WEBVTT - Episode 17: Image Comics 0:00:09.400 --> 0:00:14.200 Welcome back to Notificent Another League, another episode. I am 0:00:14.240 --> 0:00:16.680 one of your hosts, Danny Fernandez, and sitting across for me, 0:00:17.239 --> 0:00:21.680 is your boy the one the only I couldn't think 0:00:21.720 --> 0:00:24.680 of anything that rhymes would only I thought that was 0:00:24.760 --> 0:00:26.920 I thought that was good enough. Yeah, are you literally 0:00:26.960 --> 0:00:32.080 the only if you wat way? Uh? Maybe there's a stride. 0:00:32.240 --> 0:00:34.600 I've done searches. I'm not the only if you shakuda, 0:00:35.320 --> 0:00:37.640 but I am the only if he way that I 0:00:37.720 --> 0:00:39.720 know of. And I was able to snag it before 0:00:39.800 --> 0:00:43.120 some dork, but if he I had to change my 0:00:43.240 --> 0:00:46.360 name to Danny M. Fernandez and it ruined my whole 0:00:46.400 --> 0:00:49.360 identity I was. Originally they wanted me to change it 0:00:49.360 --> 0:00:51.360 to Danny Murray um, and then I would have been 0:00:51.400 --> 0:00:53.400 a to name person, like all the too name freaks 0:00:53.440 --> 0:00:57.160 out there. Shout out to you guys. Jessica Michelle Singleton 0:00:57.320 --> 0:00:59.760 was all like an Aaron mal DeLong and Christopher Smith, 0:00:59.800 --> 0:01:03.360 Bryan and Ryan Leslie Fisher and Sarah Michelle Giller and 0:01:03.440 --> 0:01:06.000 all of the Yeah. But now you're like Michael B. 0:01:06.160 --> 0:01:09.280 George I know, and Michael J. Fox. Michael J. Fox. 0:01:10.240 --> 0:01:13.200 So it's a that's not a bad company to be 0:01:13.240 --> 0:01:16.120 a part of true True, True True. And it's because 0:01:16.160 --> 0:01:19.520 for y'all behind the scenes, your name can't even sound 0:01:19.640 --> 0:01:21.920 like someone else's name. So there wasn't even another Danny 0:01:22.000 --> 0:01:23.880 d A n I, which is mine because it's short 0:01:23.920 --> 0:01:27.479 for Danielle. It's that it sounded like the boy's name, 0:01:27.480 --> 0:01:29.240 which is d A n n Y. I just want 0:01:29.280 --> 0:01:31.640 to give people that didn't want to try and go 0:01:31.760 --> 0:01:39.119 for Danielle Fernandez. No, that's what my mom calls me. No. Um, 0:01:39.400 --> 0:01:41.560 I like my short it's my stage name. It's like 0:01:41.600 --> 0:01:43.760 my it's really short and easy. And I wish I 0:01:43.760 --> 0:01:46.000 could have at Danny. But um, congrats to the twelve 0:01:46.080 --> 0:01:48.240 year old girl that has at Danny that never tweets. 0:01:49.200 --> 0:01:51.680 That's the last thing I tweeted Jack about because when 0:01:51.720 --> 0:01:55.240 he was like, we're deleting all those locked to counts 0:01:55.240 --> 0:01:58.800 so they don't count for your followers. Um, and I 0:01:58.800 --> 0:02:01.640 think I dropped fifty all wards when that happened. And 0:02:01.680 --> 0:02:03.120 he's like, it's going live now, and I was like, 0:02:03.160 --> 0:02:05.240 all right, are you doing anything about the people squatting 0:02:05.280 --> 0:02:08.040 on accounts? Like if he like if he has not tweeted, 0:02:08.360 --> 0:02:10.239 and I'm waiting and I know there's other if he's 0:02:10.240 --> 0:02:13.520 out there waiting for it, we check it out. There's 0:02:13.560 --> 0:02:16.400 other es. Yeah, I wonder if I could like get 0:02:16.440 --> 0:02:20.400 a let's call Jamie Jamie loftus who's a hacker, um 0:02:21.440 --> 0:02:23.480 and see if she's not a real hack. I mean, 0:02:23.560 --> 0:02:25.160 she wouldn't want me to say that she is a 0:02:25.200 --> 0:02:28.520 real hacker, but like see not about hacking, but like 0:02:28.600 --> 0:02:31.200 if they know how to get someone's email and politely 0:02:31.280 --> 0:02:34.640 ask them if we can buy it. Anyways, welcome to Netificent. 