Each NHL team’s most famous superfan

Edmonton Oilers: Todd McFarlane

Generally, when a person hails from Calgary, he or she is typically drawn into the fandom of the hometown Calgary Flames. This isn’t the case for Todd McFarlane, however, who branched out and embraced the other team from Alberta — the Edmonton Oilers. At one point, McFarlane was even a part-owner of the team.

But going beyond hockey, McFarlane is more well-known for being a comic book writer. He is famous for his work on The Amazing Spider-Man, which is one of the most popular superhero comic books of all time. McFarlane is also known for creating Image Comics and the character of Spawn, which is the central character of the Spawn comic book series, which was also written by McFarlane.

Believe it or not, McFarlane once had aspirations to become a professional baseball player. He attended Eastern Washington University on a baseball scholarship, though while he was there, he studied graphics and art. During his junior year, he suffered an ankle injury that severely hindered the progression of his baseball career. Upon graduation, he tried out for a Toronto Blue Jays farm team in Alberta, but it never amounted to him making a big league roster.

That was when McFarlane truly started chasing his more passionate dream of being a comic book writer, and ended up doing work for both DC Comics and Marvel Comics.

McFarlane spent some time as a co-owner for the Oilers, and during that time, he designed a third alternate jersey for the team. McFarlane would eventually sell his stock in the team though.