Carmen Bryant/Image Comics(NEW YORK) — In 1992, Image Comics published the first-ever issue of SPAWN, the eponymous, supernatural anti-hero created by famed Spider-Man artist Todd McFarlane. 27 years later, McFarlane has earned a Guinness World Record title.
Spawn #1 sold more than 1.7 million copies, and is still one of the most popular independent comics of all time. A new feature film is in development with Jamie Foxx attached. A few weeks ago, when Spawn 301 was released, McFarlane officially clinched the record for “longest-running creator-owned superhero comic book series.”
McFarlane will officially receive his certificate from the Guinness World Records organization at a ceremony Saturday at New York Comic Con, which is where ABC Audio caught up with him.
“It’s not like a one day thing where you go, ‘Maybe if I jump over the most hamburgers…’ he joked. “This is a 27 year…journey to get that record.”
McFarlane has a competitive streak when it comes to records: a lifelong baseball fan, he paid $3 million for the ball Mark McGwire hit for his 70th home run, and $500,000 for the ball that beat that, Barry Bonds’ 73rd.
And Todd isn’t slowing down.
“301’s the record but 302’s a new one. And 302, and 303, and here we go, right? Even if anybody said, ‘I’m going to catch you…!’ By time you get to 302, I’m going to be on 564,” he laughs.
“So you’re never gonna catch me,” he adds. “So if you’re 20 and you’ve got lots of ambition, you have to plan out your life to 74. So at some point, I may just put it so far out of reach that people go, ‘That’s a stupid record, you can have it,'” McFarlane laughs.
Copyright © 2019, ABC Audio. All rights reserved.