Celebrating a Quarter Century of Image Comics with 25 Essential Titles

Spawn, by Todd McFarlane
In May of 1992, McFarlane’s Spawn debuted, and quickly racked up an impressive sales total: 1.7 million copies. Spawn was an instant sensation, filling a desire for superhero stories with a bit more blood, guts, and mature themes than mainstream American comics could stomach. Spawn introduced an almost unprecedented level of violence (as well as topics like child murder) in the story of Al Simmons, a special forces operative working with the CIA who dies and finds himself in hell for his evil acts. Making a deal with the literal devil, Simmons is returned to Earth to enact bloody vigilante justice. McFarlane’s distinctive visual style and the book’s extreme subject matter made it popular enough to spawn (heh) an HBO animated series and a feature film.

Savage Dragon, by Erik Larsen
Debuting just months after McFarlane’s Spawn, Savage Dragon began his career as a self-published book during the 80s. Revived as one of Image’s flagship titles, the current version of the character and his book have been running just about as long as Image has been around, with new issues still coming out monthly, still written and drawn by Larsen. He introduced a new take on superheroics: though the Dragon is large and green-skinned with fins, in other ways he’s a regular guy, a Chicago police officer specializing in the mutants that terrorize the Windy City. No cape, no spandex, just a big green cop fighting superfreaks while trying to manage everyday life.

The Walking Dead, by Robert Kirkman, Tony Moore, and Charlie Adlard
The comics business almost fell apart in the late 90s, as publishers large and small faced the significant financial crunch brought on by falling readership. Image was no exception, but luckily things picked up with the turn of the millennium, and it goes without saying that The Walking Dead played a huge part in that resurgence. It’s a major multi-media success that’s brought horror comics into the mainstream and kickstarted a new round of zombie mania that never really abated. The book (and subsequent TV shows, video games, and more) follows Rick Grimes and an evolving cast of his fellow survivors as they make their way through a world overrun by zombies. The creators’ conceit, and what sets the book apart, was the idea that the horror movie wouldn’t end, that survival is something that happens every day. Sixteen year’s later, it’s more than surviving; it’s thriving.

Wanted, by Mark Millar and JG Jones
In 2003, Millar and Jones debuted Wanted, the story of Wesley Gibson, a down-on-his luck sad sack who is harassed by co-workers and cheated on by his girlfriend—until he’s recruited by a secret group of killers calling themselves the Fraternity. The book is almost overstuffed with violence, but Millar and Jones don’t glamorize the action: their goal is a bit more meta. It’s not only a broad social critique of violent vigilante fantasies, but takes aim at a comics entertainment industry that had grown progressively darker and uglier over the years, promoting violence as an answer to every problem. It was just the first of Millar’s many works with Image.

I Kill Giants, by Joe Kelly and J.M. Ken Nimura
Arriving in 2008, Kelly and Nimura’s I Kill Giants introduced us to Barbara Thorson, who battles giant monsters. Except that she doesn’t, really. Her fantasy world is a coping mechanism she uses to deal with depression and feelings of powerlessness in the real world. The magical land that she inhabits ultimately becomes a trap: she’s lashing out and isolating herself, retreating further and further into her own mind and avoiding reality entirely. It’s a poignant story about growing up and learning to face the world and ask for help. It’s also a powerful example of the ways genre fiction can tell stories with real-world relevance.

Chew, by John Layman and Rob Guillory
Tony Chu is a cop with a secret:he’s cibopathic, and receives psychic impressions from whatever he eats. He’s one hell of a detective, nibbling on the corpses of a murder victims to figure out whodunit, and why. The government has figured out Tony Chu’s secret, and has plans for him, whether he likes it or not. Arriving in the summer of 2009, Chew is yet another great example of a book that could really only exist when the minds and talents of creators are allowed free reign.

Fatale, by Ed Brubaker and Sean Phillips
Brubaker and Phillips have made a cottage industry out of high-quality, black-as-night noir books. The run began in 2012 with Fatale, a supernatural mystery about Josephine, a woman who survives, ageless, from the 1930s into the present day, drawing men into a seductive web that ultimately ruins them. The twist, aside from the supernatural horror angle,  is that Josephine is the main character; the story told from her point of view, not that of one of the men she encounters over the decades.

