Creator-Owned Heroes
Almost a year ago now, Image Comics launched an ad campaign that I can as an indie comics creator really get behind: Experience Creativity. It was right around the time that I was formulating the idea for BuyIndieComics.com. Eric Stephenson and I were apparently on the same wavelength. Or maybe we all hit the breaking point around the same time. It was just a few months after DC had launched The New 52, Marvel was talking about doing something very similar, and Alan Moore’s meant-to-be-a-standalone-work, Watchmen was being sullied.
It was about half a year later that Image Comics and a team of big name creators including Jimmy Palmioti and Steve Niles started to publish Creator-Owned Heroes through Image Comics. It was a magazine of sorts that included pieces of short stories by these creators as well as short articles and interviews by and about these same creators and their creator friends. What a wonderful idea. The indie comics scene needs a place for all of us to self-promote and talk about ourselves.
So, here I am, writing an article about indie comics promotion for my site about indie comics promotion at 10PM in the middle of a Turkey Day holiday from my day job with Eddie Murphy Raw playing in the background. I am by no means complaining. I am in fact happy. I’m writing about exactly what I want to write about. More importantly, while I am definitely aspiring for and working toward a better world in comics, I also feel like we are better off in comics than we were almost a year ago. Partially because Image Comics, one of what we often call The Big 5, has done a few things that we should all embrace. Thank you Image Comics, keep fighting the good fight.