Hello folks not the usual Mug of Duff this week since Stu had commitments that he can’t get out of, So rather than leave today without a post he asked one of us to fill in. I asked him what would he have wanted to have put across himself this week, What he told me was he had recently noticed statements by some that Image receive a lot of praise that it doesn’t necessarily deserve. Stu met this with a dim view as he felt it was as justified as any other company and in many cases more so.

Looking at it objectively there are many reasons why Image receives praise for there titles. Firstly not all comics have to be shoehorned into the same genre. Although this is not as much of a problem with other Independent comic publishers it is something that DC and Marvel consistently lack in, sure you can have a Western or a horror comic but at the same time you can’t be surprised when say Batman somehow pops up. That’s a problem because it then makes it harder to define a comic as unique, When any of the big two attempt to create a unique environment into a title it is usually met with calls of “hispter comic” or worse swiftly canceled.
This also somewhat ties into the recent Vertigo debate where the top tier of Vertigo characters were shaved of and worked into the New 52 this has left Vertigo in the position of having to reiterate “Hey we are still here, look new comics”. Having a shared universe also means you have to exploit it fully and this has seen us seemingly see event after event till they point now where they appear to be moving back the way and presenting us with the same reheated ideas and trends which you can now purchase in chromium, This would seem like a step back that Image hasn’t taken as it could be easily said that they have moved on significantly since the 90’s and not seemingly reverting back to it.

Then there is also the fact that it then means creators aren’t as limited by those restrictions which has recently made Image highly competitive as it allows seasoned artists and writers to scratch that itch they have had while working on runs of big two titles, Take Brubaker or even Morrison as examples. I dare not mention the whole creator owned because that would take even longer to go into but needless to say Image does also provide an outlet for creators who may not otherwise get mainstream exposure.

I’m not saying they are in anyway better a shape than any other company I am just saying they are no worse. If they release a title that is dross or epic then judge the book not the company as a whole. However if you feel Image titles are unfairly seen through rose tinted glasses free to sound of in the comments as to why?

Stu will be return next week and you can catch his previous Mug of Duffs @ http://bit.ly/19QwoZK

The writer of this piece was:
Gary Kane aka (GK)
Article: Under The Influence
GK tweets from @Kanoclassic
Based on: Mug of Duff