Image comics

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Image Comics (often short Image ) is an American comic book publisher founded in 1992 by seven well-known comic artists. These were Erik Larsen , Jim Lee , Rob Liefeld , Todd McFarlane , Whilce Portacio , Marc Silvestri and Jim Valentino . Image publishes works by authors and draftsmen who retain the rights to their creations ("Creator-owned Comics").

history

Ascent

Todd McFarlane had inspired the comic world in the early 1990s with his visual reinterpretation of Marvel Comics ' Spider-Man . Rob Liefeld, who drew X-Force at the time , and Jim Lee, the X-Men draftsman, gave Marvel an ultimatum. Either the publisher would produce series, the rights of which were with the draftsmen, or they would leave the publisher. Terry Stewart , then President of Marvel, offered the illustrators the publisher's badly performing Epic label, which the illustrators refused.

McFarlane and Liefeld were also able to convince their colleagues Erik Larsen, Marc Silvestri, Whilce Portacio and Jim Valentino, who became known in the independent sector through his comic Normalman , who was then working for Marvel on Guardians of the Galaxy , of their idea. The seven cartoonists left Marvel and founded their own publishing company, Image Comics . Portacio soon left Image, and the remaining six draftsmen began creating their own series. Image Comics were initially distributed by Malibu Comics , but the success of the young publisher soon allowed for its own distribution.

The first titles Image produced were Spawn by McFarlane, Savage Dragon by Larsen, Shadowhawk by Valentino, WildC.ATs by Lee, Youngblood and Brigade by Liefeld, and CyberForce by Silvestri. The initial success of the Image titles was enormous, and the dynamic and extravagant perceived style of the comics ( Image Style ), which the six artists shaped, soon became the defining characteristic of the superhero comics of the early 1990s. Along with Valiant Comics , image was the main reason behind the speculative bubble that comics experienced during this period.

Appointment problems and personal disputes

Other titles such as Dale Keowns Pitt , Sam Keith's The Maxx and Alan Moores appeared in 1963 on Image, but the series of the founders began to be delayed. Without editorial pressure, the illustrators, who were used to success, were not able to finish their comics on time. The deathmate crossover with Valiant Comics , the completion of which was more than six months late, was the culmination of this development. Comic shops began to lose faith in their image and sales fell.

In addition, the unified front of the Image founders, each of whom had their own studio, began to crumble. In June 1996 Marc Silvestri left his studio Top Cow Image. The reason for this were disputes with Rob Liefeld. On September 4, 1996, Liefeld was fired from the remaining founders and soon sued Image. Image countered and in 1997 the parties reached an out of court settlement.

Changes

While Silvestri brought Top Cow back to Image in 1997, Jim Lee sold his Wildstorm studio to DC Comics in 1998 . In 1998, Valentino took over the position of image editor from Larry Marder , who had held it almost since the company was founded. Valentino changed the course of Image and began to publish comics by talents such as Brian Michael Bendis , Robert Kirkman or Eric Shanower , in addition to the traditional superhero comics , which were set in all possible genres.

With this, Image managed to establish itself alongside Dark Horse Comics as the largest publisher of “Creator-owned Comics”. In February 2004 Valentino was replaced as editor by Erik Larsen, but stayed with Image. In June 2008, Larsen handed over his job to Eric Stephenson (until then Creative Director at Image). In July 2008, Robert Kirkman was accepted as a new image partner for the first time since Image was founded.

Studios

Six of the seven founders of Image Comics (exception: Whilce Portacio ) formed their own studios, under whose names their comics appeared. Robert Kirkman joined later:

Publications

United States

Savage Dragon and Spawn are the only series from the early days of Image Comics that still appear in the English-language original. Other important series from Image Comics also include:

German-speaking area

Various publishers were responsible for the publication in German (selection of titles from the most important publishers):

Web links

Commons : Image Comics  - Collection of images, videos and audio files