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Post by chaykinstevens on Jun 19, 2018 14:13:58 GMT -5
Claremont was originally going to do a series called the Huntsman for Image with Whilce Portacio, but Portacio elected to do Wetworks instead. Claremont later wrote WildC.A.Ts #10-13, which featured the Huntsman.
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Post by Deleted on Jun 19, 2018 17:38:07 GMT -5
My opinions about the initial titles:
Liefeld: Youngblood was a mix of Titans & the X-Men. Supreme was an angry Superman.
Lee: Wildcats similar to the X-Men.
Silvestri: Cyberforce another X-Men copy with cybernetics mixed in.
Valentino: Shadowhawk was a mix of Batman & Wolverine.
Larsen: Savage Dragon was the Hulk as a police officer.
McFarlane: Spawn was probably the most original.
Meanwhile at Valiant we were getting a revival of the Gold Key Solar & Magnus along with new titles like X-O Manowar (I know X-O was basically a mix of Conan & Iron Man. It still was more original than the Image stuff). Valiant titles were better written & were what I was reading in the early 90's. |
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Post by beccabear67 on Jun 19, 2018 18:08:29 GMT -5
I must've met Erik Larsen circa 1984-85 and he had been self-publishing his own comic titled Graphic Fantasy with some kind of four-color covers and b&w inside (out of Washington state, the first one had some other artists involved more). It starred his Dragon character, so that's at least how long he had been developing it. He was very under the sway of John Byrne stylistically I'd say, not sure how to judge the stories. Some later Wolverines he wrote which I've now read seem okay. He worked for Americomics briefly, (and maybe Megaton, not sure on that) before the big companies. Todd McFarlane I saw get his first opening with Mr. Dick Giordano with something called Infinity Inc. around that same time, maybe 1985? he had done some kind of elaborate Fantastic Four fan comic with a sort of Spider-Man in a cape guy, not sure if it was a villain, but it was no doubt looking back some kind of proto-Spawn. There was a lot of cape and little feet and a head sticking out and I didn't think much of it.  A year later Mr. Giordano and Jim Shooter were both up here and maybe that's when Larsen and McFarlane got to bend his ears/eyes, I didn't witness that though. Shooter didn't come off as very outgoing and I enjoyed talking to Mr. Giordano a lot and the history he'd tell me and things he'd show people about drawing comics! Larsen and McFarlane were both a bit hard for me to relate to as they had some of that 'I was born to draw (fill-in-the-blank)' thing going on, hardly unusual, but I tended to feel, hey that was someone else's creation you want so bad to see your name on, why not create your own thing? Which to be fair they both had done before I even knew they existed, so it was a good thing to me they went and did those original creations! |
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Post by codystarbuck on Jun 19, 2018 23:06:03 GMT -5
I must've met Erik Larsen circa 1984-85 and he had been self-publishing his own comic titled Graphic Fantasy with some kind of four-color covers and b&w inside (out of Washington state, the first one had some other artists involved more). It starred his Dragon character, so that's at least how long he had been developing it. He was very under the sway of John Byrne stylistically I'd say, not sure how to judge the stories. Some later Wolverines he wrote which I've now read seem okay. He worked for Americomics briefly, (and maybe Megaton, not sure on that) before the big companies. Todd McFarlane I saw get his first opening with Mr. Dick Giordano with something called Infinity Inc. around that same time, maybe 1985? he had done some kind of elaborate Fantastic Four fan comic with a sort of Spider-Man in a cape guy, not sure if it was a villain, but it was no doubt looking back some kind of proto-Spawn. There was a lot of cape and little feet and a head sticking out and I didn't think much of it. A year later Mr. Giordano and Jim Shooter were both up here and maybe that's when Larsen and McFarlane got to bend his ears/eyes, I didn't witness that though. Shooter didn't come off as very outgoing and I enjoyed talking to Mr. Giordano a lot and the history he'd tell me and things he'd show people about drawing comics! Larsen and McFarlane were both a bit hard for me to relate to as they had some of that 'I was born to draw (fill-in-the-blank)' thing going on, hardly unusual, but I tended to feel, hey that was someone else's creation you want so bad to see your name on, why not create your own thing? Which to be fair they both had done before I even knew they existed, so it was a good thing to me they went and did those original creations! Larsen also did a small bit of work at Eclipse, on DNAgents. He got work at DC, before moving to Marvel. He did have a Dragon story (not yet Savage Dragon) in Megaton #2. McFarlane did a back-up story or two in Steve Englehart's Coyote, at Epic. He did a few things at DC, including the 2-4 chapters of Batman Year 