If you want to grow up and be a geek entrepreneur like Todd McFarlane, it's not going to be easy. That sort of thing takes a measure of self-discipline and resolve few possess. Welcome to Tough Love Business School: Starring Todd McFarlane.
McFarlane dropped by the UGO office to discuss his career retrospective book, "The Art of Todd McFarlane." During our conversation he offered ideas on why he made such a surprisingly good entrepreneur. Referring to the formation of his famous and successful Image Comics, McFarlane remarked, "I was never the guy that stands by the water cooler and complains." He then offered a long line of descriptions of what kind of guy he is instead: "If I hate my job, quit. If I don't like the weather in the city I live in, move to where it's warmer. If you don't like the girl you're dating, go find another... If you don't like being called a drunk then put the alcohol down." Hence, if you don't like working for Marvel or DC, go start your own company.
McFarlane went on: "We like to play victim a lot of times. I didn't want to be one of those artists that was always complaining about corporation. There's only one way I'm going to be able to drive my own artwork and that's if I learn the language of business. Not because I want to be an entrepreneur, not because I want to be a businessman. Matter of fact, every moment I spend being a businessman, I'm not being an artist, and it frustrates me. But if I want to have control of where my art's going, and I can't see that I can get the cooperation of people on the outside, I just determined that I needed to just do it on my own and just figure it out."
He makes it sound so simple. Now that you know the mentality that gave birth to Image Comics, perhaps you, too, can go out there and make the world bend to your will rather than the other way around. All it takes is determination, dedication, and a zombie soldier of Satan wrapped in chains and dragging a hundred yards of red cape behind him. Oh, and talent. That probably helps a lot, too.
You can learn more stories like this, only accompanied by illuminating illustrations, by purchasing "The Art of Todd McFarlane" at your nearest bookstore stocked in the business section, biography section, graphic novel section, and art section if the store knows what it's doing.
