Era #6 Extra: Image X-odus

Clockwise from top left: Eric Larsen, Rob Liefeld, Todd McFarlane,
Marc Silvestri, Jim Valentino, Jim Lee and Whice Portacio  

It is impossible to talk about the era and not at least mention the Image X-odus. I am not going to do the whole issue justice with a detailed report. You can see a pretty good account here.

Many of the popular creators were frustrated with Marvel, and it finally came to a head in 1992. Sales were up, yet the writers and artists who were creating these new characters -- characters that were being heavily marketed -- were not seeing any of those increased profits. They continued to receive a standard page rate and some minor royalties. Eight of them decided to leave Marvel and create their own company:  Chris Claremont (Uncanny X-Men), Erik Larsen (The Amazing Spider-Man), Todd McFarlane (Spider-Man), Jim Lee (Uncanny X-Men, X-Men), Rob Liefeld (New Mutants, X-Force), Marc Silvestri (Uncanny X-Men, Wolverine), Whilce Portacio (X-Factor, Uncanny X-Men) and Jim Valentino (Guardians of the Galaxy). The "X-odus" hit the top-selling X-Men franchise especially hard. Marvel stocks by $3.25.

Six of the eight formed Image Comics. Claremont did not join, and Portacio later withdrew to be with his sick sister. The basic premise behind Image was that each creator formed his or her own studio and retained all intellectual rights to their own property. Creators or Image did not interfere in the creative or financial business of an associated studio.

Image had a rocky start since none of the creators were managers. Deadlines were frequently missed, and stories presented great artwork over poorly developed plots. Market speculation and some standout titles (such as McFarlane's Spawn and Larsen's The Savage Dragon) kept the company afloat as they found their place in industry. With assistance from Malibu and an evolving business strategy that began to include stories beyond the typical super-hero genre, Image has since produced such well known titles as Astro City, Chew, Saga and The Walking Dead.

I was a huge fan of the following creators in the Image X-odus. It took awhile for the titles to return to the excitement and enjoyment I had with each of them. It really was a sad period for me.

Chris Claremont (B): It is hard to understate how much Chris Claremont's work influenced me growing up. After leaving Marvel, Claremont worked on different projects for different companies eventually returned to work on the X-Men.

Jim Lee (B+): Jim Lee create Wildstorm Productions which produced WildC.A.T.s, Stormwatch, Deathblow and Gen¹³. He briefly returned to Marvel for the Heroes Reborn reboot and eventually sold Wildstorm to DC where he continued to work.

Rob Liefeld (B): Rob Liefeld remained one of the industries most controversial figures. His Extreme Studios's biggest title was Youngblood which never saw the success seen by other Image series. He would later acknowledge a poor script and other production woes. Liefeld resigned from Image mere minutes before being fired for some of his management decisions that impacted the other studios (particularly Marc Silvestri's Top Cow which temporarily left Image until Rob was gone). Rob was hired for the Heroes Reborn reboot, but Marvel released him after a very short run. Rob's second venture, Awesome Comics, ran into legal problems when one of his title characters, Agent America, was found to resemble Captain America a little too closely. Liefeld would eventually work for Marvel on characters most associated with him: Cable and Deadpool.

Marc Silvestri (B): Marc Silvestri left the Uncanny X-Men to work on Wolverine before the Image X-odus. His Top Cow Productions found success with titles like Darkness and Witchblade. Silvestri would return to the X-Men franchise to work on a few issues but continues to expand Top Cow into film, TV and video games.

Whilce Portacio (B+): One of my favorite artist in this list is Whilce Portacio. While he never created his own studio, he did work on image titles after a short hiatus (notably Wetworks) as well as Marvel's Heroes Reborn reboot. He remained busy until he fell into a diabetic coma in 2000. His recovery was long, and he finally returned to drawing in 2006 for Image, Marvel and DC.