Episode 77 Todd McFarlane

Episode Transcript

(00:00):
Hey, this is Doug Jones andyou are listening to side Fiction Radio.
Greeting Sci Fi Universe. Owen Codderhere, join me, your host,
as we discuss all things geek,chic and out of this world on Sci

(00:23):
Fiction Radio, your galactic transmission portalto all things science fiction and beyond.

(00:45):
Greetings everyone on the Sci Fiction Awesomeness. My name is Owen C. Cotter.
Today we have an amazing special guestcoming to join us here shortly in
the broadcast you may know him.His name is Todd McFarlane. Before we
get the show starter real quick andget kind of kicked in, I want
let everybody pour in the room.We have a book we'd like to announce
out that we shout out. Thisbroadcast is brought to you by All I

(01:07):
need to know about success. Ilearned from Star Trek by Glenn Henderson.
Amazing book. Highly recommend checking itout. If you want to go to
his website to check that book out, it is glenntrekbook dot com. That
is Glenn trekbook dot com and thatis the book site for the actual the

(01:33):
go. You can get the bookthere. It's an amazing book. It's
an inspirational book. I highly recommendit. HM. We to let everybody
pour in here. We're going tobe bringing Todd on here with the next
few minutes. If you have anyquestions for Todd, please feel free to
ask on any of the channels we'resimulcasting on YouTube, Facebook, Twitch,
and x So if you have anyquestions for Todd, we'll bring the chat

(01:55):
up and feel free to ask anyquestions you have for him in this broadcast.
If you're not familiar with Tod,you'll get to know him in this
broadcast, so he's gonna be tellingyou a lot of goodies. My name
is Owen Cecutter. Welcome everyone.Everyone's doing good, having a beautiful day.
We're coming up on the weekend heresoon. He's been raining here a
little bit, but it's all calmdown now, so ready to rock and
roll. So I hope everybody's havinga beautiful day. We will be coming

(02:20):
to you in the next few weeksin July from San Diego Comic Con,
and after that we'll kick it onover to Las Vegas to STLV fifty eight
year Mission Star Trek theme event andbeautiful Las Vegas, Nevada. So look
forward to seeing you there, whoever'sthere. If you have any projects you
like us to cover, feel freeto hit us up on our Facebook and

(02:42):
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science fiction related, feel free togo to our website at scifiction dot com.
We also have Twitter and TikTok atsci Fiction. Our YouTube is at

(03:02):
scie fiction Official, so check thatout as well. That's basically all the
gist of all the scie fiction goodies. We will be coming to you from
San Diego Comic Conference. People justjoining us in July, and then we'll
becoming new STLV fifteen in your missionafterwards. Amazing. We also have our
storefront now up on the on thesite. I'll briefly plug that real quick.

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Here are waiting on todd. Thisis the site. Here we have
the new shop section. If youlike high end Star Wars replicas, we
have some themed styled replicas and thestyle of the different savers, including one
called the It's one of my personalfavorites. Here is the Prismatic Sentinel.

(03:43):
E thirty three NeoPixel. We're goingto be adding a lot more content,
a lot more merchandise in this section, so keep stay tuned for that.
Tumblr twenty out's got tea shirts,we got everything, but basically that's the
just We also got some articles here. We pust a lot of content,
as you know for people following thepage, video content, audio content,
you name it, it's all onthere, so check it out. We'll
be bringing Todd on here shortly.If you want to ask him any questions,

(04:09):
feel free to ask him here.Will be joining this broadcast any minute
now, the next three or fourminutes. My name's Owen Cotter. You're
watching side fiction. How's everybody's weekendgoing. We got the comment section going
on here. We'll put Todd's tylerhere. There it is, boom,
there it is. I'm owning ceCotter. That's my Toddler. That's working.
Good chat chat's ready, we gotalready ready. Never miss a comment,

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so always comment on these broadcasts.We got some great guests if you
can it is. We've got somegreat guests coming on today, Fecily Todd
McFarlane. So if you're going tobe joining us in the broadcast. I
feel free to like, comment,share this broadcast. Please share it.
It's amazing when you share these broadcastsand not only gets more traffic with more
people get the opportunity to enjoy thebroadcast as we well. So that's all

(05:02):
good stuff. We've got a lotof stuff going on beyond Comic Con.
We're working on some other technology projects. We're gonna be debuting a lot of
good treats this year. I thinkyou'll enjoy it. Of course, of
course, more with the site buildingout the platform more. We're gonna have
an anime section for anime and manga, and we'll have all kinds of ways.
You notice there's been more anime contentbeing put on the site now.

