2011 NYCC - McFarlane Panel - Spawn Figures To Return

Todd McFarlane lead a presentation today at New York Comic Con featuring on the panel the artists and writers of both the Spawn and Haunt comic books. The discussion focused primarily on the two comic books but there was also several interesting bits of information regarding other media.

The Spawn movie continues along a slow development process. This new movie is a lower budget, dark drama telling a human story with a supernatural element, the Spawn.

The long in the works Spawn cartoon is still being developed as well. Several cable channels are anxious to put out the series and all of the prep work has been done. McFarlane is talking with several different animators, trying to find right the package that will work financially to allow the cartoon to be made. He says it's only a matter of time.

He has also been talking with multiple cable channels about bringing his new Haunt comic to the small screen as an animated series. He says there is a lot of interest in that project.

McFarlane is going to be launching a new online store where he will be selling his various merchandise and toy figures. First up is resin statute of Spawn. Then he will offer a resin statute from his new Reckoning video game being made by Electronic Arts. Soon the online store will be selling some of the harder to find classic Spawn figures, such as Mandarin Spawn. First though an inventory has to be done of the existing molds. If necessary molds of the original figures can't be found, new molds, meaning new designs of the characters, will be created.

For fans of the Spawn comic book, a new team has taken over as of issue 201. The story line will feature the demons going underground in their ongoing war with Heaven. This means that they will pose as humans and manipulate humans from behind the scenes in order to create chaos and strife around the world. A "what if" example that was given was supposing that Rush Limbaugh was actually a demon, driving a wedge between people and fostering hatred.

A new team is also taking over Haunt as of issue 18. Now that the adrenaline rush of the first story arc is fading, the hero of the story has to come to grips with the fact that he must share his life with the ghost of his dead brother. The reality of his dead brother's current state of existence is also starting to hit, adding to everyone's tension.

The Reckoning video game being made by EA will be released in February 2012. It is a role playing game that McFarlane has been designing closely.

Though no specific information was given about the Halo and Walking Dead toy lines, they are doing well and will continue.