This Saturday is Free Comic Book Day - Celebrate Image's 25th Anniversary!

Much like with Record Store Day, I consider myself a little too old to be queueing with the masses - for the chance of 5 flimsy collectibles - which will most likely end up being compiled into a compendium volume at a later date anyhow. I am almost entirely TP-based (Trade Paperback) these days - preferring a more solid volume with a full narrative arc, versus collecting episodically. I also tend to find those collected volumes keep better than the paper covered slivers.

I would say I am firmly planted in Graphic Novel territory - a lot of it very high quality Sequential Art, and of all the leading imprints, there are none to me as significant or prolific in quality as is Image. An Author / Creator Publishing Platform set up in 1992 - so that the originators could publish their material without surrendering copyrights. Image is in fact a fairly loose collection of 7 separate imprints - Highbrow Entertainment, ShadowLine, Skybound, Todd McFarlane Productions, Top Cow Productions, Joe’s Comics and MVCreations.

There is not always clear delineation between sub-brands, and they are not always stamped onto their relevant series. Most Image output is simply just branded plain ’Image’, which makes up most of my collection, with Top Cow being a particular favourite of the component brands.

In the below list there are more than 200 titles, my top 10 are selected on the basis of pure enjoyment, alongside smart artwork and intriguing narratives. In my opinion Chew and Saga are Image’s ambassador titles - and between them best represent what the imprint is all about - really imaginative and often quite quirky output. The rest of the Top 10 is rounded off by clever storytelling and superior visuals. My Next 50 are those who did not quite make it into the Top 10, and the remaining 160+ are all the other Image titles I have read and enjoyed over the years. Note that the below list is far from comprehensive and that Image’s total output is probably near enough the same again in volume of overall titles - or twice as much as is listed here!

All listings are alphabetical:

Top 10 Favourite Image Titles

• Chew
• Descender
• Lazarus
• Low
• Monstress
• Saga
• Seven to Eternity
• Sex Criminals
• The Wicked + The Divine
• Wayward