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We've got a few new writers we'dlike to bring out we brought on board
recently. Rather that, we're goingto be pumping out more anime content as
well as video game content. We'vegot a lot of video game content.
We've been building that out of thislast year. Of course, sci fi
television movies and beyond. About aboutthree minutes or so, here's Todd will
be joining us. For people justjoining in, my name is Owen to

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see COTTI you're watching sid fiction onFacebook, YouTube, Twitch, and x
and we're simulcasting on all channels.Todd McFarland, creative Spawn work on Spider
Man, creator McFarland Toys, cofounder Image Comics, be joining us here
shortly in the broadcast, and ifyou have any questions for Tom, please
feel free to ask in the broadcast. We have a few questions from some

(06:08):
fans that emailed me. I knowthey want to ask some so we've got
those ready to rock and roll aswell. Here the palm my hand,
so I've got a lot myself.Todd McFarland is for people that may or
may not know, is, inmy opinion, one of the greatest inspirational
indie and you know, entrepreneurial,comic book and just the man of all
jack of all trades. He's doinga lot of things and we'll let him

(06:29):
tell his story and it's gonna begood. I think this will be a
good broadcast and a lot of thecomic book fans out there, if you're
chiming in and watching this broadcast,we're getting some followers chiming in here.
We've got several more people just joinedus. I don't know what's network you're
on, but whatever network you're on, feel free to comment. It all
comes here on the Bridge of theStarship side Fiction. So we've got all
the prompts here so we can featureyour comment on the broadcast as well,

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which we will when you come.So we got that going on. People
joining us. My name is Owence Cotter. How's everybody's day going?
Yeah, yeah, I relate there, it is side fiction. Goodness.
Let's go back to the site realquick. I wanted to show you something,

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so right here in between comics andpodcast, right in between that will
be the anime section. Of course, you've got the games. We've got
the retro gaming portable console. Indie. We used to have this as homework.
It's not called indie. It's moreappropriately goes with indie games, comics,
television, movie, sci fi,fantasy, superhero, cyberpunk, steampunk,

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diesel punk, and just other.And we've got our event section.
We're building that out as well,even more and more and more. It's
all the goodies. So getting that, I was surprised that they had the
the new ARCon season two teaser.They had the article done quick, so
I posted that on there the otherday. So got that ready for everybody.
The rock and Roll as well.It's a good show. It looks

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pretty cool. People that have notseen Arkan Arcane rather season one, and
it's a Netflix anime, it looksgreat. I I recommend checking it out.
Oh. I don't know what youropinion is of the new Alien Romulus,
but it looks pretty darn neat.It's more of a modern take on
the original Alien franchise, but itlooks cool to me. I mean,

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it's got kind of homage to theold original Alien from nineteen seventies with Sigourney
Weaver and a little bit of theAliens. You've got the trackers sound with
the track of the Alien and theship this time. I believe the movie
takes place on an alien spaceship,so that's gonna be that right there.
So to check that out. Ijust recently went and watched The Kingdom of

(08:37):
the Planet of the Apes movie.That was absolutely amazing. I highly recommend
watching that. It's a really goodfilm. It's got a lot of good
treats in there. As I say, a lot of interesting stuff in that
film, and the ending's amazing.I highly recommend watching that. I don't
know, they may make another one. I have a hint they may make
one. I don't know what theplot of the next one will be.
Maybe space maybe, I don't know, Because you know, you had like

(09:01):
the old ones where the apes cameto Earth in the Spaceship, you had
Charlton has them to the Punt ofthe Apes in the first one. And
yeah, of course you had likebeneath the Pundet of the Apes. You
know, plenty apes, everything,comic books, figurines, you can,
you name it, Plunt of theApes. Goodness is all over. But
that New Kingdom and the Punt ofthe Apes was a really good film.
I recommend seeing that. So we'rewaiting on Todd here. Should be joining

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us here any second. On thebroadcast. We're looking forward to talking with
him. For people that want tojoin in on the broadcast, feel free
to comment and chat and uh askTodd questions whatever questions you feel for to
ask, as long as they're familyfriendly and good and wholesome, as much
as possible, we will ask themto him. Remember, be creative the
questions. This is a good opportunityfor you'd ask Todd questions. Who will