0:02:34.840 --> 0:02:39.120 Today we are covering image comics. Yeah. Yeah, no. Image 0:02:39.120 --> 0:02:43.680 comics is very interesting because I think outside of the 0:02:43.919 --> 0:02:47.080 big two, which is Marvel in d C, I think 0:02:47.200 --> 0:02:51.000 I would I would say they're the next popular comic 0:02:51.000 --> 0:02:54.720 book publisher. I mean they they're known for Spawn, you know, 0:02:54.800 --> 0:02:58.639 and they that that's actually originally what the Walking Dead 0:02:58.760 --> 0:03:02.239 and and you a lot of sky Bounds comics kind 0:03:02.240 --> 0:03:06.040 of rooted in was image. So so yeah, i'd say 0:03:06.080 --> 0:03:08.400 they're they're the third. I would almost go on a 0:03:08.440 --> 0:03:11.040 limb and say third. Oh, they are the third, most 0:03:11.040 --> 0:03:14.280 of off top I knew it, you knew it. Yeah, So, 0:03:14.400 --> 0:03:18.720 speaking of they are best known for The Walking Dead, Kingsman, 0:03:18.919 --> 0:03:23.840 Wanted Spawn, Savage Dragon, which Blade the Darkness Invincible Saga. 0:03:24.200 --> 0:03:26.760 It's great and Chew Chew was great. Have you ever 0:03:26.800 --> 0:03:31.080 read it. It's basically about this detective who can like 0:03:31.720 --> 0:03:34.440 see the past if he eats it, so like he'll 0:03:34.440 --> 0:03:37.800 have to write chew on bodies to like see what 0:03:37.960 --> 0:03:41.120 happened in the crime scene. Last I heard they were 0:03:41.120 --> 0:03:42.920 trying to adapt that into a TV show. I think 0:03:42.960 --> 0:03:45.040 it would work. I feel like that's one of those 0:03:45.240 --> 0:03:47.960 that would be a fun procedural that we've lived on, 0:03:48.000 --> 0:03:50.880 like TBS or something. Yeah, for sure, we already have 0:03:50.880 --> 0:03:55.280 a zombie one people get an eat so so. In December, 0:03:56.480 --> 0:04:00.400 Cabal of Comic Creators Todd McFarlane, Rob Life build In, 0:04:00.800 --> 0:04:05.000 Jim Lee, Marvel's three biggest artists, informed Marvel President Terry 0:04:05.040 --> 0:04:08.600 Stewart that the company's policy towards talent were unfair, that 0:04:08.720 --> 0:04:11.680 creators were not being appropriately rewarded for their work, and 0:04:11.720 --> 0:04:15.880 that they were leaving effective immediately. They are also representing 0:04:16.320 --> 0:04:19.560 creators Eric Larson and Mark Sylvestry, who were not present 0:04:19.600 --> 0:04:24.159 but had met within the night before. This was so ballsy. Yeah, 0:04:24.520 --> 0:04:29.480 they were the top the top creators and comic book artists, 0:04:29.640 --> 0:04:32.800 and I think they knew their power. It's really funny 0:04:32.800 --> 0:04:36.719 because later in an interview that Mark Sylvestry did, he 0:04:36.800 --> 0:04:39.760 said it wasn't actually that much of a risk because 0:04:39.839 --> 0:04:42.119 Marvel would take them back in a heartbeat. He knew 0:04:42.160 --> 0:04:45.280 that they needed them, Oh yeah, and so they just 0:04:45.440 --> 0:04:49.400 walked away, and they mainly walked away. Yeah, for those reasons. 0:04:49.400 --> 0:04:52.400 They wanted to create something where comic creators could publish 0:04:52.440 --> 0:04:55.960 their own creation of materials without giving up the copyrights 0:04:56.000 --> 0:04:59.039 to those properties. And they still honor that till this day, 0:04:59.120 --> 0:05:02.560 which is why Image Comics is one of the kind 0:05:02.560 --> 0:05:04.839 of best comic book companies to work for if you 0:05:04.839 --> 0:05:07.679 have the power to kind of push your own brand 0:05:07.760 --> 0:05:10.880 and own it. And that's the sole reason that Robert Kirkland, 0:05:11.279 --> 0:05:16.360 Robert Kirkman sky Bound exists today because he he basically 0:05:16.560 --> 0:05:19.479 owns Walking Dead. He was able to then put it 0:05:19.600 --> 0:05:23.400 under his own umbrella company and do more with it, 0:05:23.440 --> 0:05:26.599 which like create the TV show and the video games, 0:05:26.600 --> 0:05:29.719 the Tailtale video games and other things like that. So 0:05:30.200 --> 0:05:33.160 you see the power in owning your own property versus 0:05:33.200 --> 0:05:35.640 having it sold off for pennies like Marvel did to 0:05:35.800 --> 0:05:39.280 the likes of Spider Man and and all the other 0:05:39.320 --> 0:05:43.040 ones that ended up sitting in a semi cinematic graveyard 0:05:43.120 --> 0:05:47.880 