Saga, by Brian K. Vaughan and Fiona Staples
Also arriving in 2012, Saga has become one of Image’s most successful and buzz-worthy comics ever, and one that’s commonly used as an example of everything modern comics can be. It’s a love story, a war story, and a refugee tale that takes place in the middle of a bitter, bloody conflict between the winged citizens of Landfall and the horned, magic-wielding citizens of its moon, Wreath. A prison guard, Alana, falls in love with her charge, a warrior named Marko. The two escape, and the book begins with the birth of their daughter Hazel, a creature both sides of the conflict would like to exploit…or destory. The two struggle to keep their family together in the face of hatred and pursuit by a variety of colorful creatures. Fiona Staples creates the best splash pages in the business, from stunning vistas to truly weird creatures. We can’t imagine you’re not already reading Saga, but if you aren’t, why aren’t you reading Saga?

East of West, by Jonathan Hickman and Nick Dragotta
What if the American Civil War never ended? (A metaphorical question that’s taken on increasingly literal aspects lately.) Hickman and Dragotta’s series imagines a world in which the war never did end, and North America has been divided into seven distinct nations that have finally arrived at an uneasy peace. The very divided America is staring into the face of a literal doomsday when the Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse arrive. The book is a favorite around here, a unique blend of science fiction and western tropes that surprises with every new volume.

Rat Queens, by Kurtis J. Wiebe, Roc Upchurch, Stjepan Sejic, Tess Fowler, and Owen Gieni
Rat Queens, which debuted in late 2013, manages to simultaneously honor the fantasy genre and completely turn it on its ear. The Rat Queens are a quartet of mercenaries, each member in an archetypal fantasy role of mage, thief, healer, or warrior. The ensemble is tasked with defending the kingdom from threats while competing with other mercenaries. There’s real action and some bloody violence in a medieval-type world, but also real depth to the characters, some very welcome queer themes, and a real sense of fun and an invitation to not take things too seriously. Following some controversy, the book recently underwent a soft reboot and welcomed a new artist, which isn’t to undercut its success or influence.

Sex Criminals, by Matt Fraction and Chip Zdarsky
Debuting the same month as Rat Queens, Fraction and Zdarsky’s zany sci-fi sex romp tells the charmingly old-fashioned, meet-cute story of Suzie and Jon, a couple of normal  young people navigating a new relationship, having discovered that they have a big secret in common: they both can stop time with an orgasm. You know how it is. Despite their unique abilities and an impending bank robbery, Suzie and Jon suffer some very recognizable hang-ups and bumps on the road to a relationship that’s about more than just pausing time with sex. It’s also really, really funny.

Black Science, by Rick Remender and Matteo Scalera
In a multiverse with an endless number of alternate dimensions, scientist Grant McKay gets himself stranded alongside his family and co-workers with a malfunctioning piece of scientific equipment and no way to get home, save by random chance. Scalera’s art is gorgeous, and Remender’s science fiction imagination is given free reign as the characters travel to wild and varied worlds. More importantly, it crafts a moving family drama with the less-than-noble Grant at the center, struggling to atone for his sins and to keep everyone alive.

Southern Bastards, by Jason Aaron and Jason Latour
Aaron and Latour set out to create a story about the American South in all its contradictions: wealth and poverty, hospitality and deep prejudice, personal warmth and a history full of violence. It’s the story of Earl Tubb, a man returning to his childhood home deep within Craw County, Alabama, who learns his hometown is ruled with an iron fist by high school football coach, Euless Boss, who maintains brutal control. Rocked to his core by what has become of his town, Tubb decides to take it back. Aaron and Latour both draw on their own experiences as southerners to tell an unflinching tale of a place where the sins of the past are very much alive.

Outcast, by Robert Kirkman and Paul Azaceta
Kirkman’s 2014  followup to The Walking Dead was met with high expectations, given that earlier book remains the biggest selling horror comic ever. With art by Paul Azaceta, whose moody work sets a perfect tone, Outcast follows Kyle Barnes, a man literally plagued by demons who takes to investigating evil with the help of a priest. Unlike zombie stories, the terror here comes from within, as Barnes is a man never truly in control of himself, and therefore capable of horrific acts. It has already been adapted into a successful Cinemax series.

The Wicked + The Divine, by Kieron Gillen and Jamie McKelvie
Every 90 years, a group of 12 demigods is reborn on Earth, where each has two years to make her or his presence felt, at which point they’ll all die. Again. In their latest incarnation, the Pantheon (as they’re collectively known) are reborn as something like pop stars, favoring over-the-top fashions and attracting a global following. A young fan named Laura is drawn into the world of the demigods and finds it to be a very dangerous place. It’s a book that reads like pop music while serving as an examination of celebrity culture and fandom.

Bitch Planet, by Kelly Sue DeConnick and Valentine De Landro
Inspired by women’s exploitation movies of the ’60s and ’70s, this future dystopia (that’s somehow incredibly current) is set on the Auxiliary Compliance Outpost, an outer-space prison for women who can’t or won’t live up to society’s expectations of good, normal behavior. Women who deviate are branded “non-compliant” and sent off to Bitch Planet. Each character, for different reasons, found herself in the middle of a rigged game where individuality is ultimately intolerable. Until they start to fight back. It’s another example of a book that probably couldn’t exist elsewhere, full of righteous anger, proudly feminist down to its provocative (deal with it) title. It’s an important book, now more than ever.