2 (after Alan Davis dropped out), in Detective Comics, and Infinity Inc, taking over as regular artist after Don Newton's death. His last project for DC was the opening chapter of the Invasion crossover book, before pretty much going full time at Marvel. McFarlane has credited Dick Giordano with helping him a great deal at DC and John Romita, at Marvel, once he got some distance from the whole "We were stifled.." BS that he and some of the others spouted in early interviews. he was very forthcoming in praising those guys in the video he did with Stan Lee, in his Comic Book Greats series. I met Giordano once, but he was pretty busy with his table, so I didn't get to say more than two words. He was rather hard of hearing, related to scarlet fever, as a child (and probably age). Of the group, Larsen seems to have been the biggest comic fan, in the broadest terms, with influences like Captain Marvel and a lot of Silver Age stuff. Valentino kind of had that satirical eye on the stuff, in normalman. Liefeld was a big Titans fan and swiped endlessly from Perez, both in layouts and character designs, though a lot of his are so generic they could come from multiple influences. Deadpool definitely owed a lot to Deathstroke. Looking at the various character designs Liefeld was throwing out then, he kind of seemed like Dave Cockrum, minus the better handle on anatomy and storytelling. |
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Post by Deleted on Jun 19, 2018 23:18:59 GMT -5
I must've met Erik Larsen circa 1984-85 and he had been self-publishing his own comic titled Graphic Fantasy with some kind of four-color covers and b&w inside (out of Washington state, the first one had some other artists involved more). It starred his Dragon character, so that's at least how long he had been developing it. He was very under the sway of John Byrne stylistically I'd say, not sure how to judge the stories. Some later Wolverines he wrote which I've now read seem okay. He worked for Americomics briefly, (and maybe Megaton, not sure on that) before the big companies. Todd McFarlane I saw get his first opening with Mr. Dick Giordano with something called Infinity Inc. around that same time, maybe 1985? he had done some kind of elaborate Fantastic Four fan comic with a sort of Spider-Man in a cape guy, not sure if it was a villain, but it was no doubt looking back some kind of proto-Spawn. There was a lot of cape and little feet and a head sticking out and I didn't think much of it. A year later Mr. Giordano and Jim Shooter were both up here and maybe that's when Larsen and McFarlane got to bend his ears/eyes, I didn't witness that though. Shooter didn't come off as very outgoing and I enjoyed talking to Mr. Giordano a lot and the history he'd tell me and things he'd show people about drawing comics! Larsen and McFarlane were both a bit hard for me to relate to as they had some of that 'I was born to draw (fill-in-the-blank)' thing going on, hardly unusual, but I tended to feel, hey that was someone else's creation you want so bad to see your name on, why not create your own thing? Which to be fair they both had done before I even knew they existed, so it was a good thing to me they went and did those original creations! Larsen also did a small bit of work at Eclipse, on DNAgents. He got work at DC, before moving to Marvel. He did have a Dragon story (not yet Savage Dragon) in Megaton #2. McFarlane did a back-up story or two in Steve Englehart's Coyote, at Epic. He did a few things at DC, including the 2-4 chapters of Batman Year 2 (after Alan Davis dropped out), in Detective Comics, and Infinity Inc, taking over as regular artist after Don Newton's death. His last project for DC was the opening chapter of the Invasion crossover book, before pretty much going full time at Marvel. McFarlane has credited Dick Giordano with helping him a great deal at DC and John Romita, at Marvel, once he got some distance from the whole "We were stifled.." BS that he and some of the others spouted in early interviews. he was very forthcoming in praising those guys in the video he did with Stan Lee, in his Comic Book Greats series. I met Giordano once, but he was pretty busy with his table, so I didn't get to say more than two words. He was rather hard of hearing, related to scarlet fever, as a child (and probably age). Of the group, Larsen seems to have been the biggest comic fan, in the broadest terms, with influences like Captain Marvel and a lot of Silver Age stuff. Valentino kind of had that satirical eye on the stuff, in normalman. Liefeld was a big Titans fan and swiped endlessly from Perez, both in layouts and character designs, though a lot of his are so generic they could come from multiple influences. Deadpool definitely owed a lot to Deathstroke. Looking at the various character designs Liefeld was throwing out then, he kind of seemed like Dave Cockrum, minus the better handle on anatomy and storytelling. Larsen also did an issue (#6) of the bi-weekly book New Wave at Eclipse filling in for Lee Weeks. It was written by Mindey Newell (who did the Catwoman mini following up Batman Year One for DC) and inked by Ty Templeton. And Giordano was the first comic pro I ever met, a store appearance the week Watchmen #1 came Out (I've told that story here a few times I believe but he essentially told me to buy Watchmen #1 and if I didn't like it he would give me my money back, signed a copy for me and told the owner if i brought it back to give me a refund and he would make it up to the owner (who was an old pal of his). I also got a letter from him (or his office most likely) when I was in college after writing to a book's letter page I didn't like with cash enclosed to use to buy a different DC book to try to see if I liked it better. He was a straight up nice guy who was passionate about comics. -M |
