Greetings readers!

Usually when I sit down to figure out my weekly blog, it takes me a while to scan through the world of comics and find my inspiration. As I was perusing the usual places, it slowly dawned on me that there is an inordinate amount of comic related madness out and about this week. From strange to silly to triflin’, the comic book news cycle was just a bit off. Don’t believe me? Let me share a few tidbits with you:

Lil Obama? A while back, Image comics and Robert Kirkman put out some pretty hilarious teaser images poking fun at Marvel’s AVENGERS promo for the upcoming GUARDIANS OF THE GLOBE book. The images depicted increasingly ridiculous characters joining the team, from Spawn to Barack Obama, to a very Harry Potter-like child (you can check em out here). Well, it turns out that these images were so popular that Image will now feature the team in a series of one page back up stories. The characters will also be cute-ified, as you can see from the cover above. When I saw this, I couldn’t help but think, “Why?” Was the world calling for lil’ Spawn? You can get the official press release over at Image’s Website.

IRON MAN double dipping? Last Friday, Marvel Comics announced that on June 30th INVINCIBLE IRON MAN ANNUAL #1 would be released simultaneously in comic book stores and on their ipad/iphone/ipod app, the first comic to be released in such a fashion. I know that Marvel has been on the forefront of digital distribution, and that your average digital reader might not be your average LCS shopper, but doesn’t this seem kind of, I don’t know, ho-ish? When I read this, I just felt bad for the comic shop guys. Yes, it’s only one comic, but it is still money out of retailer pockets. I guess I’m just amazed that Marvel would treat retailers (who kept them in business through many a rough year) with such disdain. Boo to you Marvel. You can read the press release on Newsarama.

X-men vs. vampires? Sticking with Marvel, the X-franchise has a new issue #1 coming out, with the mighty mutants taking on… vampires? I’m taken aback. Admittedly, I haven’t read an X-book in a little while, but doesn’t this seem kind of out of left field? Out of all the characters in the Marvel U, the X-men don’t really seem like the group to go undead hunting. There’s preview art for you if you are into that sort of thing over at Marvel.

90s trading cards? I came across this small piece of madness over on Comics Alliance and it boggled my mind. For those who don’t feel like following links, let me sum up; in the 1990’s Eclipse Entertainment actually made trading cards for comic book creators. Not characters, creators. Now, I think it’s great that Jack Kirby got his own trading card, but Shirtless McFarlane in the skinny jeans? No, with a side of no. I have often harped on the silliness of the 1990’s comic book scene, and this just proves me right. (On a side note, if you do click over to the main article, how scary is the resemblance between Clive Barker and Adam Sandler?)

World Record? Last week Melbourne, Australia broke the Guinness world record for… get ready for it… “largest number of people in superhero costumes gathered in one place”. That’s got to be one of the strangest world records I’ve ever heard of that didn’t involve some sort of bodily growth. The Aussies snagged the record with a whopping 1245 people in costume, beating previous record holder London, England by a scant 154 people (only one week after London had gained the title). Thanks again to Comics Alliance for filling me in on the craziness.

Super-Dwight? Yesterday, Adidas announced that they would team with Warner Brothers to produce a line of shoes and Apparel featuring Superman and Orlando Magic Center Dwight Howard (pictured above). I’m all for cross-promotion, but what Brad Globe of Warner Bros. had a quote in the article that made me groan. I’m sure you want to see the quote:

“Superman is the universal symbol of strength and speed, not to mention he has one heck of a vertical leap. Dwight’s super heroic feats on the court make this partnership with Adidas an ideal collaboration for basketball and comic book fans alike.”

The article goes on to talk about the history of Superman and the achievements of Howard. The more I read, the odder the pairing seemed. That being said, more power to DC and Warner Bros. for pimping out Supes like a cheap trick, he needed to be taken down a notch. Thanks to comic book resources for the story.

CSI: Mortal Kombat? Weird can work sometimes though as well. If you haven’t seen it yet, check out this re-imagining of Mortal Kombat:

Pretty interesting. This short was put together in the hopes of landing a full length feature, and while parts of it are kind of silly (a former plastic surgeon becomes a martial arts master?), it seems like a shot in the arm for what has become a tired franchise. Given that my only memory of the original Mortal Kombat movie is laughing at Christopher Lambert as a lightning god, I’m rooting for this one to get made.