Descender, by Jeff Lemire and Dustin Nguyen
Lemire and Nguyen’s poignant, charming, but still action-packed story stars TIM-21, a robot boy who awakens in the aftermath of a brutal purge of organic life by robot technology. TIM-21 is forced to go on the run in a universe that’s grown to hate and fear artificial intelligence as he searches for the human friend that he made before winding up in hibernation. TIM-21’s desire to be loved and included makes him an incredibly human protagonist.

Injection, by Warren Ellis and Declan Shalvey
Warren Ellis is one of comics’ masters of hard science fiction, and he’s perfectly paired with Shalvey for this work of sci-fi horror. Five mad scientists let their imaginations run wild, only to have their creation, known as The Injection, spin out of control. Ellis and Shalvey explore the limits of scientific ethics with a growing sense of dread as the world begins to go sideways in the worst way.

Head Lopper, by Andrew MacLean
Head Lopper began life as a Kickstarter project from MacLean; he wound up bringing it to Image to aid in production and distribution. The result has been a significant success. The protagonist is Norgal, a warrior traveling the land and slaying threats that arise…for a price. Accompanying him is the head of a witch he decapitated years earlier. The art is frenetic and the whole enterprise, despite being full of hack and slash violence, in imbued with a sense of fun.

Paper Girls, by Brian K. Vaughan and Cliff Chiang
Late 2015 saw Vaughan launch a new book at Image along with veteran artist Cliff Chiang. Predating Stranger Things, the story follows Erin Tieng and her fellow all-girl band of newspaper carriers in the small town of Stony Spring in the 1980s. The four girls stumble upon a bizarre mystery that puts all of their lives in danger. It’s a story of science fiction adventure, but also of the end of childhood wrapped in an vintage punk package.

I Hate Fairyland, by Skottie Young
Gert is so, so cute. A little girl thrust into the candy-colored, sicky-sweet world of Fairyland, she once lived every little kid’s dream. Except that Fairyland is at first terrifying, then thoroughly annoying. Gert spends years in the magical land, never growing up, but becoming acclimated to the cartoon violence of the cartoon world in which she now lives. Inspired by those ’90s-era Nickelodeon shows as well as the frustration of a parent forced to read the same happy-go-lucky bedtime stories over and over and over again, Skottie Young’s I Hate Fairyland is a unique fusion of styles: dark humor, over-the-top cartoon violence, and every kids’ storybook ever.

Black Magick, by Greg Rucka and Nicola Scott
Rowan Black is a police detective in overcast and gloomy Portsmouth. She’s also a secretly practicing witch. Rucka’s noir sensibilities blend with Scott’s moody visuals in the story of Black, who has spent her adult life trying to balance her professional and occult lives, only to discover that someone is on to her supernatural secret.

Monstress, by Marjorie Liu and Sana Takeda
Liu’s unique alternate-history fantasy world combines with Takeda’s stunningly beautiful, each-panel-a-painting, artwork, making Monstress another buzzworthy book for Image, though it just debuted at the end of 2015. It’s set in an alternate version of Asia in the early 20th century, in which the Cumea—human sorcerers—consume the many-shaped Arcanics in order to fuel their magic. The world is matriarchal, and the book addresses issues of feminism while confronting race as embodied by the Cumaea’s inclination to believe that the Arcanics exist only to power their own power and ambitions.

The Fix, by Nick Spencer and Steve Lieber
There are crime comics, and then there’s The Fix. Spencer and Lieber’s comedic sensibilities draw this book far away from the noir sensibilities of many titles ostensibly in the same genre. This one follows Mac and Roy, two corrupt cops who are also impossibly incompetent when it comes to committing crimes. The book’s warped sense of humor is filtered through a broad but dark parody of crime stories and buddy-cop movies.

Blue Monday, by Chynna Clugston Flores
Described as comics’ own John Hughes, Clugston Flores loosely chronicles her own high school years in the story of Bleu Finnegan, a teenager growing up in the mid ’90s with her best friend, the tempestuous Clover Connelly. It’s a book full of fun high school misadventures, and a chronicle of Bleu’s coming of age. The book found new life with Image last summer: her original work has been remastered and colored in anticipation of new Blue Monday stories to come, making her just the latest voice to create unique art under the Image banner.
All of these titles are part of our month-long buy two, get one free Image Comics promotion. Build your library today!