Not that it's just T&A in Image Comics that gives us reason to hang our heads, oh no. There's also the overblown, chains-and-pouches everywhere, gratuitously violent and oh-so-desperately-trying-to-be-mature comics they started putting out when their creators broke away from the Big Two publishers wouldn't let them. Possibly the worst (or at least the most visible) offender was Spawn. Or is, since the series about a resurrected hitman from hell is still ongoing, although original writer/artist and creator Todd McFarlane is more interested in toys and buying signed baseball cards than working on it these days. Spawn tapped into the zeitgeist of the early nineties where comics were just about edging themselves into cool with the speculator boom, meaning issues sat next to Witchblade on the new stands and were embarrassing in a totally different way. The grand, Dante-esque tragedy of Al Simmons was undercut by ludicrously OTT artwork, gore and boneheaded attempts at adult storytelling. The 1997 movie flop didn't help matters much either.
Tom Baker is the Comics Editor at WhatCulture! He's heard all the Doctor Who jokes, but not many about Randall and Hopkirk. He also blogs at http://communibearsilostate.wordpress.com/
