Ever since bolting from Marvel Comics with its top talent to start a new comic-book company in 1992, artist Todd McFarlane has been slipping curve balls past entertainment-business types.
His flagship character, Spawn — with its violent “Batman”-meets-“Alien” sensibility — has sold more than 120 million books in 15 languages. It also brought a successful movie, an Emmy Award-winning animated series entering its third season on HBO, video games and toy action figures.
Armed with the fruits of all that success, it wasn’t so far-fetched that the self-described “sports geek” would want the priciest ball around: Cardinals slugger Mark McGwire’s 70th home-run baseball.
McFarlane paid about $3 million in January for that ball, including commissions, and another $500,000 or so to acquire McGwire’s first home run ball of the season. He also owns McGwire’s 63rd, 67th, 68th and 69th homers as well as the Cubs’ Sammy Sosa’s last wallop of the year (66) and Sosa Nos. 61 and 33.
“In all honesty, I blew my life savings,” McFarlane says.
Though he’s beyond the buyer’s remorse stage, McFarlane has aired some wicked ideas about forestalling any further runs on the record.
“I joked about Tonya Harding and her crew,” McFarlane says, chuckling. “Otherwise, I’ve got until October, when I go from the biggest sports fan in the country to the biggest idiot.”
For McFarlane, the monetary outlay doesn’t mean he’s scrimping, but he admits he and his wife, who live in Phoenix with their two children ages 4 and 7, have at least temporarily juggled their savings accounts.
“We’re designing a new house,” McFarlane says. “I promised her, `It’s going to be real nice. We’ll get some more money.’ The only cash I had went out the door.”
He’s counting on his uncanny ability to cater to kids’ tastes to pull them through.
“There’s that archery bull’s-eye analogy,” he says. “I’m shooting for (the kids in the) middle. I’m pretty good at my range. And the Rev. (Christopher) Rose (who has put McFarlane products on his worst-toys lists) is the third black stripe from the outside, and the parents are the second stripe, screaming, `I don’t get it.’ You know, I wasn’t trying to hit you, all right? If the moms and the priests of the world endorsed my product, I’m actually not doing my job.”
He has been fervently working at spinning off new “Spawn” comic books and beyond, including a new version of “The Crow,” “Cy-Gor,” “Kiss: The Psycho Circus” and titles for fossilized metal-rocker Ozzy Osbourne. His animation for Pearl Jam’s “Do the Evolution” video was nominated for a 1999 Grammy Award, and he has also crafted CD cover art and a video for the rock band Korn.
McFarlane Toys — “cool little toys for adolescent boys,” the Canadian-born entrepreneur calls them — nabbed the licensing rights to produce action figures for the “Austin Powers” sequel “The Spy Who Shagged Me” and the 25th anniversary of the Beatles movie “Yellow Submarine,” in addition to figures from “The X-Files,” the Metal Gear Solid video game and a bevy of horror-movie badmen such as Jason and Freddy Krueger.
Now, along with the duties of writing a screenplay to the “Spawn” movie sequel, McFarlane is dodging brickbats from sports zealots who say the baseballs belong in Cooperstown, N.Y.
“Saying the Hall of Fame (is the rightful place for the collection) is more of a knee-jerk reaction, as if it’s the only place we can think of to put it on public display instead of in somebody’s private collection,” says McFarlane. “Well, I’m here to say I’m going to create a third possibility — I’m going to create my own mini-hall of fame. We’re thinking of opening it up at Wrigley.”
John McDonough, vice president of marketing for the Cubs, says the team has had an “initial conversation” with a McFarlane representative but has not yet received a specific proposal. A McFarlane Productions operative is expected to visit Wrigley this month.
As part of a deal, McFarlane insists on some at-bats inside the friendly confines.
“I’ve got to get some cuts,” McFarlane says. “I don’t care if anybody’s around. I’ve still got a pretty good swing. You throw me 20 tomatoes, I’m going to hit some.”
