Image Comics (original) (raw)

Image Comics is an American comic book publisher set up in 1993 by seven artists: Todd McFarlane, Jim Lee, Erik Larson, Rob Liefeld, Marc Silvestri, Whilce Portacio, and Jim Valentino. Todd McFarlane, who rose to fame with his visual reinvention of Spider-Man, was the most famous among them. Now, along with Dark Horse Comics and CrossGen Comics, Image rivals the two main comics houses DC Comics and Marvel Comics, with a range of titles including Spawn, Witchblade, Battle of the Planets, The Darkness and others. Some of their titles are distributed through Top Cow Productions, Inc.

There was a great fracas surrounding Image Comics' inception. The imprint's first two titles, McFarlane's Spawn and Rob Liefeld's Youngblood, sold enormous numbers, but shipped to retailers late and � in Liefeld's case � met with scathing critical and fan reaction for the poor quality of the art and storytelling. Liefeld was later forced out of the company by the remaining partners.

Image was notible at the time for having far higher quality in coloring then did Marvel and DC comics, which raised the standard for all comics.

Many of Image's initial woes were finally smoothed over with the hiring of Larry Marder, who took over handling most of the business operations.

Comic Series

Series from Top Cow