La Image Comics e i ruggenti anni 90

[Selina Kyle]

Ho deciso di aprire questo topic per far contento Massimo   e perchè i post "amarcord" che inquadrano un particolare periodo storico mi piacciono sempre.. anche perchè si possono "arricchire" con i nostri ricordi, che hanno valore più di tutto il resto.
In realtà ho aperto la discussione anche perchè mi piacerebbe capire bene se e quanto la Image abbia influenzato i fumetti di oggi, in in un mercato che pullula di imitatori di Jim Lee, bravi e meno bravi.
E che cos'è invece la Image, oggi?

Qui trovate una storia in 4 parti della casa editrice: http://www.tcj.com/3_online/n_image1.html

e una "sintesi" da wiki:

Che cos'è la Image Comics?

Image Comics is an American comic book publisher. It was founded in 1992 by seven high-profile illustrators as a venue where creators could publish their material without giving up the copyrights to the characters they created, as creator-owned properties. Along with DC, Marvel and Dark Horse, Image Comics is one of the four largest comic book publishers in America. Its best-known series include Spawn, Pitt, The Savage Dragon, Shadowhawk, Youngblood, Supreme, WildC.A.T.s, Gen¹³, Wetworks, Cyberforce, Witchblade, The Darkness, Invincible, the third volume of Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, and The Walking Dead. In the early 1990s, several popular Marvel Comics illustrators grew increasingly annoyed that artwork and characters they created were being merchandised, with the artists -- working as freelancers -- receiving only page rates for their work and modest royalties. In December 1991, a group of these illustrators approached Marvel president Terry Stewart and demanded that the company give them ownership and creative control over their work. Accounts vary as to whom this group included, but it is generally accepted that Todd McFarlane and Rob Liefeld were among its leaders. Marvel did not meet their demands.

Several months later, seven illustrators announced the creation of Image Comics. The company's original line-up included Todd McFarlane (known for his work on Marvel's Spider-Man), Jim Lee (X-Men), Rob Liefeld (X-Force), Marc Silvestri (Wolverine), Erik Larsen (The Amazing Spider-Man), Jim Valentino (Guardians of the Galaxy), and Whilce Portacio (Uncanny X-Men). This development is sometimes called the "X-odus", because four of these creators (Liefeld, Lee, Silvestri, and Portacio) were famous for their work on the X-Men franchise. Image's initial titles were solicited and produced through Malibu Comics, a publisher that had specialized in low print run black and white creator-owned and licensed comics since 1986. Malibu provided administrative, production and marketing support for the launch of the initial titles.

Image was formed under two provisions:

1) Image does not own a creator's work; the creator does.
2) No Image partner would ever interfere, creatively or financially, with any other's work.

the spirit of the second rule, each Image partner founded his own studio, which published under the Image banner but was autonomous from any central editorial control. Because Portacio did not opt to become a full partner in the company, Image originally consisted of six studios:

Extreme Studios, owned by Rob Liefeld
Highbrow Entertainment, owned by Erik Larsen
ShadowLine, owned by Jim Valentino
Todd McFarlane Productions, owned by Todd McFarlane
Top Cow Productions, owned by Marc Silvestri
Wildstorm Productions, owned by Jim Lee

Un po' di storia:

The first Image comic books to arrive at stores were Liefeld's Youngblood, Larsen's The Savage Dragon, McFarlane's Spawn, and Lee's WildC.A.T.s. Propelled by the artists' star power and the eagerness of comic book collectors to get in early on the "next big thing", these series sold in numbers that no publisher other than Marvel, DC or Valiant Comics had achieved since the market's drastic decline in the 1970s. The company experienced lesser successes with Silvestri's Cyberforce, Valentino's Shadowhawk and Portacio's much-delayed Wetworks.[citation needed]

