Image is getting all my money!!

[T-Fine]

I am new to comics in the last few months, and now it seems I am obsessed! For me personally, I am finding that Image far and away has the best titles.

So far, I have loved East of West, Lazarus, Alex + Ada, Saga, Rat Queens, Deadly Class. Rocket Girl may have potential.

Jury is still out on Black Science, Sex Criminals and Wicked + Divine. Although I am leaning towards dropping those.

Looking forward to wading through this forum and seeing what everyone else is reading. Image has sucked me into the world of comics. I didn't think that was possible!

[cc008]

I've said it before.. Image is the reason I need to take out student loans for grad school.

[quinnzel]

I've said it before.. Image is the reason I need to take out student loans for grad school.

This this this.

Image is just killing it. I've said it before and I'll say it a million times over. Image consistently comes out with the best new titles and keeps the quality of their existing titles. It's really beyond compare. I bought the first trades of Saga and Velvet a few weeks ago at my local comic shop and the owner told me Velvet is probably his favorite series right now, and I said, "Yeah, it's Image, and in my eyes Image can't really do anything wrong right now, so I thought it'd be time to try it." And he agreed. Image is just on top.

[InformationGeek]

I certainly read a lot of Image, but honestly, they are just another company. They got a lot of mediocre and middle of the road books overall longside their good books that people seem to forget about. Not everything they have is gold (I mean, did anyone read this week's Intersect?).

[T-Fine]

InformationGeek, I agree. I have found some that don't appeal to me. But, they are hitting home runs way more times than they strike out.

[InformationGeek]

InformationGeek, I agree. I have found some that don't appeal to me. But, they are hitting home runs way more times than they strike out.

They have an average batting record in my mind. They have an equal amounts of hits (Southern Bastards, Manifest Destiny, Chew) and misses (Intersect, Drumhellar, Wayward). They also put out an equal amount of blandish, average, and or middle of the road material as any company (Shutter, Goners, Sex, Sovereign, and Nowhere Men all come to mind) does now. It's just no one really talks about those books or they forget about them.

They also struck me as the kind of company that worries me that they are a bit too... lax at points with letting their creators run free with no seemingly obvious editor or person to tell them to settle down. Sure, a creator should be allowed to write and be able to create whatever he wants, but sometimes... you need a guy to tell him or her no. It's best summed up like this:

The double-edge sword of the unrestrained creator: Give a guy with a lot of creativity completely free bounds to do whatever he wants, he will create some fascinating things and he'll create some completely utter crap.

[DIVINITY]

I have found some that don't appeal to me. But, they are hitting home runs way more times than they strike out.

+1

10char

[Dr. Cheesesteak]

I certainly read a lot of Image, but honestly, they are just another company. They got a lot of mediocre and middle of the road books overall longside their good books that people seem to forget about. Not everything they have is gold (I mean, did anyone read this week's Intersect?).

The other funny thing I find is that some ppl talk about Image as if it's self-producing publisher. I think only the titles from the various imprints' head honchos (Walking Dead, Spawn, Witchblade, etc) actually are "produced" by Image. BKV and Rucka could've easily taken Saga and Lazarus to Dark Horse or BOOM! I don't give Image credit for East of West or Revival or Manifest Destiny. Image doesn't even edit some titles they publish.

It'd almost be like giving the Nugget Rib Cook-Off (aka Reno BBQ festival) credit for making such great BBQ. Well...they don't. It's the chefs who go there that provide the food, not the cook-off hosts.

But I know, it's just semantics. The titles do have the Image stamp on the cover, so they're no doubt Image titles. But they're really the creators' titles, not Image's (for the most part). I won't praise Image for the titles that are out since they have no creative say (again, for the most part), but I will praise Image for being the go-to publisher for a lot of high-quality creators.

I'll also give Image credit for turning down alot of pitches they get (allegedly). They aren't just some publishing whore.

Image is just killing it. I've said it before and I'll say it a million times over. Image consistently comes out with the best new titles and keeps the quality of their existing titles

like this is pretty much exactly what i was talking about. Image doesn't "keep the quality" of all of their existing titles (again, WD, Invincible, etc being the exception), that's up to the creators.

Even the title is misleading. How much of our $ is Image really getting? The creators pay them. I think our money mostly goes to the creators?

edit:
Not that I'm ripping on any posters or fans or anything. Hell, I'm sure even I slip out the general "man, Image is so good" from time to time. It's just an observation.

[Joker]

Well, Image as a publisher do decide what gets published under their banner. (and yes, they do reject about 90% of what's submitted) So they are in a sense keeping the quality. While last I knew, the submission only requires 5 completed pages of comics, you do have to largely know how and where your story ends. They're looking for considered work.

Also, Kirkman being a partner doesn't change how his books are produced vs any other title. He can afford an editor, but that's still a choice he's made. He doesn't have to have one, and Image aren't providing that for him.

Image front the production costs on a book, and take that money back out of sales. The creators won't get paid until Image has made its cost back. After that, it is all profit in the creators pocket. Image are a publisher, but they really don't operate like most other publishers in the comics business.

[T-Fine]

What's funny is when I started a few months back, I didn't look at the publisher. I just picked out what seemed interesting. But, 90% of what I chose was Image. I think Mind Mgmt is the only thing I am reading that isn't Image. I ordered three trades today without paying attention to publisher. But, Southern Bastards, Zero, and The Activity...all Image.

[harpier]

What's funny is when I started a few months back, I didn't look at the publisher. I just picked out what seemed interesting. But, 90% of what I chose was Image. I think Mind Mgmt is the only thing I am reading that isn't Image. I ordered three trades today without paying attention to publisher. But, Southern Bastards, Zero, and The Activity...all Image.

I had exactly the same experience when I started reading comics a few years ago. I think I caught the front, more or less, of the current Image Comics creative boom—for reference, I started reading right as Saga debuted—but nearly all the comics I pick up monthly are Image. One Vertigo title, one BOOM! Studios title, a few irregular Dark Horse mini-series series, a handful of Marvel titles that I invariably read in trades, and a whole lot of Image. More than anything, I think they're more readily accessible to new readers because they're not wrapped up in deep mythologies or cross-overs with other titles. Unlike most Big-Two superhero titles, they're also more naturally inclined to cultivate a distinctive tone and "look," because part of what licensed properties trade in is familiarity and similarity. The great ones do it really, really well, but they're often doing very similar things. Creator-owned properties are more free to engage other literary and pop-culture genres.

[Dr. Skeleton]

I look to Image to give me a reason to love comics again since I no longer buy Marvel and DC. I buy Spawn regularly, and I just picked up Bitch Planet and Graveyard Shift that are pretty good.

[Lady Warp Spasm]

I've said it before.. Image is the reason I need to take out student loans for grad school.

LOL...(boy I hope that is not true.)

I did not understand the love until recently. Granted I am only reading 1 book regularly and trade waiting on a second but for the price, quality and variety I can understand why folks have jumped ship.

[T-Fine]

LOL...(boy I hope that is not true.)

I did not understand the love until recently. Granted I am only reading 1 book regularly and trade waiting on a second but for the price, quality and variety I can understand why folks have jumped ship.

What is the Image book you are reading?

[Nightcrawler92]

Boy, Let me tell you: I AM IN THE EXACT SAME BOAT!