Image Comics! The root of all evil

The Founding members of Image through the eyes of WC. From left: (front row) Marc Silvestri, Jim Valentino, Todd McFarlane, Rob Liefeld. (Back row): Whilce Portacio, Jim Lee, Erik Larsen

 

 

 
 Oh, Image comics, you scamp! I was so proud, collecting Spawn #1-64, (including three copies of the #1 issue and two copies of Angela’s introduction.) Also, who could forget, the still in package, Spawn action figure, along with his buddies Medieval Spawn, Violator and Tremor hanging in my closet. But wait there’s more…excuse me a moment while I compose myself. Let’s not forget those titles that shattered my desire to collect with any hope of capitalizing on my purchases. I’m looking at you Stormwatch, Prophet, Youngblood, @#$* Wetworks that I waited forever to be released, Brigade, The Maxx (I hoped the MTV cartoon of this would help, but alas was not to be,) Union, Shadowhawk (uugh!,) Gen 13 (facepalm,) Pitt, Savage Dragon, Cyberforce,……I’m just going to stop here before I punch my monitor.

I think one of my Avengelyne comics might be worth a few dollars. I’m just so glad I sprung for the Wizard magazines so I could order my #1/2 issues. I mean, a spitball fight might breakout and it’s nice to know I have ammo. On a side note, the Spawn figures can hold pieces of dog food quite nicely, my dog, however, is still not sure about this little guy handing him food. Maybe he’d eat it out of Violator’s mouth?

I did enjoy some of Todd McFarlane’s books, but I’m a bit disappointed that he rubbed it in our faces by dropping such a large amount of money on baseballs every time someone breaks a record ($3 million Mark McGwire, $500,00 Barry Bonds.) I’d think if there was any justice in the universe that maybe in twenty or so years he’d check up on his ball prices and they’d be worth something like $1.95. It won’t matter to him much though, he’s established himself financially.  I can’t say I blame him for doing what he enjoys and God bless Capitalism, but it’s just a reminder of where the rest of us failed.

The 1st four Image comics ever: [from left] Spawn #1 (2012 value from $.99 to $5 NM), WildC.A.T.s #1 (2012 value $.99 NM), Youngblood #1 (2012 value $.50 NM), The Savage Dragon #1 (2012 value "worthless" NM)

 

 

I was kind of leery to get into the Image scene, like I wasn't supposed to or something. I think it was because at the time I was strictly buying Batman: Legends of the Dark Knight and [McFarlane’s] Spider-Man, with the occasional X-Men title thrown in the mix. DC and Marvel (along with Archie) comics made a good job brainwashing me since my tender years to believe that there was nothing [great] beyond their realm. But the Image buzz was too big to ignore. Like many other uneducated comic book geek of the time I thought Jim Lee and McFarlane were the shit and I hated the fact that they had left Marvel and moved on to this “new project”.

One day I made the decision to get acquainted with Image and find out what the fuss was about so I went to a local magazine store with the "creepy" adult section hidden on the back. I approached this guy that didn't really look like a comic book collector but he was glancing excitedly over every Image title on the shelf. He seemed like a perfect candidate to put at ease my inquiring mind. I was in my late teens at the time, this guy must have been in his early to mid 40s, I asked him something stupid to break the ice:  “So…You like Imáge comics?", the guy said "What??" Don't ask me why, but back then I called Image comics: "Imáge" accentuating the “a,” you know, like French. Must have been my foreign roots. Anyway he politely corrected me and went on all excited to tell me about Spawn, WildCATs and Shadowhawk. He also mentioned some of the Valiant titles that were coming out at the time. He warned me how limited these comics were and that they weren’t massed produced like the main stream giants.

Finally, he gave me advice about not buying the comics with the newsstand bar codes: “Buy direct sales instead.” That’s something I heard multiple times thereafter. In other words: the comics that were sold at your local "Piggly Wiggly" with a bar code on the cover were not as “valuable” as the ones you would find at your comic book store. These would have an icon of some sort in place of the bar code, or in other instances Direct Sales written next to the bar code.

 

Newsstand edition on left, Direct Sales edition on right. Notice the difference on the lower right corner icons

 

Basically that day I got a crash course on the “exciting” world of collecting comics in the 90s. This jack-ass (bless his soul) convinced me that Image was the next big thing and that I should buy their comics, not only for the “great art” but as an INVESTMENT (echo..echo...echo...). I actually got all excited and picked up a couple of things that night. I wish I could remember which titles exactly. I know one of them was Spawn for sure, even though I had already missed the first 5 issues or so. He told me he had multiple copies of #1 and #4 and I felt jealous (HA!). I also remember picking up something useless like “Tribe” or some shit, because there was only one copy left on the shelf, in my head that meant “this title must be hot”. I was poisoned from then on, at least for a while... 

Mr Moo promises to find a better use for this Wetworks #1

 

The Image topic is so vast and such an essential part of our blog that we decided to dissect it in many posts to come. We’ll share the pain together as we’ll go title by title, alternate covers to Wizard’s #1/2s, toys and everything in between. Stay tuned...