Image Comics. Past AND Present. What did they do right? What

They should have done what valiant did, and they should have realized from the start that mcfarlane couldn't write for shit and that he'd quit drawing like 7 issues into spawn

>>92697415
>They should have done what valiant did
Fail and get purchased by a video game company?

>>92697415

Valiant isn't creator owned, so Valiant is wrong.

They saw the potential of the trade market and now dominate it. Even their lesser series' do good because of the 9.99 price for all first volumes

>>92697475
Least their stories are readable and their shared universe worked

>>92698007
image has a shared universe?

>>92698085
When they want to.

>>92698007
>Least their stories are readable
Not really

How exactly they make money?

>>92698007
Who cares for shared universes? This only allows the company to do shit events and force people to buy comics they don't want to, while fucking the continuity for readers and writers who just wanna tell a story.

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>>92698279
>who cares for shared universe
>implying an image fighting game wouldn't be better than injustice and marvel vs cap-com combined.

>>92698661
This can be made regardless of a shared universe in the comics.

>>92697357
Most of their books in the 90s were fucking garbage outside of a few like Savage Dragon and The Maxx. In recent years there become fucking amazing though.

>>92699195
Shared universe is cool though.

>>92698007
What kind of pleb are you? Wildstorm and Top Cow worked fine for years. Why would anyone want some shitty Image Universe intruding on that?

>>92701164
Image has a shared universe you retard. It's just not concrete.

Spawn was and will always be the best. Fight me!

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>>92699195
This, although the time for the Image fighting game is long past

>>92701568
It's not an actual shared universe. None of the titles have anything to do with each other except for the odd cameo here and there.

>>92698661
Deathmate was like if DC andf Marvel had a cross-ver with only their best artists and writers, very little golden age superman much like Supreme written anymore, but that's lost in the mediocre at imployed by that time.

>>92697357
>What did they do right?

Nothing.

>What did they do wrong?

Intentionally crashed the comics industry just so they could scam a few bucks out of speculators.

>What should they have done?

Not existed. They have hurt the industry more than any other company.

>>92702161
That's how X-Men comics used to be. It was a shared universe that stayed in it's own little corner. Marvel in general was like that.

>>92702098
I guess you'd have to remove Angela now and Holy Fuck the Alt skins or models for Glory and Prophet, priceless.

>>92702233
Marvel's books were never as isolated from each other as Image's superhero books. From the beginning Marvel was structured to exist within the same universe. Very early on Image made a half-hearted attempt at it but it didn't last long.

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He should have been Images mascot. FUCK SPAWN!

>>92697357
I like Savage Dragon 1-100 or so and (Grahm's) Prophet. Not much else had held my interest
,

When exactly did Image change from EXTREME style comics to what we have today?

>>92703622

Probably when Jim lee sold Wildstorm to DC. I can't remember, when did the Authority and Stormwatch finally peter out?

And for the matter when Vertigo started losing ground and Dark Horse started being the Hellboy company.

That's when Image started to become the glossy sexy nerd comics they are today.

>>92703881
It's just crazy how overnight Image seemed to revamp itself. I guess the success of Walking Dead and Invincible had a lot to do with that. Did Kirkman save Image you think?

>>92703622
It was a slow evolution. Liefeld left in 1996, and then 1997 was when they started rolling out tons of small comics from unknowns and hoping something would stick. Except it wasn't until Kirkman that any of those gambles paid off so for the rest of the 90s and early 00s they were still Extreme.

>>92704085
The whole period from 97-02 I can't think of a single Image comic. It feels like a wasteland. When I heard about The Walking Dead from IMAGE COMICS I thought my friend was joking. I had no idea they were still around.

For a few years Image was on a serious tear, snapping up big-name talent left and right. Not sure what happened but it feels like they've plateaued in the last couple years. All the hype that was behind Image is gone.

Did they even have an Image Expo last year?

