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#643: Todd McFarlane, Iconic Comic Book Artist — Lessons from Stan Lee, How to Make Art that Outlives You, How to Compete with Corporate Giants and Win (While Having Fun), Dealmaking Strategies, War Stories from Wall Street and Lawyer Land, Taking Responsibility for Your Life, and Why Creators Need to Smash Limits

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Dec 16, 2022

Guest

Todd McFarlane

Todd McFarlane, a Grammy and Emmy-winning director and creator of the iconic comic book 'Spawn,' shares tales from his creative journey. He reminisces about his mentorship with Stan Lee and discusses the importance of audience connection. McFarlane dives into how he expanded his brand into toys and film while stressing quality and innovation. He reveals risks taken, like investing in Mark McGwire's baseball, and offers insights on competing with corporate giants. Finally, he reflects on creativity, resilience, and the joy found in artistic collaboration.

02:47:49

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ANECDOTE

Toy Fair Success

At his first Toy Fair, Todd McFarlane secured a storewide deal with Toys "R" Us.
This deal was thanks to an assistant who recognized Spawn's popularity, leading to other retailers following suit.

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ADVICE

Surface Area of Luck

Maximize your chances of success by increasing your surface area for luck.
Todd McFarlane explains how persistence and repeated efforts create more opportunities for fortunate events.

question_answer

ANECDOTE

The McGwire Ball

To gain recognition from sports leagues, Todd McFarlane bought Mark McGwire's 70th home run ball for $3 million.
This bold move generated headlines and opened doors to licensing deals.

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Reflections on a Comic Legend

05:42 • 24min

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Expanding the Comic Universe

29:50 • 11min

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Crafting Success: The Art of Enhancing Existing Ideas

40:41 • 6min

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Crafting Toys: Artistry vs. Efficiency

46:20 • 24min

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A $3 Million Gamble: The Toy Industry Journey

01:10:13 • 14min

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Navigating Creativity in Animation and Business

01:24:13 • 20min

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Competing in the Toy Industry: Innovation and Strategy

01:43:49 • 6min

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Creativity, Collaboration, and Coincidence

01:49:45 • 25min

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Navigating Competition and Resilience

02:15:12 • 24min

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Reflections on Creativity, New Ventures, and Weekly Inspirations

02:39:25 • 6min

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Navigating Entrepreneurship with Support and Nutrition

02:45:00 • 3min

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#116

• Mentioned in 160 episodes

The 4-Hour Body

An Uncommon Guide to Rapid Fat-Loss, Incredible Sex, and Becoming Superhuman

Tim Ferriss

In 'The 4-Hour Body,' Tim Ferriss shares the results of over a decade of self-experimentation and research, involving hundreds of elite athletes, dozens of MDs, and thousands of hours of personal testing. The book covers more than 50 topics, including how to lose weight quickly, gain muscle without steroids, sleep less and perform better, and improve sexual health. Ferriss emphasizes the importance of finding the smallest changes that produce the biggest results, making it accessible for readers to achieve significant improvements in their physical health and performance.

Brought to you by LinkedIn Jobs recruitment platform with 800M+ users, Athletic Greens all-in-one nutritional supplement, and Shopify global commerce platform providing tools to start, grow, market, and manage a retail business.

Todd McFarlane (@Todd_McFarlane) is an Emmy- and Grammy-winning director/producer and creator of one of the world’s best-selling comic books, Spawn. He is best known to many comic book fans for his work as the artist on The Amazing Spider-Man, for which he co-created Marvel’s top villain, Venom.

Todd is the CEO of Todd McFarlane Productions, McFarlane Toys (one of the US’s top action-figure manufacturers), and McFarlane Films. He is also a co-founder of Image Comics, which debuted Spawn in 1992, selling 1.7 million copies of the first issue. In 1997, Spawn was made into an Emmy Award-winning animated series on HBO and a live-action feature film that grossed over $100 million. In 2019, Todd made history with Spawn #301, earning the Guinness World Record for longest-running creator-owned superhero comic book series.

Please enjoy!

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[05:58] The wit, wisdom, and work ethic of Stan Lee.

[29:50] Todd’s four corners: video games, TV, movies, and toys.

[41:46] Learning the art of toycrafting and beating the industry at its own game.

[49:11] Dumb luck at Toy Fair.

[1:03:31] Toy marketing and distribution circa 1994.

[1:10:51] The play Todd made with a $3 million baseball.

[1:18:08] Todd gets in a hockey fight.

[1:24:12] Bringing Spawn to TV.

[1:27:57] Being the dumbest guy in the room can win you Emmy awards.

[1:31:17] Cancellation.

[1:32:38] Todd is bilingual — in art and business.

[1:38:50] How Todd finds time to create while managing his businesses.

[1:43:49] Brand matters.

[1:49:44] Making a music video, winning another Emmy, and almost killing Eddie Vedder.

[1:56:33] The momentum of success.

[1:59:15] The surface area of (dumb) luck.

[2:01:07] Building worlds that will endure.

[2:08:13] Building characters who will outlive their creator.

[2:15:13] Today will not be perfect, so lower the bar and dance if you want to.

[2:24:45] Is Todd’s wife married to a monster?

[2:30:50] Be the second person.

[2:35:48] Parting thoughts.

For show notes and past guests on The Tim Ferriss Show, please visit tim.blog/podcast.

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Past guests on The Tim Ferriss Show include Jerry Seinfeld, Hugh Jackman, Dr. Jane Goodall, LeBron James, Kevin Hart, Doris Kearns Goodwin, Jamie Foxx, Matthew McConaughey, Esther Perel, Elizabeth Gilbert, Terry Crews, Sia, Yuval Noah Harari, Malcolm Gladwell, Madeleine Albright, Cheryl Strayed, Jim Collins, Mary Karr, Maria Popova, Sam Harris, Michael Phelps, Bob Iger, Edward Norton, Arnold Schwarzenegger, Neil Strauss, Ken Burns, Maria Sharapova, Marc Andreessen, Neil Gaiman, Neil de Grasse Tyson, Jocko Willink, Daniel Ek, Kelly Slater, Dr. Peter Attia, Seth Godin, Howard Marks, Dr. Brené Brown, Eric Schmidt, Michael Lewis, Joe Gebbia, Michael Pollan, Dr. Jordan Peterson, Vince Vaughn, Brian Koppelman, Ramit Sethi, Dax Shepard, Tony Robbins, Jim Dethmer, Dan Harris, Ray Dalio, Naval Ravikant, Vitalik Buterin, Elizabeth Lesser, Amanda Palmer, Katie Haun, Sir Richard Branson, Chuck Palahniuk, Arianna Huffington, Reid Hoffman, Bill Burr, Whitney Cummings, Rick Rubin, Dr. Vivek Murthy, Darren Aronofsky, Margaret Atwood, Mark Zuckerberg, Peter Thiel, Dr. Gabor Maté, Anne Lamott, Sarah Silverman, Dr. Andrew Huberman, and many more.

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