Some of the founders' studios came to resemble separate publishers, each with several ongoing series set in a shared universe. (At first there were indications of a universe shared by all the studios, but these decreased as the studios developed their own directions.) The use of freelancers to write and/or illustrate series that were owned by the Image partners led to criticism that some of them had reproduced the very system they had rebelled against, just with them in charge instead of a corporation. Image partners who did not take this approach assumed a neutral position on it, in keeping with the requirement that none of them had any say in how the others' studios were run. Some of the Image partners used their studios to publish the works of other independent creators, offering them the chance to do so while owning the copyrights and maintaining editorial control over their own series.[citation needed] Other publishers had offered similar deals to creators, but this was not typical in the industry. These included Sam Kieth, who created The Maxx, Dale Keown, who created PITT, Jae Lee, who created Hellshock, and Kurt Busiek, Brent Anderson and Alex Ross, who created Astro City. Later, some established self-published series also moved to Image, such as Jeff Smith's Bone and Colleen Doran's A Distant Soil. Image's popularity and sales figures soon came to rival Marvel and DC's.[citation needed]

The partners also had little business experience and found themselves overwhelmed with the responsibilities of managing their respective studios. Soon the company became notorious for falling behind its publishing schedule. For example, WildC.A.T.s, which was intended to be published monthly, had only 4 issues in 9 months (#29-32, Apr '96, Jun '96, Sep '96, Jan '97). Retailers' orders of newly-solicited issues were typically based on the sales of recent issues, but as the issues shipped weeks and even several months late, fans' interest tended to wane, leaving retailers with inventory they couldn't sell. In response, retailers cut orders even further to reduce their risk. This significantly hurt the studios, which were each responsible for their own cash flow and profitability.[citation needed]

In 1993, the partners hired Larry Marder to act as "executive director" for the publisher. Valentino quipped in interviews that Marder's job was literally to "direct the executives". He developed better financial planning and had some success in disciplining creators to deliver their work on time, in part by insisting that retail orders for new issues would not be solicited until the books had been illustrated, usually ensuring they would be ready to ship when promised.[citation needed]


Witchblade #80.By the mid-1990s Image series such as Spawn and The Savage Dragon had proven themselves as lasting successes (the former frequently topping the sales charts for months in which new issues came out), while new series such as Wildstorm's Gen¹³, and Top Cow's Witchblade and The Darkness were also successful. Image had established itself as a strong competitor in the comic book industry, although critical reactions were often still less than enthusiastic.[citation needed]

Clashes between partners began to harm the company. Several of the partners complained that Liefeld was using his power as CEO of Image to promote and perhaps even to financially support his own separate publishing company Maximum Press. Silvestri withdrew Top Cow from Image in 1996 (although he retained his partnership in the company). This was due in part to Liefeld attempting to "steal away" Silvestri's talent pool, which included then Witchblade superstar artist Michael Turner. Silvestri was infuriated by this and decided that to prohibit this practice from continuing he would pull Top Cow out. In September 1996, Liefeld, before he could be voted out, resigned and Silvestri would later return.[citation needed]

Wildstorm's Cliffhanger imprint, established in 1998, was also a commercial success, launching high-selling creative-owned properties for new stars such as Image artists Humberto Ramos, J. Scott Campbell and the recent Marvel transfer Joe Madureira. Though the great success at the top of the sales charts was marred with production delays, the imprint continued to attract more star talents such as Chris Bachalo, Joe Kelly, Kurt Busiek and Carlos Pacheco. When Jim Lee sold Wildstorm to DC Comics in 1999, citing his desire to drop his responsibilities as a publisher for more creative work, the Cliffhanger imprint moved along but the popularity of the line was already showing signs of fading, with many of its titles missing production schedules one after the other.

