To me, I was always just standing on the sidelines because up until issue 50, we were just doing Spawn. I wasn't recruiting anybody because I didn't have any books for people to work on.

In collaboration with New Line Cinema it produced the 1997 Spawn film and a new Spawn movie planned in 2008. The series is a collaboration with musician Yoshiki and stars a fictionalized version of him. In February 2012 the company released its only title Kingdoms of Amalur: Reckoning a single-player action role-playing game that enjoyed moderate success but by late May 2012 the company had ceased operation due to financial difficulties for which it had filed for bankruptcy.

Spawn was a popular hero in the 1990s and encouraged a trend in creator-owned comic book properties. McFarlane used to be a co-owner of the National Hockey League's Edmonton Oilers but sold his shares to Daryl Katz. He is also a high-profile collector of history-making baseballs.