I agree: Nobody can make a movie as convoluted and messed up as The Departed. But if anyone can take a swing at it, it's McFarlane.

I made a derisive reference to a toy looking like a McFarlane design, and the person I was talking to had no idea who this "McFarlane" person was.

Way to plummet into obscurity there, Todd.

I could never get into Spawn. I've tried! Hell, I was a teenager in the 90s. He just never appealed to me. What I don't understand is he trying to get a younger audience where guys can bring their dates to? I hope I don't ever get old, you really start losing your shit.

Here's an idea how about you work harder at making it a good comic book again and then you can think about another crappy movie. Here's a hint. Killing off the main character and replacing him with a brand new shiny one will not save your comic. It didn't work for Shadowhawk way back in the 90's (even though I still love that comic for some reason) or for any other comic. DC you take some notes here because don't think I haven't noticed what you're doing. For shame.

I'm honestly surprised I never heard Liefeld pushing for a Youngblood comic. I'm sure he probably has, I just try to block out his existence as much as possible.

FX was showing Spawn last night. I thought "hey cool, Spawn. I haven't seen this in a while. I'll watch a little bit."

Then John Leguizamo started talking, and I changed the channel.

The old Spawn movie was actually on FX last night and I watched part of it while waiting for something I actually wanted to see to come on....

I kind of feel for the guy, as that character was wildly popular at the time and the film was poorly executed. But I think the moment has passed for such a bleak an pessimistic examination of morality and so on... I mean, what the hell was the Bush presidency if not Spawn's story told through the vehicle of an idiot from Texas?

That was supposed to be Youngblood Movie. Sorry about that...Hey what do you expect. It's Friday.

Somebody out of touch with my own reality gave me a copy of the Spawn DVD awhile ago and I broke down and watched it. The best part was the interview with MacFarlane where he made many random and ludicrous observations. Oh, and the sporadic apologies. He wanted to make another movie back then, you have to give him credit for holding onto that same dream for so long.

I think Liefeld was pushing for a Youngblood movie a few years ago. Or even longer. I just remember the immediate derision and mocking.

i'd say give him another chance. every bad movie deserves a reboot. and with a good director, spawn can be a sick movie. i hate to throw in TDK comparisons, but this cud be even darker and it wud be able to work cuz thats pretty much the nature of spawn. i'd push for an R rating for this one.

I looked at a few issues of Spawn that I had from when I was a kid the other day, along with some other Image (not the new Kirkman and Co stuff) and I kinda laughed that

a.) I was that retarded as a child

b.) That people actually read these for the stories, they make some of the X Books look like story telling works of art.

c.) That Spawn actually was made into a movie. I mean it is seriously for re-re's. No plot of any sort, just TNA, Satan and guns that were bigger than the guys wielding them.

Please Todd, shove the McSteroid ball you spent your not-so-hard earned money on so far up your ass that you can never ever ever sit down to a metting to discuss another Spawn movie.

Todd is clearly still reeling from wasting all that money on the Mark McGwire (temporary) home run record baseball.

Seriously though, I don't see why a Spawn movie wouldn't do well. Superhero movies are hot right now, with even hogwash like The Spirit being made, it's not absurd to think that a Spawn movie could succeed. After all, the bar is pretty low as far as superhero flicks are concerned.

So teenage girls regularly go on dates to movies about dudes coming back from hell as demons?

As long as it has John Lequizamo, I'll see it! ;-)

Todd has been talking about doing a low budget Spawn movie for years. I don't see it happening. if the first Spawn movie would have been done right the first time, he probably could have had a great 3 picture run.

Liefeld and Brett Ratner are supposedly teaming up for a Youngblood movie. Smells like Sci-Fi original movie to me.

Huh. I didn't think The Departed was that hard to follow at all; DeCaprio is the cop posing as a crook, Damon is the crook posing as a cop. Simple.

As for a Spawn movie, the point was well made; if The Spirit could be made, any super hero movie can be made. I just think more worthy super hero movies should be made.

It almost sounds like he is trying to pimp out his daughters to get the movie made. 'I want them to see it with their dates', which either means he is the coolest dad in the world, the most uncaring bastard in the world, or realizes that is the only way to get at least two people to see his movie.

Low-budget remake? That would make it look like, oh, I dunno, the dated original, maybe? I mean, that was a big problem with the first one, it just does not hold up, and all of their budget was spent on that damn CGI cape, before the 'CGI revolution', so anything low-budget now will probably look just as bad as the first.

Now, a high-budget remake that captured the HBO animated series vibe, I would go and see. Even if I hate that arrogant bastard.

Does anyone else think that the reason he specifies a 'low-budget' remake, is because he knows he can't get offered any better?

And guys, let's be fair to 'The Spirit'... The only reason it was made at all, was because it was riding on the coat-tails of Sin City.

If it gets made I will see it.
But dude, "The Departed"...really?
As Sammon1013 pointed out, it wasn't the best writing.

It seems like most of the old Image guys are like aging rock stars who are still in denile that the hair band days are over. "I sold over 1 million copies and I will do it again!" Time to wake up and smell the java, man! The '90's are over! Deal with it! Whatever it was that made Spawn popular back then is gone!

Personally, I believe McFarlane needs to start pencilling again and get back in the game. Maybe then he could re-connect with what works with readers and what doesn't.

