Robserecaps Thirty Five – Then & Now Todd McFarlane 1993 – 2023

Posted by Joe on Feb 5, 2023 in Robserecaps | 0 comments

I skipped a few episodes that I will be going back to (Barry Windsor Smith part) and a few I won’t (Manga and the Rob’s favorite Bat artists) but any episode that is gonna be JAMMED with the Rob’s insulting impression of Todd McFarlane? I’m there!

• This is the beginning of new series, entitled Then & Now, where the Rob will take an old interview someone did 20+ years ago and try and paint them as hypocrites based on their actions of today! Sounds like fun!
• Tom DeFalco in 1989 gave the Rob advice he still adheres today, you have to spoon feed the audience, treat them like they’re third graders
• The Rob runs down the slate of comic movie and TV properties for 2023, even throwing in a tease for something he has cooking
• It bears repeating, the Rob is very sniffly this episode
• When the Rob was getting ready to do Heroes Reborn for Marvel, Jim Valentino told the Rob he had to fly to see Todd and beg him to make it all right. This was the band aid being ripped off of Image Comics, putting Image on wobbly ground until Robert Kirkman came aboard
• The Rob cracks himself up at the thought of how good his impression of Todd is, which is by no way insulting
• The Rob is doing some homage covers for Marvel soon, which he hates doing because of how tough they are to pull off, but uses this to point out that Todd’s classic Incredible Hulk 340 cover is not as groundbreaking as everyone thinks it is. There were Batman covers, Marvel Two In One covers and more that did the ‘reflective’ deal before Todd did
• The Rob also points out the Todd did more for the toy industry than he did for the comics industry
• the September 1993 issue of Entertainment Retailing, a subsidiary of Wizard is where this Todd interview comes from
• The interview, no byline attached, mentions that Spawn up to this point, was a rare Image book that stayed successful without variant and multiple covers
• Todd was taking time off Spawn to do the Batman crossover, which he was excited about, why he did not do the Deathmate/Valiant crossover, which he was not familiar with those characters, so not excited about
• Around 16:45 is where the impression begin, with Todd claiming Spider-Man 1 was the start of the multiple covers deal which Todd calls a “rampant disease” that he feels guilty about since it was breeding resentment in the industry
• The Rob is quick to point out that King Spawn or Spawn and the Spawnettes, the Rob can’t be bothered to know the name of the book, from three years ago, had multiple covers
• The Rob mentions a story of his local retailer who went All In on King Spawn, ordered 1000 copies to the get four of the CGC signed variants and is now sitting on over 600 unsold copies
• the 26 variants on 2022’s Batman/Spawn book was approved by Todd, according to the Rob’s stooges at DC, making Todd one of the driving forces in today’s variant cover market
• The Rob does state his hands are not clean as Deadpool Badder Blood has five or six covers and Snake Eyes 1 had 30 covers, but the Rob doesn’t have a 30 year old interview calling variant covers a disease, so it’s OK
• Todd says after Batman/Spawn, his plan is to do 9 issues of Spawn a year and 3 issues of something else, a Violator mini series, something in the Spawn universe, Todd is not ‘ambitious’ as Jim Lee and the Rob, doing outside projects
• Present day, Todd has a new universe of Spawn books that he inks the main book, may plot some of them, but has little to do with them, the Rob’s not sure, he did not come prepared for this
• Todd is expending the Spawn universe to try and sell it to Hollywood, but the Rob is just speculating at this point
• I missed that the current TMNT book from IDW getting the 2021 the Rob MACHO award
• on the West Coast, UtoteM’s put their comics on shelves, not spinner racks like 7-11, so the Rob would get better condition copies there
• the Rob reads iTunes reviews, this one from CDH2K10 who states ‘the Rob is a Longbox Hero’ and I am DEAD

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