until the I guess about nineties. McFarland actually said there 0:05:47.880 --> 0:05:51.800 were no demands of Stuart or Marvel, but they merely 0:05:51.839 --> 0:05:54.200 informed him they were leaving. Can you imagine that, like 0:05:54.279 --> 0:05:56.479 didn't even like give him an opportunity, just you know 0:05:56.520 --> 0:05:59.480 they were leaving. They gave their reasons why and cautioned 0:05:59.520 --> 0:06:02.800 Stewart to heed those reasons unless they wanted more people 0:06:02.839 --> 0:06:05.360 to leave the company. I did want to say on 0:06:05.440 --> 0:06:08.680 an Image Comics Expo panel, which they did end up 0:06:08.680 --> 0:06:12.680 having an Image Comics Expo twenty years after they had 0:06:12.720 --> 0:06:17.520 formed Image Comics, Liefeld reiterated that again he wasn't upset 0:06:17.520 --> 0:06:20.279 about leaving Marvel, how he wasn't at all frustrated or 0:06:20.320 --> 0:06:23.120 disappointed with his tenure at Marvel, as much as the 0:06:23.120 --> 0:06:25.240 fact that he just more was looking forward to doing 0:06:25.279 --> 0:06:28.240 new stuff for the future. So I don't know, it 0:06:28.279 --> 0:06:32.520 sounds like they didn't necessarily have a It was kind 0:06:32.520 --> 0:06:35.280 of more of a business, maybe a passion type of thing. 0:06:35.839 --> 0:06:39.120 It felt. It feels like it was more like, Hey, 0:06:39.160 --> 0:06:42.400 we're doing this thing, and this is why we're doing it. 0:06:42.839 --> 0:06:45.240 But if you change your policies, you might be able 0:06:45.279 --> 0:06:49.200 to prevent other top artists from doing this in the future. 0:06:50.600 --> 0:06:52.960 But it didn't stop at Marvel See. The creators had 0:06:53.000 --> 0:06:55.120 the same meeting with d C Comics the next day. 0:06:55.200 --> 0:06:58.200 Jim Ley asked Whilst Potassio, who worked on The Punisher 0:06:58.520 --> 0:07:01.120 X Factor the Uncanny x And to join them as well, 0:07:01.920 --> 0:07:03.479 and then the team worked out a deal with a 0:07:03.520 --> 0:07:07.440 small publisher, Malibu Comics, for production and distribution, and then 0:07:07.520 --> 0:07:10.200 decided on the title for their new company, Recycling, a 0:07:10.280 --> 0:07:13.440 name that Lifeld had originally intended for an aborted self 0:07:13.440 --> 0:07:18.520 published venture. On February one, a press release was sent 0:07:18.600 --> 0:07:22.560 out announcing the formation of Image Comics. Yeah so it 0:07:22.640 --> 0:07:25.720 was originally a group of eight creators that founded it. 0:07:25.800 --> 0:07:28.080 That would include Todd McFarland, who was known for his 0:07:28.080 --> 0:07:31.320 work on Spider Man, Jim Lee for X Men, Rob 0:07:31.400 --> 0:07:34.840 Lifeld who worked on X Force, Mark Sylvestri worked on Wolverine, 0:07:35.000 --> 0:07:37.840 Eric Larson who did The Amazing Spider Man, Jim Valentino 0:07:37.880 --> 0:07:40.200 who did Guardians of the Galaxy, and Will's Potassio who 0:07:40.200 --> 0:07:44.000 did Uncunny X Men, and also longtime Uncanny X Men 0:07:44.080 --> 0:07:49.280 writer Chris Claremont, and this development was nicknamed the Exodus 0:07:49.760 --> 0:07:52.800 get it because of the people that worked on it. 0:07:53.440 --> 0:07:58.280 So Marvel stock fell three dollars in twenty five cents 0:07:58.280 --> 0:08:02.360 a share when the news became public. And Images Organizing 0:08:02.440 --> 0:08:07.239 charter had two key provisions. One Image would not own 0:08:07.320 --> 0:08:12.000 any creator's work. The creator would too. No Image partner 0:08:12.080 --> 0:08:16.960 would interfere creatively or financially with any other partners work, 0:08:17.440 --> 0:08:21.880 foreshadowing this would come back in this group. And Image 0:08:21.880 --> 0:08:26.360 itself would own no intellectual property except the company trademarks 0:08:26.400 --> 0:08:28.840 its name and its logo, which was designed by writer 0:08:28.920 --> 0:08:32.679 Hank Canals. Yeah. Each Image partner founded his own studio, 0:08:32.760 --> 0:08:36.200 which published under the Image banner, but was autonomous from 