About the Documentary

In 1992, Marvel Comics was the number-one publisher of comic books in the world, largely due to its dynamic artwork. But as a response to what was believed to be years of mistreatment toward creative talent by the industry’s leading publishers, a small (but influential) group of artists left Marvel Comics at the height of its popularity to form their own company, Image Comics. Led by the outspoken Todd McFarlane (Spawn), this group kicked off a revolution that would change the comics industry forever, instantly granting power to creators and launching Image to “rock star”, status. But with great power came great turmoil, as Rob Liefeld (Deadpool), Jim Lee (X-Men), Marc Silvestri (Wolverine), Erik Larsen (Savage Dragon), Whilce Portacio (X-Factor) and Jim Valentino (Guardians Of The Galaxy) almost immediately began to unravel the very bond that united them.

Through rare archival footage and brand-new interviews with all seven founders, as well as industry insiders, comics historians and current Image Comics creators like Robert Kirkman (The Walking Dead), The Image Revolution brilliantly tells the story of the rise, fall and triumphant return of one of the most successful publishers in comic book history.

I’ve been collecting comics since 1984 (Crisis on Infinite Earths #1) and have seen the industry change and grow. One of the biggest change to come out of the comic industry was the creation of Image Comics.

The recent documentary The Image Revolution, released by Shout Factory on DVD format (sorry, no Blu-Ray) on January 12, 2016, did a pretty good job summarizing the rise and fall (and rise!) of Image Comics.

In 1992, the magnificent seven (Todd McFarlane, Jim Lee, Whilce Portacio, Marc Silvestri, Erik Larsen, Jim Valentino, and Rob Liefeld) formed Image Comics out of frustrations from Marvel Comics’ lack of creator’s rights.

You have to imagine that overnight, Marvel lost basically all their all-star artists. It sent a message and the world waited patiently to see if Image Comics will prevail or fail.

I lived through this, so I was already familiar with their story: each artist had their little “mini” companies within Image. It got to a point that all the artists (with the exception of Erik Larsen) stopped drawing their titles.

Of course, I bought all the books (at least all the #1’s, including Youngblood, Silver Hawk, WildC.A.T.s, Savage Dragon, Spawn, Wetworks, Cyberforce, etc.) and, as a teenager, loved most of the artwork.

You have to remember that prior to Image, all these guys (except, perhaps Jim Valentino?) were selling a ton of comics. I believe X-Men #1 was the best-selling comic of all time (I have to confessed that I bought the first cover and the deluxe fold-out cover)! These artists were all rock stars!

I remember picking up Amazing Spider-Man #298 off the newsstand and was blown away. The same for Jim Lee, which I started buying Uncanny X-Men because of his awesome artwork.

In 1993, I took my brother and sister to the Extreme Studios (Rob Liefeld’s company) signing at Heroes Comics & Cards, across (then) Circuit City, on Blackstone in Fresno, California. The funny thing was that their tour van broke down and we ended up waiting until nearly midnight! The young artists were so pleased to see fans waiting for them, despite the long delay, they were giving us special Extreme Studios Tour Books and happily autographed everything.
I still have the books, and it’s definitely a night that we’d never forget.

If you’re a young fan of The Walking Dead (a title that I’m currently buying the collected volumes) and don’t know about Image Comics’ history, you definitely need to watch this The Image Revolution documentary. If you already know the story, it’s still fun to re-visit some of funny rumors and inside story (like how Rob Liefeld got fired or “resigned”).