page_title: Image Comics
section_title: Founding
hierarchical_section_title: Image Comics / History / Founding
caption_attribution_description: English: Image Comics panel at San Diego ComicCon 2007.
context_page_description: Image Comics is an American comic book publisher and is the third largest comic book and graphic novel publisher in the industry in both unit and market share. It was founded in 1992 by several high-profile illustrators as a venue for creator-owned properties, in which comics creators could publish material of their own creation without giving up the copyrights to those properties. Normally this was a case in the work for hire-dominated American comics industry, in which the legal author is a publisher, such as Marvel Comics or DC Comics, and the creator is an employee of that publisher. Its output was originally dominated by superhero and fantasy series from the studios of the founding Image partners, but now includes comics in many genres by numerous independent creators. Its best-known publications include The Walking Dead, Invincible, Spawn, Saga, and Kick-Ass.
context_section_description: In the early 1990s, comics creators Erik Larsen, Rob Liefeld, and Jim Valentino had dinner with Malibu Comics editor-in-chief Dave Olbrich. Malibu was a small but established publishing company sympathetic to creator-ownership, and Olbrich expressed interest in publishing comics created by them. These and several other freelance illustrators doing popular work for Marvel Comics were growing frustrated with the company's work for hire policies and practices, which they felt did not sufficiently reward the talent that produced them, as the company heavily merchandised their artwork, and compensated them with modest royalties.
  According to Todd McFarlane, he, Jim Lee and Liefeld met with Marvel president Terry Stewart and editor Tom DeFalco in late December 1991. Larsen and Marc Silvestri, who joined the group the night before, were not present, but the group that met with Stewart indicated that they were representing them as well. McFarlane says that they made no demands of Stewart or Marvel, but informed him that they were leaving, gave their reasons why, and cautioned Stewart to heed those reasons, lest the company suffer future departures. The creators had a similar meeting with DC Comics the next day, commenting that their new policies intended to be more beneficial to creators had been crafted unilaterally, without creators' input. After Whilce Portacio returned from his yearly trip to the Philippines, his Homage Studios colleague Lee asked him to join the group.
  A group of seven artists then announced the founding of Image Comics: Todd McFarlane (known for his work on Spider-Man), Jim Lee (X-Men), Rob Liefeld (X-Force), Marc Silvestri (Wolverine), Erik Larsen (The Amazing Spider-Man), Jim Valentino (Guardians of the Galaxy), and Whilce Portacio (Uncanny X-Men); with longtime Uncanny X-Men writer Chris Claremont (who was not actively involved with the group) adding his support. This development was nicknamed the "X-odus", because several of the artists involved (Liefeld, Lee, Silvestri, and Portacio) were famous for their work on the X-Men franchise. Marvel's stock fell $3.25/share when the news became public.
  Image's organizing charter had two key provisions:
  Image would not own any creator's work; the creator would. Image itself would own no intellectual property except the company trademarks: its name and its logo (designed by writer Hank Kanalz).
  No Image partner would interfere – creatively or financially – with any other partner's work.
  Each Image partner founded his own studio, which published under the Image banner but was autonomous from any central editorial control. Portacio withdrew during the formative stages to deal with his sister's illness, so Image originally consisted of six studios:
  Todd McFarlane Productions, owned by Todd McFarlane
  WildStorm Productions, owned by Jim Lee
  Highbrow Entertainment, owned by Erik Larsen
  Shadowline, owned by Jim Valentino
  Top Cow Productions, owned by Marc Silvestri
  Extreme Studios, owned by Rob Liefeld
caption: Panel at ComicCon 2007 on the 15th anniversary of the founding of Image Comics. From left: Jim Lee, Todd McFarlane, Erik Larsen, Jim Valentino, Marc Silvestri, Rob Liefeld and Whilce Portacio.
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