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Post by beccabear67 on Jun 20, 2018 1:02:59 GMT -5
Larsen also did a small bit of work at Eclipse, on DNAgents. He got work at DC, before moving to Marvel. He did have a Dragon story (not yet Savage Dragon) in Megaton #2. McFarlane ... he was very forthcoming in praising those guys in the video he did with Stan Lee, in his Comic Book Greats series. I met Giordano once, but he was pretty busy with his table, so I didn't get to say more than two words. He was rather hard of hearing, related to scarlet fever, as a child (and probably age). I had all the early DNAgents, up to #12 at least, but I must've missed the Larsen contribution. It does fit in though with Mark Evanier being at the second big convention here when Erik Larsen was back again. Glad I remembered Megaton correctly. Yes, Mr. Giordano was hard of hearing. It's funny how many people very attached to the comic strip or book form were ill a lot as children. I know I was. Like Ringo Starr though I plan to live a long time. There was a role-play game I recall where you created your own super characters, it was called Champions, and I felt like a lot of this generation of creators were coming from that, Bill Willingham and many others. There has always been way more than enough super characters, it's what someone does with them that really means anything. Before Spider-Man was a guy named The Web I believe, but who cares about that character (except maybe a Roy Thomas, who seemed intent on bringing back every single one ever to see print). |
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Post by Deleted on Jun 20, 2018 1:10:13 GMT -5
Larsen also did a small bit of work at Eclipse, on DNAgents. He got work at DC, before moving to Marvel. He did have a Dragon story (not yet Savage Dragon) in Megaton #2. McFarlane ... he was very forthcoming in praising those guys in the video he did with Stan Lee, in his Comic Book Greats series. I met Giordano once, but he was pretty busy with his table, so I didn't get to say more than two words. He was rather hard of hearing, related to scarlet fever, as a child (and probably age). I had all the early DNAgents, up to #12 at least, but I must've missed the Larsen contribution. It does fit in though with Mark Evanier being at the second big convention here when Erik Larsen was back again. Glad I remembered Megaton correctly. Yes, Mr. Giordano was hard of hearing. It's funny how many people very attached to the comic strip or book form were ill a lot as children. I know I was. Like Ringo Starr though I plan to live a long time. There was a role-play game I recall where you created your own super characters, it was called Champions, and I felt like a lot of this generation of creators were coming from that, Bill Willingham and many others. There has always been way more than enough super characters, it's what someone does with them that really means anything. Before Spider-Man was a guy named The Web I believe, but who cares about that character (except maybe a Roy Thomas, who seemed intent on bringing back every single one ever to see print). Bill Willingham very much got his start in the rpg industry, doing art for the early D&D editions and the comic strip ad they ran for the game...   an Elric pastiche from the first D&D module I ever bought...  this sword is known as Blackrazor (not Stormbringer, ahem)  The Champions rpg got it's very own comic from Eclipse too (but Willingham wasn't involved)  the other early hero rpg was Villains & Vigilantes, which Willingham's fellow D&d artist Jeff Dee was heavily involved in. This too got it's own comic...  by Dee inked by a young Patrick Zircher. -M |
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Post by Deleted on Jun 20, 2018 1:17:04 GMT -5
Willingham did do some V&V art...  -M |
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Post by Reptisaurus! on Jun 20, 2018 1:50:07 GMT -5
Never read any but the Maxx, but I covered the Image founders panel for CBR a decade or so ago. Todd Macfarlane was passive agressively being a dick to poor Rob Liefeld the whole time.
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Post by Deleted on Jun 20, 2018 1:53:15 GMT -5
If folks haven't seen it, there's a 5 part documentary series form SyFy called So Much Damage that covers the history of Image, in articular the early days...
here's part 1, all 5 parts are up on youtube.
