S. is my middle name
Funny thing is The walking dead isn't even remotely the best title in image that belongs to Saga I do enjoy Skullkickers however
Gifted like Christmas
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The only Image title I have ever enjoyed is Chew. I did not expect it to be as good as it is, but it is among the most relentlessly entertaining and creative Western comics I have ever read in the history of ever.
"..."
I'm surprised I haven't found and active thread talking about the stuff coming out of Image. Lazarus, Velvet, The Activity, Mara, East of West, Pretty Deadly... There's a lot of good Image titles around these days.
Basically, Image is the new Vertigo. Creator-owned, high-quality adult titles with high concepts and superb mainstream marketing.
I'm really impressed by them, even if I am not reading much from them at the moment. (Will change that in the near future, I think!)
Do any of you read Saga? I recently finished volume 1, and it was amazing.
This is a signature.
Pretty Deadly is amazing. Just an amazing series. The best out there right now, I think.
X-Men X-Pert, my blog where I talk about X-Men comics.
I'm thinking about picking up additional volumes of Saga, along with Sex Criminals, The Walking Dead, and/or Bitch Planet.
This is a signature.Bitch Planet has been pretty awesome so far. It's militantly feminist, and doesn't try to be subtle about it, and it's great.
X-Men X-Pert, my blog where I talk about X-Men comics.
I'll probably pick it up, when I have time. Do you have any other recommendations? I'm trying to get more into Image.
This is a signature.
Don't mock the shocker
The only things from Image I've got are the first volumes of The Wicked + The Divine and Black Science. I think Wic Div is absolutely amazing, but I haven't really gotten into Black Science yet. I'm definetly interested in The Manhattan Projects and Saga, I haven't really explored the rest of Image's back catalogue yet.
edited 15th Mar '15 11:07:43 AM by Rvdz
Sing the song of sixpence that goes burn the witch, we know where you live
belongs to the hurricane
Saga is excellent, one of my favorite western comics, though i'm woefully behind as I didn't have much money to get very far.
funny how they started off with terrible shit like youngblood where their only saving grace early on was spawn (which has aged rather poorly) and now they make some of the only western comics i care about.
edited 15th Mar '15 11:25:29 AM by wehrmacht
I only have Saga, and I've only read Volume 1. I really want to get more. Image appeals to me, because it has more emphasis on creative plots than on superheroes and such.
This is a signature.
belongs to the hurricane
they publish things the big two probably wouldn't touch. i can't see saga or sex criminals ever being a thing at marvel or dc.
muwahahahaha
My favourite is Chew. It is funny, bizarre & heartbreaking at the same time, something only a very few stories can balance properly.
![[up]](https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/smiles/arrow_up.png "[up]"){kind=icon}
Intrestingly, Fraction decided to publish Sex Criminal in Image instead of Icon while he was red hot in Marvel with FF & Hawkeye.
What about Nailbiter? Is that any good?
This is a signature. A lot of writers publish through Image while doing work for Marvel or DC. Presumably, there are certain restrictions in place with the Icon imprint.
Actually, it just occurred to me that Brian Bendis is one of the few notable comic book writers who doesn't have anything going through Image. Shows just how much he loves Marvel I suppose. Actually, he and David Mack are basically the only guys putting out ongoing titles through Icon right now.
But he's a very rare exception. Most comic writers, no matter how big they are at one of the Big Two, seem to prefer publishing creator-owned stuff through Image. DC's Vertigo imprint is more prominent than Marvel's Icon imprint, but even it only has a relatively small number of titles at any given time.
Even writers who put out creator-owned work through the Big Two will also still use Image - Jason Aaron has Men of Wrath through Icon, and Southern Bastards through Image.
Matt Fraction used to put out Casanova through Icon, but he ended that series.
edited 15th Mar '15 7:10:18 PM by Tiamatty
X-Men X-Pert, my blog where I talk about X-Men comics.
belongs to the hurricane
the one prominent original series by a famous writer published under the big two is scott snyder's american vampire (which i still need to finish).
I totally forgot I started this thread. 
