Is Image an Independent?

[SuperCrab]

I guess in my mind, I tend to think of all comic publishers except DC Comics and Marvel as being independents, but that's just an assumption I've been making. I don't really know what the definition is of a major publisher versus an independent.

I noticed that there is this separate Image/Top Cow forum rather than just having those publishers put in there with the independent comics. I'm curious about what the thinking is. Are Image and Top Cow owned by one of the big two publishers and just imprints rather than being independently owned? Are they bigger than what we think of as independents? Or are they independents that just happen to have their own forum because more people want to talk about them and they can get enough traffic to justify their own forum?

Also, what's the connection between Image and Top Cow, if any? Are they owned by the same person or persons? Are they the same corporate entity? Is there some stylistic similarity?

[sven]

The Big 2 pay writers/artists to come up with stories for characters owned by the company. Anything they create for Marvel, Marvel owns. Image pays creative teams to come up with their own stories and characters. The creative teams retain the rights to their creations. So if something like The Walking Dead hits big the creator makes BANK! Image gives creators a lot more room to do what they want.

As for Image/Top Cow it looks like Top Cow was once a part of Image but they are now basically partners. Top Cow is a studio started by Image co-founder Marc Silverstri.

I'm sure someone will have better answers than me but that is the gist of it I think.

[Ragdoll]

I believe it counts as Indie in the grand scheme of things, but has a separate forum solely due to popularity.

[Cel]

"Image" is pretty much an umbrella company for several studios (Top Cow, Skybound, Highbrow, Todd McFarlane Productions, etc.) as well as a ton of non-studio creator-owned properties. These days, it puts out far more of the latter than the former by numbers.

[Dark-Flux]

Image is an independant. Theyre just more popular so have their own forum.

Top Cow (as well as the other imprints: Skybound, Shadowline, TMP, Extreme, Joes Comics etc) are imprints of Image, some of which are owned and operated by Image partners. However they too are independant and not owned by Image.
Marc Silvestri could for example, take Top Cow and leave Image if he wanted. Theres just not much incentive for him to do that. Especially with him being CEO of Image.

[DebkoX]

Image is one of the best if not the best publisher at the moment.