A promised "10th Anniversary" book for Image, in which each of the four remaining partners would create a story featuring their signature characters, experienced delays reminiscent of the period 10 years earlier, and the Image Comics #1 hardcover was eventually resolicited for release in November 2005.[citation needed]

Meanwhile, Valentino, who had become less active in the company, began using his position as a partner to publish a number of "indie" titles by other creators, in a deliberate attempt to diversify Image's output and its image. Although most of these series - ironically dubbed the "non-line" because of their lack of commonality - did not sell well and were soon cancelled, they introduced an increasingly important business model for the company: offering other creators the same total-ownership terms the partners enjoyed, but taking a fixed fee upon publication for the company's administrative costs. This practice increased after Marder left the company in 1999 and Valentino became publisher and manager of "Image Central", the business unit independent of any of the studios.[citation needed]

In February 2004, Larsen replaced Valentino as publisher, largely continuing existing business practices. As of 2005, the majority of books Image publishes in a given month (in terms of titles, not necessarily sales) are non-studio productions. McFarlane's Spawn and related titles, his McFarlane Toys line, and Silvestri's Top Cow imprint remain a substantial segment of Image's total sales. Larsen's Savage Dragon continues as the longest-running owner-created title by an Image partner. Valentino has returned to creating comics with his Shadowline imprint, including a new incarnation of ShadowHawk. The company retains its position as the third largest publisher in the North American direct market (after Marvel, DC, and sometimes Dark Horse Comics),under Valentino but had declined to fifth largest publisher under Larsen.

Scheda:

Image Comics
Founded 1992
Key people: Todd McFarlane
Rob Liefeld
Jim Lee
Marc Silvestri
Erik Larsen
Jim Valentino
Whilce Portacio
Robert Kirkman
Industry: Comics
Divisions: Extreme Studios
Highbrow Entertainment
ShadowLine
Todd McFarlane Productions
Top Cow Productions
Wildstorm (former)

Official site: http://www.imagecomics.com/

[King Mob]

Aaaah .. il mio primo fumetto è stato Spawn 39 della Panini. Alla cazzo di cane, quando avevo 12 anni. Ma da allora è scoppiato tanto amore per Spawn, per McFarlane e per quel modo cupo e violento di fare fumetti.

Adoro l'Image, per quanto la conosca molto meno di quanto vorrei. 

[Selina Kyle]

Si tratta di una casa editrice che nel bene e nel male ha seganto un'epoca di "abbondanza" che non tornerà più. E dato che mi piace sentir parlare di quello che "è stato", ho pensato che fosse bello approfondire. 

[Wally West]

Ah,l'Image mi ricorda l'adolescenza....sbavavo sui disegni di lee,mcfarlane e , devo ammeterlo, l' x-force di liefield mi piaceva un sacco. Penso che oggi l' Image nn sia più quella di una volta ma sia cambiata in meglio...le prime storie (sopratutto dello studio di liefield) erano una messa in mostra di pettorali abnormi, di armi a dir poco stravaganti e di perizoma vari ( ci sono affezionato anche se nn le ho mai rilette). Oggi Savage dragon rappresenta un po la continuità con il primo periodo ed escono davvero bei fumetti sotto il marchio della "Grande I" come Madman, Jersey gods,Godland

[smaikol]

non so nulla della image e dei suoi personaggi, ma witchblade è tropppppppooooo bonnnaaaaaa

[Murnau]

Proprio in questi mesi sto rileggendo molto di quel materiale, questo week end sono passato a Spawn. Gran parte di quella roba era mediocre, ma sprizzava un'energia unica. Resterà per sempre il "mio" universo narrativo, per quanto in reakltà fosse meno omogeneo e coerente della Marvel e della DC. E soprattutto, si è frammentato in tante sotto-unità dopo pochi anni.

Oggi la Image è un'altra copsa completamente, è più che altro una casa editrice che pubblica fumetti d'intrattenimemnto a base di intelligenza e humor, spesso molto originali e bizzarri. E' tipo la Dark Horse, ma più smaccatamente divertente e con minori pretse autoriali.

[King Mob]

Proprio in questi mesi sto rileggendo molto di quel materiale, questo week end sono passato a Spawn. Gran parte di quella roba era mediocre, ma sprizzava un'energia unica. Resterà per sempre il "mio" universo narrativo, per quanto in reakltà fosse meno omogeneo e coerente della Marvel e della DC. E soprattutto, si è frammentato in tante sotto-unità dopo pochi anni.