-M
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Post by codystarbuck on Jun 20, 2018 2:46:28 GMT -5
Larsen also did a small bit of work at Eclipse, on DNAgents. He got work at DC, before moving to Marvel. He did have a Dragon story (not yet Savage Dragon) in Megaton #2. McFarlane ... he was very forthcoming in praising those guys in the video he did with Stan Lee, in his Comic Book Greats series. I met Giordano once, but he was pretty busy with his table, so I didn't get to say more than two words. He was rather hard of hearing, related to scarlet fever, as a child (and probably age). I had all the early DNAgents, up to #12 at least, but I must've missed the Larsen contribution. It does fit in though with Mark Evanier being at the second big convention here when Erik Larsen was back again. Glad I remembered Megaton correctly. Yes, Mr. Giordano was hard of hearing. It's funny how many people very attached to the comic strip or book form were ill a lot as children. I know I was. Like Ringo Starr though I plan to live a long time. There was a role-play game I recall where you created your own super characters, it was called Champions, and I felt like a lot of this generation of creators were coming from that, Bill Willingham and many others. There has always been way more than enough super characters, it's what someone does with them that really means anything. Before Spider-Man was a guy named The Web I believe, but who cares about that character (except maybe a Roy Thomas, who seemed intent on bringing back every single one ever to see print). Ah, the Web was a great little book, in the old MLJ days. Great mix of pulpy superhero and grisly crime stories. Early MLJ had a lot of that, with characters like the Black Hood and the Hangman, as well as the Web. For the company that would be known as the heavily sanitized Archie, they had a pretty gruesome beginning. Unfortunately, when they did the Silver Age revival of those characters, the Web was turned into a henpecked husband, who secretly snuck off to fight crime to get away from his wife. It had a few funny moments; but, not many. Later stuff was rather bland or departed too heavily, apart from the DC Red Circle line, where the Web was actually one of the better ideas they had. But yeah, success is in how you handle the character. Green Arrow was a Batman knock off, with a Robin Hood fetish, until Neal Adams and Denny O'Neil gave him a makeover; but, even then he wasn't a superstar until Mike Grell showed them how to do it properly, setting the tone that everyone has followed since, right up to the Arrow tv series. Poor Centaur's Arrow (who predated Ollie), never became more than a footnote. |
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Post by sabongero on Jun 20, 2018 8:13:57 GMT -5
If folks haven't seen it, there's a 5 part documentary series form SyFy called So Much Damage that covers the history of Image, in articular the early days... here's part 1, all 5 parts are up on youtube. -M Haha. I actually saw this video last month. I remember when Comic Den closed up shop in January 2016, and I purchased boxes and boxes (at like bargain basement prices) of Image Comic books, but have never actually read them, and just would look at the cover pages, and once in a while open them up and just look at the illustrations since I am not familiar with the characters. But this video of the Image founders was interesting, especially the MacFarlane NY recruitment story at the convention and happened to have Jim Lee in the area and recruited. I didn't know that Jim Lee was the "golden boy" of Marvel at the time, because by their prime time at Marvel, I had stopped reading comic books and lost interest in the comic book industry by that time. |
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Post by sabongero on Jun 20, 2018 9:32:30 GMT -5
 Stormwatch #1"Stormwatch" March 1993 Writer: Jim Lee & Brandon Choi Illustrator: Scott Clark Inker: Trevor Scott Colorist: Joe Chiodo Letterer: Michael Heisler Editor: Deborah Marvin Executive Editor: Dick Giordano Synopsis: Basically we join team Stormwatch in a slugfest battle with the supervillain team called, The Mercs. The team was supposed to extricate the United Nations delegate, John Windsor, but he perished (after getting blasted by Merc Leader, Deathtrap) after trying to get the children to safety from a burning school bus. Then the battle abruptly stopped as we get a splash page of some guy named Pitt making a guest appearance in some comic book titled, Cyber Force. Then the battle is not re-joined and we have this guy Jackson waking up from a nightmare, and his mommy opened his bedroom door to check up on him. Good thing mommy was there. We find out this guy is Battalion, the team leader of Stormwatch. He lives with his mommy? He looks like a full grown man in his 30's and is a team leader of a superhero group and he lives with his mommy? Never mind. He is then visited by a woman named Synnergry and she and a few people discuss about the upcoming funeral. Then we join a group of teenaged criminals breaking and robbing a retail story. Policemen arrive and a chase is underway and one of the criminals is shot dead. It is suddenly evening, and we find out one of the teenaged criminals is the younger brother of Battalion as they are now talking at his home. Battalion gives his younger brother the usual sermon of "Good thing the cops didn't catch or kill you