By Zack Quaintance — The Official Image Timeline one-shot hits this week, in large part to commemorate and coincide with the 30-year anniversary of the publisher’s founding. The book clocks in at nearly 70 pages (with a price tag of $7.99), and it is exactly as billed — a timeline of the publisher’s creation right on through today, played out visual here by a collection of founder Jim Valentino’s old photos, the publisher’s cover artwork, and quick hit captions to accompany it all, running in a column along the side of each page.

This one-shot feels like the precursor to an eventual hardcover coffee table book, doled out first through the direct market in time for the anniversary. I found it to be almost compulsively readable, pulling me forward through a mix of wanting to watch Image Comics cover art evolve like a diagram of early man beginning to stand, along with waiting for the places where my own experience would overlap with Image’s history, so I could think back to where I was at in my own life during those moments, measuring my life in comics as TS Eliot once measured his life in coffee spoons (please meet me halfway on that one…).

This all gives The Official Image Timeline comic two main appeals. The first is informational, although it was hard for me to tell how much of the content in this book was new, given I’ve read/heard quite a bit about Image’s founding and its early years. It’s all coming from a first-person source in this comic, of course, which gives added authority in some places with the limitations of perspective in others. The information itself is conveyed in staccato bursts that rapidly pull the reader through time, creating an almost-compulsive reading experience that will appeal to comics readers who don’t want to sit down with full books about comics history.

Neither the source nor the delivery would matter, however, if the history of Image wasn’t interesting. Some of the moments that stood out to me in here included the first time the Image Comics logo appeared in print, as well as the note that the name was inspired by a television commercial starring tennis pro Andre Agassi, in which he looks at the camera and says, “Image is everything.” This may have already been out there, but I’d never heard it before, and it also has a definitive air here coming from Image founder, Valentino, who assembled nearly this entire thing.

The other appeal — and, indeed, the one I expect will entice more readers — is that this one-shot speaks directly to the audience’s own shared history with Image Comics, one of the most influential forces on comics as we know them today. For me, this meant waiting for my own first memories of the publisher, the era tent-poled by Astro City and Rising Stars. Picking out your own very specific memories is a novelty for sure, but I couldn’t help myself from all but pointing at the page, exclaiming, “Hey, I remember that!” None of that should be surprising, of course, because this is a timeline, inherently appealing to interest in the past, the preservation of which has always been strong in comics.

The content of this one-shot, however, isn’t all shine and roses; it’s not all, “hey, I remember that!” Not shying away from some of Image’s bumpy history is very much to this book’s credit. The timeline starts with all nice things, to be certain, but that’s in keeping with the halcyon early days of the company. As acrimony begins to creep in among the founders in history, so too does it show up in this timeline, as does backlash and resistance from the industry as well as at times from readers and fans. This book could have easily just put a shiny coat of paint on the past, and it doesn’t, not really. There’s even a mention of the newly-formed union at the publisher, alluding to secret meetings in a way those who are already critical of management’s response will take issue with, especially as that response continues to play out.

But I enjoyed this book quite a bit. The art and photos and other material Valentino has collected here is invaluable to preserving the history of not just Image, but the wider North American comics industry. The main criticism I have is design, which has the same DIY aesthetic as the publisher’s earliest days, just not in a way that feels intentional. The text in the column alongside the folder is all center justified, which took me a good 1/3 of the book to acclimate to reading. A bigger investment in design here may have made the interesting content more easily readable, but also, maybe I’m just getting old (I’m a bit older than Image, as it were).

Speaking of! Did you know that Todd McFarlane co-directed Korn’s music video for Freak on a Leash? Or, do you remember just how many now-superstar comics talents published early work with Image in the 2000s? The list includes Matt Fraction, Jonathan Hickman, Jamie McKelvie, Kieron Gillen, and Sana Takeda, among others. That’s all just some of what you’ll take away from this Official Image Timeline One-Shot, along with a clearer idea of the themes, trends, and accomplishments that have shaped comics largest creator-owned publisher, parts of which you might have been there for while other segments will feel entirely new.

In comics, 30 years is an awful long time, and it’s nice to get a first-person look back at Image Comics, the creation of which shook the industry, paving the way for later waves of creator-owned work at times when there were fewer venues for those type of projects.

Overall: Filled with interesting remembrances and a vast collection of historic visuals that tell the publisher’s story, The Official Image Timeline is a nice preservation of the publisher as well as the wider North American comics industry. 8.5/10

REVIEW: The Official Image Timeline (One-Shot)

The Official Image Timeline (One-Shot)
Creator: Jim Valentino
Publisher: Image Comics (naturally)
Just in time to celebrate Image Comics’ 30th anniversary, Image archivist and co-founder JIM VALENTINO details the company’s history (warts and all) in the single most comprehensive chronology of the company ever published. Featuring rarely seen covers, photos, milestones, and behind-the-scenes events from the company’s Marvel-ous beginnings to the present, this is the chronicle all future histories will be judged against.
Featuring an introduction by Image Publisher ERIC STEPHENSON and a chronicle of historic Image accolades, and printed in beautiful 64-page prestige format.
Price: $7.99
Buy It Digitally: The Official Image Timeline (One-Shot)

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Zack Quaintance is a tech reporter by day and freelance writer by night/weekend. He Tweets compulsively about storytelling and comics as Comics Bookcase.