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Topic: Q for JB - Image Comics start-up (Topic Closed Topic Closed) Post ReplyPost New Topic
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William Byrd
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Joined: 06 October 2006
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Posted: 06 October 2006 at 5:26pm | IP Logged | 1  

A friend told me that when Image Comics was first being formed that they tried to recruit you to join them.  Is there any truth to this?  If so, I wonder how things would have been different for them to have had a real pro that could actually get his work out on time with their company.

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John Byrne
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Joined: 11 May 2005
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Posted: 06 October 2006 at 7:04pm | IP Logged | 2  

Jim Lee invited me to join. I was already committed
to Dark Horse.

What would have been different? I'd have had the
only Image book that came out monthly and had low
sales.
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Rafael Guerra
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Posted: 06 October 2006 at 7:10pm | IP Logged | 3  

Jim Lee was asked about this a while ago. I think the question is loaded, but the answer is interesting:

Mike D: Hey Jim, John Byrne has claimed on a couple of occasions on his forum, that you invited him to become a founding member of Image prior to it's official establishment. Is this true?

JL: No, but I did ask him, and many other creators, to come and join us. Whether he would have been a founding father or would have been a group discussion decided by all of us. At that time, the concept of founding fathers wasn’t even existent since we hadn’t really grown beyond the original numbers we started out with. John politely declined but did ask me to jump ship and join him in his fledgling Byrne-verse for Dark Horse and to draw one of his titles. I also politely declined.


http://forum.newsarama.com/showthread.php?t=8046&

Now, what would have happened if Jim Lee had accepted Mr. Byrne's proposal?
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John Byrne
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Posted: 06 October 2006 at 7:15pm | IP Logged | 4  

I didn't ask him to "join" me at Dark Horse.

Lee's version is interesting however. When he called me with his invitation, he told me the group didn't even have a name yet. If I'd said "Yes" that early in the game, I wonder how I would have been anything other than a "founding member"?
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William Byrd
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Posted: 07 October 2006 at 10:07am | IP Logged | 5  

Thanks for the answer JB. I've wondered about that ever since my friend mentioned it.  I remember Larson doing a take off of Next Men in a Savage Dragon one shot of some sort, and I wondered if there were some bad feelings toward you because of not joining with them. 
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John Byrne
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Posted: 07 October 2006 at 10:24am | IP Logged | 6  

There were "bad feelings" -- but not because of that! Like Cassandra, I have eraned myself a lot of brickbats by successfully predicting the future of the industry if we continued on the path upon which Image Comics was a major signpost.
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Brandon Carter
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Posted: 07 October 2006 at 11:34am | IP Logged | 7  

Jim Lee invited me to join. I was already committed
to Dark Horse.

What would have been different? I'd have had the
only Image book that came out monthly and had low
sales.

**********

John Byrne's Next Men did pretty well for Dark Horse, with the first issue setting a sales record for a direct sales only comic, if I'm remembering correctly.  I'm only speculating, of course, but I think if Next Men had come out under Image, those early issues would have had even higher sales, similar to the early issues of the other Image books.  Its monthly status would have helped Image's, er, image somewhat.  Eventually, after the speculation fever wore off, I think sales of Next Men and the other Image books would have stabilized at about the same point they did anyway.  Of course, by this time I think you'd have likely dropped out of Image and gone to Dark Horse or somewhere else anyway.

 

Edited to add:  It's post 334, more than a third on the way to 1000!  Of course, JB has posted more than this since he reached 25,000 posts--just over a week ago.  Sigh.



Edited by Brandon Carter on 07 October 2006 at 11:46am
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