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Post by G on Jul 13, 2008 21:07:45 GMT -5
I have to admit, I dont know very much at all about Image today, but I do have a hard time recognizing any heroes from it. I mean there is still Spawn and Savage Dragon right? Who else? Im sure you guys will pull a few right out of your hat....but it isnt like the original days when you could easily say things like Wildcats, Youngblood, Shadow Hawk, Maxx, Pitt, etc, etc....They had a Universe, but a Universe that didnt blend together very well at all. Now here we are 15 years later and Im having a hard time knowing what Super-Heroes they do have? Are they any closer to a Universe today? I'll be the 1st to admit that they look like a lot more serious product today than 15 years ago. But they are starting to remind me of as some one said...Dark Horse. A rag tag collection of titles not surrounding a cohesive universe where some work and some dont.
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Post by cyberstrike on Jul 17, 2008 8:19:25 GMT -5
Nobles Causes, Invincible, The Savage Dragon, The Bomb Queen, Shadowhark, Blacklight, The Emissary, The Ant, Spawn, Witchblade, The Darkness, Cyberforce, Tech Jacket and Youngblood are (or were) published by Image Comics in the last few years.
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Post by G on Jul 17, 2008 9:01:02 GMT -5
Nobles Causes, Invincible, The Savage Dragon, The Bomb Queen, Shadowhark, Blacklight, The Emissary, The Ant, Spawn, Witchblade, The Darkness, Cyberforce, Tech Jacket and Youngblood are (or were) published by Image Comics in the last few years. Decent amount of heroes, but did it resemble a cohesive universe?
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Post by azbatx on Jul 17, 2008 16:05:41 GMT -5
I thought Noble Causes and Invincible worked together. I think Savage Dragon could work with those. But over all I don't think the company works well as a Universe.
But does it have to? I think they have found a way to keep going that doesn't depend on it. Look at all the other companies that tried a universe based environment. A lot of them went down. A big name that comes to mind is Crossgen. They were huge into their universe working together. It didn't last though.
It's true that Dark Horse and Image now have comparable things going on. But one thing that Image doesn't have is all the licenced items that Dark Horse uses to bring in readers. If it weren't for those items I think Dark Horse would be more of a Dead Horse.
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Post by cyberstrike on Jul 17, 2008 17:10:31 GMT -5
I thought Noble Causes and Invincible worked together. I think Savage Dragon could work with those. But over all I don't think the company works well as a Universe. Yep in fact both Savage Dragon and Invincible (as well as ShadowHawk and Tech Jacket) have guest starred in Noble Causes. At this point in history of Image Comics there really is no need to be an "Image Universe" it would be a first class mess to try and make it work now. IMHO if it wasn't for Buffy, the Vampire Slayer and the various Star Wars comics that Dark Horse publishes they would've been out of business years ago.
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Post by G on Jul 17, 2008 19:48:31 GMT -5
I thought Noble Causes and Invincible worked together. I think Savage Dragon could work with those. But over all I don't think the company works well as a Universe. But does it have to? I think they have found a way to keep going that doesn't depend on it. Look at all the other companies that tried a universe based environment. A lot of them went down. A big name that comes to mind is Crossgen. They were huge into their universe working together. It didn't last though. It's true that Dark Horse and Image now have comparable things going on. But one thing that Image doesn't have is all the licenced items that Dark Horse uses to bring in readers. If it weren't for those items I think Dark Horse would be more of a Dead Horse. I dont think it has to be a Universe to work. I mean Image and Dark Horse are proving that. But I do think it helps the actual company because as fads (characters) fade and others start to get hot, you can fade out ones that arent producing anymore and bring back characters who find their way back to being hot again. And it could all come from a single appearance on a new storyline crossing over and into other books and suddenly the old character has found new life. When its a rag tag universe of books, when a book fades from popularity and is canceled, it is pretty much done, except for rare exceptions. Sure, it CAN end up coming back and appearing in other stories and maybe back in its own title again, but the catalyst to get it back is diminished because there isnt the cross over universe of storylines making good entry points and possibilities for a character to come back in and be relevant because each existing book is pretty much standing on its own. I think Image and Dark Horse have done a good job of making self contained characters and storylines work for them and I think Image is more mature than ever. I also think like everyone said, Dark Horse would be struggling to survive without their licensed characters. That to me is one of the only problems when self contained titles start failing. They cant just let it cancel and then find easy ways to bring them back in other series for another shot. Instead, usually a title just ends and they need a whole new non-connecting separate series to hopefully pick up the slack. I think a Universe allows you to rotate characters in and out of storylines easily and I think it broadens the audience into caring how one character affects the other. And new characters can fit right into their niche of the universe depending on how big you want that Universe to grow. Im not saying every character has to be a part of that Universe. Even Marvel and DC have books that dont intertwine with their Universe. But I think their Universes have huge appeal and benefits over self contained titles comic companies.
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AC
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Post by AC on Apr 7, 2009 0:08:34 GMT -5
I've always had a love-hate thing with Image Comics...
When they first started out, I couldn't get enough of them... like, they couldn't release enough books to keep me happy. Granted, I was 11 at the time... which put me probably smack-dab into their target demographic...
It wasn't long before the bloom was off the rose, though... and I'd left comics entirely... due to gimmick covers, and just not being able to afford keeping up with ANY comics...
When I came back a year later (probably 1997) , nothing from Image caught my eye... wasn't until about two years ago that I started reading a bunch from there... Savage Dragon especially.
I think they're probably putting out their best books right now... not that I can read'em... I can't really throw too much support behind liberal Larsen and his Obamafied Dragon... sour grapes? Perhaps... but, still. It's my loss for sure... I really dug the Dragon.
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