In the late 1980s and early 1990s, McFarlane became a comic-book superstar due to his high-selling work on Marvel Comics' Spider-Man franchise,[2] on which he was the artist to draw the first full appearances of the character Venom.

In 1992, he helped form Image Comics, pulling the occult anti-hero character Spawn from his high-school portfolio and updating him for the 1990s.

In September 2006, it was announced that McFarlane would be the Art Director of the newly formed 38 Studios, founded by Major League Baseball pitcher Curt Schilling.

[8] He was a fan of comics creators such as John Byrne, Jack Kirby, Frank Miller and George Pérez, as well as the writing of Alan Moore.

[8] In 1981 McFarlane began attending Eastern Washington University (EWU) on a baseball scholarship, studying as part of a self-designed program for graphics and art.

[8][11][16] He sought to play baseball professionally after graduation but suffered a serious ankle injury in his junior year during a game with arch-rivals Washington State University.

He subsequently focused on drawing, working at the comic book store to pay for the rest of his education, and living in a trailer park in Cheney, Washington with Wanda,[8][11][12] who had moved to the area to be with him and attend EWU as well.

[21] In 1988, McFarlane joined writer David Michelinie on Marvel's The Amazing Spider-Man, beginning with issue 298, drawing the preliminary sketch for that cover's image on the back of one of his Incredible Hulk pages.

Whereas it had previously been rendered as essentially a series of X's between two lines, McFarlane embellished it by detailing far more individual strands, which came to be dubbed "spaghetti webbing".

[2] In 1990, after a 28-issue run of Amazing Spider-Man, McFarlane told editor Jim Salicrup that he wanted to write his own stories, and would be leaving the book with issue No.

In July 2012 the original artwork to that issue's cover, which features Spider-Man dispatching the Hulk, sold for a record-breaking $657,250 USD, the highest auction price ever for any piece of American comic book art.

Spider-Man #1 (August 1990) sold 2.5 million copies,[33][34] largely due to the variant covers with which Marvel, seeking to capitalize on McFarlane's popularity, published the issue to encourage collectors into buying more than one edition.

At the same time, the editorial had problems with the dark tone of the stories McFarlane was telling, beginning with the inaugural "Torment" storyline, which depicted a more vicious version of the reptilian villain Lizard under the control of the voodoo priestess Calypso.

Editor Jim Salicrup in particular was required to make a number of compromises for McFarlane's work, including enforcing McFarlane's minor costume changes across the entire line of other Spidey comics, placing limitations on his choice of villains for his stories, and dealing with strong disagreement on the handling of the character Mary Jane Watson.

This strained McFarlane's relationship with Salicrup, which was expressed in the remarkable amount of public disagreement that appeared on the book's letters page.

His final issue on the book, #16 (November 1991), was part of a crossover storyline with X-Force, and led to creative clashes with new editor Danny Fingeroth.

According to Wallace, "McFarlane's fifteen issues of Spider-Man are now (perhaps slightly unfairly) held up alongside the likes of X-Force as the epitome of everything wrong in 1990s comics, and their cash-in approach to the then-booming speculator market precipitated the near-collapse of the industry.

"[37] Spawn is notable for being one of only two Image books that debuted during the company's 1992 launch, along with Erik Larsen's Savage Dragon, that continued to be published into the 2020s.

[38][39] During Image's early years of operation, the company was subject to much industry criticism over aspects of its business practices, including late-shipped books,[3] and its creators' emphasis on art over writing.

The first of the two books, Batman-Spawn: War Devil was written by Doug Moench, Chuck Dixon, and Alan Grant, drawn by Klaus Janson, and published by DC.

Over the ensuing decades, he would hire other writers such as Brian Holguin and David Hine, and artists such as Whilce Portacio, Angel Medina, and Philip Tan.

Nonetheless, Shea Hennum of Paste magazine has observed of the series, "It's a book that, for a time, people continued to buy because of the character instead of the creator.

[45] The comic was initially written by Kirkman, penciled by Ryan Ottley, and inked by McFarlane, with Greg Capullo providing layouts.

"[49][50] At San Diego Comic-Con 2022, it was announced that McFarlane would write a new Batman/Spawn crossover, with Greg Capullo as artist, and a release date of December 2022.

[62][63] The studio produced a number of music videos and other animations, including: October 2003 saw the release of the Swollen Members album Heavy, with Canadian and international covers that were both illustrated by McFarlane.

[citation needed] On July 21, 2011, at San Diego Comic-Con, McFarlane and Stan Lee debuted their new comic, Blood Red Dragon.

As of November 2021, the company has three shows in development: a Spawn spin-off Sam & Twitch; the stop-motion, animated event series McFarland; and a live-action adaptation of the Sean Lewis comic Thumbs.

[94] In June 2003, McFarlane paid about $517,500 at auction for San Francisco Giants left fielder Barry Bonds' October 2001, record-breaking 73rd home run ball.

[101][102] In 2011, McFarlane was hired as an artist for the game Kingdoms of Amalur: Reckoning,[103] on which his duties included key frame art, storyboards and directing.

[citation needed] In "Spidey Cents", a fourth-season episode of the History reality television series Pawn Stars which aired in May 2011, a man tries to sell McFarlane's original artwork for page 25 of The Amazing Spider-Man No.