Oggi la Image è un'altra copsa completamente, è più che altro una casa editrice che pubblica fumetti d'intrattenimemnto a base di intelligenza e humor, spesso molto originali e bizzarri. E' tipo la Dark Horse, ma più smaccatamente divertente e con minori pretse autoriali.

Beh, c'è ancora Spawn però. Sì, ora il tono è abbastanza differente rispetto a quello d'una volta, più apertamente maturo, ma diciamo che non si è troppo tradito negli anni .. Poi, beh, Savage Dragon, Youngblood ed altri non so come siano ora. 

[Murnau]

Spawn c'è ancora, ma è cambiato profondamente. Gli Youngblood, per i primi 8 numeri della nuova serie (scritti da Joe Casey) erano perfettamente in linea con la nuova Image (humor, satira pungente, freschezza nelle trame, critica alla società americana); poi dal 9 è tornato Liefeld e in effetti la collana ha fatto un salto indietro di 17 anni (un bene e un male; un bene per i nostalgici come me, un male perché effettivamente mancavano 4 numeri alla fine della saga di Casey, che così è rimasta incompleta). Savage Dreagon invece è rimasto sempre fedele a se stesso, è l'ultimo vero baluardo della Image anni '90. Tutti il rsto della vecchia guardai o è morto (Cyberforce, Shadowhawk), o ha cambiato editore e tematiche (Wildcats e Wetworks, passati alla DC) oppure ha cambiato pelle (Witchblade).

[Akanith Wan]

Witchblade invase i miei sogni erotici di dodicenne, che ricordi! 

[Selina Kyle]

Per me la Image (la conosco molto poco) è soprattutto Jim Lee. E, dato che siamo in tema di "ricordi" (per me recenti) Jim Lee per me ha rappresentato l'ingresso nel fumetto supereroistico seriale.. mi lasciava (e mi lascia tutt'ora, ma in modo diiverso) a bocca aperta. E' uno stile che, se "depurato" dagli eccessi cattura immediatamente il lettore, soprattutto il niubbo, perchè si tratta di eroi così "belli" che non si può rimanere indifferente di fronte a cotanto splendore. Poi chiaramente col tempo le percezioni cambiano. Ma Massimo, il povero Michael Turner che legame aveva con la Image?

Resterà per sempre il "mio" universo narrativo, per quanto in reakltà fosse meno omogeneo e coerente della Marvel e della DC.

Beh, ma è una cosa bella.  

P.S: Non sapevo che Portacio fosse tra i nomi storici della Image. E caspita, i disegni di McFarlane all'epoca devono essere sembrati qualcosa di incredibilmente bello e nuovo. Sono stupendi ancora oggi. 

[Ikki di Phoenix]

Molti non sanno che Top Cow e Image sono più o meno la stessa cosa, TC è infatti un partner studio di quest'ultima... Grosso modo è come la Vertigo per la DC.
Però sotto la linea Top Cow secondo me, soprattutto negli ultimi anni, si stanno facendo delle gran cose. I disegni hanno abbandonato spesso e volentieri il truzzismo degli anni Novanta per cimentarsi con nuove sperimentazioni grafiche più autoriali, e si cerca di far interagire le serie fra di loro ponendo una fine a quel colabrodo narrativo che era invece l'universo Top di un quindicennio fa...
A me piace molto, ormai me ne sono innamorato.

[Selina Kyle]

Ma di preciso a cosa ti riferisci? Darkness?

[Ikki di Phoenix]

e Witchblade, Rising Stars, Fathom, Cyberforce, Wanted, Tomb Rider

[Selina Kyle]

Wanted di Millar? Caspita, G.J. Jones è un disegnatore eccellente.
Però "Witchblade" non mi sembra tanto autoriale neanche adesso.. o no? Poi che per ovvi motivi possa piacere sono d'accordo.  

[Ikki di Phoenix]

No no, parlavo esclusivamente dei disegni... Molto barocchi, e in generale per quanto concerne l'impatto grafico su queste serie si investe anche moltissimo. Poi per il resto è puro entertainment, ma un ottimo entertainment secondo me.