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be joining us here shortly? Yeah, I hope everybody's having a good day.
My name is one Seecattle. You'rewatching science fiction. We've got the
big jumbo tron behind us with thescide fiction sight on there. It's streaming,
well, it's it's it's mirrored ratheronto the platform. We've got all

(10:09):
kind of goodies here for you.Check hery had some comments here. A
few things going on here? What'sthis here? It's got a few things
are see. Just one little thinghere. I want to message somebody.
Somebody had already called me up.Who is this? Ah? We've got

(10:35):
Frank on the line. He's Ibelieve in the in the in the live
stream somewhere in the room there.We got a few other people charming in
as well. We've got more peoplepouring and everybody get ready. We're going
to be talking with Todd McFarlane.He'll be joining us here any second.
So gear up, full, fullthrottle like Beggars Canyon, back Home,

(10:58):
Star Wars Reference. We're going in. We have a good time. She'll
be a good broadcast. I thinkeverybody. If you're if you're an indie
creator or a comic creator and youdo artwork or sci fi or anything really
cool in the comic ecosphere. Please, this is a great opportunity to ask
Todd. He's been there, heknows all of it. He's done it
for years, so he knows hisnose is crafting very well, if I

(11:20):
might say so, Please feel freeto ask him questions. Also, if
you, in my opinion, ifyou like to ask questions pertaining to just
general business questions, how do youget created? And you know, whether
it's comics or you're doing it anda lot of people do like I know,
like I'm customized toys and collectibles andanything and everything. I'm sure he's
going to advice some information on thatas well. Stay tuned. Todd McFarland's

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coming up here in just a second, folks, Stay tuned. All right,

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I think we've got Todd on theline here. Todd, can you
see me? No, but youlook handsome anyway. How's it going,
sir? How's your day going there? Doing pretty good? Doing pretty good?
We were just chiming in here gettingall the fans riled up and ready
for you on the broadcast. Yes, indeed, you've done a lot of

(12:31):
stuff I was watching. As amatter of fact, last year at Comic
Con, we were down there mygood friend Mark Secree, I think said
he was signing next to you,next to your booth. Oh that's cool.
Yeah, he had all the spacecommand goodness. He's got a space
opera series that he's working on downthere at the You think he's still filming
more of them now, Oh that'sawesome. Yeah. So you've done a
lot of stuff over the years,the whole We're laundry list of amazing things.

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You've co founded Image Comics, Youcreated the iconic character of spat On,
You worked on Spider Man at Marvel. You've done just amazing of course,
McFarland toys. What was first toskill? Back a little bit earlier
in time, what was your inspirationfor? Just how did you get away
in the comics in general? Iwas a late bloomer, so I didn't

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start collecting provaties about sixteen years old, Okay, But I had a buddy
whose dad distributed magazines to grocery storesand the news stand and stuff, and
he always brought comic books home tohis buddy or his son, excuse me,

(13:39):
who was my buddy? And sowhen I go over to his house,
he'd always have a stack of comicbook and then and then he said,
hey, you know, if youwant some, my dad can bring
some extra ones. And then eventuallyhe got tired of comic books, and
I kept sort of taking some ofthe stuff from his dad, but then
I started Horden and collecting my own, right. So, but the the

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hook in the comic books to beginwith was me just going out and arbitrarily,
don't know why, one day ata sort of a at that point
in advanced stage, picking up fouror five comic books off the newsstand,
right. So from there I justwas like, wow, super cool.
And I went back the very nextday to the to the corner store and

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picked up some more. So andI think it was that first day was
Doctor Strange twenty three, amazing,Spider Man won sixty seven, fantastic for
like I think, like too forty, and then like Avengers Avengers like two

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fifty three. It was like theant Man, the ant Man attack like
so I was and that was soI was getting George Prez and Selbia Sma
Hawk and us Andrew uh, andI think I think maybe i'd even picked
up Marvel two and one. Uh, that was the thing, and I

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guess, yeah, so I justI got I got smitten on that day
and never looked back to me.You remember all this like a digital memory.
That's amazing. Well no, no, no, no no, because
the thing is those first comic bookThis first comico was like your first kiss,
right right. I want to seeStar Wars or something for the first
time on my Yeah. Yeah,So if you told me what what did

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I buy three months later? Idon't know what I buy three months ago?
I don't know, right, butremember the first buy because that was
the Thunderbolt, right right, forsure. We have a couple of questions
here. One of our Frank wantsto know, he asks, hees two
questions. He says, do youhave he wants to know. Several people
want to know do you have anypersonal updates on the new Spawn movie if

