In the early nineties, the comic industry was going through its most lucrative period to date - possibly in its entire history. Bold new creators and the burgeoning speculator market - fans and non-fans alike buying up shiny variant covers and issue #1s, in the mistaken belief that they would one day be a lot of money - saw sales flying through the roof. We're not totally sure where all that went (especially when Marvel filed for bankruptcy not long after the bottom fell out of the speculator market), but it certainly wasn't into the pockets of the artists and writers making the comics. Frustrated with the freelance policies of Marvel and DC, which meant that creators didn't own any of the rights to - and thus earned no royalties from - any of their work, even if they came up with new characters, a cadre of the industry's most exciting new talents broke away to form their own publishers. The decision by Todd McFarlane, Jim Lee, Rob Liefeld, Marc Silvestri, Erik Larsen, Jim Valentino and Whilce Portacio was so momentous that Marvel's stock fell by $3.25/share when they announced it. We're assuming that's pretty bad. Image Comics provided an alternative to the Big Two's system, and still does today. Whilst the company handles the production of comics and takes a cut of the profits, the creators retain all rights over the characters and titles, and are free to leave the company at any time. Whilst things started off less-than-auspiciously, mainly being an outlet for the writers and artists to make bad knock-offs of Marvel and DC characters they'd worked on, Image has since published comics like The Walking Dead, Saga and Astro City.
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/
