They're probably the two biggest titles being published by Image Comics.

You do know there are more than two publishers, yeah?

Sure, but they don't carry the story.   If they were killed off, or the story just went all Astro City and starting having a rotating cast, it would probably still be just as good.   My point is that its the BOOK that's popular, not the characters

That's quite an assumption you're making, there. An offensive one.

Yes, I know there are more than two publishers. I buy quite a lot of material from numerous publishers, including some which, since they're not American, I doubt you've ever heard of. And I always have done.

What I do not buy are any titles published by Image. I never have done, since in my mind I always tend to associate them with that whole early 90s era which I hated. I have probably around 200 boxes of comics in my home, and I doubt there are more a dozen Image titles anywhere in any of them, most of which I'd have acquired by accident as part of bulk purchases. Why should I know what Image are publishing?

Maybe because some of these titles are acclaimed inside and outside the comics industry for being top quality material...

Saga alone...



Image award winners

Eisners
Jason Aaron for Best Writer for Southern Bastards from Image and other materials in 2016
Brian Vaughan for best writer for Saga in 2013 and 2014
Dustin Nguyen for best interior multimedia art 2016 for Descender from Image
Fiona Staples for the same award in 2014 for Saga and for best penciller/inker team or individual for Saga in 2015
Cliff Chiang for best penciller/inker for Paper Girls form Image in 2016
Jordie Bellaire for Best colorist in 2014 and 2016 for a number of Image projects
2010 Best Continuing Series-The Walking Dead
2011 Best Continuing Series Chew
2013, 2014, and 2015 Best Continuing Series Saga
2016 Best Continuing Series Southern Bastards
2016 Best Limited Series or Story Arc-The Fade Out
2010 Best New Series Chew
2013 Best New Series Saga
2014 Best New Series Sex Criminals
2016 Best New Series Paper Girls
the 2015 Best Digital/Webcomic went to The Private Eye, which when released in print form was done so by Image (written by BK Vaughan who writes Saga)

Harvey Awards (2016 winners ahven't been announced yet as the awards ceremony is in Septembar at the Baltimore Comic Con 2016 Harvey Nominees)
2010 Best Writer Robert Kirkman for Walking Dead
2013 & 2014 Best Writer Brian K. Vaughan for Saga
2013, 2014, and 2015 Best Artist or Penciller Fiona Staples for Saga
1996& 1997 Best Cartoonist Jeff Smith for Bone (published by image those years, self-published by Smith in other years)
2008 Best Inker Kevin Nowlan for Witchblade
2013 Best Colorist Fiona Staples for Saga
1996, 1998, 1999 Best Cover Artist Alex Ross for Astro City (published by Image at that time)
2014 & 2015 Best Cover Artist Fiona Staples for Saga
2010 Best New Talent Ron Guillory artist of Chew
2014 Most Promising new talent Chip Zdarsky for Sex Criminals
1996 Best New Series Astro City
1997 Best New Series Leave It To Chance
2010 Best New Series Chew
2013 Best New Series Saga
2014 Best New Series Sex Criminals
2015 Best New Series Southern Bastards
1998 Best Continuing or Limited Series Astro City
2010 Best Continuing or Limited Series The Walking Dead
2013, 2014, 2015 Best Continuing or Limited Series Saga
1996 Best Single Issue or Story Astro City #1
2013 Best Single Issue or Story Saga #1
2010 Best Graphic Album of Previously Released Material The Mice Templar Vol. 1
2008 Best Anthology Popgun Vol. 1
2009 Best Anthology Comic Book Tattoo
2011 Best Anthology Popgun #4
2015 Best Online Work The Private Eye (again released by Image when a print version was done)
2015 Special Award for Humor Chip Zdarsky for Sex Criminals


The simple answer to why you should know what Image is publishing is that for the past 2 decades it has been a publisher that has released material that those within and without the industry recognize as being among the best comics produced. Even if you do not like the books themselves, if you are a fan of the medium of comics you should know what is considered the best material within in by those making, reading and selling the material. Ignoring Image books is like ignoring Oscar winning films, Emmy winning television, Pulitzer winning books, Hugo winning science fiction (literally as Saga won a Hugo), etc. because the people who produced it made some bad stuff once upon a time. If you want to ignore Image because they produced some bad comics in the early 90s, you should ignore Marvel and DC too because they produced just as many bad comics at that time as Image did. Marvel was even trying to have its artists ape the Image style at the time rather than doing things the way they had, which is especially damning and cause for ignoring Marvel even more,

Everyone has their own tastes and you can like or dislike Image books as you will, but being unaware of what they are doing would suggest you are not aware of what the industry currently holds as a standard of quality that other publishers are measured against, because of the regard the industry as a whole (and other creative types outside the industry) hold Image Comics in as a publisher. It's a model that other publishers are trying to emulate because they are the only publisher that has had a steady growth of sales for the last decade and growing markets outside the traditional direct market gaining new readers and new access to the pool or readers who might buy their product. Their collected editions have a high percentage of volumes that are becoming evergreen sellers while most of the big 2 volumes have difficulty selling through their first printings (which are getting smaller and smaller and still not selling through).

But to each his own and if you want to ignore what they are doing, so be it. I just don't understand that kind of willful ignorance.

-M

Thank you. I've just never really shaken off my original view of the company, which is of the kind of crap Liefeld and McFarlane were churning out twenty years ago. Perhaps I should give them a chance.

I don't take a lot of notice of what's winning awards. I'll occasionally accept recommendations from friends, but the kind of material that wins awards these days often tends not to be the kind of material that appeals to me. It's not "wilful ignorance", it's just disinterest. I  read and enjoy a lot of material from IDW, Dynamite, Marvel (mostly the stuff featuring the 'smaller' characters like Spider-Woman or Hellcat) and various British publishers including Titan, Rebellion and Panini. I think I'm currently buying probably 40-50 titles per month from those publishers and don't have unlimited disposable income, so I don't really have much incentive to start investigating other publishers.

Count me as another reader who considers Image as the most important and interesting current comics publisher. Variety, creator rights and a wonderful array of talent