(15:58):
there's going to be one, orany information the hints or anything. And
we have a follow up after that. Yeah. So I've read I've read
half the script. I mean thescript done. They're just going back and
read. Also, I got totell my phone off. Come on,
tom So, man, come on, tom So. The uh so,

(16:22):
I've read half the script. ScottSilver, the writer on the Joker one
and two, just finishing up thatpolish on on it. He was working
on it with Malcolm Spillman and MattMixon on it. So we're hoping,
we're hoping to get this thing donesoon. As a matter of fact,
I got a call with Scott tomorrowand uh and our goal is to finish

(16:47):
it up this summer and go andtry and sell it before Joker movie comes
up. That's gonna be amazing.I'm looking forward to that. Frank wants
to ask. He asked a verypowerful question at that and this is his
words. He in my eb itas well. He says, you're the
biggest inspirational indie writer artist of alltime. What advice do you have to

(17:07):
other indie writers and artists in general? Wo? This is easy. Just
do it? Yeah, just doit. What do you talk about like?
I didn't. I didn't climb towhere I got to necessarily because I
was more talented than anybody else orany of that. I've got some talent,
but there's plenty of plenty of peoplewho got way more than I did.

(17:32):
But I think one of the thingsthat has added to the recipe is
that I'm just tenacious. I justI mean, I got I got three
hundred and fifty issues asponn right,I try to image the president of Images.
I try to extract ten issues outof some of the people. So

(17:52):
it's like like I don't know.And then pretty soon, I mean,
I'm in my thirties with King Spawnand Gunslinger and The Scorched, right,
So in a year and a halffrom now, I'm going to have,
you know, four books that aregoing to be over fifty issues, uh

(18:14):
and counting, and I'll have addeda couple more to it. So like
it's it's one of those ones thatat some point you have to just commit
and do something. Two you haveto have some level of quality so that
the readers will come back and willsupport it. And then three and this

(18:37):
is the piece that I don't thinkpeople give enough value for. But maybe
because I've lived that, I understandthe value longevity matters on a big on
a big scale, right, Becausewhen I first went and bought those five
comic books, we were just talkingabout the characters that resonated the most to
me, even though I wasn't evena Comboo character collectic at that point,

(19:00):
were excuse me? Were the onesthat had been around in my mind?
I'd heard the whole I heard,you know, spider Man, I heard
Batman, I've heard the Flash,I heard wonder Woman. There were these
names that I'd heard of, andarguably so that my mom and dad and
they never bought a single comic bookthemselves. So attrition matters, right,
it just matters. And I knowbecause I have information in my head about

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the Kardashians. I've never read onearticle about them, right, but somehow
I've absorbed it. So just comingback and going over and over and over
and over and over, you builda brand, and the brand is now
spawn. Because I've been doing itfor thirty years, I think I can
argue that I can put him inthere with the A list characters. For

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sure. I can stand them.I can stand them next to the big
Boy. And the big value isthat once you do get that longevity,
then there's no one issue. There'sno one story or drawing or anything that
defined the character and or the reasonwhy a fan likes it. You just

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you either like Batman or you don't, right, And if next issue comes
out and it's not good, you'renot gonna stop liking Batman. Why,
Because that's what longevity gives you.It allows you to basically, sort of
using baseball terms, strikeout or groundout every now and then, you don't
have to hit a home run everytime, right, and people will go

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yeah, But overall the batting averageis pretty high on that character. I
like them, and so that's that'swhere responds at Now. Spawn is at
a point where we try to dothe best we can with every single issue.
But it's just another building block inthis long, long, long marathon
that we've been doing. So obviously, people don't have to do three hundred

(20:52):
and fifty issues. That's thirty yearsof their life. But doing your own
book and doing it for twenty issues, that's a start. Yeah, it's
amazing. Speaking of Batman, wehave a Batman question on here. It's
an interesting question. They ask,if he had to write you a new

(21:12):
Batman comic, what would your visionof the character be? Like? Your
perspective of it? If? What? Now? If you were to create
your own comic book based on theBatman universe, what would your vision of
that character be? I guess itdepends on how much freedom I'm being given.

