On its 25th anniversary, the mission of Image Comics remains the same.
The comic book publisher, founded in 1992 by Rob Liefeld, Erik Larsen, Jim Lee, Whilce Portacio, Marc Silvestri, Todd McFarlane and Jim Valentino, still prides itself on being a place where writers and artists can come to take ownership of their imaginations.
Image Comics was born partly out of the frustrations its founders felt while realizing they would never have ownership of any new characters they created at a major comic book publisher like Marvel Comics or DC Comics. Artists like McFarlane, Liefeld, Lee and Silvestri had strong followings and they were confident their fans would follow them to the titles they created at Image.
“Everybody who publishes through Image owns and controls their own work, just as the Image founders did when they started the company,” Image publisher Eric Stephenson said in an interview.
The promise of “unbridled creativity” is what Stephenson says has kept fans coming to Image Comics over the years.
“If you look at something like Brian K. Vaughan and Fiona Staples’ Saga, nothing in that series is being filtered through someone else — it’s Brian and Fiona’s pure, undiluted vision of what they want Saga to be,” Stephenson said. “There’s no editor telling them to pull back on this scene or maybe take that scene out — it’s exactly what Brian and Fiona want in the book. That goes for all our titles, and I think it’s something readers respond to very positively.”
Perhaps Image Comics’ grandest achievement is The Walking Dead, created by Robert Kirkman, a partner at Image Comics since 2008. Stephenson says The Walking Dead showed comic book creators just how big something they created could be and that the series opened the door for some of Image’s most popular series.
“Without The Walking Dead, there never would have been Saga. Kelly Sue DeConnick and Valentine DeLandro’s Bitch Planet wouldn’t be here today, or Kieron Gillen and Jamie McKelvie’s The Wicked + The Divine, or Rick Remender and Wesley Craig’s Deadly Class — the list just goes on and on,” Stephenson said. “The runaway success of The Walking Dead really built on that and made it possible for creators within even loftier visions to take things to the next level from there.”
Image Comics released the 163rd issue of The Walking Dead Wednesday (available in print and digitally) as a 25-cent issue to celebrate its silver anniversary, which it’s calling Image Day.
More comic-to-live-action adaptations will eventually hit the movie screen. Wytches by Scott Snyder and Jock and was picked up by Plan B Entertainment, Brad Pitt’s production company. Descender by Jeff Lemire and Justine Nguyen was optioned by Sony.
“Every time an option on something is announced, there’s a spike in sales, so if there’s a Decsender film or a Wytches movie, if East of West becomes a TV show, or Plutona, or Reborn, then that’s very good news for everyone,” Stephenson said.
Many of the original comic book series that came out of Image’s ’90s debut were considered the next generation of superheroes. McFarlane’s Spawn, Larsen’s Savage Dragon, Liefeld’s Youngblood, all took advantage of the large fanbases their creators had built while working at Marvel Comics. McFarlane and Larsen were two of the most popular Spider-Man artists of the early ’90s and Liefeld came to fame drawing X-Force and co-creating current Hollywood superhero darling Deadpool.
Stephenson says superheroes are still very popular in the comic book industry, but as readership evolved, Image was ready for the change.
“Writers and artists have realized that there’s virtually no limit on what they can do in comics, and that’s one of the most exciting parts of working here at Image — there is no template,” Stephenson said. “If you look at something like Sex Criminals by Matt Fraction and Chip Zdarsky, wherein the lead characters can stop time when they have sex and then use that power to rob banks, it’s pretty clear we couldn’t have asked Matt and Chip to pitch that, you know? The most appealing series proposals are often the most outlandish — the things we couldn’t even begin to guess would be pitched.”
In an era when Marvel and DC re-number their titles when they start a new series, Image Comics doesn’t. That’s why it currently has some of the highest numbered series in comics — Spawn is approaching issue no. 300.
“It’s kind of a mistake, really, because it creates false demand and even a cursory examination of sales patterns shows that it doesn’t help the series long-term, which has had a harmful effect on comic book sales overall,” Stephenson says of the popular industry trend to keep starting series over. “It confuses anyone new to comics, and the message it instills in long-time fans is that nothing is permanent and that marketing gimmicks are more important than good storytelling.”
(Action Comics and Detective Comics recently returned to their original numbering at DC Comics as both titles approach a milestone 1,000th issue).
While Lee is now the co-publisher and still doing artwork for DC Comics, many of the original founders remain at Image. McFarlane, Larsen and Valentino remain partners alongside the recently appointed Kirkman. Liefeld and Portacio are no longer partners, but continue to work with Image on occasion.
For the next 25 years, Stephenson hopes for more of what has fueled Image over the years: constant change.
“My biggest hope is that comics change so much over the next 25 years that anyone reading comics today would be shocked.”