Image comics has existed for about 30 years now but if you've never read
any of the titles then make sure that you watch this video
WOOF WOOF! Hey guys, it's me Marcus aka the Maddogg, and we're back with another video!
The first recommendation that i'm going to give to you is actually the first image title that i
reviewed on this channel and that is kill or be killed by ed brubaker and sean phillips it'd be
impossible for me to do a where to start on image comics without mentioning this
creative duo because they've already given us such great titles and kill or be killed
is definitely one of those top tier books the reason why i'm recommending this over something
like criminal is because this is one complete story rather than a collection of short ones
i think it gives you a better look at what this creative duo can do when they're together and
they get a complete run on a story although yes i do think criminal is a superior title overall
i think it's much easier to get into image comics by reading this phrase because it's still got a
lot of those superhero tropes that you might be used to if you've previously read marvel in dc
this entire book looks at dylan who after a failed suicide attempt is visited by a demon that said in
order to survive he must kill somebody once every couple of days with his newfound outlook on life
he decides to become a vigilante and take it out on criminals that are targeting the weak and the
vulnerable yeah a lot of it reminds me of death note but it's still a great title in its own right
i do think that this is a great image book for new readers so that you can get a sample of that
ed brubaker and sean phillips collaboration so you get his sense of crime noir but you also get sean
phillips's beautiful art so this is something that i definitely recommend if maybe you're a fan of
the punisher or maybe you liked had brubacher's writing in gotham central but maybe you're not
somebody who wants a more grounded superhero type story and you actually want something that does
remind you the marvel and dc comics that you've loved before well what better series could i
recommend to you than invincible yeah you've probably already heard of this series but it
definitely deserves a recommendation on this list if you want pure superhero action but without
the restraints of tons of editors or events just clogging everything down then this is definitely
the book for you i'm glad that this is getting a second boom in popularity as a result of the
amazon prime tv show but if you've only watched that then you definitely need to pick up this
title it only gets more insane and robert kirkman is one of my favorite writers ryan otley is one of
the greatest artists that we've had in the past 20 years and as well maybe you are a bit sick of
reading superhero stories that never really have an ending well this has got a perfect journey of
mark grayson everything that happens in this matters towards the complete journey it's not
going to be retconned later on nobody's going to continue it on or write more with the story so
this is a great example of what exactly image can do when the creators are allowed to do what they
want but maybe you want something that's a more classic superhero image storytelling in that case
i would recommend the spawn compendium my last video was on spawn it was talking about who the
character is so if you're unsure i'd definitely recommend checking that out and to be honest
that video could do with some love i only picked this up within the last month or so and i know
that it's still on sale with our sponsor organic price books i definitely recommend checking them
out and using the code woof woof for two dollars off your order but this is just really fun gritty
90s superhero storytelling it's not good the weight of heroes reborn hanging over it or he
hasn't got deal with the aftermath of the death of superman it's al simmons and the awful deal
that he made to become a houseborn and just him wreaking his own vengeance on the scum of new york
you've also got great filling writers like neil gaiman alan moore and just a ton of artists that
you still know today this is todd mcfarland's baby and it shows that he's just got so much love and
passion towards his creation and it's definitely one that i'd recommend if you're wanting something
from the formation years of image but maybe you'll turn into image because you don't want
anything superhero well that's fine i've got you covered there as well because what i'd recommend
is chew this is a really fun enjoyable 60 issue series that unfortunately doesn't seem to get
remembered now that it's finished but when this was coming out it was a really big deal and i
remember picking up this first trade paperback just based on the hype that it had and it really
delivered i don't think he carries the same steam throughout it but this is the story of tony chu a
detective that also has the ability to be able to see the history of the things that he eats so if
he eats an apple he can see the tree that he came from but if he eats the flesh of anything that was
a living being he can see how he dies obviously i'm sure you can guess now that it comes in quite
handy as a detective to see exactly how somebody was killed and i think this is just a really great
example of the unique type of storytelling that you can get from image comics and also the art in
this is just phenomenal i love the layout i love the paneling and it just isn't something that you
would see from anything coming from the big two companies i can't lie i do think this went kind of
batshit crazy by the end of it and i don't think it really sticks a landing which is something that
i seem to be saying about a lot of image titles in a video where admittedly i'm trying to promote the
publisher but still i think that there's a great level of quality that comes through in this title