(21:33):
Unlimited freedom, Well, I'd movehim a little bit closer to to
what I do with Spawn, thathe would just he would get nastier,
right, Like I've said this thing. The difference between Batman and Spawn is
that is that Batman catch catches Joker, puts him in jail. The system

(21:59):
can he comes out, he killed. Batman captures him, he gives it
to the system. System can't holdhe gets out, he killed. It's
been going on forty fifty times.So in my math, there's fifty dead
people right Spawn after about the fourthtime, we just fucking kill him pretty
much. The fifth time he catcheshim, he just goes. Obviously the

(22:22):
system can't hold them, so he'sjust gonna disappear. He's just gonna disappear.
And it's like, good, Ijust save thirty five people's life,
all right, You got to yougotta sometimes break break a few eggs to
make an omelet. Now again,that's not who some of those corporate characters
are, and I get it,But I also don't get how he knows

(22:48):
that that guy's gonna go out andkill. How he can go to sleep
at night knowing that if he hadjust crossed the line a little bit,
there might have been a child aliveanyway. But those are those are showy
things that go through my mind.Fascinating answer. I love that they get.
Uh. There's another question here thatthey ask, and it is let

(23:08):
me see if i'm here. It'sthe documentary you had on the Sci Fi
Channel, which we actually previewed itthe other day. Amazing film, by
the way, abuting your three hundredthissue. Uh. In that documentary,
it's this question. Is you havesaid in the documentary your family and love
of your wife is the inspiration behindSpawn. But the second part here,

(23:29):
what is the driving folks behind theway Spawn looks in his character in general?
Like I know he's the military.Is there any like inspirations in that?
Or no? No? No,I know I would argue, I'm
a pathifist and and and I'm I'man atheist, so I don't even believe
in heaven and hell. So sothat that's a big thing too. Right.

(23:51):
Sometimes I think that people who arenot near and dear to a certain
subject or theme our best equipped tocome at it from different angles because we
don't think we're doing something that isinsulting. Right. So for me,

(24:14):
I can bend a lot of ruleson the heaven and hell theme because I
don't go to bed thinking I'm beingblasphemous because I don't have any of that
guilt. It's a really cool premisethough, if you think about the origins
of Spawn, is very unique froma lot of most of them, the
actual Comba characters in the Echo Seer. Yeah, but but again I've I've
also I've done a couple of thingsto it, which again is sort of

(24:40):
basically doing a bit of a mirrorin my life, which is, I
don't I don't. I don't wantto be I don't want to be sort
of guided by big forces, whetherthat's corporations or government or religion or what.
I just want to I just wantto be taught, right, that's
it, and and and as andas flawed as that that life may be

(25:06):
for me. I I think mostof us can go to bed sleeping pretty
well if we just go well,I got to do what I wanted to
do again, as long as itdoesn't harm anybody what you're doing. So
so that's sort of the big giantoverarching theme of Spawn. Now it's actually
gotten even bigger. So now he'sgone away from him wanting sort of personal

(25:27):
freedom to want him to basically keepthat for Earth right, And so he's
his his goals like I don't wantHeaven or Hell h interfering in our day
to day actions. Let us youwant to give us sort of true free
will, then be gone both ofyou. Right, That's that's the freest

(25:48):
will you can give us. Letus just be flawed human beings and succeed
and fail at our own rates insteadof having temptation and being nudged around us.
So that's uh sort of the big, the big sort of driving force
of what he's doing here. Hetreats heaven and Hell exactly the same.
And I have this thing where theway that it works is the first human

(26:12):
being to die went to Hell,the second human being who died went to
heaven. How Heaven, how Heaven? How? It's literally and it has
nothing to do with how good youwere, right, And so that allows
me the concept then of saying thatGang is Khan uh uh and and and

(26:33):
Koobla Khan could be on in heavenuh and Mother Theresa could be in hell.
Uh. And the reason that thatmatters is because someday you're going to
get to the apocalypse. Right,It was me I'd rather have I'd rather
have Genghis Khan on my side thanthan the quote and bee ladies, right,
so, and so that's part ofthe whole reason why Heaven and Hell

(26:56):
have to sort of put up witheach other. Sometimes they trade prisoners.
If you want these for sure.The driving force behind McFarland Toys. Did
you collect toys or like there's likea modest collectibles or what was like the
what was the creation of that?How did you go I want to create
a toy company to that? ActuallyI didn't. I didn't want. I

(27:18):
didn't want to. I didn't wantto start to help fund the common company.
I just I was hoping others woulddo it and I could just buy
them, and oh, man,you guys do all the heavy work.
You guys do all the complicated stuff. I'll just be the collector. I'll
just be the geek. But beinga geek then I just want, man,

