Biography

Was sued by hockey player Anthony Twist in 1997 for misappropriation of his name, because the Spawn comic books featured an extremely violent character named Tony Twist. After the real-life Twist presented extensive evidence at trial that McFarlane had him in mind, a jury returned a verdict against McFarlane and several other defendants for $24.5 million. However, the verdict was overturned in 2003 by the Missouri Supreme Court, which concluded that the jury was improperly instructed and that the use of Mr. Twist's name was probably protected by the First Amendment.

Was sued in January 2002 by acclaimed comic book writer and novelist Neil Gaiman for violation of copyright and non-payment of royalties. The case went to court in October 2002, when the seven-person federal jury in Wisconsin took three days to decide in favor of Gaiman, agreeing that McFarlane used Gaiman's created characters without permission or compensation. Gaiman was awarded $45,000 plus court costs which Gaiman then donated to the Comic Book Legal Defense Fund (www.cbldf.org).

Part owner of the Edmonton Oilers. Founded his own toy company called McFarlane Toys. They produced toys for Shrek, Austin Powers the Spy who shagged me, among others.

Famous for drastically redesigning characters, such as Spider-Man. With Spider-Man, he gave him much larger eyes, a new "spaghetti" webbing, and a more "spidery" appearance when swinging on his webs.

"Al Simmons" was the name of a roommate of Todd McFarlane.