My favorite parts of Perch videos are that he takes a business consultant lens on comics... and it's also very revealing how and why the business world is terrible to creatives. No judgement here. I just find it fascinating. So funny to hear that the biggest criticism of Image are the very same biggest positives to the creatives. The reason why Image can't tell Kirkman he must keep making zombie comics is the very reason Kirkman was able to make zombie comics...

Image is 30 smaller companies under a co-op umbrella.

Dave Sim had pointed out early on in the process that, ultimately, Image Comics was going to fall back into a work for hire model. That is, if any of the founders wanted to actually enjoy their success or the fruits of their labor. Erik Larson kept drawings Savage dragon, but basically everybody else started looking for other artists to handle their IP's fairly early on in the process.
Creator ownership is a great concept of the Creator wants to continue owning and producing their own work, but if they want to start receiving passive income then you wind up falling back towards the traditional corporate publishing model.

Because Marvel and DC's properties were already baked into the pop cultural fabric of America over the past 30+ years before Image came along?

The idea of Image wasn't that they would be able to outsell Marvel and DC, but that the creators would be able to retain access to their creations and not have their royalties siphoned off to the rest of the company. It's about individual success, not corporate juggernauting.

My cousin and I were all in for Image but the stories were not great and there were so many delays that it just fizzled out.

I remember when Image came out, Marvel was hurt, but DC specifically suddenly felt so old.

The Maxx was the only book I was really invested in following, Sam Keith was killing it. The rest of the Image line had its moments but mostly didn't do it for me. I did really like Trencher tho. Totally gonzo. That was the stuff.

I'm pretty happy with what Image does these days, like Shadowline publishing a nice volume of Von's Deadbone. Really happy with that for sure.

A lot of “creators” in the 90s learned it’s more honorable to be a Pauper in Jim Shooter’s (or Dennis O’Neil’s) kingdom than the Prince of the .25 cent bin.

The shipping of image books alone stopped them from being the top publisher

Before I even watch the video:

1. Because at the end of the day, Image was founded by, and made up of, a bunch of talented artists who weren't very good writers, so the stories kind of sucked.

2. Many of the Image founders didn't have strong editorial oversight keeping them on schedule (they were their own bosses) so books were constantly running late, delayed, not coming out when they were originally supposed to (anyone remember Wetworks?) and more. Part of what Marvel and DC did to keep fans coming back month in and month out was putting their shit out on schedule so fans got into a habit of buying the new issue each month.

3. Most of the Image books were their own individual stories in their own individual worlds, with characters doing their own individual thing. Yes, there was an occasional crossover but it rarely felt organic. Marvel and DC were pretty much a shared universe from the start and since Marvel and DC owned the characters, instead of Stan Lee or Jerry Siegel, when the original writer or creator stepped away, they didn't take the characters with them so they remained part of that shared universe. It can not be overstated how much of the success of Marvel and DC should be attributed to the fact that the fans love the huge shared universe all the characters live in.

Alright, let's see what Perch has to say.

What I find interesting is that the guy who felt like the imposter of the Image 7 Jim Valentino is the one who took the reins when the other 6 left or lowered their profile or moved onto other things.  Valentino took over as Publisher and recruited great talent and turned Image into what they intended it to be from the start.

For all the nice art those rebel Image creators published, all of their characters were derivative. Image didn’t invest into good writing until much later. As the company presently stands, they have successfully pushed away from most of their foundation titles and into Vertigo territory…and that’s a good thing.

“The Mice Templar” is probably my favorite comic series of all time— American, Japanese, or European— and it never sold me on a single issue of any other Image title. The “umbrella series” problem Image Comics has is very real.

All the titles in my pull list are Image: Spawn and it's various spin offs, Saga and Monstress.

good things is there will be a place for Creator's to create or start their own story for independent

I still don’t understand why Hollywood hasn’t done another Spawn movie, I think Spawn is the coolest character design in all of comics, he looks amazing. And great villains, the clown that morphs into that big monster looks sick.

"If Image wanted to compete they'd have to piss off all the creators that they had curried the favor of and gone back on the mission statement of who they were and are"... except Image IS THE CREATORS. Again. Fascinating...

Nothing on time outside of Shadowhawk. Turns out cats aren't good at discipline. Why Shooter was go tier as an editor. He could herd the cats.

For me they were.  But they didn't have the power of sentimentality. Remember back then the biggest comic buyers were older than 20. They wanted batman and Spiderman.
I loved spawn. Always have a spot in my heart for it. One of the first comics I ever bought all those years ago.

I only started getting Image comics for the last few years of collecting. Because I never talked to anyone about comics I didn’t really know anything about  them.

Wish I had talked to people sooner because they had loads of great comics I would have liked.