(27:40):
you know, it'd be cool ifwe could do combooks like this.
We end up starting image and thenon the toy front, I was like,
I'm a geek and I don't buyany of these toys because I don't
think they're cool. I want tounderstand and I've said it millions of times,
I don't understand why toys can't lookcooler, And so that was the
kind of plain and drab all backin the eighties and ninety even some of
the Evans too. Yeah. Yeah, I would even argue that the first

(28:04):
wave few waves I did were prettybland in retrospect, but at that time
they were right step up, right. So I don't know. I just
go, if I'm going to collecttoys, you gotta look cooler. Nobody's
gonna make them. I guess I'llmake them. You do like a variety
of things you do, everything fromsports, toys, superheroes, DC,

(28:27):
everything, music, music, themovie Maniacs and stuff like that. What's
your what's your favorite aspect of beinginvolved in that kind of creature product from
working on comics, transitioning in thetoys, what what? What is there
anything different between those two that youenjoy with the toys and different vice versa.

(28:48):
No, I think. I thinkthe joy in the creative part for
me is having ideas and concepts inyour head, right, we all have
them, right, and then andthen working with a team of people and
then at times seeing the results eithermatch what you have in your head or

(29:10):
in times which are the great daysexceed what you had in your head,
and you just go, man,so we can do that, right.
You have these ideas, go,let's try this. What if we did
this, what if we did this. I don't know if it's going to
work. Let's just try it.And then sometimes you get it back and
you go, man, that lookscool, right, so let's keep doing
it. Let's keep doing it,and you keep you keep sort of look

(29:33):
at here. Here's here's why,for the most part, every creative person,
artistic person is neurotic. Is becauseI think all of us have this
thing. We chase the elusive perfection, right, and we will never attain
it. Right, although although wedon't ever tell ourselves that, every day

(29:57):
is that today when we wake upas today we're going to find the holy
Grail. Right, So we justchase perfection every day, every day,
every day, and every day nomatter how good we do something tomorrow,
we can always do it better,right, and then we eventually die,
right, which the neurosis of it, because we have we're never going to

(30:19):
get perfection, and we have amillion ideas spinning in our head and we
know, if we're lucky, we'llget a hundred of them out right,
So we're going to go to ourgrave arguably with our best ideas still locked
in our brain. Right. SoI was thinking about this the other day,
like, of all the TV showsand comics and movies, you can't
read them all because you're going tobe dead one day. Yeah, I

(30:41):
might not watch the best stuff thatI enjoy. So you got all the
goodness of all the pop culture.Pop culture, Like when when I was
a kid, it was starting tokind of come up the ladder in popularity.
But I'm sure when you were alittle bit younger, you know,
the last forty fifty years become sowidestream mainstream, everything's sci fi, comic
book, superheroes. What do yousee not just you know, comic book

(31:06):
but just like for instance, comicbook art is now considered almost like a
fine art people collected. You knowthat it's just the old stuff, And
there's some of your stuff's gone toauction. What do you see some of
these these creations, like say thirtyforty years from now or fifty years from
now, somebody getting a spawn artor a cell or something like that original
sketch. What do you see likethe longevity of the pop culture becoming more

(31:29):
popular in the future or like becominglike what do you see like the trajectory
based on like you, well,so let's go back, because because you
asked a lot of stuff there.Yeah. So when I started collecting comic
books sixteen seventeen, you were consideredodd and weird, right, and so

(31:51):
again it was like, Todd,what do you collect comic books? Like
what do you mentally arrested? Right? I mean, but I just go,
yeah, uh, okay, fine, why what are you guys doing?
Oh, we're going to Star Wars, We'll go to Indiana Jones,
and then maybe we're gonna go tothe James Bond movie where that car goes
down the ski list. So Ialways thought it was weird that my friends

(32:15):
could have their fantasy because it wasmainstream, it was okay to have their
fantasy. But I had my fantasy, which was comic books, and it
was like, oh, that's childish. And I think part of it too,
because look at the vast majority ofpeople don't collet comic books. Let's
just stick with the comic and ifin their definition of comic books is what

(32:37):
they did, especially older people,what they did when they were kids,
and it was like Superman and Archiecomics. They don't know how wide ranging
comic book stores are. Like ablockbuster. You know, when you went
in the Blockbuster there were like hundredsand hundreds of different types of movies.
The same thing with comic book Theyjust don't know. But now that they

