What do you think?
Rate this book
The Official Image Timeline
Just in time to celebrate Image Comics’ 30th anniversary, Image archivist and co-founder JIM VALENTINO details the company’s history (warts and all) in the single most comprehensive chronology of the company ever published. Featuring rarely seen covers, photos, milestones, and behind-the-scenes events from the company’s Marvel-ous beginnings to the present, this is the chronicle all future histories will be judged against.
Featuring an introduction by Image Publisher ERIC STEPHENSON and a chronicle of historic Image accolades, and printed in beautiful 64-page prestige format.
Featuring an introduction by Image Publisher ERIC STEPHENSON and a chronicle of historic Image accolades, and printed in beautiful 64-page prestige format.
68 pages, Paperback
First published February 2, 2022
2 people are currently reading
11 people want to read
About the author
Jim Valentino
266 books24 followersJim Valentino is an American writer, penciler, editor and publisher of comic books. He is a co-founder of Image Comics and served as the company's publisher from 1999-2004. Jim created such diverse series as normalman, A Touch of Silver, Vignettes and ShadowHawk. He also wrote and drew Guardians of the Galaxy for Marvel Comcs.
He currently heads his own imprint at Image called Shadowline which publishes Rat Queens, Faster Than Light, Jimmie Robinson, Ted McKeever and more.
He currently heads his own imprint at Image called Shadowline which publishes Rat Queens, Faster Than Light, Jimmie Robinson, Ted McKeever and more.
Ratings & Reviews
Friends & Following
Create a free account to discover what your friends think of this book!
Community Reviews
Displaying 1 - 6 of 6 reviews
February 24, 2022
This was so much better than I thought it would be. Jim Valentino brings us through a year by year breakdown of Image including back to the Marvel days. There's some inside baseball moments like the Image 7's discussion with Marvel's CEO. When they informed Terry Stewart they were leaving, he offered them the Epic Comics imprint. They turned him down and his response was "You boys don't get that anyone can pick the cotton." Times certainly have changed since 1991. MacFarlane has referred to Marvel as "The Plantation" ever since.
There's a ton of photos and covers. I would recommend reading this digitally though as most are quite small and I needed to really blow them up to take them in. There's also photos of all kinds of statues, toys and memorabilia. Those were great too. This was a nice look back at a lot of history I'd forgotten about.
There's a ton of photos and covers. I would recommend reading this digitally though as most are quite small and I needed to really blow them up to take them in. There's also photos of all kinds of statues, toys and memorabilia. Those were great too. This was a nice look back at a lot of history I'd forgotten about.
May 30, 2022
Quite the mixed-bag of quality here. At the same time a bare-bones and full-to-the-gills breakdown of Image’s thirty years of comics-making, I had just as many moments of “Wow, I’ve got to check that out!” as “Wow, I can’t believe this trash was published!” (Frank Cho, my beloathed).
While the quick and sometimes humorous snippets for each milestone were appreciated, I definitely would have also appreciated some context or descriptions for the works. What was this Eisner award-winning series about? Go look it up. Why were Image/Todd McFarlane sued by Tony Twist and Neil Gaiman? It’s a mystery.
It was certainly interesting to see the art styles develop over the years, but you can definitely tell who was making the art and for what audience! It’s either beefed-up muscle machines or barely-clothed booby babes for a looong time after Image began.
You can also tell that there was some drama behind the scenes, but Jim’s not going to tell you about that, considering he’s both a founding member and former publisher. You just need to read how often creators jumped between studios and are starting their own union.
All in all, this should probably be a lot bigger! However, if you’re looking for a quick history of the company and some reading recommendations, this isn’t half bad.
While the quick and sometimes humorous snippets for each milestone were appreciated, I definitely would have also appreciated some context or descriptions for the works. What was this Eisner award-winning series about? Go look it up. Why were Image/Todd McFarlane sued by Tony Twist and Neil Gaiman? It’s a mystery.
It was certainly interesting to see the art styles develop over the years, but you can definitely tell who was making the art and for what audience! It’s either beefed-up muscle machines or barely-clothed booby babes for a looong time after Image began.
You can also tell that there was some drama behind the scenes, but Jim’s not going to tell you about that, considering he’s both a founding member and former publisher. You just need to read how often creators jumped between studios and are starting their own union.
All in all, this should probably be a lot bigger! However, if you’re looking for a quick history of the company and some reading recommendations, this isn’t half bad.
March 9, 2022
This is a lot of trees, but the forest is nowhere to be seen.
This book is a timeline of key dates in the Image history, but it doesn't provide a huge amount of context, and the included covers are fairly small and not particularly detailed.
There is a lot of information here, and people who have been following Image over the years will probably be nodding their heads and saying "I remember when that happened." But for those who aren't as familiar with the history, the details provided don't really provide much insight as to why some of the things are being mentioned.
I would have loved to see some more information provided - maybe charts showing the overlapping employment time for key staff, or the time lines for publication for major issues. Maybe an actual list of all the titles Image has published. There's just so much more information that could have been included without a lot of additional work that would have made this a much more effective time capsule of the publisher's history.
Still, what's here is useful and interesting. It just could have been so much more.
This book is a timeline of key dates in the Image history, but it doesn't provide a huge amount of context, and the included covers are fairly small and not particularly detailed.
There is a lot of information here, and people who have been following Image over the years will probably be nodding their heads and saying "I remember when that happened." But for those who aren't as familiar with the history, the details provided don't really provide much insight as to why some of the things are being mentioned.
I would have loved to see some more information provided - maybe charts showing the overlapping employment time for key staff, or the time lines for publication for major issues. Maybe an actual list of all the titles Image has published. There's just so much more information that could have been included without a lot of additional work that would have made this a much more effective time capsule of the publisher's history.
Still, what's here is useful and interesting. It just could have been so much more.
May 4, 2025
t the history as told by someone who was there
I love stuff like this because you get to see and read about behind the scenes stuff. Great info and loved learning about the inter company ashcans
I love stuff like this because you get to see and read about behind the scenes stuff. Great info and loved learning about the inter company ashcans
December 10, 2023
Really interesting history. Not in depth, but interesting tidbits!
August 24, 2024
amazing walk down memory lane
This was a great celebratory retrospective issue. Also some there are some Comics I wasn’t familiar with that I want to check out now.
Thanks
This was a great celebratory retrospective issue. Also some there are some Comics I wasn’t familiar with that I want to check out now.
Thanks
Displaying 1 - 6 of 6 reviews