Post by The Ultimate Nullifier on Aug 26, 2016 21:40:00 GMT -6
www.bleedingcool.com/2016/08/26/image-comics-portland-bound/
Image Comics, Portland Bound?
So, Image Comics have probably got enough on their plate right now.
But Heidi MacDonald reports that she picked up word at San Diego Comic-Con that Image Comics were up-sticking from Berkely, California and moving their headquarters to Portland, Oregon. And inquiries I’ve made seem to back up those very strong rumours.
Image Comics has always been a California company, originally technically part of Malibu in Calabasas, California, were in Anaheim, then Orange County before moving up the freeway to Berkeley over ten years ago which, as Heidi points out, is rather expensive now.
Portland, over the state line in Oregon, is not only cheaper but boasts an insane comic book lineup, from Dark Horse Comics who basically started it all off there, to Oni Press, to the CBLDF, and a thriving comic creator community, plenty of whom who already work for Image Comics, comic stores like They Walk Among Us, Bridge City Comics and Books With Pictures, shows like Rose City Comic Con and Wizard World Portland and comics – well- everything.
While Image is a relatively small-in-numbers company, which much of the work carried out by freelancer or partner studio, their impact on the US comics industry is third to the Big Two. They could well become the big man on campus.
It may be a digital world and you can work anywhere. But you can’t all go to the pub after work if you’re in another state. Social networking in person and making face-to-face contacts can be so important, which is why comic conventions still play a major role. Hell, it’s where Heidi got this story from. Networks of different people can create opportunities, ideas, collaborations that would never have been achieved without physical proximity.
And, it seems, Image Comics is about to make that a lot easier for a whole lot of people. Although local paper, the Portland Mercury has some warnings for the publisher…
www.portlandmercury.com/blogtown/2016/08/26/18522911/image-comics-reportedly-moving-to-portland
Image Comics Reportedly Moving to Portland
by Erik Henriksen • Aug 26, 2016 at 1:10 pm
According to reliable comics industry site The Beat, Image Comics is planning a move to Portland.
...At San Diego I started to hear a few whispers that Image Comics might be leaving its Bay Area headquarters for the cheaper and even more comics friendly environs of Portland, OR. Based on what I’m hearing, this is actually happening in the nearish future.
Image is currently located in Berkeley, CA, a once reasonable college town type area in the East Bay that, like all of the Bay Area, is now insanely expensive. The Image staff is fairly compact, around a few dozen people, so moving shouldn’t be that difficult and probably would be welcomed by everyone looking to escape the birthplace of commuting to the suburbs and artisanal toast. (Via.)
(Uh... they might be in for some bad news. And some more bad news.)
Originally founded in 1992 by some of Marvel's biggest creators, Image was positioned as an independent alternative to mainstream superhero comics. And it was, for a while—before settling into a loooooong period of stasis. But something interesting started happening a few years ago: Following smash hits like The Walking Dead, Image became the place for comics' top talent, leaping over more established publishers to put out inventive, daring, creator-owned work. Too look over Image's current publishing lineup is to see an embarrassment of riches: There's still The Walking Dead, sure, but there's also Brian K. Vaughan and Fiona Staples' Saga, and Sex Criminals and Pretty Deadly and Bitch Planet and ODY-C from Kelly Sue DeConnick and Matt Fraction, plus the ongoing collaborations of Ed Brubaker and Sean Phillips, Greg Rucka and Michael Lark's Lazarus, Joe Keatinge and Leila Del Duca's Shutter, Kurt Busiek and Benjamin Dewey's The Autumnlands.... I'm leaving out a lot.
Image's move would add even more comics to a city that's already rich in the art form—alongside publishers like Oni Press and Dark Horse Comics, Portland also has some of the best comics shops in the world, the insanely popular Rose City Comic Con, and a bunch of resident writers and artists (if my count is right, seven of the creators I mentioned above are currently living in the city). So: Portland might be about to get even more comics-y, right when it seemed like that wouldn't even be possible.
