By Todd Allen

Get ready to hit refresh a few times.  I’m sitting in the ballroom at the glamourous Oakland Marriott and the Image Keynote is about to begin.

First up the secret origin of Image.  Eric Stephenson talks about getting a phone call from Jim Valentino and hearing about the formation of Image for the first time.

Stephenson is talking about Image founders as people, rather than corporations.  (i.e. Warners/Disney)

Very heavy theme of people bringing other people into Image.  People connecting.  Creators connecting.

Announcements coming.

Howard Chaykin’s Black Kiss 2 is a go!

How did that get away from Dynamite?

Phonogram: The Immaterial Girl.  Gillen/McKelvie (Third Volume)

Planetoid to Image in June, previously a digital comic at graphic.ly

Nick Spencer’s new project is with Riley Rossomo.  The title is “Bedlam.”  Out in the fall.

Steve Niles and Scott Morse on “Crime and Terror.”

Steve Niles and Tony Harris on “Chin Music.”

Brian Wood and Ming Doyle on “Mara.”

Grant Morrison and Darick Robertson on “Happy!”

That’s the end of the project announcements.

The partners (Kirkman is now a partner) are taking a bow.

Aaaaand that’s all she wrote.

Morrison/Robertson certainly qualifies as big news.

1 COMMENT

  1. “The founders (Kirkman is now a founder)”

    But “founder” doesn’t mean someone who joined years after the establishment of an organization. The question is whether you can make words mean so many different things.

  2. >> Stephenson is talking about Image founders as people, rather than corporations. (i.e. Warners/Disney) >>

    The Warners and Disney founders were people too, of course. Some of ’em even named Warner and Disney.

    But this sounds like great news, and a lot of terrific books coming up!

  3. I’m guessing it’s supposed to be “partner” instead of “founder” and there’s a slipup somewhere
    Certainly noone can be called a “founder” without being there to “found” it.

  4. Captain America gets treated as a founding Avenger, and often called one, even though he technically isn’t one. They gave him the Hulk’s privileges, or something.

    But I expect they mean “partner.”

  5. Nah… they probably meant “founder”. Image is going one step beyond the other comic companies by retconning what goes on outside their books, as opposed to what goes on inside their books. ;)

  6. That was actually one of my favorite bits from Mr. Busiek’s AVENGERS run – there’s a story in the second half of the run where the Avengers have to call in Bruce Banner to help fight Diablo, and he calls them on the carpet for the fact that he’s still a founding Avenger and they only bother to call him when they need help. I’ve always loved seeing the Hulk in the Avengers, on the rare occasions when it happens.

    Which has nothing to do with the topic at hand, but makes me imagine Whilce Portacio busting into the press conference yelling at everyone about how he was there at the beginning and they shouldn’t just call him when they need help fighting Diablo.

  7. Tim O’Neil: “Which has nothing to do with the topic at hand, but makes me imagine Whilce Portacio busting into the press conference yelling at everyone about how he was there at the beginning and they shouldn’t just call him when they need help fighting Diablo.”

    …or help getting Spawn sales up. ;^)