By Joshua H. Stulman

Growing up as a comic collector in the early 90’s, I have always been a fan of the artwork of Todd McFarlane. From his early work on DC’s Infinity Inc. and Batman to his career defining work on Hulk, Spider-Man and of course Spawn, McFarlane continues to be an inspiration even today. 

McFarlane’s style mixed together the dynamic perspective of Neal Adams, the page layouts of George Perez , the anatomy of John Byrne and a touch of Michael Golden’s cartoon. McFarlane’s art is praised for its often overly ornate detail and  cartoon-realism. 

McFarlane’s impact on comic art was immediately felt with several artists working in his style. Most notable are Joe Quesada, Stephen Platt, Greg Capullo, J. Scott Campbell and Tony Daniel to name a few. 

In recent months I have developed several original art sketch covers paying homage to the art style of Todd McFarlane. In this article I thought I would give some insight into the creative process with some of the work in progress images. 

I first started with the concept. I knew that I wanted to do an homage piece with Batman and decided on Todd McFarlane’s iconic cover to Spider-Man #1. The image is quite famous as not only the premier issue to McFarlane’s final stories for Marvel but also as one of the top selling books of all time. 

McFarlane had previously done very few Batman work with only one Batman cover and 3 issues of Batman Year Two story. 

McFarlane has paid homage to himself several times including Spider-Man #14 and Spawn #8. Lucky for me his Spawn version wears a cape so I focused on this version of the image. 

Because the entire costuming to Batman is clearly different, I had to re- interpret how shadows would work against his grey toned costume, blue finned gloves and  boots. I also had to imagine his exposed facial features and cowl design. 

The color tones and bat symbol are based on the early 90’s design with  an added pouched belt made famous by Frank Miller. 

I think the piece does a great job of capturing the early 90’s feel in a “What If?” McFarlane worked for D.C. rather than form Image Comics. 

Each Sketch Cover is hand-made and comes with a Certificate of Authenticity COA. 

Check Out some of our other McFarlane Inspired Original Art other Sketch Covers CLICK HERE 

For Our Selection of Todd McFarlane Comic Books: CLICK HERE

Joshua H. Stulman

Owner, Brooklyn Comic Shop