blah... blah... blah...) which took half the page. Then we go to the Skywatch which is above Earth's atmosphere. It is the United Nations' orbital platform. Some guy named Weatherman appeared to be in charge there. Nothing happened. Then there is the funeral for the dead, John Windsor. And The Mercs showed up and get the better of Stormwatch, and kidnap Battalion's younger brother, Malcolm. And to prevent the younger brother from being kidnapped, a Christine activated his powers, while Battalion didn't agree. And laser beams erupt all over Malcolm's body. Comments: You have to show your team leader of a new comic book series to be extraordinary and larger than life. That nightmare scene and mommy checking up on him, had a reverse effect on me as a reader, and I am sure with many other readers as well. We immediately lost respect for a team leader of a new team and a new comic book series by seeing him as an overgrown musclebound adult and mommy has to check up on him because he's having a little nightmare. Whey don't you f''king change his diaper and bring his bottle as well why don't cha? This scene brought down the leader in the eyes of readers to a loser with a big letter "L" tattooed to his forehead as readers would see it. Then around page 5 and 6 or is it page 6 and 7, you have the supervillain group strike a team pose in a splash page, then the following page is a splash page of the supehero group strike the same team pose... what's this? The illustrator deciding to "Strike a Pose, Vogue!" and interrupting the action? The battle had no clear winner as it suddenly stopped in the middle of the battle to make way for a splash page commercial on another comic book then the next scene is the wussification of the team leader having mommy check up on him. The story comes across as very disjointed with daytime and nightime intermixing throughout the issue, and characters just thrown in with disregard to a mini-introdcution. It leaves a bad aftertaste in the reader. The color scheme seemed generic and if the superheroes or super-villains are together, they somehow kind of intermesh with each other, like as if you don't know where one started and the other finished. However, one redeeming quality, is that Image is supposed to be about the oversexualized females and super-muscle bound guys. The females in costume were oversexualized. However, in their civilian guises, they were presented as women with correct anatomy and dressed up fashionably. However, there is something wrong if the characters I found to be interesting and more memorable are the character designs of the one page commercial splash page of this guy Pitt guest appearing in Cyber Force. I remember those two jabronnis, but not the jabronnis in the Stormwatch Team or the supervillain Mercs team. |
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Post by Randle-El on Jun 20, 2018 9:46:53 GMT -5
If folks haven't seen it, there's a 5 part documentary series form SyFy called So Much Damage that covers the history of Image, in articular the early days... here's part 1, all 5 parts are up on youtube. -M Wow, that's an unintentionally appropriate title if there ever was one! In all seriousness though -- I think an interesting question is whether Image's contributions to the comic book industry outweigh the negative impacts that it's had. On the positive end, Image has championed creator rights and grown the market to create space for unique and new types of comic books that never would have seen the light at Marvel or DC. They have lifted the profile of creators and enabled them to profit (in many cases handsomely) from their creations rather than merely being hired guns with a page rate. They have helped to diversify the clientele of comic shops by publishing books that appeal beyond the superhero reading crowd. On the other hand, the Image founders were associated with most of the excesses of the 90s comic book industry -- art-driven books with poor writing, books that failed to ship in a timely manner, gimmicks like variant covers, etc -- that were responsible for the collapse of many comic book shops and did a lot of damage to the industry. |
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Post by codystarbuck on Jun 20, 2018 14:28:41 GMT -5
Stormwatch #1"Stormwatch" March 1993 Writer: Jim Lee & Brandon Choi Illustrator: Scott Clark Inker: Trevor Scott Colorist: Joe Chiodo Letterer: Michael Heisler Editor: Deborah Marvin Executive Editor: Dick Giordano Synopsis: Basically we join team Stormwatch in a slugfest battle with the supervillain team called, The Mercs. The team was supposed to extricate the United Nations delegate, John Windsor, but he perished (after getting blasted by Merc Leader, Deathtrap) after trying to get the children to safety from a burning school bus. Then the battle abruptly stopped as we get a splash page of some guy named Pitt making a guest appearance in some comic book titled, Cyber Force. Then the battle is not re-joined and we have this guy Jackson waking up from a nightmare, and his mommy opened his bedroom door to check up on him. Good thing mommy was there. We find out this guy is Battalion, the team leader of Stormwatch. He lives with his mommy? He looks like a full grown man in his 30's and is a team leader of a superhero group and he lives with his mommy? Never mind. He is then visited by a woman named Synnergry and she and a few people discuss about the upcoming funeral. Then we