Todd McFarlane

Everyone loves comic book trivia, but with 75 years of superhero comics behind us right now, there’s always some new obscure fact to learn. That’s why ComicsAlliance is going deep into the minutiae of your favorite characters in our continuing video series. You think you know comics? Well, here’s a few things you might not know! This week we're taking a look at Todd McFarlane's Spawny guy, the most successful creator-owned superhero ever based on salmon mating rituals. If you haven't read Spawn since your Hot Topic days, maybe there are some things you forgot or never knew. Great news! This is a video where you can learn about how Spawn used to be a spaceman, the many lawsuits of Todd McFarlane, and the crushing realization that we could have had a Spawn movie starring Snoop Dogg.

On this day in 1990, Todd McFarlane's Spider-Man #1 was released, and comic books would never be the same again. Yes, that sounds like familiar hyperbole, but in this case it's also essentially true. To understand this one comic's impact, one needs to understand the climate of the industry at that time.

Image held the latest in its series of one-day Image Expo events in San Francisco on Thursday, putting a spotlight on a slate of new titles for 2015, and introducing some new creators to the Image family. In concert with the expo, Image also released a new Humble Indie Bundle that includes an Image Expo Preview book containing art from the newly announced titles, plus some forthcoming books that were previously announced. Titles featured in the preview include Savior by Brian Holguin, Todd McFarlane, and Clayton Crain; Injection, by Warren Ellis, Declan Shalvey, and Jordie Bellaire; No Mercy, by Alex De Campi, Carla Speed McNeil, and Jenn Manley Lee; Island, by Brandon Graham and a whole host of artists; RunLoveKill, by Eric Canete, Jonathan Tsuei, Leonardo Olea, and Manu Fernandez; and Starve, by Brian Wood and Danijel Zezelj; the book also includes a one-page ad for Marjorie Liu's new book with Sana Takeda, Monstress, and an ad for the second season of Pretty Deadly, by Kelly Sue DeConnick and Emma Rios.

Among the colorful cosplay, massive booths, interactive displays and walls of merchandise at Comic-Con International in San Diego — colloquially known as SDCC — remains the most important component of the show: comic book creators. ComicsAlliance photographer and Loikiamania podcast host Pat Loika hit the show floor to catch the men and women who tell our favorite stories in sequential art and captured the enthusiasm that comes from fans getting to meet their favorite storytellers at one of the biggest conventions of the year. Check back with ComicsAlliance throughout the weekend for more of Pat’s great photos from San Diego.

Each weekday, ComicsAlliance brings you a carefully selected variety of links from around the web about comics and comics-related media, including movies, video games, toys, and whatever else might be worth noting. Quite frankly, these are items you may just need to know about to have a productive day. Take a look at today's hand-picked links after the jump.

  We make a regular practice at ComicsAlliance of spotlighting particular artists or specific bodies of work, as well as the special qualities of comic book storytelling, but because cartoonists, illustrators and their fans share countless numbers of great pinups, fan art and other illustrations on sites like Flickr, Tumblr, DeviantArt and seemingly infinite art blogs that we’ve created Best Art E

Ever wondered what exactly happened when Image Comics' founders told Marvel Comics they were leaving to start their own company? (And as a bonus, wanted to hear Rob Liefeld do a Southern accent?) Well, you can get the story straight from three of those founders themselves -- Liefeld, Todd McFarlane, and Marc Silvestri -- in the below clip from the upcoming documentary The Image Revolution. Read Mo

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Todd McFarlane, who co-created the character Angela with Neil Gaiman in Spawn #9 back in 1993, was surprisingly conciliatory in remarks to Newsarama this week regarding the character's planned appearance in Marvel's Age of Ultron series...

Marvel Comics, via The New York Times, announced this morning that Angela -- a character created by Neil Gaiman and Todd McFarlane in the pages of Spawn, the rights to whom were contested between the two creators for years -- will be appearing in the Marvel Universe, making her Marvel debut in the pages of the publisher's current Age of Ultron series...