For all Robert Kirkman's blabbing on about the importance of creator-owned comics, you'd think the company he now, in part runs, would do a better job of supporting and advertising their creator-owned comics. Maybe it's some covert, "insider" holding-back of information, but it seems pretty insane that IMAGE doesn't list the comics coming out next week (except for Dead Ahead #1) and apparently, have no clue what they will be publishing two weeks from now.We're about due for the next issue of Elephantmen and although Mike Allred basically keeps schedule, can you give me some sense of when the next issue Madman Atomic Comics might come out? I mean, I can assume that it will be sometime in the next two or three months but seriously! The worst though is when you pick up some little or lesser known IMAGE book--presumably, exactly what these guys pride themselves on publishing--and you have no clue when the next issue comes out or if the series is ever even going to wrap-up. That Red Mass From Mars comic from this summer is a good example...anybody have any news on that? What's going with the final few issues of Infinite Horizon???
The IMAGE blog hasn't been updated in more than a month! The last blog is surprise surprise, pushing Kirkman's video manifesto. Their news section was updated on September 4th which is a little better, but only to tell us about the trade release of Parade (With Fireworks) and the previous two stories are basically press releases for other big name IMAGE guys: Marc Silvestri's TOP COW will be at the Baltimore Comic Con (Silvestri was one of the original IMAGE seven) and the Obama cover issue of Savage Dragon by Erik Larsen (current Editor of IMAGE) is going into a second printing. I wasn't aware that "creator-owned" meant "guys that've already made a big name for themselves who happen to not be working on "Batman" or some "X-Men" title..."
It's not that Kirman's points weren't basically right (although a little obvious, simplistic, and utopian) but that nothing's being done or been done to sort of support Kirkman's throwing down of the gauntlet, makes the whole thing feel like an awful publicity stunt. This lack of updating is particularly frustrating because comics put out by IMAGE are notoriously late or constantly shifting in schedule and a real quick reminder/update or something about these changes would be pretty cool.
They definitely don't help with trying to figure out the mystery of what the fuck is going on with the last two issues of pirates of coney island. The only thing I've found on seriously the entire internet about them is that theyre one sale on this uk nerd shop site, but only on the search through google, not if you search within the store.
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