Who has had a more successful career Jim Lee or Todd McFarlane? 0

[Martin Sinescu]

With the definition of success in the eye of the beholder.... by my standards it's easily McF. For most artists/creators, influence in your medium is more difficult to come by than money, and to me a better measure of success, but Todd beats Lee in both anyway. I know people will point to previous artists like AA as being the foundation for Todd's style and I'm sure that's valid, but the impact his art had coming out of the 80's into the 90's has no equal. Jim Lee made his name after Todd paved the way for the next generation of superstar artists, who mostly made their names adopting the hyper-detailed style that Todd popularized. That alone is enough to say Todd is more successful. What would most of the art in general for the 90's and beyond have looked like without McFarlane's influence? I'd say Lee's art is just a more dialed-back, less cartoony (if not downright rigid) version of Todd's style. Later Marvel built a whole Spidey title around the demands for more McFarlane (who did both art and writing) and it was, at the time, the biggest selling comic ever... Jim Lee again comes along a bit later with his own X-Men book. More successful sales-wise? Sure. First to do it? No. They both challenge the dominance of the Big Two along with other artists by founding Image, which was revolutionary for creators' rights... Todd's initial creation is still chugging and now stands alone as comics' longest-running independent title. When he decided to make a toy line for his Spawn characters, he forever changed action figures because he wanted plastic interpretations comparable to his art... and there was nothing to compete with Spawn in the toy stores, it was revolutionary in terms of detail, scale and value. Again, Jim Lee later came along later with a short-lived toy line for Wildcats, but only after Todd broke ground. To me, Todd is a risk-taker/innovator/visionary and that's why I think he's more successful by far. I don't see Jim Lee as that type of dynamic pioneer, who's always looking to push boundaries and standards, so it's hard to say he's more successful in a way that I can see as meaningful. Great artist? Heck yeah, I loved his stuff back in the day, so I'm not knocking the guy. I just don't see him on par with McFarlane who was a true force of nature.

[William-James88]

McFarlane is by far the more successful financially. But Jim Lee did ascend from a pemciller into the editor in chef, that's pretty awesome.

I think a more fun question would be who's the better artist

Edited March 6, 2020 by William-James88

[theCapraAegagrus]

Damn. I like them both a lot, but I would consider McFarlane "more successful".

[newshane]

McFarlane has enjoyed success light-years beyond Jim Lee or any other artist/creator from his era. 

Not even close. 

 

[Macrotus]

As an artist they are about equal. Beside art is subjective. As a creator, Todd got the edge...Venom & Spawn. As of their current stage of their career...I would rather be in Todd's shoes...he has more creative freedom.

[jjonahjameson11]

20 hours ago, Blastaar said:

Who has had a more successful career Jim Lee or Todd McFarlane? I’ll listen off the air.

This is such an ill-formed question with so many potential areas for comparison.  Perhaps you can re-phrase your question to be more specific?

[newshane]

8 minutes ago, RANDOM ACTS said:

Financially, they both did equally very good,

Not even close to being true. 

[thunsicker]

6 minutes ago, RANDOM ACTS said:

Todd McFarlane I guess is the winner than. Most likely I would gather he is now the richest creator in comics now that Stan Lee passed away.

Even before.  Stan Lee's net worth was around $50 million at his death.  McFarlane is worth around $200 million (mostly from his toy line).

[Blastaar]

1 hour ago, jjonahjameson11 said:

This is such an ill-formed question with so many potential areas for comparison.  Perhaps you can re-phrase your question to be more specific?

Where’s the fun in that?

[Ryan.]

Robert Kirkman. 

[topofthetotem]

Whoever’s happier! 

Edited March 7, 2020 by topofthetotem
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