So, as you can see, it was an odd week for comic book news. Thanks for letting me rant, folks. Check back in tomorrow for the latest from Dr. Cellus. Have a great Thursday!

Good Morning all!

“Come into my time machine, Clarice!”

Today, for our weekly look back into the past let us jump in the DeLorian and set the coordinates to 1992. Yes, that 1992, the year where France got to host the Olympics, Johnny Carson left the Tonight Show, Silence of the Lambs won best picture, and the Rodney King verdict caused riots in the streets of L.A. What a terrifying year! Why would we want to use time travel powers to go here? Well, this is also the year that Image comics came into existence. While some would consider the creation of Image to fit right in with the rest of 1992 in terms of scary, (Rob Liefeld, anyone?), no one can deny the impact that Image comics had on the comic book industry.

Behold die-cut glory!

Image comics came into being because Marvel comics was a stingy beotch. In the early 1990’s, comics were selling like never before. X-men #1 sold over 8 million copies, Spider-man #1 sold 3 million copies. Almost every comic that came out had 12 different, chrome embossed, holographic, super collectible covers. Even comics no one cared about sold well! You could put a holographic cover on a phone book and it would sell a million copies. As an example, BLOODSHOT from Valiant comics sold 1 million copies. Who is Bloodshot? Exactly.

“I’m ultra-cool, cutting edge, AND I sparkle!”

With the massive success of comics came massive profits. This meant that everyone wanted a bigger piece of the pie, including the creators of the books that were breaking all-time sales records. The company making the most money in this comic boom was Marvel. So, some off the biggest Marvel artists, guys like Jim Lee and Todd McFarlane went to their bosses and asked for ownership over the characters they were creating, higher royalty rates and more creative control. Marvel said no, and so seven of the biggest names in comics, went off to form Image. Now, I see the Marvel point of view, these guys are employees, and you are paying them an already agreed upon rate. If they were making books that didn’t sell, they wouldn’t have come in and gave money back. However, if you have a winning thoroughbred that wants more hay, you give the damn horse more hay. So, Image was born and the fun began.

“I don’t look at all like Spider-man!”

When Image comics formed, they changed a myriad of things that had long been a standard in mainstream comics. One of the most important things, in my opinion, was (and still is) that Image was based solely on creator-owned work. Image comics doesn’t own anything, they just publish it. Like we do here at Semantink. They were not the first to do this, but they were the first to make it work on the same level as Marvel and DC. So, each creator can do what they want with their character. Each creator can keep the marketing, toy and movie rights to what they create. No one has do bow to company mandates for a character, or see their brain-child used improperly, or see thousands of kids wearing a t-shirt with their design on it, and not a penny to show for it. Image struck a huge blow for independent creators everywhere, but the company also showed the potential pitfalls of creator owned work.

“Feet are for girls!”

The studio system that Image set up held no one accountable. Titles like Marc Silvestri’s CYBERFORCE suffered from long delays. Rob Liefeld’s Youngblood had no story. And then there was the fact that almost every Image title that came out bore a striking resemblance, both in look and tone, to the Marvel books the creators were working on before they left. These are things that an editor would put a stop to at one of the big two, but in the Image system these problems just lingered. While these kinds of problems would hurt Image down the line, it showed independent creators what NOT to do. In addition, without Image’s studio system, there would be far less diversity in the comic book market today.

Ripclaw has a serious problem when he gets an itch.

Image also revolutionized the way that comic books were printed in terms of paper quality and coloring. Remember how old comics would feel like they were printed on newspaper? Image started using a glossier stock of paper, like what we have today. Image also popularized digital color separations. If you look back at older comics, they would oft times not have synchronized color separation, as it was done by hand. Image was instrumental in creating the better (and more expensive) class of comic book that we have today.

All comics looked like this before Image. Just kidding.

No matter how you feel about what Image produces, you can not deny the impact that they have had on comics. From price, to quality, to creator rights, Image helped to shape what comic books are today.