20 years ago it was 1992 and the comic book world was rolling along. You probably were a fan of two artists working for Marvel at the time. Those two artists were Jim Lee and Todd McFarlane. These two artists were working on some of Marvel’s biggest comics at the time. Jim Lee was illustrating X-Men and Todd McFarlane was illustrating Spider-Man. Many comic book fans could tell these guys were going to be some great artists. But to the people who make the decisions at Marvel were trying to hold these two artists back. Similar in the way Marvel held back Jack Kirby in the late 1960′s. Jack Kirby was frustrated with the lack of creative control and the lack of credit for work he did while at Marvel. So after all of this went down at Marvel. Jack decided to work for the rival company DC Comics in 1970. So all Todd and company had to do was look at Marvels past with one of the all time legends to know they wouldn’t be able to do the things they wanted to do.
So they decided to take matters into their own hands. Along with Jim and Todd some of the biggest artist at the time decided to form Image Comics. Those artists included Rob Liefeld, Marc Silvestri, Erik Larsen, Jim Valentino, Whilce Portacio and writer Chris Claremont. They wanted to have more creative control of the characters they were creating and illustrating. It was a huge statement for all these guys to come together and take a stand for better opportunities for themselves and future artists and writers. They weren’t the first artists to go at it on their own and create their own publishing company and characters. But they were the first to have some major success that rivaled Marvel and DC at the time. With the birth of Image Comics came the birth of one of the biggest comic books from the 90’s. In one word that comic was Spawn. Spawn #1 sold 1.7 million copies. Everyone at the time wanted a copy of Spawn #1. Spawn took us to Hell and back literally. It was edgy and sharp and full of some great artwork. This type of comic book selling that many copies shocked the people in charge at Marvel. They couldn’t believe a creator owned comic could sell like that, but this was exactly what many comic book fans needed at that time.
You could even say if it wasn’t for Image Comics being formed in 1992 creator owned comics might not be at the level they are today. Even Wizard Magazine in 2008 called the forming of Image Comics the number one event that shocked the comic book world. So if you are a fan of any of these current titles- The Walking Dead, Chew, Morning Glories, Crossed, 30 Days of Night, and many more, than you should thank Todd McFarlane, Jim Lee and everyone who helped get Image Comics off the ground. Because who knows, if it wasn’t for these guys stepping up to the plate we might not have ever seen some of these great titles. Yes I know there were other creator owned series before Image came along like the Watchmen, which is all over the internet these days due to the announcement of the Before Watchmen prequel titles. But Image Comics gave many future creators the chance to tell their stories. So if you were a fan of the original Image Comics or just a fan of creator owned comics take a step back and look what these guys did 20 years ago for the industry today.
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