Hey everyone. When I first learned about heroclix, i was thinking i would love it if they made Image comic clix. Like Shadowhawk, the Savage Dragon, Young Blood, and the WILD Cats. But alas, I dont think it will ever be. McFarlane, Lee and all those guys completely own the rights to their characters. And since they were all ripped off hardcore in the past, by our friends Marvel, they probably won't give them out again. It would be lovely to see Spawn facing Spiderman in a clix match, but it will probably never be.

Bill

Just so you know. Lee formed his own company Wildstorm, which he later sold to DC. WildCATS is currently owned by DC along the the other Wildstorm comics, The Authority, etc.

I think you're right about Spawn though.

whoa !

what happened between Marvel and those Image guys ??

how did marvel rip them off ?

thanks for any info.

I thought that Larsen had all but confirmend Savage Dragon's inclusion in IndyClix.

yeah i heard somewhere in this community that there will be a couple Image characters available in Indy. I also heard a rumor that Todd McFarlane is doing a Spawn heroclix, but under the condition that he gets to design it himself.

could be just a rumor...

The way the guy worded it is misleading.

Image was formed so that these creators who were making lots of money for the company (and in some cases, earning royalties and sales bonues, too) could own ALL of the rights to characters they created, instead of having to share them with another company. That's how and why Image was formed.

What happened is, they all realized what a chore it was to publish comics, rather than sit back and just draw them. Some of them became just as money-hungry as they accused their former employer of being. Some just quit. One of them is now back to simply drawing again. The other is toiling in relative obscurity. And Image is a shadow of its former self. Funny how the cottage industry called comics works.

Very very interesting ! i was only in 3rd grade when Image came out. I had no idea what was going on. All i saw was Jim Lee one moment drawing for Marvel, then the next month theres an Image comic with his name on it "WildCATS". we all thought that Image was going to be the next power house and Marvel was going down.

I'm in college now and things have changed.

so is Image still in business ?

Erik Larsen has confirmed NO Savage Dragon clix in his savagedragon.com forums.

But there will be some Larsen Universe miniatures coming out soon for all you modders out there...

Image is still in business but it is a very different company as far as their product is concerned. They have really supported GOOD independant comics rather than just the flashy fluff that most of the original creators produced. They stil produce carp though.

the wildcats cartoon was awesome.

Quite so.

Yes, publishing is a job. Furthermore, the guys who created Image all griped at great length about how they created all this great stuff, revolutionized sales, and generally made tons of money for their publishers, not for themselves...

...and, upon starting Image and getting it rolling, began doing that exact same thing to THEIR artists. Admittedly, I understand Image was "the fun company" to work for, as opposed to Marvel and DC, but you'll notice that Image didn't spawn a horde of rich cartoonists and creator-owned franchises.

Only a few. And those are owned by the guys who started Image in the first place.

Pretty much. I'm not a big WHO fan, but every time I see MacFarlane in court, I think "Meet the new boss, same as the old boss."

I don't TOTALLY agree with that... but almost. McFarlane has become a hero, of sorts, because he is/was a very talented artist, with a fine knack for comic art and superhero stories. He ain't Jack Kirby, but then, no one is... but Todd comes close.

McFarlane has demonstrated a sharp understanding of the physicality of the superhero story... he understands the choreography of superhero violence the way Robin Williams understands comic timing... and I think he does it better than anyone SINCE Kirby, frankly.

As a WRITER... well... I've seen better. But I've definitely seen worse.

...but it's hard for me to take a lot of what he says seriously. Sure, he invented Venom, a character who's become wildly popular. Sure, he never got a cent off Venom action figures. Whoopty doodle. I'm sorry, but he knew EXACTLY what he was getting into, and what the situation was. Anything you create for Marvel on company time belongs to MARVEL. He was an artist for hire, nothing more. Admittedly, Marvel pays you to create for the company, to produce creatively, and they promptly confiscate anything you produce... but they do provide a steady paycheck and a health plan.

And anyone working for Marvel knows exactly what the score is. They don't send editors to burglarize your house or anything.

...so Todd got fed up and spearheaded a new comics publisher: Image. This is good. More competition. More comics. More good stuff. Admittedly, Image and Spawn did fuel the speculation craze and comics collapse of the early nineties, but that's hardly Todd's fault. He was just doin' comics.

...so Todd's a hero for leaving the big bad corporation and founding his own company. Peachy. An American success story, and I don't blame him a bit. He didn't like the heat, he got out of the kitchen, and he built his own kitchen, a better one, where HE got the gravy, instead of Marvel!

...and if Image had allowed its younger artists -- its non-founder employees -- to own their own creations, I would have absolutely nothing to gripe about. But instead, they flattered'm by telling 'em that they were "good enough to work for Image," let them play and party as they worked... and paid them page rates. Sure, they were GREAT page rates... but it was page rate. They didn't even get the royalty system that Marvel and DC were introducing, to hang onto decent talent; apparently someone at Image thought this was just too much cash to be layin' on the youngbloods.

In short: meet the new boss, same as the old boss. Even if the new boss lets you cruise for chicks in the company car, it's still exploitation...

This, and the fact that many of the Image titles Strongly resembled titles these guys had done before for Marvel, are reasons I never got into Image Much.

I'm not very McFarlane Friendly.
Spawn's Storyline seems to be direct imitation of an older Marvel Storyline.

Let's see,
Take a Man and Kill him,
Resurect said Man in an inhuman form,
Allow said man to commit a few attrocities,
Allow him to regain some of his former Memmory,
Said Man now wants to return to his Family,
However, he is now an inhuman parody of his old self,
So he scares the carp out of his Family,
He feels Guilty about his past attrocities,
His Name?
DeathLock.

I would rather see more originality than that.

I'd like to see 40's pulp Heroes or "Those Annoying Post Bros." come out first.

Isn't McFarlane the same one who refused to sign some sick kid's comic unless he got paid?

Not sure about the validity of that yarn, but there have been a lot of reasons to dislike him if you want to find them.

Of course, I think most of us can still agree that Leifeld should be taken out and horsewhipped. What exactly was his process when making a character?

"I'll make the shoulders 10 feet wide, and then the ankles will be half an inch! I'm BRILLIANT!!!"

The biggest running joke amongst my friends and I was exactly that. Cable running.

"Stop Badguyman! I'm Cable, and I...*SNAP*...darn, shattered my ankles trying to walk again..."