ASH IS IN THE HOUSE
Bruce Campbell Stops By the Spawn.Com Office
August 17, 2001
In the midst of his whirlwind tour promoting his new autobiography, If Chins Could Kill: Confessions of a "B" Movie Actor, Bruce Campbell took a few minutes to stop by the Tempe, AZ, headquarters of Todd McFarlane Productions recently.
    Though he's worn many hats in his lengthy show-biz career (actor, producer, writer, director), Campbell is perhaps best known to his legion of fans as Ash, the protagonist of the Evil Dead film trilogy.
    Among fans of McFarlane Toys, Ash was a character frequently topping action figure wish lists before being produced in 2000's Movie Maniacs 3. Fans clamored for more, though, and another version of the character, Evil Ash from Army of Darkness, is being offered in Movie Maniacs 4 in 2002, along with an 18-inch version of Ash.
    When Bruce showed up, his first comments were about how nondescript our office building is. There are no necroplasmic green neon signs advertising Spawn, just a regular office building with several tenants.
    He was gracious enough to sign autographs for several spawn.com staffers, most of whom are big fans of his work. Bruce is a down-to-earth guy, who's easy to be around. He's got a sly sense of humor and seemed to have a real interest in how we do business. Never fear, fans will have a chance to win signed action figures and books in an upcoming contest.
    After signing and taking photos with his upcoming 18-inch figure, we took him on a quick tour of the facilities. He got to see several hush-hush projects, all of which we swore him to secrecy on. He talked extensively to the folks in our licensing department and was intrigued by the intricacies of our upcoming sports action figures.
    Todd McFarlane showed up, too. The two men had never met and seemed to bond quickly over a conversation about sports, fans, movies and, surrealistically, real estate. Bruce was most interested in how Todd McFarlane Productions ended up in Phoenix.
    Eventually, Bruce had to leave to head out to the signing, but everyone at the office was stoked to have met him. If you're a fan and have a chance to see Campbell on his signing tour, you should go. He's a great guy ... and the book's good, too.

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