In the world of comics, Todd McFarlane has seen it all. As a Marvel comics artist back in the 1980s and ’90s, he reinvigorated Spider-Man with his kinetic style and created the iconic antagonist Venom. He then teamed up with other superstar artists like Jim Lee to found Image Comics, where he created Spawn, a superhero who is still going strong. McFarlane is now president of Image, and he’s been a fixture at New York Comic Con since it started.
What do you remember about the first New York Comic Con 20 years ago?
I remember going to a couple of New York shows, and then New York went dry. There was this gap for years, if not a full decade. But then I remember that first NYCC 20 years ago where everybody was like, Look how big and legit it is! I knew that anybody who figured out how to do it in a meaningful way was going to make New York cons bigger and better than ever.
What sets NYCC apart from other comic cons for you?
The Artist Alley that continues to grow down there is staggering. If I wanted to show people how much talent is in our industry, I would take them to Artist Alley and say, “If you’ve only got one hour, I’m just going to walk you up and down so you can be amazed, like I am, at the amount of skill that’s in this room at this moment.”
You have a spotlight panel at this year’s con. What are you looking forward to about that?
When I get up there, I always feel like, there are plenty of people who are going to talk to you about comic books over these next four days. I’m just an old man, and I’m bored with the same 10 questions, so let’s just talk about life. I’m curious about the questions people
have and trying to explain the pitfalls I’ve run into. Sometimes I go, Oh man, I didn’t talk that much about Spider-Man and whether he’s stronger than Spawn. But I get a lot of people saying, Oh man, that was an inspirational talk.
For the last few years NYCC has been doing Retailer Day on the preceding Wednesday, and you’re always a big presence there. What do you like about it?
In our industry, I believe we’re all interlinked and we’re a strong chain, and if any one of the chains breaks, it affects all of us. You need the creative people, and then you need the publishers to take whatever the creative people have done and get it in a format and print it. Then you need to put it in stores, so you need the retailers that will put your product on their shelves. And then you need people to take it off the shelf, and finally the media to tell people what the creators, publishers, and retailers have done. If any one of those breaks down, it doesn’t work very well. Image can do all the books we want, but if nobody knows they exist, then they’re not looking for it.
If I’m in a room with nothing but fans, I’m going to have a different conversation than when I’m in a room with retailers. I always like that I’m dealing with like-minded people in one room and we can have our own little personal geek session. So I like to pick the brains of the retailers, because they’re the ones that ultimately give me the orders.
After all these years in the industry, how do you stay interested in new Spawncomics, new toy lines, new convention appearances?
That’s like asking me, “Todd, you’ve been married to your wife for 40 years. How do you stay in love?” What are you talking about? Because I love that woman. As I get older, I understand how lucky I am for having a career as a creative artist and getting paid for it. Then you have to climb the next mountain, which is longevity. Can you have a long career and stay relevant? The new comic Spawn 77 is part of that. It’s not nostalgia per se, but by going back to my original designs, it’s about having a long career and feeling fortunate that I got to be a storyteller.
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A version of this article appeared in the 09/28/2026 issue of Publishers Weekly under the headline: Todd McFarlane
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