now and then, and they’re not in the closet anymore. So I asked my mom, ‘Where is my comics?’ She’ll point out the trash can.
Todd quickly joined “It’s a story you’ve never heard; ‘Dad throws all your sht”. Dad never did that, he will always be mom,” McFarlane joked. “If you don’t clean up the sh, the country’s GDP will be highert”
Both speakers tried to impress the audience by encouraging young people to read comics.
“I’ve told this story, and when I wrote back to my parents, they were a big memory of the moment for me. I loved playing baseball as a kid; I’m still playing baseball now. At some point, they asked, what do you want to do, what did you say? McFarlane.
“Basically, I took it away, like I said I wanted to play baseball, and they would give me a glove. If I wanted to be a drummer, they would have a drum, but I said I wanted to be an artist, and they said ‘Let you let you get something to attract you.” On that table, I drew every page on that table Spider-Man, Hulk, Batman, and they got me. I still have it today and they don’t know the impact of support. ” McFarlane said.
Lee didn’t find much support from his parents to become comic artists, and one day it blows.
“After I graduated from college, we just had this horrible fight and we screamed at each other and yelled, it was really cruel and I ended up walking out of the house. I was 21, but we lived in the suburbs, so a few blocks later, I asked myself “Where did I go?” “But my father ran out of the house for me and saw what it meant to me,” said Lee.
“I basically told them I’m going to take a year off and then pursue it,” Lee continued.
McFarlane mentioned that after working in the industry for 3 years, he had to draw the Hulk, which was big because his parents knew who that was, which gave him legality.
“It’s like because I finally painted the characters they heard, and I finally did it. But I’m ‘Daddy, I’ve been doing it for years and I got married last year. How do you think we paid the bill?” McFarlane smiled.
Jim Lee explained that he brought his Portafolio to the comics conference, which in turn held a meeting in the Marvel office. He was hired on the spot and started with Alpha Flight, which in turn led to the work of the Punisher. As he grew his career, his parents began to be so inspired by his comics career that they almost made the game a game.
“I’ve moved out, but I’ll be back home and they’ll ask me.
“I would say I never compete with Jim because I always admit Jim is better than me. His body is 10 times more drawn than I do, and I think part of my appeal is Todd’s dynamics and graphics.”
“To announce this panel, I posted a drawing that your Spider-Man #1 entertainment inspired me by deconstructing your style,” Lee said.
As the two creators develop further in their careers, they will talk to each other. On the phone for a few hours. Through these conversations, they discovered Erik Larsson and Rob Liefeld The idea of image comics was to take out your own books and think of all of them. Soon after, Rob and Todd will be able to obtain Jim Valentino on board.
“The original intention of the image comic book at the time was to go to New York and tell Marvel’s head that we were resigning. This is indeed the basis for me to see the image comics here 30 years later. I ended up in the same room with Jim Lee” McFarlane explained.
“Jim asked a simple question ‘Hey, Todd what are you doing here?” I told him that the next morning I introduced him to me, Jim said “yes” moment because we looked like rebels. Jim Lee That would be a shock wave, because if Jim could leave, then anyone could leave Todd McFarlane.
Lee replied: “I joined because of you, it sounds hesitant, but I joined. I just need to know more details so I can explain to my parents why I left the books I sold to do our own company.” “But I have confidence in your vision for the company and I feel that if we are united, we will become stronger.”
Then added Although Portacio McFarlane Tag Silvestri In an art auction.
“I gave him the sales pitch, it was 1 a.m. I told him he had to let me know before 7:30 a.m. because we had an 8 a.m. meeting and for his words, Mark called me at 7:30 and said ‘I’m attending. We attended the meeting.
Now, we have not asked for trademarks or copyrights and all of these words they say. From my memories, we just said, “We’re leaving, that’s why I’m closing the barn, because there’s probably going to be seven people leaving next week,” McFarlane said.
“But the next day you said ‘Let’s go to DC and tell them the same thing’, in my mind…I never did any work for DC, I don’t know anyone at DC, maybe if I do that, I might need to work on DC.” Lee joked. “Maybe I will run DC one day, who knows?
McFarlane concluded the group’s conclusion, and they knew the image would do it.
“There are moments in life that just burn your mind, and I remember it’s like a movie. The moment we walked out of that meeting, the moment we walked into the elevator came. Tom DeFalco (Marvel’s editor-in-chief) said that when the elevator doors were closed, “Hey, if it doesn’t work, welcome back”, that made me burn. ” McFarlane continues
“When that door closed, I remember turning to Jim and saying ‘They think we are stupid, I know we are not stupid, for these two big reasons: We have Jim Lee My dad has been in the printing business for 40 years on our team and if one of the things I can do is print things, but what I say is “if you fail” is not like, if it doesn’t work, then I just go “no” until the day I die, I’ll have a book on a book and a book and luckily we’re here 30 years later, we’re so happy that I’m having a lot of fun and I’ll continue to appreciate the images.
