Comments on: Image Comics in 1992!

By: Jason A. Quest

Jason A. Quest — Sun, 04 Nov 2007 18:59:02 +0000

I want to state for the record that the 8th creator wasn’t me.

I’m pretty sure it was going to be Gerhard.

By: Scott Bieser

Scott Bieser — Sat, 03 Nov 2007 20:58:12 +0000

Heh. 1992 was the year I ended my working relationship with Malibu, to devote myself fully to computer games. Just goes to show how savvy I am, huh?

By: Brian McDonough

Brian McDonough — Sat, 03 Nov 2007 16:50:22 +0000

Maybe it was Macbeth…

By: Will Emero II

Will Emero II — Fri, 02 Nov 2007 22:35:04 +0000

The mystery 8 th man was to be Chris Claremont – he would have published a series called ‘The Huntsman’ with Wilce Portacio on art – a character/concept later introduced in a ‘WildCATS’ 2 parter Claremont wrote with Jim Lee on the art.

IIRC – Claremont was also to script Wetworks for Portacio, before the property was sold to Aegis/Wildstorm.

By: George Khoury

George Khoury — Fri, 02 Nov 2007 21:58:08 +0000

The eighth member was would have been Chris Claremont; His name was in some of the initial press releases.

You might want to check out my book, Image Comics: The Road to Independence, for some neat 1990s comics history.

By: Kris

Kris — Fri, 02 Nov 2007 20:43:29 +0000

I heard it was Pete Best.

By: Alex Hart

Alex Hart — Fri, 02 Nov 2007 18:00:06 +0000

I thought the 8th member was Brandon Choi, the original writer of WildC.A.T.s. He wasn’t a famous comicker like the others, so people don’t remember him. That, plus I don’t think he worked in comics much after the first WildC.A.T.s miniseries, which took forever to come out anyway. (And made little sense when it did.)

By: Sam Humphries

Sam Humphries — Fri, 02 Nov 2007 16:18:56 +0000

In the brief NYT article about the formation of Image, Claremont is named as the 8th founder.

Worth looking up in the open NYT archives for the reaction from Marvel.

By: Jamie Coville

Jamie Coville — Fri, 02 Nov 2007 16:16:55 +0000

I just e-mailed Larsen. He said CNN screwed up, there was no 8th founder.

By: The Beat

The Beat — Fri, 02 Nov 2007 16:15:12 +0000

YOU ARE ALL WRONG!!!!

By: Jason Green

Jason Green — Fri, 02 Nov 2007 16:12:13 +0000

“If memory serves Portacio didn’t make a book until a year or so later and was no longer a founding member.”

Portacio was still considered a founder, and participated in the “Image founders” panel at San Diego this year. Here’s how Wikipedia phrases it, which jibes with what I’ve read in other places:

“in 1992, Portacio left Marvel to co-found Image Comics with six other high-profile artists. But, Portacio quickly withdrew from his partnership in this enterprise due to his sister’s bout with lupus, eventually publishing his title Wetworks through Jim Lee’s Wildstorm imprint in 1994.”

By: Jason Green

Jason Green — Fri, 02 Nov 2007 16:10:16 +0000

I think the 8th person they’re referring to may be Hank Kanalz, Rob Liefeld’s friend and co-writer on Youngblood, who I believe was a part of some of those early Image meetings (I seem to remember seeing him in some “Image founders” group photos) but was never considered an Image partner in any real sense, and was shown the door relatively quickly. That could just be my faulty memory, though.

By: Dan Z

Dan Z — Fri, 02 Nov 2007 16:07:20 +0000

I remember it originally being Liefeld, McFarlane, Larsen, Valentino, Lee, Portacio, and Silvestri.

Who was the other one? If memory serves Portacio didn’t make a book until a year or so later and was no longer a founding member.

By: Jon Z.

Jon Z. — Fri, 02 Nov 2007 15:46:25 +0000

isn’t there a story that John Byrne was invited to join Image, but didn’t?

i vaguely remember a gossip site of ill-repute (heh) reporting that story once….

By: Jamal Igle

Jamal Igle — Fri, 02 Nov 2007 15:42:10 +0000

Wasn’t the eighth supposed to be Chris Claremont?