I would be interested in WildCATS if you are doing any of these books ... that's the only IMAGE book that I've enjoyed and also the Savage Dragon as well.

IMO the initial launches by the Image creators weren't that great. When Image started to publish other stuff by other creators, Image became a publisher worth looking at towards the end of the 90's.

Youngblood #1

"Youngblood Home Team"

Writer: Rob Liefeld & Hank Kanalz
Illustrator: Rob Liefeld
Inker: Rob Liefeld
Colorist: Brian Murray & Digital Chameleon
Letterer: Hank Kanalz

Synopsis: This story has the following characters: Bedrock, Combat, Chapel, Vogue, Diehard, and Shaft.

In Washington D.C. Shaft is out shopping with his girlfriend from the D.A.'s office. Attending to a snatcher who's a diversion, an attempt on his life was made by an assassin, but Shaft responded automatically using a pen thrown towards the assassin, hitting him in the neck and instantly killing him. He is then summoned to the HQ and had to leave immediately.

At Baltimore, Maryland, Bedrock is enjoying a homemade meal from mom when he had to leave because he's being summoned to the HQ.

In Arlington, Virginia, Diehard is underground and was summoned to HQ. He left immediately citing he must make better use of his freedom.

In another area of Arlington, Virginia, Chapel is in his bedroom with his women when he was summoned to the HQ. He had to leave but not before asking the woman to leave her number and she knows her way out.

Vogue and Photon were late arriving at the HQ and didn't sit well with Shaft. An immediate request for assistance came in the computer. It's the villain group, The Four, doing an escape attempt. The team scrambled to intercept immediately. At the escape attempt, Strongarm ripped the door off from the security transport and Starbright and Deadlock are freed. Youngblood arrived immediately as Diehard diveattacked Strongarm and nailing him straight in the jaw, and followed it up with a combination punch. And there was no conclusion to the escape attempt.

Comments: The story is dated regarding summoning the superheroes via pager/beeper. I suppose in early 1992, cell phones weren't the prevailing method of reaching individuals just yet, unlike today, where the cell phone is basically an extension of a person's hand.

We find out that Bedrock is close to his mom, and Diehard is connected to a machine underground "sleeping" until summoned. Chapel is a player and an asshole in his treatment of women. And Shaft is action oriented with a girlfriend from the D.A.'s office.

The action regarding the rescue and escape attempt by the villain group, The Four, left no conclusion.

"Youngblood Away Team"

Synopsis: This story involved Brahma, Riptide, Photon, Psi-Fire, Sentinel, and Cougar.

Basically this Away Team is battling Kussein in the Middle East. The battle ended with Psi-Fire killing Kussein with his psychic/mental powers.

Comments: This is basically several pages of slugfest and ending with the Away team member Psi-Fire killing the enemy. Not much happened or is know about the rest of the team.

Basically this is the first comic book ever released by Image Publishing. It's all about the art, and the superstar illustrator that is Rob Liefeld. Story-wise, not much happens.

Hmm, I guess that means John Buscema is just as bad an artist as Liefeld...



6 characters no feet...

and Al Milgrom poses 7 characters here with no feet...(the Wasp has feet (she's #8 character, but they are tiny and out of proportion)



and how many characters on this Starlin cover, and yet no feet...



I am not saying Liefled doesn't deserve criticism, but the no feet thing isn't unique to him and his compositions, so if you are going to use that as an indicator of bad art, you should apply it equally to all who choose not to depict feet in a composition, otherwise it is a meaningless comment.

-M

I looked at the first issue in the comic shop, laughed hysterically when the normal strength Shaft hurls a ballpoint pen, upwards, 15 to 20 feet, to impale in the throat of someone.  That's a neat trick, against the pull of gravity, with a blunt instrument, with wind resistance and what not.

I put the comic back down and picked up something with actual story.  And perspective, and continuity between panels....and.....

well, you get the idea.

The non-core founders material was generally much better (not always, but more often) and I enjoyed The Maxx (once I got my head wrapped around it) Mike Grell's Shaman's Tears (hated the costume, though), 1963, and a couple of others.  Once Jim Valentino became president, they started to publish more and more interesting material.

Were any of the Image founders writers, or artists who were also acclaimed for writing? This may have been part of the problem.

The founders?  Not hardly.  The closest would be Valentino, who had indie cred from normalman and Valentino, and good notice and high sales for Guardians of the Galaxy.

That was the biggest problem, initially, as you got a lot of flashy pages, with no coherent story.  Savage Dragon would be a bit of an exception, though it is still rough at the beginning.  As Larsen found his groove, it improved greatly.  The Maxx and Shaman's Tears were probably the best written books of early Image, due to experienced writers and writer/artists.  William Messner-Loebs and Sam Kieth had a great rapport on Epicurus the Sage and it carried over to the Maxx.  Loebs knew how to write the quirky world.  Mike Grell had 20 years of writing and drawing success under his belt, with Warlord, Starslayer, Jon Sable, Green Arrow, and James Bond.  Grell knew how to craft a story.  He was also smart enough to know that outside critique is a good thing and had Mike Gold editing his stuff.  Ironically, Valentino's Shadow Hawk was, generally seen as one of the lesser titles, in terms of sales.  It was the same derivative stuff as the rest; but, he also tried to infuse it with some real issues.  I think the problem was he was trying to do a commercial book, but with some meat and couldn't effectively reconcile the two impulses.  His later Touch of Silver was far better and more in his wheelhouse.

McFarlane recruited some noted writers to play in his sandbox and their work dwarfed what he was doing; but, helped give him a direction.  The others, in varying degrees brought in real writers to help their books, especially after the initial speculator craze had died down and they had to sell on the strength of the book's content.  Some of the guys were quick to turn their books over completely and spend more time doing the occasional piece and focus on other things (like McFarlane's vastly more profitable toy company).

One of the issues, at the start, where their rather aggressive attacks (especially Larsen) on writers on their Marvel titles.  They said some pretty stupid things and took some deserved heat for it (again, especially Larsen).  It took a bit of humbling, via criticisms of their actual stories, for some of them to recognize they needed writers.