0:08:36.200 --> 0:08:40.280 central editorial control. Oh so, so that basically that's what 0:08:40.440 --> 0:08:44.120 Robert did with sky Bountain. Seems like Claremont was not 0:08:44.240 --> 0:08:47.480 part of the partnership and Portasio withdrew during the formative 0:08:47.480 --> 0:08:50.800 stages to deal with his sister's illness. So Image originally 0:08:50.800 --> 0:08:54.960 consisted of six studios. Todd McFarland Productions owned by Todd 0:08:55.200 --> 0:08:59.880 Farland obviously Wild Storm Productions owned by Jim Lee, Highbrow 0:09:00.120 --> 0:09:04.679 Entertainment owned by Eric Larson, Shadow Line owned by Jim Valentino. 0:09:04.840 --> 0:09:07.360 Top Cow, we know top Cow, that's they It seems 0:09:07.400 --> 0:09:10.200 like they kind of spawned out in their their own 0:09:10.200 --> 0:09:13.360 thing now top Cow Production owned by Mark Sylvestry and 0:09:13.480 --> 0:09:17.040 Extreme Studios owned by Rob Liefeld. So this is real 0:09:17.120 --> 0:09:20.480 cool because I didn't know top Cow came from Image 0:09:20.559 --> 0:09:23.760 because top Cow now just for the image in my 0:09:23.800 --> 0:09:25.600 head that popped up. They have their own booth at 0:09:25.600 --> 0:09:28.920 Comic Con now and sky Bound the same way, and 0:09:29.640 --> 0:09:33.000 it's crazy that and you just see the power of 0:09:33.760 --> 0:09:36.559 why that's such a good thing because it only helps 0:09:36.640 --> 0:09:42.840 Image because obviously they still have loyalty to Image because 0:09:42.880 --> 0:09:45.920 they gave them the opportunity. But now they're creating these 0:09:46.040 --> 0:09:50.360 smaller indie studios that can just blow up on their own, 0:09:50.400 --> 0:09:53.400 like top Cow and now sky Bound. Well. Also Todd 0:09:53.440 --> 0:09:57.320 McFarland's properties really blew up with Spawn and Wild Storm 0:09:57.400 --> 0:09:59.800 as well that Jim Lee did, which he ended up 0:09:59.800 --> 0:10:03.640 so lane actually, so we'll get into that. But the 0:10:03.679 --> 0:10:06.880 first Image comic books to arrive in stores were Lifefield's 0:10:06.960 --> 0:10:12.640 Young Blood, Larsen's The Savage Dragon, McFarland Spawn, and Lee's Wildcats. 0:10:12.880 --> 0:10:16.719 Did you ever watch the Wildcats animated series. I did not, 0:10:16.880 --> 0:10:19.280 actually I think I did. I'm I'm gonna look it 0:10:19.320 --> 0:10:22.280 up real quick, and it's funny. Out of this starting lineup, 0:10:22.320 --> 0:10:25.360 the only one I can't remember is Savage Dragon. I 0:10:25.360 --> 0:10:29.400 remember Young Blood, I remember Spawn, and Wildcat. When I 0:10:29.440 --> 0:10:31.200 look it up, I'm sure i'm gonna remember it. But 0:10:31.520 --> 0:10:36.520 Savage Dragon was also an animated show as well. Really, yeah, 0:10:36.559 --> 0:10:38.480 it's't that funny. But I think a lot of people, 0:10:38.520 --> 0:10:40.520 so we've said this before, but if you and I 0:10:40.520 --> 0:10:43.040 were born the same year, that's why we're so perfect together. 0:10:43.880 --> 0:10:45.480 If you and I were both born in eighty eight, 0:10:45.559 --> 0:10:48.680 and uh, we love all of our fans of all ages. 0:10:48.720 --> 0:10:50.480 But it's really funny because I think people forget that. 0:10:50.559 --> 0:10:52.079 Sometimes they'll be like, you didn't watch it in its 0:10:52.080 --> 0:10:54.319 original run. I was like, no, actually, my parents had 0:10:54.360 --> 0:10:58.240 not conceived me yet. Um, so I didn't watch Star 0:10:58.280 --> 0:11:04.360 Wars originally in theaters on Fortunately. Oh I remember Wildcats 0:11:04.440 --> 0:11:08.319 because I remember the dude with the Deadpool esque mask 0:11:08.440 --> 0:11:12.200 hanging off, but but but the top his hair was blonde, 0:11:12.200 --> 0:11:13.880 so you knew he had blonde hair. I was like, 0:11:14.000 --> 0:11:16.400 that's the cool guy. That was my favorite of course, 0:11:16.720 --> 0:11:20.079 because any guy in the nineties, but also like the 0:11:20.120 --> 0:11:23.800 main character, like or the hero, he had his hair 0:11:23.880 --> 0:11:26.319 coming up. That was like