>>92704440
>Did they even have an Image Expo last year?

Wasn't it a big 25th Image anniversary celebration?

>>92704334
The late 90s were kind of packed for them IMO, Battle Chasers and Danger Girl before Jim Lee sold Wildstorm, and Top Cow was at their peak with Fathom, Tomb Raider, and then JMS' stuff like Rising Stars.

And then in the early 2000s there was Powers which gave Bendis his big break.

>>92704440
I think they're still kind of rolling along. All the big names they got are still working with them, doesn't Remender still have at least four ongoings right now? And they're still convincing people to give them a shot, they just launched a new series by Cullen Bunn

>>92703925

>Did Kirkman save Image you think?

For better or worse TWD comic is the template by which all the "Image Comics Glorified TV Pilot" works is borne from.

I don't even think Kirkman was doing that, but the beats of the first few TWD comics are pretty much replicated in all of the cheap IP farm comics they release.

>>92702098
It's too bad Wildstorm left, Jim Lee really fucked up a beautiful thing

No Image fighting game they could make now would feel complete, like when that Sony brawler couldn't get Crash or Spyro

>>92697467
He meant measures to alleviate delays
.
>>92704085
Jim Valentino was the higher-up at that time.

>>92704440
>>92704481
They had an Image Expo last year, but none this year. Anyway, over 15 new Image titles were announced in one fell swoop at ECCC.
Image Expo will return next year.

>>92706433
>what about Top Cow Universe
>what about the current Image Universe (superhero works of the founders still in Image [except Liefeld and Silvestri] and Kirkman)

>>92706433
It's too bad DC can't figure out what to do with Wildsorm.

Just give me a Jim Lee collection of Wildcats, not counting the Absolute.

>>92706666
why cant they do what they did with the Charleston characters and have them join dc as a whole?

>>92704440
I agree, their output in the last couple years has been extremely mediocre. At least some of the books I care about like Black Magick and Wytches are coming back soon. I hate how often Image stuff goes on hiatus and how many books never come back from it. RIP Bedlam.

>>92706753
They have. The new Wildstorm comic is set in one of the Earths of the DC multiverse.

>>92706758
They needed a decent culling, in the wake of Saga's success they launched a few too many mediocre to kind of good scifi books from former Marvel writers.

>>92702098
Why is Grifter in there? He's DC not Image

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Thoughts?

>>92706964
6 of those characters are now owned by DC, the first two in each row are Wildstorm characters.

Angela is now owned by Marvel and Sam Keith moved The Maxx to IDW

I like that they killed the industry
smart move

>>92698007
Valiant is fucking terrible and doesn't have a single readable book
kill yourself shill

>>92707545
It was a mixture of them, Diamond, and Marvel catering to speculators. DC would soon follow.

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>>92697357
>Chew is over
>Prophet is over
>Orc Stain is in limbo
>8house crashed and burned
>Invincible is ending soon

At least I still have Saga I guess.

>>92708631
8house is still going just without thé banner

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>>92708755
Mirror is the lone survivor. But I really wanted more of Kiem, the art was some good shit.

>>92698279
good question

>>92702201
>>92707545
>explain this shit pls

>>92706986
noice but not excessively original.
good quality art and writing, decent issues frequency.

best image comics?
>prophet
>twd
>chew
>beauty+divine
and?

>>92708835
it's coming out eventually but as a trade

>>92709211
>explain this shit pls

Basically Image helped to accelerate the already rapidly growing speculator bubble. Because every single person who did comics with image was a former Marvel superstar, their comics were bought and ordered in mass. Customers paying for upwards to 50 or 100 copies with the dumbass thought that they'd be worth millions in a couple of years just like Action Comics #1. As a result Image and every other publisher pumped out thousands and millions of copies with special incentives and covers with a big ol COLLECTORS ITEM stamped somewhere.