Anyway, I heard that you have to pay out of your own pocket or something like that to have Image publish your works. This is why most of the comics under the Image banner are done by established names in the industry. Is this true? And before you ask, I have heard this being mentioned somewhere other than *shudder* Marville.
edited 17th Mar '15 10:50:35 PM by DS9guy
Not quite. Kieron Gillen explains it here.
A simplified explanation, but he does state that he's never known anyone to actually have to pay Image out of their own pocket. Basically, Image just gets a cut of the sales.
Thanks for clearing that up. Anyway, in a speech last year, publisher Eric Stephenson dismissed licensed comic books.
Let the rest of the world come to US – let them make movies and TV shows and toys and cartoons based on what WE do.
Their dearth of ideas and their continued fascination with our unbridled creativity will only make us stronger.
THE WALKING DEAD is proof of this.
Like I said, THE WALKING DEAD comic book was selling great before it was a television show.
Now it sells even better.
And that’s because the show made people aware of the comic – and those people came to your stores to get that comic.
Because they want the real thing.
TRANSFORMERS comics will never be the real thing.
GI JOE comics will never be the real thing.
STAR WARS comics will never be the real thing.
Those comics are for fans that love the real thing so much, they want more – but there’s the important thing to understand:
They don’t want more comics – they just want more of the thing they love.
Those comics are accessories to an existing interest, an add-on, an upsell, easy surplus for the parent products – icing on the cake.
Comics are so much more than that, and this industry has existed as long as it has because of the ingenuity of men and women all over the world who yearn to share the fruits of their imaginations, not simply find new ways to prolong the life of existing I Ps.
Um, don't most products based on The Walking Dead count as "accessories to an existing interest" and are made "for fans that love the real thing so much, they want more"? By that logic, the TV show you just complimented "will never be the real thing".
Also, Star Wars comics now count as canon. ...or am I missing the point?
I'm kidding of course. I do get what he is trying to say. That the industry should do more to support people making creator-driven comic books. However, the way he goes about it comes off as hypocritical and makes it sound like ALL licensed comics are nothing more than shallow cash grabs that ultimately don't matter in the scheme of things.
edited 19th Mar '15 6:37:12 PM by DS9guy
belongs to the hurricane
i understand the problems with his tone but i think the spirit behind his ideas has merit: we need the western comic book industry to grow strong. we need more sagas, sex criminals, scott pilgrims, etc.
Jim Valentino is the most interesting of the Image Comics founders. He wasn't a superstar artist selling millions of issues and was 40 when he left Marvel while the others were in their 20s.
He was actually Image's publisher from 1999 to 2003. He was probably the one that made the company what it is today since those are the years they started to go from "EXTREME!" to "respectable".
edited 25th Oct '17 9:04:55 AM by DS9guy
One tends to hear this kind of thing alot; I agree with pretty much what he's saying, but he had to go and say it in the most aggravating way he could think of. Chest beating and gets old so quickly that it's never been new.
There are so many entertainment options out there right now that it's incredibly difficult for anything to take off in a big way. I doubt we'll ever see new comics that make as comparably big a splash as Superman or Spider-Man did in their day, and what new successes there are do indeed seem fueled by multi-platform exposure (particularly through tv and/or movie adaptations). Nice of him to slap around movie and tv folks as having a "dearth of creativity" when they're throwing money his way, ain't it?
edited 12th Sep '15 5:33:39 PM by Robbery
I'm necroing this thread to say that the Youngblood reboot is surprisingly good.
If I could think of the most pretentious way to describe it, I would call it Post-Capepunk. The setting of Superheroes as Celebrities has long passed due to the constant failures of the team, the POTUS is the cyborg Diehard, Shaft has become a disgruntled 80s action hero, and there's an app that lets you call upon heroes where you rate them.
It's a nice, breezy read that raises the setting of Youngblood to heights it could never even dream of previously, and I highly recommend it.
edited 13th Apr '18 5:35:42 PM by Mr.Badguy
It amazes me how much this company has matured. Would you have ever expected them to publish a comic like The Walking Dead when they first started?
edited 23rd Mar '13 1:47:09 PM by DS9guy