join a group of teenaged criminals breaking and robbing a retail story. Policemen arrive and a chase is underway and one of the criminals is shot dead. It is suddenly evening, and we find out one of the teenaged criminals is the younger brother of Battalion as they are now talking at his home. Battalion gives his younger brother the usual sermon of "Good thing the cops didn't catch or kill you blah... blah... blah...) which took half the page. Then we go to the Skywatch which is above Earth's atmosphere. It is the United Nations' orbital platform. Some guy named Weatherman appeared to be in charge there. Nothing happened. Then there is the funeral for the dead, John Windsor. And The Mercs showed up and get the better of Stormwatch, and kidnap Battalion's younger brother, Malcolm. And to prevent the younger brother from being kidnapped, a Christine activated his powers, while Battalion didn't agree. And laser beams erupt all over Malcolm's body. Comments: You have to show your team leader of a new comic book series to be extraordinary and larger than life. That nightmare scene and mommy checking up on him, had a reverse effect on me as a reader, and I am sure with many other readers as well. We immediately lost respect for a team leader of a new team and a new comic book series by seeing him as an overgrown musclebound adult and mommy has to check up on him because he's having a little nightmare. Whey don't you f''king change his diaper and bring his bottle as well why don't cha? This scene brought down the leader in the eyes of readers to a loser with a big letter "L" tattooed to his forehead as readers would see it. Then around page 5 and 6 or is it page 6 and 7, you have the supervillain group strike a team pose in a splash page, then the following page is a splash page of the supehero group strike the same team pose... what's this? The illustrator deciding to "Strike a Pose, Vogue!" and interrupting the action? The battle had no clear winner as it suddenly stopped in the middle of the battle to make way for a splash page commercial on another comic book then the next scene is the wussification of the team leader having mommy check up on him. The story comes across as very disjointed with daytime and nightime intermixing throughout the issue, and characters just thrown in with disregard to a mini-introdcution. It leaves a bad aftertaste in the reader. The color scheme seemed generic and if the superheroes or super-villains are together, they somehow kind of intermesh with each other, like as if you don't know where one started and the other finished. However, one redeeming quality, is that Image is supposed to be about the oversexualized females and super-muscle bound guys. The females in costume were oversexualized. However, in their civilian guises, they were presented as women with correct anatomy and dressed up fashionably. However, there is something wrong if the characters I found to be interesting and more memorable are the character designs of the one page commercial splash page of this guy Pitt guest appearing in Cyber Force. I remember those two jabronnis, but not the jabronnis in the Stormwatch Team or the supervillain Mercs team. Stormwatch is pretty much generic super team stuff, until Warren Ellis took over. Then he starts to make it good. It took a while, as he was saddled with a bunch of not so great characters. He slowly started whittling the team down, focusing more and more on the interesting ones (mostly ones he added) and then killed the bulk of the remaining in one fell swoop, in the Alien crossover. That, of course, led to The Authority. The generic nature of early Image is what turned me off most of it (that and I couldn't stand the art from almost all of the core founders). None of the books were original, as even Spawn is Spectre, crossed with Grendel and Spider-Man (more in the posing on rooftops), with a bit of Ghost Rider thrown in the bargain. The Maxx was something different and I was on the fence about it for a while; but, I liked Sam Kieth's quirky style and William Messner-Loebs kept the dialogue and story interesting. Shaman's Tears was more Grell's art than writing, though the stories weren't bad; they just seemed below the level of his Jon Sable and Green Arrow material. Tribe did nothing for me, nor did Wildstar, which I had higher expectations for, since Jerry Ordway was doing it. Again, not bad; just didn't really grab me. I loved the humor book, Stupid, from Hilary Barda and Doug Rice; that had some hilarious work; but, it was dumped in the Image purge, where they cut loose a bunch of non-founder titles, after Diamond and Capital were giving them heat over late books (and those titles had been on time!). I had high hopes for Deathmate, the crossover with Valiant; but, Image completely derailed the series by not getting their books out on time (and the Valiant issues were far better written). Apart from The Maxx and Grell's stuff (including his Maggie the Cat abbreviated series), I mostly ignored Image, until Valentino was in charge and brought in books like Bone and A Distant Soil, plus a few others here and there. To me, that is when the company matured into something more than a vanity project filled with derivative material. I suppose you could argue that Marc Silvestri was moving in that direction earlier, with his Top Cow imprint; but, that material never attracted me. |
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