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PART 1 |
We posed Todd questions submitted by people just like you. He obliged, giving some really entertaining and intriguing answers. See what Todd has to say about the upcoming Spawn live-action sequel, his stint at Marvel Comics, what he says about fans who accuse him of "selling out."
Readers who supplied selected questions will receive a prize autographed by McFarlane. McFarlane's Spawn 2 animated video arrives at MyVideoStore.com on August 25 from HBO Home Video.
Hear excerpts of the Todd McFarlane interview in RealAudio! Get the free Real player.
I've been reading Spawn
ever since it started and have always wondered how you came up with
the idea of there being more than just Heaven and Hell, like everyone
has been taught since they were born? I really find this intriguing
and some how plausible since no one really knows.
Ron Frank
Plover, Wisconsin
TODD McFARLANE:
I don't see it as being a very unique idea. Dante wrote about the different levels [of Hell]. And throughout history in literature there's probably thousands of versions of it.I think what you will see though is that most people that do a slant on heaven and hell and on religion, for the most part kind of aren't religious themselves, which is me. And the reason is because we don't believe we are committing blasphemy then. So to us it's just this cool story and it's like, how can you modify it and come up with these cool ideas about it. And again, given the fact that as much as people like to say they've got the answers, empirically nobody can say one way or the other.
It's all predicated on faith, not fact. And once you start dealing with faith that can be molded into a lot of different ways. The whole concept of good and evil is, I think, an eternal theme that anybody can play with.
I know about your stint
with Marvel Comics, is there any animosity left or are you past
that?
Matt Nortum
Colorado Springs, Colorado
TODD McFARLANE:
It's tough to have animosity toward a faceless corporate entity. That's my biggest complaint about these places, that nobody owns the joint. They have CEOs and they have chairman's, but essentially those guys change as the stocks go up and down. So there's nobody there. There's no Mr. Marvel.So if you get pissed at McFarlane Toys, you can go, 'That Todd, I'm gonna go talk to him!' And you've got a conversation with me. And I have to sit there and take it like a man and go, 'I'm sorry.'
And I've yet to met Mr. IBM too. It's because it doesn't exist. These companies are like floating around using public money and they're just workers, but it's a little bit like The Wizard Of Oz. It's got the big head there and it's like there it is, but when you actually pull the curtain back it's just people running it. We seem to think that there's more there than there is. But again, it's tough for me to be mad at nobody. There's nobody there.
Some of your action
figures seem so dark and demented. Where do you get your inspiration
for these figures? I like the newest line I've seen, they appear to
be inspired by the old Universal horror classics.
Cindy M. Marvin
Eagle River, Alaska
TODD McFARLANE:
Dark and demented, I don't think are the right descriptive words. I like doing monsters. So just because you like monsters, does that make you demented? I don't know. People go to see alien movies. I just think it's boy stuff. When I was a kid, I liked aliens and I liked dinosaurs. To me dinosaurs are monsters. And I liked watching the little black and white horror movies.It's just cool stuff. It's just now that you are older it's like I can either do a Barney toy or I can do this really cool, twisted, living, re-animated Spawn toy that looks like a skull man and a mummy.
It's not a reflection of my attitude of society and my political views. I can either do cute stuff, of which when I go into the store there about a billion of those, or I could do some cool wicked stuff, of which I see there being kind of a shortage of that.
INTERVIEWER:
Does this "cool boy stuff" help you stay
young?
TODD McFARLANE:
Yeah sure. It's the equivalent of, you know, I can do a cool monster toy and then have people sort, kind of look at that go, 'Ah yuck! That's gross!' Well, first off that's not even the person I'm trying to sell it to. So I don't care if you like it because I don't even want to sell it to you, Mom. I'm not concerned by that.But again, I could go back in time and go, I used to do that when I was younger it's just good clean fun.. It's the equivalent of me putting something slimy down somebody's pants and watching them jump. No big deal.