Todd McFarlane's Spawn comic book changed the dynamics of the comic book industry in the 1990s. Spawn set sales records, helped an upstart new company become a major publisher, and enticed the top talents in the industry to leave Marvel and DC to make their fortunes with creator-owned properties.

In the late 1980s, Todd McFarlane gained some notoriety as a comic-book artist for his work on Marvel Comics' Incredible Hulk title. At the time, "hot" artists drove comic-book sales, and when McFarlane moved to penciling Amazing Spider-Man, it quickly became Marvel's best-selling book. In 1990, Marvel created a new Spider-Man title for McFarlane to write, pencil, and ink. It immediately became their top selling monthly, and the first issue sold an incredible two and a half million copies. McFarlane began to wonder why, if he was so popular, he needed to do work-for-hire on a character that someone else...