the nineties were the time 0:11:26.360 --> 0:11:29.319 where you had those masks where your hair would poof 0:11:29.320 --> 0:11:36.880 out the tops. And yes, that was very popular for that. 0:11:38.880 --> 0:11:41.520 That was his jam and popped up a lot in 0:11:41.640 --> 0:11:44.680 a lot of the Image comics. So but because of 0:11:44.920 --> 0:11:48.080 they were so passionate, these creators were so passionate behind 0:11:48.120 --> 0:11:51.040 this project and it was their project that they really 0:11:51.040 --> 0:11:53.959 put their heart and soul into it, and their series 0:11:54.080 --> 0:11:57.520 sold in numbers that no publisher other than Marvel, d 0:11:57.600 --> 0:12:00.920 C or Valiant Comics had achieved in since the markets 0:12:00.920 --> 0:12:04.360 declined back in the nineteen seventies. So within a few months, 0:12:04.360 --> 0:12:07.440 the Image title success led to Malibu having almost ten 0:12:07.559 --> 0:12:12.319 percent of the North American comics market share a few months. 0:12:12.360 --> 0:12:15.160 That's how powerful they were that they could leave and 0:12:15.280 --> 0:12:18.720 start their own comic book company and take off. Also, 0:12:18.760 --> 0:12:21.600 we want to say that this is the nineties coming 0:12:21.600 --> 0:12:25.120 off of the seventies, which had a huge boom in 0:12:25.240 --> 0:12:28.400 like the value of comics from that era, and so 0:12:28.520 --> 0:12:31.920 you had people who were trying to always get like 0:12:32.040 --> 0:12:34.400 what would be the new thing that's going to be 0:12:34.480 --> 0:12:37.600 valuable in the future. So you had that on your 0:12:37.640 --> 0:12:41.920 side to um, which actually led to the overproduction of 0:12:42.000 --> 0:12:47.559 comics and the the the unnecessary deaths of certain characters 0:12:47.600 --> 0:12:50.040 to really drive people to the stains to try and 0:12:50.120 --> 0:12:54.400 buy it. Actually, I was going to talk about when 0:12:54.480 --> 0:12:57.640 Johnny Storm died a few a few years back, that 0:12:57.800 --> 0:13:01.800 was just over over marketed. It was black bagged, and 0:13:01.800 --> 0:13:06.079 then he came back later. So the only person who's 0:13:06.120 --> 0:13:08.240 died for a long period of time, even and I 0:13:08.280 --> 0:13:11.079 think I mentioned this in the early episode, was Jean Gray, 0:13:11.320 --> 0:13:14.560 and it was because they realized they made a broken character. 0:13:14.559 --> 0:13:16.599 When you make someone like the Phoenix God, you're like, 0:13:16.880 --> 0:13:19.000 we gotta get rid of this. Because part of me 0:13:19.160 --> 0:13:22.080 was like, oh man, that sucks that Jean Gray is 0:13:22.120 --> 0:13:24.600 the like is the only one. But then when you 0:13:24.800 --> 0:13:27.360 thought about you're like, oh, yeah, they made her broken. 0:13:27.440 --> 0:13:29.480 She can bring people back to life, she can end 0:13:29.520 --> 0:13:32.920 life with a snap. They they're like, oh man, but 0:13:33.360 --> 0:13:34.880 you could have just pulled that out of her and 0:13:34.960 --> 0:13:38.280 had another female character. But you know, comics. But you 0:13:38.320 --> 0:13:39.800 made a good point if that this was a time 0:13:39.800 --> 0:13:42.120 when people were starting to collect first edition like they 0:13:42.120 --> 0:13:44.640 were collecting comic books for financial reasons. They were kind 0:13:44.679 --> 0:13:47.480 of shifting from trading cards because I was the thing 0:13:47.480 --> 0:13:49.760 that was really popular with trading cards now to comics. 0:13:50.160 --> 0:13:54.600 So by the beginning of Images, Financial Situation was secure 0:13:54.679 --> 0:13:58.040 enough to publish its titles independently, and they left Malibu. 0:13:58.120 --> 0:14:00.959 They're telling all these people, we don't need you anymore. Well, 0:14:01.080 --> 0:14:03.840 I mean, that's it seems like that's the whole business 0:14:03.880 --> 0:14:06.200 model was like, get good enough to be on your 0:14:06.240 --> 0:14:08.680 feet and run on your own and do your thing. 