that everybody should at least give a chance to now before i jump into my next recommendation i do
have to say that i haven't read every single image title that exists some of the big titles such as
east of west paper girls maybe even something like wicked than the divine i haven't finished reading
those so i don't feel like it's fair to really pass judgment on them my next pick is going to
be skyward and this is for the people that maybe just want something a little bit different maybe
you don't want a superhero title maybe you don't want to crime noir but you still want
something that's self-contained not too long not too short in which case yeah skyward's probably
perfect for you but this is just really fun science fiction where one day gravity just
stops working and i'm not sure about anybody else but i love those tiles where it's pretty much
yeah it's the world but this is different and it doesn't turn into your standard post-apocalyptic
story that you'd probably expect it to we'd still fun quirky sci-fi that's got a lot of
heart to eat i'm really hoping that ironically this one does manage to stick the landing but
either way if you're wanting a complete break from anything gritty anything superheroey then
i definitely think skyward is something that you would enjoy or maybe you're saying to yourself no
i want something that's fully dark fully gritty that doesn't rely on trips such as superheroes to
try and lighten the mood well image has a great range of horror titles but the one that i would
recommend is nail biting the concept of this is that there's a town in oregon i can't remember
exactly the number but some of the most dangerous and diabolical serial killers of the last 30 or
so years have all originated from this same small town and they're all really quirky and inventive
but the one that you're going to follow for the most part is warren the nail biter he got that
name because he loved chewing the nails of his own victims but you follow a story where it's sort of
silence to the lambs but it's also got this kind of gone girl vibe to it it's got its own weird
twisted sense of humor through the killers that you learn about as the boot goes on and yeah i'm
gonna be saying this again which feels like it's just gonna be the theme now for the rest of this
video but it doesn't really stick the landing in the way that i hoped it would but for a great
premise and a really enjoyable 20 or so first issues this is definitely one that i'd recommend
people reading and it's just got a really unique art style but yeah maybe you also want to check
out my review of it i'll leave a link up there how can i do a video suggesting image comics to read
without bringing up something i recommend it and the one that's going to get my nod is deadly class
i haven't really read all of black science just yet so i don't think i can put this on the list
although you never know that might be something that you'll enjoy as well but deadly class for me
definitely gets the nod because it got pitched to me is basically hogwarts for assassin but so much
more i feel like it's got a lot more depth to it than just being a harry potter clone because we've
seen countless ones of them throughout the years since the boot came out and even as a british
person i'm sick and tired of harry potter being everywhere this is about a school of assassins
the main character's called marcus so yeah maybe i'm a bit biased towards it but it's got a great
80s vibe a really unique almost pop arty type style and it's just got that sense that you
don't get with a lot of books that at any time any character could be killed but if you're going to
start reading image comics recommender is a name that you're probably going to be hearing quite a
lot and if i had to recommend one of his books to you it's going to be this one but another big name
over image comics that you're probably going to want to look into is mark miller he's scottish so
i'm definitely going to show him some love but the image title that i'd recommend from him is gonna
be jupiter's legacy this is one i only recently read but already it's one of my favorite books of
this year and yeah the tv show came out it didn't really make too much of an impression and it's had
pretty mixed reviews but admittedly the tv show doesn't even really follow the same beats as the
comic it's pretty much just the main concept and this is split into sections so that you can pretty
much just read the first five issues and still get a pretty decent story i loved this book it
had great frank quietly art and i think reading something like this especially if it's going to
be your first image title will really show you what the difference between a marvel comic is and
something from image there are moments in this book when you think everything's gonna be okay
because you're so conditioned to it because of the fact that you know that title characters are
normally often in about eight other series and if they're gonna kill somebody they normally announce
it about four months in advance but jupiter's legacy isn't afraid of completely tuning those
expectations on your head and just giving you a great time i know throughout this video i've made
it sound like i'm not gonna recommend image titles if they haven't been completed but i'm a hypocrite
and i'm going to be for good reason because my next recommendation is going to be soggy
brian k vaughn one of the biggest names in comics and yeah he's done paper girls which has been
completed but like i said earlier i haven't read that yet soga however was something that i was
picking up in single issues and i absolutely love it this is really fun sci-fi it's got great heart
great imagination you genuinely don't know where this story is going and the all by
