Last week, on a sunny and crisp San Francisco morning on the 9th of January, Image Comics opened the doors to comics fans and professionals alike at its annual Image EXPO, held at the Yerba Buena Center for the Arts. Image prides itself on its creator-centric business model - according to Publisher Eric Stephenson, Image creators retain 100% of the rights to their creation, including media rights. This is obviously a big deal for Image creators like Robert Kirkman, who is likely enjoying daily cash showers with the popularity of The Walking Dead franchise. Indeed, some of us here at Geeks OUT are big fans of the AMC television series.
The EXPO was not a traditional comic book convention (what does that even mean anymore, thanks Comic-Con) - it was obviously and understandably Image-focused and served more as a junket for already-interested fans, press, and retailers. There were not vendors in the traditional sense, as only Image titles were for sale. More frustratingly, the line to purchase Image comics was slow-moving and loooooooong, extending outside the smallish venue, leaving your intrepid queue-phobic reporter empty-handed, but not dissatisfied, as the announcements and panels gave me plenty of juicy comic book goodness to gnaw on.
The single day event started early - with a 9 a.m. doors open, with Eric Stephenson’s keynote address beginning at 10:30 a.m. The keynote was long - a mixture of market data and new release announcements (front-loaded with the statistics). Whether Image can be properly considered an “indie” publisher is open for debate, but its reported accomplishments seem to lend credence to the idea of the Big Three, rather than the Big Two (DC, Marvel). Image laid claim to the #1 comic of 2013 in The Walking Dead, enjoying further status as publisher of 6 of the 10 best-selling trade paperbacks.
Image, though, clearly sees itself as markedly different than the Big Two. The most obvious difference being its creator rights-retention policy. In addition, given that it does not enjoy a stable of viciously guarded intellectual property (in the form of superhero canonical universes), Image creators are free to create their OWN stories. As Stephenson beamed, they are “embracing innovative fiction of every kind,” rather than “rebooting old series in a desperate attempt to recapture past glories.” Clearly, a dig at the rearview-focused Big Two. Another Image creator on a later panel laid it more plainly: Marvel “is destroying the comic book industry.” So clearly, no love lost between Image and the mega publishers. Given the foibles and missteps of DC this past year on gender and sexuality issues, Image is positioning itself to pick up the fans that DC (and Marvel) seem content to ignore (at their peril).
It was clear from all corners of the Twitterverse, from Gail Simone (@GailSimone) to Janelle Asselin (@gimpnelly) to Deb Aoki (@debaoki), that Image’s 2014 release line-up had plenty of us excited, while still lamenting the fact that the diversity in Image’s subject matter is not reflected in its creators, who are overwhelmingly White and male.
That being said, Image’s offerings remain some of the most fertile and exciting for an increasingly jaded audience. I can confidently affirm that Brian K. Vaughn’s Saga series is solely responsible for getting me back into buying single issue comics. Image’s new titles for 2014 have a decidedly dark tinge to them, with a healthy helping of colorful fantasy. Without further ado, here’s a sampling of what Image has to offer in the coming year:
Robert Kirkman admittedly took a page out of Vaughn’s Saga playbook (after also admitting he derided Vaughn for this move) by promising a full 40 pages of story for Outcast #1 (June 2014), which, like Saga, will also be offered for only $2.99. Outcast follows the story of Kyle Barnes, who has been “plagued by demonic possession his whole life.” Demonstrating his media savvy, Kirkman promised the audience that it would be nothing like The Walking Dead unless you love TWD, in which case, “It’s exactly like The Walking Dead.”
Kate Kristopher, a female photographer/protagonist descended from explorers and adventurers is at the center of Shutter, a new title coming out April 9, 2014. We can only hope that writer Joe Keatinge and artist Leila del Duca don’t romanticize the genocidal reality of Christopher Columbus in this beautifully illustrated book.
Three other titles provide a giddy and heady mix of horrific delights: Nailbiter, Wytches and Nameless. Nailbiter, by Joshua Williamson and Mike Henderson, presents the intriguing premise of a fictional small Pacific Northwestern town with the dubious honor of being a breeding ground for serial killers. Scott Snyder announced the arrival of Wytches (with art by Jock), which promises a deeply disturbing interpretation of the “mythological creatures” we know as “witches” (there was some off-hand talk of child torture-murder) but could, sadly, veer away from the divine feminine nature of witchcraft. Nameless was shrouded in mystery other than one image of glowing sigil-marked astronauts and the identity of its creators: Grant Morrison and Chris Burnham.
For fans of Fables, Bill Willingham presented a title he is creating with Barry Kitson that is remarkably different from the well-loved series, both in subject and scope, called Restoration. Reminding me of Alexander and the Terrible, Horrible, No-Good, Very Bad Day, Willingham described Restoration succinctly as the immediate unleashing of a pantheon of gods to Earth resulting in a death toll one billion humans high.
Other offerings defy simple categorization, proving that Image creates genres rather than regurgitating tired old tropes. Image founder Jim Valentino described Ted McKeever’s The Superannuated Man (June 2014) as akin to “a guy going through DT’s who dropped acid.” Whether the title is a psychedelic interpretation of the English Romantic author Charles Lamb’s essay about his work in a counting house remains an open question.
Low is an “aquatic sci-fi fantasy” scheduled for release in July. Writer Rick Remender’s excitement about the project was palpable as he explained that he would “literally push down an old woman and step on her neck to work with” artist Greg Tocchini. Low gave Remender the chance to put on his “D&D Dungeon Master hat in terms of world-building.” The status of Tocchini’s grandmother’s neck is unknown at this time, but his beautifully lush cover artwork inspires lingering stares.
Matt Fraction, of Sex Criminals fame, presented the debut of a gender-swapped “celestial pantheon” re-telling of Homer’s The Odyssey with Ody-C, cheekily promising a return to “10th grade English class all over again.” The “y” in Ody-C blends the penultimate letter of the English alphabet with the Roman-based “Venus symbol” (♀) Christian Ward’s dreamy but bold artwork was prominently featured, as we were treated to several of the innovative characterizations, including a Gilbert Hernandez-esque Luba-like Zeus.
Kelly Sue DeConnick, who clearly got the fashion memo for the event, graced the stage with what appeared to be Jeffrey Campbell Lita Spike Black booties. I acknowledge the potentially problematic nature of highlighting the ONLY female writer’s choice in footwear, but beg indulgence in that my excitement stems from the fact that I happen to own the same booties in Red Plaid. We’re like this, me and Kelly Sue. Great minds. Also, this happened:
The dangerous beauty of DeConnick's spiky shoes foreshadowed the cruel feminine setting of her forthcoming Bitch Planet title, set on a women’s penal planet. Visually interpreted by artist Valentine De Landro, Bitch Planet was “born of a deep … love of exploitation and women in prison movies of the 60s and 70s” that were, for DeConnick, “so deeply awful and delicious.” I, for one, am very excited to see how she does “the obligatory shower scene? Cuz there’s gotta be one.” Some of the interest from Orange is The New Black might dovetail nicely with this new sci-fi title which is certain to showcase at least some queer lady lovin’.
There were several other titles that are sure to excite and entice. A full listing can be found on Image’s site. The last tidbit of exciting news was the announcement that Ed Brubaker and Sean Phillips have been signed to a 5 year deal with Image that seems to allow them complete and total creative freedom. It’s an “unprecedented” move by a comics publisher and Brubaker was all abuzz with the prospect of “greenlighting” his own projects. No doubt this experiment will be watched closely by fans and publishers alike.