Image Comics, Portland Bound?
So, Image Comics have probably got enough on their plate right now.
But Heidi MacDonald reports that she picked up word at San Diego Comic-Con that Image Comics were up-sticking from Berkely, California and moving their headquarters to Portland, Oregon. And inquiries I’ve made seem to back up those very strong rumours.
Image Comics has always been a California company, originally technically part of Malibu in Calabasas, California, were in Anaheim, then Orange County before moving up the freeway to Berkeley over ten years ago which, as Heidi points out, is rather expensive now.
Portland, over the state line in Oregon, is not only cheaper but boasts an insane comic book lineup, from Dark Horse Comics who basically started it all off there, to Oni Press, to the CBLDF, and a thriving comic creator community, plenty of whom who already work for Image Comics, comic stores like They Walk Among Us, Bridge City Comics and Books With Pictures, shows like Rose City Comic Con and Wizard World Portland and comics – well- everything.
While Image is a relatively small-in-numbers company, which much of the work carried out by freelancer or partner studio, their impact on the US comics industry is third to the Big Two. They could well become the big man on campus.
It may be a digital world and you can work anywhere. But you can’t all go to the pub after work if you’re in another state. Social networking in person and making face-to-face contacts can be so important, which is why comic conventions still play a major role. Hell, it’s where Heidi got this story from. Networks of different people can create opportunities, ideas, collaborations that would never have been achieved without physical proximity.
And, it seems, Image Comics is about to make that a lot easier for a whole lot of people. Although local paper, the Portland Mercury has some warnings for the publisher…
www.portlandmercury.com/blogtown/2016/08/26/18522911/image-comics-reportedly-moving-to-portland
Image Comics Reportedly Moving to Portland
by Erik Henriksen • Aug 26, 2016 at 1:10 pm
According to reliable comics industry site The Beat, Image Comics is planning a move to Portland.
...At San Diego I started to hear a few whispers that Image Comics might be leaving its Bay Area headquarters for the cheaper and even more comics friendly environs of Portland, OR. Based on what I’m hearing, this is actually happening in the nearish future.
Image is currently located in Berkeley, CA, a once reasonable college town type area in the East Bay that, like all of the Bay Area, is now insanely expensive. The Image staff is fairly compact, around a few dozen people, so moving shouldn’t be that difficult and probably would be welcomed by everyone looking to escape the birthplace of commuting to the suburbs and artisanal toast. (Via.)
(Uh... they might be in for some bad news. And some more bad news.)
Originally founded in 1992 by some of Marvel's biggest creators, Image was positioned as an independent alternative to mainstream superhero comics. And it was, for a while—before settling into a loooooong period of stasis. But something interesting started happening a few years ago: Following smash hits like The Walking Dead, Image became the place for comics' top talent, leaping over more established publishers to put out inventive, daring, creator-owned work. Too look over Image's current publishing lineup is to see an embarrassment of riches: There's still The Walking Dead, sure, but there's also Brian K. Vaughan and Fiona Staples' Saga, and Sex Criminals and Pretty Deadly and Bitch Planet and ODY-C from Kelly Sue DeConnick and Matt Fraction, plus the ongoing collaborations of Ed Brubaker and Sean Phillips, Greg Rucka and Michael Lark's Lazarus, Joe Keatinge and Leila Del Duca's Shutter, Kurt Busiek and Benjamin Dewey's The Autumnlands.... I'm leaving out a lot.
Image's move would add even more comics to a city that's already rich in the art form—alongside publishers like Oni Press and Dark Horse Comics, Portland also has some of the best comics shops in the world, the insanely popular Rose City Comic Con, and a bunch of resident writers and artists (if my count is right, seven of the creators I mentioned above are currently living in the city). So: Portland might be about to get even more comics-y, right when it seemed like that wouldn't even be possible.