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Image Comics founders say Marvel unfairly blamed them for gimmicks like foil covers (which Marvel had done first)
Marvel Comics blamed Image for popularizing 90s era sales gimmicks (but Image says Marvel did them first)
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The 90s were a wild time to be a comic book collector. The spectator market was in full force, with comic publishers taking advantage with various sales gimmicks. Comic books would be published with variant covers, foil card covers, and special trading cards. Image Comics, who were the new kids on the block, were blamed for this practice, but two of the founders want to set the record straight – Marvel started it.
“Business-wise, this is when Marvel started doing all the goofy stuff, the alternative covers, the cards being inlaid, the foil stuff, just all of that, which they blamed Image for. It’s like, no guys, don’t you remember a year ago when Marvel was doing this? No, they didn’t remember that. It was our fault,” Image Comics cofounder Jim Valentino says during an appearance on the Robservations with Rob Liefeld podcast.
Everything became our fault,” Rob Liefeld adds. “We’re not being grumpy old men here. I’ve seen it as I’ve gotten older, when you want to shade a certain athlete, the more popular you become, the more darts you’re going to take. So, that was us.”
While foil covers have been left behind, both Image and Marvel still regularly use variant covers. Love it or hate it, the comic industry isn’t leaving those behind anytime soon. Image and Marvel may want to blame the other publisher for popularizing them, but both companies have to admit it’s done well for them.
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