(33:00):
made the movies, which was tome really the moment, and you could
argue it kind of started with Batmanin eighty eight, but but you know,
especially since sort of the Marvel universehas come in and become its own
thing, that now mainstream, Likeregular people who just go to movies are
now instead of going to action moviesall the time, to go into these

(33:23):
superhero movies. And now because theygo to them, it's mainstream, and
it's mainstream, then it's okay.So now now fast forward, if you
say you collect comic book you're cool. Right before it was like Todd,
you're an idiot. You know,Now you're kind of cool. And and
pop culture as a whole, Idon't. Again, it's not comic books

(33:45):
or toys, it's culture. It'sgetting bigger. And so because now fandom
geek them comic books, I thinkswims in the same pool with anime and
video games and TV shows like Gamewith Thrones and like all this stuff,
right, Lord of the Rings areWars. I mean you can put you

(34:06):
can put all this stuff now inthe same pool of get the Gumbo of
all the goodness, yeah, whichis basically which is basically San Diego Comic
Con. Yes, I mean youknow they got the word comic in there,
but it's pop culture gone right,and that's it. So do I
see that going away? Of courseI don't. As matter of fact,
not only do I see it growing, Like like I think geekdom is like

(34:30):
sports right there there there are billionsof people globally that like sports. I
think there are billions of people globallythat like geeky stuff. And not only
are they going to continue to likeit, but like sports fans, you're
gonna You're gonna be a fan tillyou die. Right. I never met
anybody that was a Yankee fan fromeight to fifty five and then said on

(34:52):
his fifty sixth birthday, Ah,I've had I've had too many Yankee games.
No, you're gonna go You're gonnago to you take your last breath.
Geeks are going to be the same. And then they're gonna do what
sports fans do. They're gonna basicallytake their kids, and they're going to
influence their kids by saying I likethe Green Bay Packers. Mom likes the

(35:14):
Green Bay Packers. Everybody in theneighborhood likes the Green Bay. You should
probably like the Green Bay Packers.Right, So again, they're going to
influence people. It's not an accidentthat people who love Star Wars are buying
Star Wars bibs for their kids.Boys and Star Wars that and then their
kids or whatever. Yeah, andI look at I've been around long enough

(35:37):
now. Spawn's been around long enoughnow that if you were fifteen when you
bought your first issue, you're nowforty five pushing fifty. A bunch of
them have had kids and have raisedthe kids I'm now seeing on a steady
basis the next generation coming into myline going, oh, man, I

(35:58):
think Spawn's cool because my dad showedit to me and or my uncle showed
it to me, and you know, it was really cool. Now you
know they like it, so Ilike it. And so there's again going
back to why longevity matters. Right, all of a sudden, it went
from Ah, there was a timewhere it was like those same kids were
like, Eh, oh that's mydad's stuff. That's funny, duddy,
right, who cares? Right,But now they're getting older and they're like,

(36:22):
oh, man, no, it'sretro cool. Right. Oh,
so I can share something with somebodyin the family and we can go to
conventions together. Ah, man,it's cool. And now it's past more
than one generation. And so that'swhat time will do for you, because
now if we get that Spawn movieout, I might be able to draw
from all the Spawned people, allthe comic books people, all the people

(36:44):
who just in general like going tomovies that are superhero maybe with a horror
and now a new generation of peoplewho just go man, who might not
have gone five, six, eight, ten years ago to spawn, but
they're now being nudged into it becauseof somebody older than them, that know.
So who knows? That sounds amazing. That's a better answer I could

(37:05):
get, I tell you that much. I was going to say, like,
all the pop culture and all thethings you've done, what's next on
the horizon? What would you liketo is there beyond the movie? Like
what other kind of things you gotdoing on the pipeline, and they I
mean, the only it's the onlyit's that I still I might want to
scratch. Is I'd like to direct. I'd like to do some some of

(37:30):
full a full either a TV showand or a film, right, I
mean I've directed music videos and stufflike that, but but nothing sort of
multi day, multi month shooting andput it together and see how people react
to it. But I it's partof making Depending on how we make the

(37:52):
deal for the Spawn movie, thatmight be part of the criteria of like
I you've got to direct the thirdpart, or if we do spin off
characters, I get to do theGunslinger movie or something. I don't know.
I'll figure out something that'd be awesome. But in wrapping up, is

