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If you ask Todd McFarlane, he would tell you he was born with a competitive streak. He attributes it to being born the second of three sons but was likely honed as a lifelong sports fan, to the point that a baseball scholarship paid his way through college. Although a serious ankle injury stymied his pro ball dreams, his competitive streak stayed alive - and even flourished as a freelance comic artist and then later as he became an entrepreneur.

But with 30+ years under his belt as owner of the Spawn media franchise, co-owner and president of Image Comics, and owner of McFarlane Toys, he learned early on that it's not about trying to beat the biggest company in a given field - but by seeing the holes in their game, listening to the fans, and doing it yourself.

"When we started in 1992, we were going up against the giants. To some extent, my whole life, all I do is go against giants in the industries that I'm in," McFarlane tells Popverse's Joshua Lapin-Bertone. "What I look for when you're going up against a giant, never try to kill the giant. You can't do it because they're too big and they've got too much manpower and money behind them. What I look for is where they are leaving gaps, and then I try to fill the gap."

Inside the rebellious streak that led Todd McFarlane to co-found Image Comics

Todd McFarlane and six other Marvel creators banded together in 1991, and in 1992 launched Image Comics - what quickly became the third-largest comic book publisher in North America - something that holds through to this day. While they launched on their name value generated while at Marvel on books such as Spider-Man, X-Men, and X-Force, McFarlane says that they also quietly innovated in other areas - and aimed at what he saw as former (or soon to be former) Marvel readers as they grew up.

"On the comic book front, we were willing to spend more money on our product to do things like use sort of magazine-quality paper instead of newsprints, to use computer coloring instead of the old-fashioned way of doing it," says McFarlane. "And we acknowledged that we were selling to a little bit of an older audience. We could get a little more eclectic, a little more mature with our stories, and then as time has gone by, we're now completely eclectic. We're not having to survive on superhero comic books from top to bottom like Marvel and DC."

Inside Image, he and the other Image Comics founders set up the company as a co-op more than a publisher, handling the "boring stuff," as he calls it, and for the creative stuff to be handled by the creators who show up.

"What Image Comics is there for is to help facilitate the stuff that most creative people don't want to deal with: accounting, shipping, printing, solicitation, some of the boring stuff, because people just want to create," says McFarlane. "We'll take care of logistics, and you go and do it. You own your ideas, lock, stock, and barrel. You can make whatever decisions you want, good, bad, or indifferent. And there have been plenty of all the above over the 30 years we've been publishing."

How a disagreement with Mattel led to Todd McFarlane revolutionizing the toy industry

On the toy side, the origin of McFarlane Toys came from a similar place. Shortly after the launch of Image Comics and McFarlane's creator-owned character Spawn, he reached a deal with Mattel for a line of action figures and other merchandise. Sales of a promotional Hot Wheels Spawnmobile to announce the relationship sold better than expected, but quality issues between what McFarlane wanted and what Mattel could provide led him to - once again - do it himself.

"The action figure industry was basically sort of generic toys being sold to moms and seven-year-olds. There wasn't really a wide range of brands, licenses, and intellectual properties, and the quality of the product was, to me as an artist, way below what it should have been, which is essentially why I got into the business," says McFarlane.

"I asked a simple question: 'Why can't these things look cooler?' 'Why can't they be better?' We came on board in 1994, and it was a bit of a lightning bolt to people," McFarlane continues. "It's like, 'Ooh my gosh, you can make toys a little bit more mature, with more detail, more paint,' and do a lot of things that the public companies, the Fortune 500 companies aren't doing, and that was because they were selling to moms and seven-year-olds. And now it started to shift, and I was aiming at people 14 and older."

Again, aiming at the teenage market - like McFarlane did with Image Comics and the Spawn comic.

"Since that time, our company has gotten a lot of attention because we were a lone wolf. We were sort of the pioneer. Now, there are arguably dozens of companies that have taken from the playbook of McFarlane Toys, and they do really good, outstanding work and figures," McFarlane admits. "Now there's a lot of stiff competition, and everybody has to basically do a great job, because our consumers are older. They're usually buying it for themselves, and they're not shy. They'll get on the internet and tell you when you've messed up, so you’ve got to be on your toes at all times. You don't get to take a breath."

If you've seen Todd McFarlane in person or at a convention, you know that 'taking a breath' doesn't come easy to McFarlane to begin with. 

You can read our full interview with Todd McFarlane here.

Get ready for what's next with our guide to upcoming comics, how to buy comics at a comic shop, and our guide to Free Comic Book Day 2025.