Participating in the Todd MacFarlane panel at San Diego Comic-Con has become an annual tradition for me. Part of that is because McFarlane knows how to get the attention of the room. His energy is probably coincidental or exceeded by fellow nerd legend Kevin Smith. The other half is because he often drops hints about the future of spawning. Especially in the comics field.
This year, McFarlane decided to switch that. Instead of making a massive public, he held a casual conversation with Jim Viscardi, the business vice president of Image Comics. This was a truly unique experience. The first was a discussion of how San Diego Comic-Con grew into today’s large pop culture event. MacFarlane recalls that he began attending scams when he was 16, but Viscardi said that the Avengers helped him make his career in big comic book films, especially by writing articles about who Thanos is.
McFarlane was also open about evolving to meet fans, especially during the times when social media was in the midst of things. “You have to meet the fans where they are,” he said. He also encouraged fans to go out there and go to the convention. “If you want to join this industry, you have to go to the customs!”
This led to a rather hilarious story. There, he recalls how MacFarlane saw the late Jim shooter at the early SDCC and waits until Shooter uses the bathroom to ask questions about the craft. Another touching story included Peter David and George Perez. In the scam, MacFarlane and David had an argument hosted by Perez. David won for the help of Harlan Ellison, but later Perez sent MacFarlane one of his signature Hawaiian shirts.
MacFarlane is pleased that more fans will come to Comic Cons, even if it is by unorthodox means. He said his daughter loved The Dark Knight and began asking questions about the manga. He said he was taking off on Sunday to celebrate his 40th anniversary with his wife Wanda, but he thanked everyone in attendance.
As for the spawn comics, the slideshow teased upcoming titles, including MacFarlane and Mark Spears’ Spawn ’77, based on the original pitch of hell’s anti-hero MacFarlane, which he created in 1977 (he still has 45 pages he drew for the concept). McFarlane is constantly changing things, so it’s safe to say that next year’s panel will be even more unique.