Eventually this bubble burst and Image, this small studio that proved you could take the cream of the crop and sell millions of comics overnight, caused so many comic book shops to fold and other publishers to go under. They all followed the Image model and paid for it dearly. What Diamond and Marvel started to boost sales went out of control. Marvel was actually copying image by this point and they in turned suffered. It was a big clusterfuck that almost killed the entire industry.

>>92709361
jesus
so by speculator bubble you mean inflated selling in the hope of future gains thanks to precious "x comic number 1 issue with special cover"?
i missed that, i'm european. when did it happen?
where's the fault of image? if the market want to invest by buying first issues in mass, why don't let them?

>>92709459
Pretty much. This was around 93-95 I wanna say. Maybe as late as 96. The publishers new the risks but customers and the general public kept buying issues. It was always short term and poor saps fell for it. Yet they didn't expect Image to come in and turn everything upside down.

See, Image had one thing the other companies didn't have. A stable of ONLY top talent. While Marvel could blow up the sales on big name books and titles with star power, Image was able to do that with EVERY SINGLE TITLE. Because of this every other publisher was forced to push the market even further and every fucking comic became a special collectors rare foil cover glow in the dark mylar bag with a free pog #1 issue. And you know what? The fucking speculators fell for it thinking they could one day pay for their futures. Of course this would not happen and many went broke.

Comic shops were also becoming bloated with so much product from Image, Marvel, DC, and tons of startups that when the crash hit they were left in such a surplus many went under due to huge loss margins.

Basically, Image was so hot shit during a bubble that everyone else needed to outdo them to a point that everyone caved under the weight. Image certainly didn't help with all the shady shit they were doing with the funds certain creators received and all the insider crap that went down to help inflate sales and tank other competitors.

Shit would make a great movie.

>>92709581
interesting. i missed it because i'm foreign AND under 30.
well, sucks to be them.
modern image looks pretty different from that business model though.

Does Image only give books to established names now? Seems like they don't take risks anymore.

Is Spawn still a thing?

>>92710250
you have to pay them to distribute your book
it's basically a scam

i remember when image had a talent search
by then i was imitating mcfarlane and lee
i got rejected cause i was too much of a clone in a sea of clones they already had. they did offer me a 'background/finishing' gig but i was in college and i wanted the big bucks (like they advertised)

>>92710337
You should have taken it. Would have been a foot in the door.

>>92706986
I love it

>>92710250
If you're rich enough you can so most can't

>>92698085
Top Cow

>All the USA comic I like are on hiatus, will end soon or have ended already.
Any recomendation in the style of artesia, orcs stain, hellboy?

>>92710250
And they only approve fantasy/Sci fi pitches. They're as bad as the big two when it comes to actual diversity of product.

>>92710594
head lopper is really good, in my opinion also a great format to publish in
rumble has great art but it's on hiatus for now
Graham's 8house is good if he ever finds a way to not publish it in the most retarded way

Well. I liked Witchblade / The Darkness.
...if that counts.

>>92710594
Kill 6 Billion Demons, my nigga

>>92706758
>I hate how often Image stuff goes on hiatus and how many books never come back from it. RIP Bedlam.

Pretty much the reason why I've reduced the Image stuff on my pull list. Most indie creators are unable to commit to their work or give up when no studio exec gives them a movie/tv deal.

>>92712252
It's pretty funny too because some new OGN by Fantagraphics of all publishers got a movie deal almost immediately when it was released and its not at all done like a movie pitch.

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>>92710250
They still regularly put out books by literally whos but the books by 'I wrote X-Men for two years' get the most hype.

>>92709581
Marvel was the king of this; they caused an actual aluminum shortage.
Also Image exists as a direct result of Marvel execs refusing to give their stas more of a cut. They created their own competition. There is literally no bigger blunder in buisiness, as the results show- to this day.
Marvel blaming Image is like an arsonist blaming the fire he set.

>>92710250
they've transitioned into giving artists the job of writer now