0:14:09.280 --> 0:14:12.559 Go go, go top Cal run, run for the hills, 0:14:12.559 --> 0:14:15.599 you go sky bound, you could do it. Todd McFarland Productions, 0:14:15.640 --> 0:14:18.120 go go wait, wait, why are you making that movie 0:14:18.160 --> 0:14:21.040 with Michael g I White. I know he's great, but somehow, how, 0:14:21.080 --> 0:14:26.240 how did you make a crappy You know what I 0:14:26.280 --> 0:14:28.040 was gonna I was gonna walk that back and say, 0:14:28.280 --> 0:14:31.960 I actually really enjoyed the Spawn and the HBO animated series, 0:14:32.000 --> 0:14:34.040 which was too hot for me to watch, but you 0:14:34.080 --> 0:14:36.080 know who snuck up and watched it put it on 0:14:36.080 --> 0:14:39.800 a VHS. You boy, it was. It was good, But 0:14:40.360 --> 0:14:43.280 I wanted to put an asterisk next to uh, trading cards. 0:14:43.880 --> 0:14:46.040 We're not coming for baseball cards. But don't think we're 0:14:46.080 --> 0:14:48.560 sleeping on trading card games were coming for your Magic 0:14:48.600 --> 0:14:52.120 the Gatherings. I spent too much money on Magic the 0:14:52.160 --> 0:14:54.440 Gathering for me not to talk about it on this 0:14:54.920 --> 0:14:57.160 And we're talking about you, and we're talking about Pokemon, 0:14:57.240 --> 0:15:00.480 which you know in the Nerdficent discord, people were asking, 0:15:00.880 --> 0:15:04.640 you know, what is the second popular trading card game, 0:15:04.640 --> 0:15:06.920 and like people were like jokingly like, oh, Pokemon. You 0:15:07.040 --> 0:15:11.400 actually Pokemon and Ugo still have very active tournaments to 0:15:11.480 --> 0:15:14.840 this day. But we'll save that for that episode. If 0:15:14.880 --> 0:15:17.680 I need to tell you that Mark mark ellis another 0:15:17.960 --> 0:15:20.960 He has a pack. He just looked his pack of 0:15:21.280 --> 0:15:23.720 Magic the Gathering cards and were thirty thousand or something. 0:15:24.160 --> 0:15:27.240 I was like, Hi, but he is so you know Mark, 0:15:27.360 --> 0:15:31.760 He's so like chill. Yeah, I'll just sometimes I'm like, no, 0:15:31.840 --> 0:15:37.920 you gotta do it now, Mark, please, because um, it 0:15:38.040 --> 0:15:41.160 is worth more unopened than open, because if you open 0:15:41.200 --> 0:15:44.080 it and it's a dud, you get nothing. Somebody will 0:15:44.080 --> 0:15:49.240 spend that money and hope they get a black lotus. Yeah. 0:15:49.440 --> 0:15:52.720 All right. So with all of this happening, of course, 0:15:52.760 --> 0:15:56.120 Marvel suffered greatly. The sudden death of Talent would eventually 0:15:56.200 --> 0:16:00.680 lead up to the company's famous bankruptcy. In Jim Vlentino said, 0:16:00.680 --> 0:16:03.480 although Image got blamed for it, the decline in bankruptcy 0:16:03.640 --> 0:16:06.000 actually started back when they were at Marvel, which I 0:16:06.040 --> 0:16:09.320 would agree with. Like I was saying, they're just in 0:16:09.520 --> 0:16:11.360 and like we said before this, they were on a 0:16:11.400 --> 0:16:14.440 decline to begin with. It wasn't necessarily Image. Image was 0:16:14.520 --> 0:16:17.320 just the new hotness at the same time, and Image 0:16:17.320 --> 0:16:19.760 Comics became one of the most popular imprints of the 0:16:19.760 --> 0:16:24.000 mid nineties. Yeah, nothing to me, says ninety comics like Image. 0:16:24.000 --> 0:16:26.000 I wouldn't say Marvel, I wouldn't say I'm sorry, I 0:16:26.040 --> 0:16:29.360 won't say Marvelous to you, nineties comics were Image because 0:16:29.360 --> 0:16:32.600 you saw that spawn, you saw the buckles, young Bloods, 0:16:32.600 --> 0:16:35.160 blood Shot at the time, Valiant in the picture, Like, 0:16:35.320 --> 0:16:38.200 those were nineties comics to me, I wasn't thinking about 0:16:38.240 --> 0:16:40.160 those guys yet. I mean, they were still on the 0:16:40.240 --> 0:16:42.920 stands because their mainstay. But if if I had to 0:16:43.400 --> 0:16:46.240 scream out one, it probably would be Image. And every 0:16:46.280 --> 0:16:48.880 single book that came out of Images First Error was 0:16:48.960 --> 0:16:53.040 covered in visors and blood and