Daily Page
Daily Feature - Image Comics
Today is Friday
Welcome to Friday! Here is where we share a new and interesting product or producer of comic books every day!
Today we highlight In the early 1990s, comics creators Erik Larsen, Rob Liefeld, and Jim Valentino had dinner with Malibu Comics editor-in-chief Dave Olbrich. Malibu was a small but established publishing company sympathetic to creator-ownership, and Olbrich expressed interest in publishing comics created by them. These and several other freelance illustrators doing popular work for Marvel Comics were growing frustrated with the companys work for hire policies and practices, which they felt did not sufficiently reward the talent that produced them, as the company heavily merchandised their artwork, and compensated them with modest royalties.
According to Todd McFarlane, he, Jim Lee and Liefeld met with Marvel president Terry Stewart and editor Tom DeFalco in late December 1991. Larsen and Silvestri, who joined the group the night before, were not present, but the group that met with Stewart indicated that they were representing them as well. Contrary to what has been reported by other sources, McFarlane says that they made no demands of Stewart or Marvel, but merely informed him that they were leaving, gave their reasons why, and cautioned Stewart to heed those reasons, lest the company suffer future exoduses. The creators had the same meeting with DC Comics the next day. After Whilce Portacio returned from his yearly trip to the Philippines, his Homage Studios colleague Lee asked him to join the group.
A group of eight creators then announced the founding of Image Comics: illustrators Todd McFarlane (known for his work on 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); and longtime Uncanny X-Men writer Chris Claremont. This development was nicknamed the "X-odos", because several of the creators involved (Claremont, Liefeld, Lee, Silvestri, and Portacio) were famous for their work on the X-Men franchise. Marvels stock fell $3.25/share when the news became public. Images organizing charter had two key provisions:
Image would not own any creators work; the creator would.
No Image partner would interfere – creatively or financially – with any other partners work. Image itself would own no intellectual property except the company trademarks: its name and its logo, which was designed by writer Hank Kanalz.
Each Image partner founded his own studio, which published under the Image banner but was autonomous from any central editorial control. Claremont was not part of the partnership, and Portacio withdrew during the formative stages to deal with his sisters illness, so Image originally consisted of six studios:
Todd McFarlane Productions, owned by Todd McFarlane
WildStorm Productions, owned by Jim Lee
Highbrow Entertainment, owned by Erik Larsen
Shadowline, owned by Jim Valentino
Top Cow Productions, owned by Marc Silvestri
Extreme Studios, owned by Rob Liefeld.
Check out the other days of the week to see what is special at Strange Giggles!
