Amazing Spider-Man to Spawn

Last updated on February 5th, 2024 at 03:45 pm

Amazing Spider-Man To Spawn

Todd McFarlane's artistic journey from drawing The Amazing Spider-Man for Marvel Comics to founding his own publication Image Comics and creating Spawn.

Before Spider-Man to Spawn

While attending Gonzaga University, McFarlane worked at a comic book store to help pay for his education.

In 1984 McFarlane receiving his Bachelor's Degree in General Studies with an emphasis in Communication and Graphic Arts.

After 700+ submissions to comic book publishers, McFarlane got his first comic job working on Coyote published by Epic Comics.

After 16 issues, Coyote was canceled and McFarlane moved on to work for both DC Comics and Marvel from 1985 to 1987 drawing for:

• Detective Comics
• Batman: Year Two
• Infinity

Path From Spider-Man to Spawn

During 1987 he worked solely on the Incredible Hulk. Then in 1988 McFarlane started drawing for Marvel's The Amazing Spider-Man.

His intricate drawings, most notably Spider-Man's webbing (which the industry termed "spaghetti-webbing"), got McFarlane noticed.

So Marvel gave him a shot at the cover art for issue 313. It was well received and it made him high-profile in the comic world.

Then 15 issues later, he told Marvel he wanted more control not only over his creative work but also over the storyline.

So in 1990, Marvel devised a new comic book title, Spider-Man, for which McFarlane could both draw and write.

Initially, the comic book was a hit. However, because its storylines were controversial, in November of 1991, McFarlane's run with Marvel was over.

After that, McFarlane founded a new company, Image Comics, with six other artists. Image Comics was the birthplace of Spawn.

An idea McFarlane had as a teenager, the Spawn comic book series is an occult-themed comic book for which he does the writing and the drawing.

The comic book is based on a character named Albert Simmons whose alter ego is “Spawn”. Simmons is a national security assassin for the USA.

Simmons dies, gets sent to hell, makes a deal with the devil, and returns to earth as an antihero.

Spider-Man to Spawn Success

McFarlane's journey from Spider-Man to Spawn has been a success. Issue #1 of Spawn, sold 1,700,000 copies.

Spawn did so well that Hot Wheels joined forced with McFarlane to create a diecast 1:64 scale Al Simmons funny car.

Calling it the "Spawn Mobile", it was released with issue #2 of the Spawn. Our Collectibles store has the Spawn Mobile for sale.

Lasting 27 years, Spawn was number one in industry-wide sales 4 years in a row and it was the longest-running creator-owned comic book series.

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