fiona staples is so unique and i'd love to see what she would do if she was on a marvel or dc
book this is a story that would only be allowed to be told at image comics and i'm hoping that
this resumes soon but i know this is going to be big shoes to fill but this gives me that feeling
of what people spoke about when star wars first came out now [ __ ] it now the sequel is going
to be [ __ ] so if you're somebody that's turning to image because you want to see something that
you haven't seen in any other comic then i think that song is definitely going to be
the answer for you and in a similar vein but in a completely different direction if you're
wanting something that you're probably not going to see from any other comic i would definitely
recommend checking out i hate fairyland this is scotty young who's got one of the most enjoyable
most enthusiastic art styles that i've seen in comics but he's also taken over the writing duty
and any other time that you've probably seen him he's probably been doing some kind of like
babies marvel cover and i feel like in a way this was him addressing his own perception of himself
because of his style he is always seen as a person that's going to do family-friendly fun
storytelling but this is him turning that on his head so you follow gertrude who goes to fairyland
and it's every kind of weird mad wizard of oz type cliche that you'd expect it to be but she is there
for decades and she's just had enough of it and she turns it just kind of into this nightmare i
really enjoyed this first book i'm hoping to pick up the second one sooner rather than later
and i think that just as something it's kind of like a pallet cleanser if you're kind of getting
a bit bored of superhero comics or maybe just the whole grim and gray thing that's
kind of taken over everything now the night fairyland is probably a breath of fresh air
it's got a great sense of humor a really unique and enjoyable art style and i don't know i had
a really good time with this and i just hope that other people do as well and this is the last title
that i'm gonna put on this list i have got another recommendation at the end but you know wait for
that one but this one means a lot to me like yeah i know that powers was the first technical image
book that i read and yeah i've had quite a lot of savage dragon when i found a dodgy website when i
was really young and i didn't realize that piracy was bad but this book that i'm about to recommend
is a cliche now when you're talking about image and of course it's gonna be the walking dead i
know the tv show was awful i know that there was quite a lot of people that did follow it
through to the end but admittedly for me because of how much i love this i couldn't stand the amc
series everything that is great about this book that tv show decided to get rid of don't even
get me started on tyrese but i'm going to put that to the side that's a video for a different
time and fans of that series have probably already heavily disliked this video but this
is robert kirkman it is absolute best this is image comics at its absolute best this is a
series that 20 years ago on paper had absolutely no chance of surviving let alone being one of the
most successful creator-owned series of all time but the fact that the walking dead even exists and
that we're reading it is a miracle robert cookman had to pitch this is a series it was a precursor
for aliens being introduced but this is a zombie story that we didn't even realize that we wanted
we're so used to seeing zombies disappear after the two-hour mark because we go out
of the cinema and that's kind of it for the movie but this doesn't allow you to do that and over the
course of its nearly 200 issues you get to go on this journey with a group of characters that are
constantly changing that are never safe that are always going about with their own problems that
they've got to deal with and it almost makes you realize that if there ever was a zombie apocalypse
there would still be a way of us getting through it yes i do admit that it does tend to fall into
the same pattern quite a few times but i can't deny just how enjoyable this book is and when 14
year old marcus got that first compendium i really didn't know what i was in for because i pretty
much just brought it because i heard i fanboy talking about it all the time and because it
was forbidden planet's book of the week deal but as soon as i read it my eyes were open to create
her own comics and my perception of the medium itself was changed and for the better if it wasn't
for this title i might not have read a lot of these that have been on this list and even though
that i know that there's quite a lot of other image books that i do need to give a chance to
i'm happy with all of these that i've read and i can happily recommend them to anybody who wants
to jump into this company but that's what my last suggestion is going to be you can pretty much read
any image title that you want i know it might seem a bit counterproductive that i'm saying this in a
where to start because it kind of brings up the question why did i make this video in the first
place well that's why i left it to the end but you can read any image book and be pretty comfortable
with it and some of the spin-offs like sam and twitch even though it came as a result of spawn
it still stands on its own two feet that's why i think image comics is great because if
you feel like you're not getting what you want from marvel or dc there's probably going to be
something similar an image and hopefully there's been at least one book on this list that's piqued
your curiosity and will help you start to read this company but now like i said my knowledge of
image comics is still quite beginner level so i'd like to hear your recommendations let me know in
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