Is THIS why Image is great?

fenway

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Someone told me that Image's business model involves no editors, and complete risk/control of characters/property for creators.

This got me to wondering...:)

Perhaps this is why Image's output has been so amazing! (Understand, that I am actually STARTING with the 'Image is amazing' thesis in my mind, and forcing a hypothesis to fit :) ). Creators actually getting to do what they want with characters they create. If the story you want to tell is only 6 issues, then just take 6 issues - don't try to stretch it to 700, making some dough (from people who are collectors, not readers) but sacrificing quality and vision. Does your character die after 6 issues? Fine!

By the way - YOU find the artist that matches your vision - we won't tell you what the public wants. Instead, you give us what you have, and if the public wants it, they'll buy it (Saga) - heck, they may even support it all the way to a BBC adaptation after only 8 issues (Peter Panzerfaust), or even a VERY popular AMC show (TWD) If they don't want it, they won't buy it, and we're less likely to entertain your ideas in the future.

A buddy of mine agreed with someone on this site, suggesting some writers NEED to be reigned in (Mark Millar). I think I agree too - he wouldn't be a great fit for Image. Others, I think, need to be GIVEN free reign to tell the story they want, and let it sink or swim.

Lets be honest - which have you enjoyed more - Saga? Manhattan Projects? Fatale? or have you preferred whatever comes out of the Marvel Summit? Maybe I'm getting too jaded, but Marvel may have the characters I loved as a kid, but they are telling the stories I yawn at as an adult. Remember when you first started liking Spider-man? Are the stories anywhere near as good now, or are you still buying them because its Spider-man? (I'm OK with hearing you say they ARE still good - tell me :) )

Now I doubt that this model is the sole contributing factor to Image's great year (after all, its not the first year they've employed it), but MAN, in 35+ years of reading comics, 2012 was the absolute best, for me, and 8 or 9 of my top 10 I think, are from Image. (And my favourite Marvel comic, Hawkeye, FEELS like an indie! )

This post is 100% opinion, so I certainly welcome disagreement! If your opinion turns me on to a Marvel/DC comic I wasn't following, so much the better!
Do you think a comic publisher had a better year than Image?
 
I agree that is why, at least conceptually, Image is great or better.

I also think that, especially with Marvel, the success of their characters outside of comics obligates them to constrict themselves even more as far as ideas go. They have to appease stockholders, and the stockholders seem to be interested in giving the public more of what they know they already like instead of trying new things.

The reason, however, that this doesn't work with me personally is that I'm a total sucker for that exact behavior. I am more likely to read a Spider-Man story that I know going into I probably won't like than to risk spending time or money on something new. I would imagine that, on some level, many or even most readers feel this way. I'm not saying I won't try new things; I'm just saying I don't want to put for the effort.

Books like Saga do a great job of helping reverse that way of thinking, but for every Saga I can name 7-8 books that didn't hook me because I wasn't interested enough going into them to want to put for the effort to keep up on them. Whether that's on me for being lazy, or on them for not doing a good enough job promoting them I can't say.

Ideologically I would love for Image to be more successful than Marvel or DC. But the books need to be better or at least they need to make me believe that they are worth sticking with them long term.
 
I think that's a pretty fair and realistic set of observations on the state of things. I don't think its lazy to risk money on something you may not like, and instead go to a 'universe' that you've liked with varying degrees of interest over a period of time.
I think in response to this very reasonable line of thinking, Image has offered many 'Issue 1's' free digitally to try to convince people to give them a try.
(BTW - Image didn't hire me to write any of this :))
 
I think that's a pretty fair and realistic set of observations on the state of things. I don't think its lazy to risk money on something you may not like, and instead go to a 'universe' that you've liked with varying degrees of interest over a period of time.
I think in response to this very reasonable line of thinking, Image has offered many 'Issue 1's' free digitally to try to convince people to give them a try.
(BTW - Image didn't hire me to write any of this :))

Yep - I picked them all up. I haven't read all of them. But that goes right back to the interest thing - it's nice that they were free, but I (maybe unfairly) judged most of them based on the cover and description and was in no hurry to read them.

Where I kind of feel bad is that I gave all of the New 52 books a chance - at least 5 issues worth for each, even though I was pretty sure going into them that I wouldn't like most of them. And I didn't. But I tried anyway. I wish I had the gumption to do that with more Image or indie books, but I just don't.

A lot of times it takes someone whose opinion I really respect and whose tastes I identify with to "convince" me to try something. I haven't had that with a lot of Image books.
 
Going with a writer that's a personal sure thing might be a good starting point. I think it was you that had responded to a question I had about reading order on Hickman's FF... and I remember you voicing positive things about his Avengers title (BTW, as much as I enjoyed Avengers 1 and 2, I wasn't crazy about NA #1, but NA #2 helped!!) If you haven't already read Hickman's Manhattan Projects, I highly recommend it. For me personally, even above Saga (though both coming out on the same week is an embarrassment of riches). Now I should take my own advice, and your recommendation, and apply it to my own reading and get that FF run! :)
 
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