Monday, January 30, 2017

Entry 292: Image Tributes

Long ago,
and, oh, so far away
I fell in love with you 
before the second show




Your guitar, it sounds so sweet and clear
But you're not really here, it's just the radio


Do you remember when Image started, baby?
Twenty-five years ago this year, baby.
Baby, baby, baby, baby, oh baby.
I love you, I really do.


I started reading comics a little over a year before Image started and I'll be honest, I was put off by the massive amount of continuity of both Marvel and DC comics, I nether had the energy nor funds to invest in it. I was also primarily interested in comics for the art. So when artists left Marvel to start their own NEW comics, I was all over it.

I never really looked back ether, even when I stopped buying Image comics because the artists then left those books. (What did they expect? I left Wolverine because Silvestri wasn't drawing it. What makes you think I'd hang around for Cyberforce?) No, I was forced to look elsewhere for comics to love. (There were plenty.)

Looking back, I stand by the early Image comics. They aren't good in many ways, but they are good in one important way to me. They are alive with creative enthusiasm. The artists put themselves out front and had a lot to prove.

My new comic called Paklis is coming out from Image this year. It isn't a superhero comic or a wild or an extreme comic. It doesn't have much in common with the first Image comics that inspired me to pursue this profession, but, my hope is that it has that spark, that creative enthusiasm. I'm inspired by these Image books. And with Paklis coming out this year, it being Image's 25th anniversary, and given that Image just moved here to Portland, Image and what it means to me has been on my mind a lot. These tribute pieces are the expression of that. These are my attempt at saying that these things were cool and more exciting than a lot of what goes on in superhero comics.

Don't you rememberyou told me you love me baby
You said you'd be coming back this way again baby
Baby baby baby baby oh baby
I love you...

Blogged and blogged

4 comments:

  1. I started collecting just before Image started. Man, those first comics were amazing to look at. I mean, wow. The awesomeness went up several notches from their already outstanding work at Marvel. Wish we got more art from these guys.

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    1. I agree. When I did these pieces I hadn't looked at Cyberforce in a really long time, like since the 90's. When I looked back at I was amazed and what a cool looking comic that was in those early issues. I was inspired by all the pink lighting in the colors.

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  2. These pieces by you are outstanding as well. Some of the best old-school Image related art I've seen. I'm glad someone with your proficiency decided to pay Homage to these great comics.

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    1. Thanks! I think the whole industry has the wrong idea about what went wrong with comics in the 90's and Image's part in it. I think the for a long time now, popular opinion about 90's comics has frown the baby out with the bath water. That's what drawing these was all about-- showing people that these characters and these comics were cool and that it was exciting to see artists creating new things.

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