They still publish Spawn? Should he have used up his power and gone to Hell by now? I hold Todd (and Rob Liefield) responsible for starting the 90's trend of "all flash, no substance"...a glut of overmuscled men and huge boobed women loaded with armor, guns and pouches, but lacking personality or creativity. I blame Todd/Rob for "metallic/holographic/scratch n sniff" cover gimmicks, for the avalanche of crappy #1 issues and for the numerous and unnecessary spin-off books...If Rob and Todd got hit by a bus, i'd be the first in line to piss on their graves.

@FuryOfFirestorm

Hear! Hear!

You nailed it. Todd and Rob were the main reason why comic books turned into shit in the 1990s. Between the two of them they managed to ruin Marvel, DC, and their own lame companies.

On top of that, Todd's "action" figures are utter bullshit. They can't be "action" figures if there are no fucking points of articulation! They were also always overpriced (priced for collectors, not kids) and placed in the toy aisle anyway... Only to end up on the bargain rack for 1/4 their original price.

Bus. Piss on graves. Exactly.

Geez, did I miss something? I know why Liefeld is mocked, but I'm not clear on why everyone hates Todd.

You can't really blame MacFarlane and Liefeild for the crappy state of the comics industry at the time. If anyone is to blame it was the people buying the books as investments. When the industry began exploiting that trend it just exploded with infinite #1's, foil covers, etc. IMage just happened to be right in the middle of that at the time. That being said, you can blame them for being artistically bankrupt.

Deny all you want, but MacFarlane and Liefeld were right there in the middle of the investment free-for-all. Spider-man #1 and X-Force #1 were shitty Investment Comics, wrapped in plastic and designed to appeal to the zealous fanboy-investor. The fact that the two of them carried on their talentless spree with Image only solidified the fact that they were after money money money -- NOT artistic enlightenment.

MacFuckhead wants to claim that EVERYONE is after the Spawn franchise. I have my doubts. The first movie was drek. The next movie will be drek, and everything that has ever come out of the Toddler's sorry Canadian ass is drek.

Sorry Canada -- I didn't mean to imply all Canadians are worthless. You've got a beautiful county and wonderful people. But if the Toddler is representative of your country, I'd worry. Perhaps you should do something about that.

Seriously -- that fucker buys baseballs like it's going out of style. Deal with him...

At least McFarlane was a half-way decent penciler (unlike Liefeld). He should really do more of that and put his one-dimensional anti-hero to bed for good.

@Johnmatrix: You have to remember, though, that at the time a lot of that was happening, both of those artists were with other companies. It wasn't until after that many artists left the big two to form Image. And the cycle continued.

As for McFarlane's artistic ability, how come he could never, ever draw accurate heads? I remember old Spawn/Spider-man issues, and the heads were completely out of scale, or just impossible.

At least McFarlane had some artistic ability and business nous (and possibly an overly developed ego), but Liefeld was just a bizarre, awful aberration whose entire catalogue should be put on a rocket and fired into the sun.

Surely he screams out for several TR top 10's? ie "worst liefeld poses", "laziest liefeld work", "least liefeld feet", "worst liefeld weapons", etc etc

Spawn could have been gold, but it was just too
superhero-ey. I would like a reboot movie to make it more film-noir.

Jambo, I agree 100%, Rob's work is crap. He would even drawn hills a character is coming over just so he could avoid drawing feet.

lou-bert, I think the problem with Spawn as a film noir type film is the character's costume looks too super-heroish. Bryan Singer was smart in that to make the X-Men more accessible to a wider audience he made the costumes more low key. But Spawn's entire look is wrapped up in chains and a McFarlan-esque cape that fills the screen.

At least McFarlane had some artistic ability and business nous (and possibly an overly developed ego), but Liefeld was just a bizarre, awful aberration whose entire catalogue should be put on a rocket and fired into the sun.

Don't be absurd. The man might be one of the less talented doodlers to have achieved prominence, but he did, after all, come up with the original designs for Deadpool and Domino.

Even the blind squirrel finds the occasional nut once in a while.

Deadpool: Spidey with guns and pouches and swords and no feet (I think Nicieza developed the personality).
Domino: chick with guns - with white skin for some reason.

I must admit I did like some of Liefeld's work when I was 12, but even then I could he was seriously deficient in lots of areas.

Deadpool: Spidey with guns and pouches and swords and no feet (I think Nicieza developed the personality).

Wrong on both counts.

Domino: chick with guns - with white skin for some reason.

And a black patch around one eye, leading to "Petey the Dog" jokes. :p

I must admit I did like some of Liefeld's work when I was 12, but even then I could he was seriously deficient in lots of areas.

Not saying it isn't. Rather, my point is that he still managed to do some good in two instances at least.

Personally, the whole Liefield / McFarland daring new comic style got stale for me after millions of artists starting drawing in that style.

Spawn was cool for the visuals, but even to me then the story was incredibly lame. F*ck, if they're gonna do a movie, do a Tim Powers book.

I wouldn't have a problem with another Spawn movie as long as they

a) Take any control away from Todd
b) Put a decent writer, director etc. on to it.

It's an interesting premise with the potential for some sweet visuals. They'd just have to do it right. And it would have to be R-rated.

That Spawn movie wasn't all bad. John Leguizamo was funny as the clown. Special Effects blew though.