I go to Todd Mcfarlane's site from time to time, mainly to look at the Dragon figures, sometimes just to see what other action figures they have pictures of on the site. I went there today, and I decided I had to post this somewhere, because it just vexes me so . . .
Todd had a whole "Death of Spawn" . . . well . . . hoax going on at his site. The first part just announced that they were going to kill off Spawn, and then the second part said, "hey, this was an April Fool's joke, now look at our funny parody," which turned out to be a parody of the Death of Superman storyline from FOURTEEN YEARS AGO!
I guess the first thing that makes me laugh is the fact that Todd still continues to compare his creation to characters like Superman, Batman, and Spiderman, and in the mean time, my kids (17, 15, and 11), know Spawn as, "that guy from the cheesy movie on cable every once in a while."
The second thing that gets me is that Todd apparently is still living in the mid nineties. Let's see, if you are going to do a comic book parody, in 2007, maybe you could reference a comic book story from, say, the last decade or so?
I don't know, maybe a story about the government registering all agents of Heaven and Hell and recruiting said agents to hunt down all the unregistered demons, angels, and hellspawn? Maybe Spawn-Prime damaging the wall of reality causing changes in the space-time continuum? Hm . . . that took like five seconds to come up with.
I don't know why this struck me the way it did. It didn't bother me so much as just perplexed me. Is Todd really stuck in the nineties? Is he so out of touch that he thought this would make sense? Heck, my aforementioned kids, the comic book readers of today, don't even remember the Death of Superman storyline.
Maybe next year he can do a joke based on the Spider Clone Saga.
That doesn't surprise me. McFarlane probably doesn't have the tightest stranglehold on reality. Still living in those brief years when Spawn was always at the top of the charts. Probably hanging out with Dave Sim for evenings of shared delusion.
He's probably gone a bit crazy because the hockey team he partially owns, the Oilers, have won one game in their last 20.
Go FLAMES!
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I guess the first thing that makes me laugh is the fact that Todd still continues to compare his creation to characters like Superman, Batman, and Spiderman, and in the mean time, my kids (17, 15, and 11), know Spawn as, "that guy from the cheesy movie on cable every once in a while."
Hey that movie was on just the other night. I watched parts of it just to torment my chick. I agree though it is really cheesy. Ah Nicol Williamson - How the mighty did fall. He went from being Merlin to being some cross between Obi Wan and Juan Sanchez Villo Lobos Ramirez (did I spell that correctly).
The Toddster was once my patron saint of commix. Probably about the mid 90's...;). I originally came into comics about the time Byrne was cranking out those amazing Fantastic Four books and Simonson turned Thor into a friggin FROG! Miller was darkening the Dark Knight and Moore showed up with the V! Then I went away to college and when I came back it was all about the art (for me). I moved away from story and tried to ape Toddy's pencilling. Hso's "Adventurers", Maguire's and Hughes's "JLA-I-Antartica?", Keown's Aircel stuff, Warner's "Black Cross" and "Aliens" stuff, Burden's "Carrot", Art Adams and Charles Vess...uhhh... pretty much everything- were all also big influences.
Back on topic. I followed Todd everywhere and sought out his older "All Star Squadron" and "Coyote" stuff. Bought all the multiple covers of Adjectiveless Spider Man #1. Followed him to Spawn (luckily did NOT fall for the marketing ploy of "Boof and the Bruise Crew". Remember the ad and how the art credit was covered by a 'buy NOW!' blurb? So many people bought it because it looked like Todd's stuff, but boy was it NOT! Anyway, I was also taken for the ride as he slowly moved off art so he could buy baseballs???? jeez! Now, I like Capullo's art, but man, in his time, Todd was THE MAN! I even hoped he would win the "Image" vs. "Content" debate at some comic-con or another when he dressed up in a chicken suit and argued against Peter David. I gave up Spawn about the time that he skipped a couple issues then did the "Spawn:Batman" book and then went ahead to #25 and then released #19-20. I can't remember how it went but that was the last straw. The only other things I bought from the dude was the Iron Maiden Eddie "Killers" figure and the Sin City "Marv" figure.
It's really too bad. He could really draw great impossible-in-real-life webs.
Speaking of Todd McFarlane I was thinking of getting a Spiderman tattoo. No and its not cause of the movie. I was wondering if anyone could give me a list of Spiderman comics Todd drew. I know Spiderman 1-14ish but what about the Amazing Spiderman days? Anyone know? Thanks
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There was a time when I collected every issue of Spawn, and the various special issues; in fact, up until about a year or so ago. I don't recall if it was an Alaska-Outer-Rim-Edge-of-the-Known-Universe supply thing, or if McFarlane simply couldn't get the comic out on time, but my local store went for about two, almost three months without a new issue...and I just...stopped...collecting...I still venture to the Spawn.com website, as has been said, to look at the new figures--which really are pretty cool--and the other day, when I saw the "Death of Spawn" announcement I remember saying to myself, "Hmmm, well, I guess I'm not really surprised." ...and I didn't even finish reading all the article...
Speaking of Todd McFarlane I was thinking of getting a Spiderman tattoo. No and its not cause of the movie. I was wondering if anyone could give me a list of Spiderman comics Todd drew. I know Spiderman 1-14ish but what about the Amazing Spiderman days? Anyone know? Thanks
Amazing #298-326 I think he did a little bit for 328 (maybe only the cover). Look about 315ish for some of his best Venom stuff. And there was one #312??? That had an amazing Hobgoblin/Green Goblin fight! Also, in the Adjectiveless ones with Wolverine (blanking on issue #s), there are some really good Spidey pix hanging upside down from webs with all the hyperextended impossible muscles. And the fun trivia fact: Every issue that had the lil Spidey pic in the area for the barcode had a number that told how many spiders were hidden in the cover art (kinda like Hirschfeld's Ninas)