Todd McFarlane was born on the 16th March 1961, in Calgary, Alberta, Canada. He is a comic artist and publisher. He broke through to mainstream audiences when in 1988 he was appointed at Marvel Comics as a new permanent cartoonist of “The Amazing Spider-Man”. Since 2006, he has been working in the position of the Art Director of 38 Studios. Moreover, Todd is the co-owner of the Edmonton Oilers team which plays in the National Hockey League.
So just how much is the net worth of Todd McFarlane? It has been estimated by authoritative sources that the wealth of the artist and entrepreneur is as much as $300 Million, as of the data presented in the middle of 2016.
Todd McFarlane Net Worth $300 Million
To begin with, McFarlane grew up in California wanting to become a professional baseball player. When he could no longer play because of injury, he began drawing comics. After graduation from Eastern Washington University, where he studied graphic art, he worked mainly for comic publishers Marvel and DC. In 1985, he married and moved back to Canada, initially working mainly for the series “The Incredible Hulk” and “Daredevil”. In the late 1980s, he created a number of issues of DC Comics “Batman”, and Marvel series “Wolverine”. The enormous success McFarlane experienced came after the comic book series “The Amazing Spider-Man” was released; the first issue appeared in the autumn of 1990 and became the best selling comic book of all time. It was Todd who first imagined the enemy of Spider Man, who is also in the film “Spider Man 3”. In 1991, McFarlane moved to Portland, Oregon, and in 1992 was one of the founders of the comic publisher Image Comics. Under the Image label he published the series “Spawn”, which since the first issue has become one of the best-selling comic books in the USA. His net worth was well estanblished.
Afterwards, Todd McFarlane founded the merchandising company Todd Toys, later renamed to McFarlane Toys – this product division name enjoys cult status among collectors. In addition to detailed miniature sculptures called action figures, they produce cartoon characters and famous US athletes from the fields of hockey, baseball, football and basketball, plus the figures of pop culture are especially popular, among which McFarlane Music Figures include authentic plastic representations of Jimi Hendrix, Elvis Presley, Jimmy Page, Ozzy Osbourne, Slash, Jim Morrison, Alice Cooper as well as the bands Motley Crue, KISS and Metallica. His net worth was rising steadily.
Additionally, McFarlane added sums to his net worth working on other projects; he drew the animated sequences for the film “Lost Heaven” (2002), and also directed music videos including “Freak on a Leash” by Korn, “Land Of Confusion” by Distrubed and “Do The Evolution” by Pearl Jam. He won the Inkpot Award in 1992, the National Cartoonists Society Award for Best Comic Book in 1992, the National Cartoonists Society Award in 1992, as well as the National Football League Award as the Artist of the Year in 2005. Additionally he is the winner of a Grammy Award for the Best Short Form Music Video “Freak on a Leash” in 2000.
Finally, in his personal life Todd McFarlane has been married to Wanda since 1985; they have three children. The family currently lives in Phoenix, Arizona.
Inkpot Award (1992), National Cartoonists Society Award for Best Comic Book (1992), National Cartoonists Society Award (1992), National Football League Award as the Artist of the Year (2005),Grammy Award for the Best Short Form Music Video (2000)
Albums
"Ten Thousand Fists " (2005), "The Dark Saga" (1996), "Follow the Leader"(1998)
Movies
“Spider Man 3”, “Spawn”, “Lost Heaven” (2002), “Freak on a Leash” by Korn", “Land Of Confusion”, “Do The Evolution”
TV Shows
"Spawn" (1997), “The Incredible Hulk”, “Daredevil”, “Batman”, “Wolverine”
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Trademark
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Extremely detailed artwork
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Quote
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(on paying $2.7 million for Mark McGwire's 70th home run ball) "Right now I'm the guy who paid $2.7 million for a piece of History. If the record is ever broken I'll be the guy who paid $2.7 million for a $2.70 baseball ball."
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Fact
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"Al Simmons" was the name of a roommate of Todd McFarlane.
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"Cyan" is the name of creator Todd McFarlane's daughter, while "Wanda" is the name of his wife. "Terry Fitzgerald" is the name of a friend of McFarlane. All names are from his comic ''Spawn''.
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Columbia Pictures showed interest in making a film adaptation of Spawn when the comic book was launched in 1992. Negotiations eventually fell through as Todd McFarlane felt the studio was not giving him enough creative control. McFarlane eventually sold the film rights to New Line Cinema for $1 in exchange for creative input and merchandising rights.
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Was sued in January 2002 by acclaimed comic book writer and novelist Neil Gaiman for violation of copyright and non-payment of royalties. The case went to court in October 2002, when the seven-person federal jury in Wisconsin took three days to decide in favor of Gaiman, agreeing that McFarlane used Gaiman's created characters without permission or compensation. Gaiman was awarded $45,000 plus court costs which Gaiman then donated to the Comic Book Legal Defense Fund (www.cbldf.org).
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Was sued by hockey player Anthony Twist in 1997 for misappropriation of his name, because the Spawn comic books featured an extremely violent character named Tony Twist. After the real-life Twist presented extensive evidence at trial that McFarlane had him in mind, a jury returned a verdict against McFarlane and several other defendants for $24.5 million. However, the verdict was overturned in 2003 by the Missouri Supreme Court, which concluded that the jury was improperly instructed and that the use of Mr. Twist's name was probably protected by the First Amendment.
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Created the Spawn comic book series in 1992, which was made into a successful movie in 1997.
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In June of 2003, he paid $450,000 for Barry Bond's record 73rd home run ball.
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Pencilled Amazing Spider-Man #298 - #328, inked ASM #300 - #328, and wrote, pencilled, and inked Spider-Man #1 - #14 and #16. SM #1 sold 2.5 million copies (most of which were sales of alternate covers).
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Part owner of the Edmonton Oilers. Founded his own toy company called McFarlane Toys. They produced toys for Shrek, Austin Powers the Spy who shagged me, among others.
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Designed the Edmonton Oiler's third Jersey.
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Famous for drastically redesigning characters, such as Spider-Man. With Spider-Man, he gave him much larger eyes, a new "spaghetti" webbing, and a more "spidery" appearance when swinging on his webs.
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In January 1999 he purchased Mark McGwire's 70th home run ball at an auction for $2.7 million.