I am not a religious man. I don't believe in anything I have not seen or touched in real life. I believe in science. I am not a man of faith. Faith has a way of letting one down right at the moment it's needed the most and then taking credit if things just happen to turn out okay. Faith is a suckers game.
But I don't need faith to believe that there is a HELL. There is a Hell because I refuse to contemplate a Universe where everyone connected to THIS PARTICULAR SALES IDEA/PROMOTION is not consigned to the very depths of HELL for putting these wheels into motion.
But before I sentence a large group of hard working people to the fiery pit, I need to give some context and background. Then they can roast for all eternity.
For all of us that lived through the 90s, comics were a dark, dark time. All our favorite heroes had gone 'dark and gritty' to try to piggyback off the popularity of one Canadian mutant by the name of Wolverine. Of course most creators missed the point entirely and believed that is the was the willingness to kill and do violence was what people admire about Logan. In truth it was his humanity and his samurai like nature to sacrifice himself for others that fans clung to.
Now in this time many, many crappy comics were being made because a whole new patch of artists were being called the next 'new' thing. Some like Todd McFarlane really changed the look of the iconic Spider-Man and rightfully so his Spider-Man #1 was one of the most sold comic ever. That may seem like a good thing but it wasn't. Issues by these hot creators doing popular characters sold in the millions because they had promotion, flashy covers or other useless and crappy gimmicks attached to them. This was also the time when the variant cover was born. A rarity with each issue and something to chase because as we know, collecting comics is all about the RARE comics, not the ones who have million issue print runs.
Many people got sucked into the madness and over speculation as comic books became the next thing that people were going to squirrel away and invest in. I never looked at my books as an investment in the future. I just always liked them from my childhood and when they were cheap in the 70s and early 80s I bought all that I could.
Now at the height of all this speculation several of the most high profile artists from Marvel Comics at the time jumped ship, thinking that THEY were not getting fair treatment from THE MAN. They wanted ownership of their original characters and more profits for their efforts on characters owned by the corporation. Artists wanted to be writers when some of them like the Idiot Liefeld were barely artists to begin with but his ego told him that even his writing was golden.. Together seven of these former Marvel artists formed Image Comics to much fanfare in the comic book press. But for such an Earth shattering event, their original output was lackluster at best.
I admit I was one who bought many of the comics of these creators. Some like McFarlane's Spider-Man and his new creation Spawn, were revolutionary. Jim Lee was always solid as are Erik Larson and Mark Silvestri. Liefeld? Well he was something else. I can't explain but I read each issue of crap that he put out. Youngblood was his baby but he can't ever get it made into a movie because Marvel would sue his ass for copyright infringement. Nothing here is original or interesting.
When these guys left Marvel to form Image comics the idea was that they would cash in on characters that they themselves created. Each of course came out with teams of heroes who were so derivative of what they used to do over at Marvel as to be laughable. Plus they shipped late and the worst of the did bad comics that were often underwhelming. Meanwhile they pushed out all kinds of gimmicky crap that further saturated the market with useless product. Something had to give and soon it did.
The bottom feel out of the comic collecting business and many people got stuck with issues that will never go for anything more that below face value. No one wants them because everyone who would have wanted them has them already.
So now you have some background to understand my point about there being a HELL. I saw this ad today in my travels.
It's true. You pay $125 dollars to get crap that you don't get to choose and is chosen for you by the same idiots who themselves are sitting on piles of useless unsold merchandise. What you will receive will not be rare or special and will get you ten dollars at resale if you are lucky. The box isn't even impressive. It's sticks of a scam which is what Image Comics will always be to me.
Yes we can talk Kirkman and all the good he has done with The Walking Dead but that is a discussion for another time. For now I am outraged at this abomination. Shame on you Image Comics. Shame on you for making a penny on what you should give away for free. The Karma cleaning that would result is worth more than the few sheckles you will make scamming the poor comic collector one more time and that should hardly be celebrated as the 'future of comics'.
IMAGE COMICS 25TH ANNIVERSARY BLIND BOX (Net)
IMAGE COMICS
In celebration of Image Comics’ 25th Anniversary, Image Comics is printing 1,992 blind boxes in commemoration of the company’s founding year in 1992. Each IMAGE COMICS 25TH ANNIVERSARY BLIND BOX will contain an assortment of 25 polybagged comics comprised of 17 all-new 2017 series and featuring limited edition variant covers only available in this box. Each comic will be bagged in opaque black poly to keep every comic a surprise!
Each box may include a randomized mix of the following variants:
? 25th anniversary variant cover
? B&W 25th anniversary cover
? Virgin 25th anniversary cover
? Virgin B&W 25th anniversary cover
? Blank wraparound sketch cover
? Extremely rare sketch covers drawn by each series artists-25 copies per series of the 17 selected launches
? Exclusive THE WALKING DEAD: HERE’S NEGAN! #1 limited to 500 copies-the first 24 pages of Negan’s origin story printed in single-issue-format for the first and only time.
IMAGE COMICS 25TH ANNIVERSARY BLIND BOX
Retailers can sell the blind box variants however they choose-individually, as the complete box set, or as a raffle. The blind box will also unfold into a sturdy 7.5″ x 10.5 ” x 4″ counter display to showcase selling these gorgeously rendered comics.
$125
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2 comments:
marvel were not crediting artists as well as dc were and marvel was going broke and treating people worse and created problems for themselves
yes yes, we all know that and that is why it was such an 'event' at the time but damn they really can't claim they were the second coming if they weren't. Any changes to the way artists were paid and treated may have changed anyways without their tantrums but on balance I see the whole thing as a failure. The best of them went elsewhere and it was ONE guy that believed enough in Kirkman to even give The Walking Dead and Invincible a shot.
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