Over the course of the weekend at Rose City Image Comics had several panels, each looked at different angles and sides of Image. We wanted to cover all of the panels and present them here for you now.
Actually, before we get into the panels it must be noted that David Brothers the moderator for all the Image panels was amazing. He had charisma and brought everyone in the room together and gave its panel tons of energy. When he isn't moderating panels, he provides front page content to the Image Comics site, and hosts a podcast called The I Word.
Adventuring
The first panel of the con we attended was the adventure side of Image and it ran September 19th 10:30 am. The panel featured the creative team of both The Autumnlands (Kurt Busiek & Ben Dewey) and Shutter (Joe Keatinge & Leila Del Duca). I think the first thing that amazed me was that Image had high fantasy comics in their line up. The second thing that impressed me, I was fascinated and interested in both of them.
The Autumnlands is a magical world with anthropomorphic animals and a human. It follows the journey of several characters as they set out to try and stop the once happy and beautiful world they knew from coming to an end. Writer Kurt Busiek speaks of the book with such passion and love for fantasy that you can tell he wants to explore the world he has created just as much as the readers. Ben Dewey on the other hand loves creating all the anthropomorphic creatures that Kurt can think up.
Shutter follows Kate Kristopher as she is forced back into adventuring when a family secret threatens everything she has worked towards her entire life. The story is an urban fantasy that also has some anthropomorphic creatures, dinosaurs, spacemen and a living cat clock. Joe and Leila have made a book they both love to write and draw. This team laughs and looks forward to each page that they do. Seeing them up on stage smile at each other as they talk about their book was nothing short of encouraging for a writer just starting out.
*There was another Thrills of Image comics which included both the team of Bitch Planet and Nailbiter. But you can scroll down and read the spotlight of Nailbiter and a spotlight on Bitch Planet later this week.
Owning it
The last Image Panel from Image, focused on the principals behind the company and featured: Justin Greenwood (The Fuse), Emi Lennox (Plutona), Jeremy Haun (The Beauty) and Image Co-Founder Jim Valentino. The focus at this panel was on creators as whole and what is means to work with Image.
Let us first point out the fact that we got to see Jim Valentino, a man who started in alternative comics and worked for Marvel. He then decided to help carve out what is now arguably the largest comic company after the "big two." The lineup of artists and writers on the panel was a mix of experience in the industry and a mix of genres offered at image. The purpose was the show the vastness and diversity of the company's creators and books
Jim spoke about something that struck me and motivated me. He spoke of working on the book you (creators) want to make. Not the IP of a company that has final say on what the story is that you are trying to tell. At Image the artists and the writers all own their work and have the final say.
It is official. I (Logan) want to have a book published by Image. Why? Because you get to own your work, you find your team (editor,artist, letter etc.) But also because at every Image panel at the convention we saw teams of creators speaking passionately about the books they make and the work they will continue to do. I made a conscious decision to keep using the word team in the post for the simple fact that as a writer and artist you work as a team and collaborate. All the people we saw on stage acted like a team who want to be working with each other and push each other for the best stories they can tell. That is why they are at Image Comics, and that is why I want to be at Image Comics.