Comic illustrator, animator and toy designer Todd McFarlane talks to JOE GRIFFINabout working on the hotly awaited Kingdoms of Amular: Reckoning

How did you get involved with this?

It was originally started by a baseball player named Curt Schilling. He was aware of my work. Fast forward a few years and he’s getting to the end of his career, so he invited myself and [fantasy author] RA Salvatore to a baseball game and said “I want to start a gaming company and online game”. I said that I didn’t want to be a concept artist, but if he let me have control over character, costumes, animation, buildings, and lighting, then I’m in . . . if he let me have that authority.

Are you nervous about it?

You know what? I would have to say that Curt and EA are the most nervous because they’ve got the most money on the table. My nerves are only artistic. EA and Curt have stuck their necks out more than me. I do that [investing] with my own company.

This is a new direction for you – were there any unforeseen challenges?

I appreciate my fans, but my goal is not to have something that looks like McFarlane art. If I stack them against the people who don’t know who I am, that’s 99 per cent vs 1. The goal should be an RPG, so what do gamers know? If you talk to a dozen RPG players, you get 12 different answers.

It’s interesting. The hard part becomes this: given that you don’t know what’s important, you have to develop all of it equally well. Gamers who like to loot and do side-quests have to be equally important to those who like high-octane fighting.

Was it hard working in such a collaborative environment?

When I first started drawing comics, someone would hand me a script and then it was solitary confinement. It worked for me for a couple of decades. As I’ve gotten older, I enjoy the collaboration. I know I have some weakness. What you’d like is to put a group together that compliments each other.

My best day is having 25 artists and trying to inspire them. How they want to interpret is up to them. When I’ve given them some ideas, they come back invariably with stuff that is twice as good as I could’ve come up with. When I’m the dumbest guy in the room, that’s my best day.