(38:15):
there any events you're going to beat coming up of the next month or
anything that you've got on the pipelineyou like to shut up? I think
I think I think we're all sortof pushing towards San Diego right now.
Next month, so we'll have ourbooth on the on the one side of
the image booth that we normally have, we're gonna be showing and devoting about

(38:39):
a third of that to the toycompany showing showing some of the toys there,
right, you know, and nownot only do I do you know,
spawn toys and whatever else, butnow you know we do and have
been doing the DC Multiverse, right. We just yeah, we just announced

(39:00):
uh partnership with Marvel being able todo some with them, and then and
then we just signed a couple otherother deals that hopefully will be able to
announce it by then. So yeah, we're always We're always up to some
kind of trouble. And then I'vegot a bunch of new new comics putting
out. Uh there, you know, a big variety of books, right,

(39:24):
everything from dark and gritty like samtwitch stuff too. You know,
we've got the Spawn Kills Every Spawnkind of goofy, fun little book,
and we've done a couple of thosein the past. They've done really well.
Uh. And and then even doingstuff with like an actor David dash

(39:45):
Melson, who you know has beenin you know, big handful of movies.
Uh. You know, we're doingthis book called Knights and Samurai and
it's kind of cool, you knowwhat like a Samurai like Uh No,
it's it's sort of like trying totake like like all everything you know about

(40:05):
like the Dark Ages Knights, andthen take feudal Japan and then sort of
sort of butt them together and insteadof say, hey, they think they're
the World Tower, they should bedominating, and the Knights think that they
should be dominating. Right, Imean, think about like with Genghis Khan.
Assume you got a Ganghis Khan oneach side who basically took over Mongolia

(40:29):
and thought he was going to theworld, and the two of them clash.
First, just visually, I thinkit's a hell of a clash,
right, Knights in Samurai looks cool, some magic, there'll be some dragon
stuff like that. But then inthe midst of it, uh, there's
a faction of the of the Knightsthat will run into a faction of the
Samurai. And this is this isliterally the Hatfields and the McCoy. But

(40:53):
they're going to find out that they'veboth been duped to the reason is that
they hate these guys, and theseguys hate these guys may not actually be
truthful. And so once those twogroups collide and find out that they maybe

(41:13):
have both been duped, the momentthe word gets out that they're not now
loyal to the big plan, they'regoing to be ostracized. So this group
gets ostracized from the Knights, andthis group gets ostracized from the Samurais,
and now the Hatfields and the McCoy'sgot to get together because they're going to
be the ship's in which and they'regonna be getting it from both ends,

(41:35):
and the only way they can surviveis to basically somehow team up with your
enemy, your mortal enemy, right, or at least the people you thought
were your mortal enemy, right becausethey were duped. That's awesome, man.
Well, I wanted to thank youso much for joining us on the
broadcast. Todd, there's actually apleasure talking with you. Hope to see
maybe when it shot a comical.I'll be down there all week and as

(41:58):
well covering so yeah, and ifnot, we'll have you know those I
mean, obviously, only a smallportion of people can make it to the
show, so but you know,you and others like you continue to do
a great job of getting the newsout to people around the globe. You
know, basically, you know,this is the piece that I think that

(42:19):
we don't appreciate more or acknowledge,the stuff that that I think the media
does right. So because I thinkthere I've always said there's four parts.
There's the creative, you got tomake it right. You've got to have
the stores that will sell it.You can have the retailers, and you
have to have the customers to buyit. I mean, if any one

(42:43):
of those three goes away, itgets a little bit tough. But but
but mixed, and that sometimes it'sforgotten is that the fan can't come and
get it if they don't know itexists. Right. The way they know
it exists a lot of times isbecause of the thing that you and so
many others like you do right,So you do a great service. And

(43:05):
I think if one of those componentsslips dramatically, I think it hurts and
injures all of us. Right,So, if there's no fans, we
got nothing. If nobody's making anything, we don't got anything. But if
people, you know, don't knowwhat even exists, they don't know to
go get it. And then andonce they get it, because they know
about it, then they talk aboutit. And it just is a perpetual

(43:27):
sort of you know circle, Itjust keeps going around and around and around.
So I try to do my partright, and and so I appreciate
you guys like you doing your part. Thank you, Tom. I appreciate
those kind words, sir, Ireally do. I want to thank you
so much. You have a beautifulday, and I'll see you saying man,
all right, you'd be good.Sir, this is going hotter.

(43:50):
Thanking you for listening to Sign FictionRadio. Don't forget to visit our website
at www dot dot chop the three. I was prettyville to say