claws and boob. Yeah, 0:16:53.120 --> 0:16:56.840 intended for kids nurtured on nerd rage with desperate Matt 0:16:56.960 --> 0:17:00.760 Macheesmo would would yeah, that's nineties. There was Which Blade, 0:17:00.800 --> 0:17:03.840 a comic about a gauntlet that pairs onto a female host, 0:17:04.119 --> 0:17:07.560 giving them superpowers and tearing off their clothes till till 0:17:07.640 --> 0:17:10.960 they were basically just if you don't know what Which 0:17:10.960 --> 0:17:14.040 Blade is, I would suggest googling it. Not at work, 0:17:14.200 --> 0:17:19.480 but a live action TV show. But it was very 0:17:19.480 --> 0:17:21.679 toned down because I remember tuning in to be like, 0:17:21.720 --> 0:17:24.600 are they gonna are they gonna Which Blade? Which Blade? 0:17:24.920 --> 0:17:29.200 They did not, But do you remember j Lo's famous 0:17:29.440 --> 0:17:33.560 VMA's outfit that that kind of split down the middle 0:17:33.920 --> 0:17:39.000 that imagine that, but like cool nineties semi metal tentacles 0:17:39.080 --> 0:17:42.560 type looking things. That's Which Blade? Yeah, yeah, also a 0:17:42.560 --> 0:17:46.600 good cause play. So by the mid Image series such 0:17:46.600 --> 0:17:49.479 a spawn in The Savage Dragon had proven themselves as 0:17:49.600 --> 0:17:53.240 lasting successes, the former frequently topping the sales charts for 0:17:53.400 --> 0:17:56.280 months in which new issues came out. Well. New series 0:17:56.280 --> 0:17:59.040 such as Wild Storms, Jen and Top Cows, Which Blade 0:17:59.080 --> 0:18:02.760 and The Darkness were also successful. Image had become the 0:18:02.840 --> 0:18:08.800 third largest comics publisher in North America that quickly, that quickly. 0:18:09.520 --> 0:18:13.320 In the Darkness too, I remember lasted because this is 0:18:13.400 --> 0:18:17.520 like the mid nineties, and I think on the midts 0:18:17.760 --> 0:18:20.640 the two thousand's they had that Darkness game came out, 0:18:20.720 --> 0:18:23.760 and that was like everyone was like freaking out about it. 0:18:23.840 --> 0:18:26.320 At the time, I was was unaware of the comics 0:18:27.359 --> 0:18:29.720 and I didn't know why people were so hyped on it, 0:18:29.760 --> 0:18:31.600 but it was because people were like, Oh, this comic 0:18:31.680 --> 0:18:35.199 book video game is coming out and it's like super 0:18:35.280 --> 0:18:39.760 broody and dark. I mean it's literally called the Darkness. Yeah. 0:18:40.040 --> 0:18:42.479 So during this time they were still in this like 0:18:42.600 --> 0:18:46.920 honeymoon phase for them. They also kind of were celebrities. 0:18:46.960 --> 0:18:49.600 Now it's so weird, like we see this now with 0:18:49.680 --> 0:18:53.280 a but typically it's not necessarily the comic book creators 0:18:53.359 --> 0:18:56.040 or even like the vo actors or whatever of the series. 0:18:56.080 --> 0:18:59.320 It's normally you know, Hugh Jackman or whoever you know. 0:18:59.359 --> 0:19:01.399 Not for this time, but like whoever was playing the 0:19:01.480 --> 0:19:03.800 character wasn't necessarily the behind the scenes people, but they 0:19:03.840 --> 0:19:08.720 became like celebrities. They actually had a book signing appearance 0:19:08.720 --> 0:19:12.160 at Golden Apple Comics in Los Angeles as the first 0:19:12.200 --> 0:19:16.000 Image comics were coming out, and life Field appeared on 0:19:16.040 --> 0:19:17.640 the front page of the l A Times. There were 0:19:17.640 --> 0:19:21.320 TV cameras there were helicopters, there were police brought in 0:19:21.359 --> 0:19:24.160 for crowd control. They said as many as two thousand fans. 0:19:24.800 --> 0:19:27.280 Lifefield said, by the time we got to the Chicago 0:19:27.320 --> 0:19:30.120 Comic Con, we were just riding the wave of it. 0:19:30.359 --> 0:19:33.360 They actually, Yeah, this, this, I would say, is very 0:19:33.440 --> 0:19:39.440 much there. Their honeymoon phase before the drama. If someone 0:19:39.480 --> 0:19:43.320 ever uses the honeymoon phase, you know that it has 0:19:43.400 --> 0:19:47.000 to end and when the drama comes, he gets quite spiced. 