Image Comics: The New Industry Standard
Reading time: 4 minutes
Image is the new standard platform for creator-owned comics content. The publisher houses some of the greatest work from the industry right now. Creators across the internet have cited the company as a lynchpin of creativity that used to be reserved for different places like Vertigo – DC’s horror imprint. Unlike the guys across the street (Marvel and DC), Image lets creators completely own their own content, which pays off to be a valuable way to bring the very best talent in the industry to the company. In the past few years, we’ve seen some really interesting transitions in how the industry works towards a wholly unique method of distribution in how the books are printed are created in terms of length. Podcaster John Siuntres has been documenting the shift of how the industry is creating content in the new medium via his Word Balloon show. Whereas we used to have books that were epic in length spanning multiple years, those comics are now condensed towards a shorter length of total issues. Creators like author Jeff Lemire and artist Declan Shalvey have mentioned a larger pull towards the medium that expands to something like 20-25 issues in length.
The Good:
It’s admirable to see creators admitting joining something that they can maintain. Rushing a genius like Shalvey into getting a book a monthly gig with his incredible style is something daunting that might not be sustainable in the long term. Sticking the artist on Injection (his new Image title for five months is a much better use of his time, allowing him to deliver the stories that fans are looking for. It’s frustrating to only see a limited amount of work from the artist, but knowing that the work is going to be solid matters. Comics live forever, and with the active fandom involved in appreciating author Warren Ellis’ work and Shalvey's art, the tale will live hopefully stand the test of time. While Big Two books experiment with the form, none dive so freely into completely toying with the medium as Image projects. Comics can explore all the themes that great HBO televisions can. Case in point is the latest issue of The Wicked + The Divine, which spends about half of the oversized issue toying with an interesting grid space.
The Bad:
Unfortunately, not having these series for a set period of time alienates the reader, and can train them to ignore their book. This is an important piece of information, as the medium and it’s reading habits can lead to negative results. It’s also going against the nature of comics to only publish #25 issues. A case should be made for this medium being similar to television, in that it has a slow burn process with characters. Avengers and New Avengers from Jonathan Hickman has been my favorite ongoing series period, and part of the gestation of that is how the title has had so many consecutive issues building and building on itself for this final glorious explosion that is breaking the entire Universe of a comic. It takes more than #25 issues to break an entire Universe, which these Image titles may never reach.
The New Rules:
Trade paperbacks and digital series are going to be an even more important part of this medium going forward. Having these paperbacks readily available for fans willing to dig beneath the surface of stories and convert into comics historians is a truly beautiful process within the medium itself. While #25 issues can’t break a Universe, there is room for a slow burn process throughout that long run on a book. Now we can really have some interesting series that build over several collections culminating in a fantastic final collection of the ongoing tale. Independent comics have been tipping into this direction for several years, but now there is finally a new industry standard really pioneered by creations like Saga from Brian Wood and Fiona Staples that feature an artist rolling out some incredible work and then taking a break. Even Valiant has explored this process with Rai, a series that features the ridiculous art of Clayton Crain and the sharp writing of Matt Kindt. The comic has a couple issues from Kindt and Crain, and then proceeds to take a break over the span of a few months.
What’s Next:
I want to see an even bigger way for comics to break away from the idea of publishing a certain amount of content and then taking a break. I would like to see Image series go so far as to create a different mini-series to each volume. Giving everything a subtitle and new branding would make comics easier to differentiate and determine between arcs and stories. The ideas setup for this new series indicate a positive new incarnation for Image stories that will hopefully lead-in to something new for all of comics.
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