Red Hood

A lot of things are expected to change this year in the indy community. IDW lost the Disney license, allowing Dark Horse to pick up the Star Wars kids books in the process. IDW is also expected to lose the Hasbro license by the summer of 2022, and rumor has it that Skybound will pick up GI Joe and Transformers to be published on Image. The company is also switching distributors this summer as they are moving from Diamond to Penguin Random House.

Last year Image and Boom surprised the market by having 2 books surpass 500K in sales with King Spawn #1 and BRZRKR #1. Also, Image workers have unionized, so we'll see if this spreads along other companies.

majorjoe23

Jeff Lemiere has signed exclusive with Image, I’m curious if his Dark Horse books will move over, or if he will just keep pre-existing deals in place.

Trevor

Jeff just posted this on his Substack:

On My Image Exclusive Deal...
What does it mean for Black Hammer and Substack?!

Jeff Lemire
Jan 6

Image Comics just announced that I have signed an exclusive deal with them for the next few years. I love working wth Image and am happy to continue to do so. Just wanted to clarify a few things for fans of Black Hammer and the comics coming to this Substack…

I have an exemption in my Image deal to finish the last few Black Hammer series as planned. So Black Hammer Reborn, Madame Dragonfly (with Dean), and the Black Hammer: The End will continue as planned and come out through Dark Horse across 2022-2023. And all the new Black Hammer comics that I have planned for this Substack will also continue as planned. So, rest east Black Hammer fans, this new deal doesn’t effect my plans for the BH Universe at all.

Likewise, it won’t effect my plans for this Substack either. The Image deal if for print comics only, so I will also continue to publish lots of new comics online here as well.

What this deal really means is that I am done with work-for-hire comics for the foreseeable future, and Image, and this Substack, have provided great homes for my future creator-owned work outside of Black Hammer.

I received a number of inquiries so I wanted to clarify. Thanks and have a great day.

Fishflies is back next week and also a new “From The Vault.”

-Jeff

Red Hood

Basically, he's quitting DC Comics which is a shame, cause he's done amazing work for them dating back to the New 52 Animal Man.

Josh-da-man

Not really sure what an exclusive deal with Image means...

Image isn't really a publisher in the traditional sense, so I don't think a creator like Lemire would get some kind of sweetheart deal or bonus for going exclusive with them, would he?

The way I think Image works is that the publisher will accept a pitch or invite a creator on board, let them release material under the Image imprint, and handle some of the business-end of things like solicitations, dealing with distributors, and printing, and, after Image is paid a fee for their services, the creator keeps all of the profits and media rights. Image itself doesn't pay creators page rates, advances, or put up money on printing costs and advertising like a traditional publisher might. Like, if you want to print a TPB of one of your series through Image, you'll need to finance it yourself, but you'll keep all of the profits minus an administration fee.)

fujishig

I think Brubaker/Philips had a similar deal that they renewed a few years ago. Probably means that all independently published works are going through Image with some kind of guarantee that it gets picked up. I didn't see an end date in the article so I'm not sure how much it restricts him if, say, DC gave him a boatload of money next year to work on non-creator-owned stuff.

majorjoe23

I believe the Brubaker/Phillips deal including some phrasing that essentially said something like “If the two of you have a project, we will publish it.” It essentially put them (together) on par with the Image partners (no rejections) in terms of ability to be published by the company. They had enough trust and success to do what they want.

davidh777

I’ve blind-bought a lot of Brubaker-Phillips so that concept makes sense to me.

Trevor

I’m ashamed to admit that the Brubaker/Phillips stuff is 99% in my unread piles. I’ve sampled enough to know I’ll love it and have bought everything.

But as is so often the case with me, the stuff I know I love stays unread while I’m constantly reading the so-so to try to find the next great books. This year I’m changing that. Need to find my Criminal Deluxe editions and get a reading.

Red Hood

Dynamite is reprinting some key issues from their lines for $.50 each

mwynn

IDW to Lose ‘G.I. Joe,’ ‘Transformers’ License at End of 2022

https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/ne...PN_ZR3ivP_vykc

Red Hood

So it seems that Hasbro is treating each brand as it’s own separate thing instead of bundling everything together. I wonder what is holding Hasbro and Marvel for working out something with ROM.

stingermck

A couple of good years in the beginning with Cobra and that's it. Even Hama's ARAH 2nd run is real hit or miss, with mostly miss. DDP was the best post Marvel run.

mwynn

Hello all,

I have a Kickstarter starting soon, the preview page is up will be announcing the launch date next month.
https://www.kickstarter.com/projects...rade-paperback

Red Hood

Trevor

This is being discussed in the movie forum, but I’ll throw it here too. A fan-made comic version of Trevorrow’s Star Wars abandoned script.
https://awinegarner.squarespace.com/duel-of-the-fates

mwynn

Sumerian Records & Films Acquires Comic Book Publisher And Gaming Company Behemoth

https://deadline.com/2022/03/sumerian-records-films-acquires-comic-book-publisher-and-gaming-company-behemoth-1234984764/?fbclid=IwAR1QR2DsB-GN7zWrdltecyG_7fnmuLevkXbubwQxbsMXmK91XVrL8wpUZCE

Red Hood

Red Hood

How to ruin a book, Image style. Seriously what is it with corporations and fucking NFTs?

John Pannozzi

Wouldn't it be the creator(s)'s decision, not Image?

Red Hood

Apparently this was Image without the consent of the creators. Everyone was questioning Duggan, Pohsen and Klobish about it and apparently they were not involved in that cover.

Josh-da-man

NFTs are cheap to make and scammy, so I'm surprised it took comic book companies this long to get into them.

John Pannozzi

Here's more info on The War on Weed NFT:

The Story Behind That Bored Ape Yacht Club NFT & Image Comics (bleedingcool.com)

Red Hood

Really disappointed in everyone involved, including the creative team, who think that by staying quiet they are out of the criticism. I regret now having purchased the regular issue of the book and will think twice of supporting anything they do moving forward.

Red Hood

Frank Miller and Dan Didio are launching a new publishing company