0:19:47.800 --> 0:20:01.480 Let's get to the drama. After these messages back everyone, 0:20:01.960 --> 0:20:08.000 I'm trying that out and it did not like it. Yeah, 0:20:08.000 --> 0:20:11.320 that might be the new thing. Producers are like trying. 0:20:11.359 --> 0:20:13.480 One of them is very disappointed, the other one's giggling, 0:20:14.359 --> 0:20:19.160 so so they just split split reaction. But let's get 0:20:19.160 --> 0:20:21.520 into this drama that popped off. See, I am a 0:20:21.560 --> 0:20:25.240 messy boy who loves the drama pettiness that is involved 0:20:25.280 --> 0:20:29.359 with these men petty as hell. I love it. I 0:20:29.440 --> 0:20:32.040 forgot what I was doing, but I was doing something 0:20:32.320 --> 0:20:36.040 petty to a friend and I was with one of 0:20:36.040 --> 0:20:39.359 my female friends and she remarks is like, see, people 0:20:39.400 --> 0:20:42.240 say women are petty, but man, I was like, oh, 0:20:42.320 --> 0:20:45.040 you don't you have a clue. You have no clue. 0:20:45.359 --> 0:20:49.040 You have no clue. Did you see how someone financed 0:20:49.080 --> 0:20:52.840 tolk Holgan's case against Gawker? Because that that is the 0:20:52.880 --> 0:20:56.960 pettiness that only comes from Richmond. Let's not even get 0:20:57.000 --> 0:20:59.360 started on what might be coming in the future from 0:20:59.560 --> 0:21:03.479 such the likes of Elon musk Uh. He has too 0:21:03.560 --> 0:21:06.720 much money and too much male pettiness, and he could 0:21:06.720 --> 0:21:11.399 only go bad. But let's get into the drama. The 0:21:11.440 --> 0:21:14.880 partners had little business or management experience, and mini series 0:21:15.040 --> 0:21:18.399 quickly fell behind their intended publishing schedule. As the issue 0:21:18.440 --> 0:21:21.919 shipped weeks and even several months late, fans interests tended 0:21:21.960 --> 0:21:25.440 to wayne and left retailers with inventory they couldn't sell 0:21:25.440 --> 0:21:29.119 when it arrived. In response, retailers cut orders to reduce 0:21:29.200 --> 0:21:32.680 the risk. This significantly hurt the studios, which were each 0:21:32.720 --> 0:21:36.600 responsible for their own cash flow and profitability. Some issues 0:21:36.600 --> 0:21:41.040 of Lifefeld's Young Bloods arrived nine months late. Yeah, someone 0:21:41.119 --> 0:21:43.280 straight up was like, I can't read this. I have 0:21:43.320 --> 0:21:45.359 to take care of my baby. I thought I was 0:21:45.400 --> 0:21:47.840 gonna jam out on my laps. Yeah. Here's the thing. 0:21:47.960 --> 0:21:51.000 These men were so great and talented and powerful that 0:21:51.000 --> 0:21:54.200 they could leave their respective one. They could leave their 0:21:54.200 --> 0:21:57.679 respective studios like Marvel in d C and know that 0:21:57.760 --> 0:22:00.680 they would still take them back. But to they were 0:22:00.760 --> 0:22:03.159 at the heart of it artists. They weren't businessmen, so 0:22:03.200 --> 0:22:05.080 they weren't trained on the business side. That has to 0:22:05.119 --> 0:22:08.679 do with printing, shipping logistics, and then counting. Yeah, and 0:22:08.720 --> 0:22:11.840 then on top of that do have Yeah, the deadlines 0:22:11.880 --> 0:22:14.760 are the hardest thing. Like I mean, if you if 0:22:14.800 --> 0:22:17.000 if if you want to know how hard deadlines are? 0:22:17.280 --> 0:22:19.919 Asked Kevin Smith, I love you, but man, can you 0:22:20.040 --> 0:22:23.320 not drop a comic on time? Like it's it's just 0:22:23.600 --> 0:22:26.160 it seems so simple, but when you really think about it, 0:22:26.320 --> 0:22:28.400 if you think about the time it takes to complete 0:22:28.440 --> 0:22:31.159 a comic, writing up the script, getting a pencil inked 0:22:31.160 --> 0:22:34.119 and colored, you have to do that in the span 0:22:34.160 --> 0:22:36.840 of a month. If you, if you, if you get 0:22:36.880 --> 0:22:40.560 ahead start normally you you could buffer that. But most times, 0:22:40.600 --> 0:22:45.199 I imagine guys like Image the rising popularity, you're doing it. 0:22:45.600 --> 0:22:48.000