Posted in: Batman, Comics, DC Comics, Image, Walking Dead | Tagged: absolute, Absolute Batman, brett bean, D'Orc, energon, rob liefeld, robert kirkman, scott snyder

Scott Snyder On Robert Kirkman On Absolute Batman Helping Image Sales

Scott Snyder on Robert Kirkman on Absolute Batman helping Image Comics sales - and the news that D'Orc is now outselling Battle Beast...

In a recent Robservations podcast interview between Image Comics partner Robert Kirkman and Image Comics' founder Rob Liefeld, that is suddenly being talked about a lot, at least one bit of it, Robert Kirkman citing Absolute Batman for increasing Image Comics sales. But it's also worth looking at a little more context around that. As Rob Liefeld and Robert Kirkman were talking about the recent success of D'Orc by Brett Bean at Image Comics, with Kirkman confessing that D'Orc is now outselling his Invincible Universe: Battle Beast, and citing that Image Comics doesn't get enough credit.

A very excited Rob Liefeld added, "I literally will send an email to Eric Stephenson, God bless him, and go you should brag about Image more. Image is crushing it right now. Image is crushing it. We need to talk about how much Image is crushing it." And Robert Kirkman said "Everybody's talking about how much how many new people Absolute Batman is bringing into the comic book stores, but those people go into the comic book stores and they buy a copy Absolute Batman and they walk out with five Image Comics as well. So it's a good time for all of us."

Rob Liefeld clarified "I said on my last episode, I wanted to talk about the Absolute phenomenon for what it was.  I told everybody during that episode, we are getting to Invincible, because Invincible and Image Comics and Skybound and Energon Universe, this… I don't mind telling you, there are retailers who call all of Image, Energon Universe, and I don't correct them. Yeah, all these books from Energon and I'm kind of like D'orc is not an Energon comic, but I get it. Invincible is driving people to comic stores, curiosity and then they're hearing about D'orc. And like I said, this doesn't maintain its staying power unless it's so well conceived and produced. And also, this is not a comic you're getting from anybody else but Image right now. DC and Marvel are not going to give you this."

And Robert Kirkman talked about how this all tied together: "I think it's a great time to be a comics fan. When you look at what Marvel and DC do in the grand scheme of the world, it's actually kind of limiting, you know? There's not an HBO Max that just gives you superhero shows. There's not a Prime Video that's just giving you superhero shows. And so anything around the comic book industry that generates excitement is going to eventually funnel things to Image Comics. If people love manga and they decide to try American comics, well, manga mostly translates to Image Comics. It's horror, it's sci-fi, it's action, it's romance, it's a mixture of all. It's sci-fi horror, it's it's horror superhero, it's everything. And you know, that's where you get the most original ideas and and and new ideas and new concepts and things that, you know, are off the beaten path. And the fact that D'orc is doing well and White Sky and things like Red Roots and Corpse Knight, the numbers on those books are absolutely astronomical. It's insane this excitement around everything that Image is doing right now, which I think is very justified because… there's like twelve different projects right now that are in varying stages of development and production that are, you know, adapting comics very closely and this this fervor around Image Comics is only going to get bigger as these projects launch. And the effect that you're seeing around Invincible is just going to grow exponentially."

In response, Scott Snyder has posted to social media, "Right back at @RobertKirkman – what he's achieved with the Energon Universe is bringing so many fans into comics (not to mention the immeasurable impact of Invincible, Walking Dead, on and on.). Few creators have done more for comics". Scott Snyder's Wytches from Image Comics is also about to get a lot of the attention Kirkman is talking about with the new Amazon Prime TV series as well…

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