It’s that time of the week when I direct everyone over to see the latest issue of Rich Johnston’s Lying in the Gutters.

Now, this is Rich’s column, so I won’t repeat everything here, I will however talk about a couple of things I found interesting.

RE: IMAGE IS EVERYTHING

I always find the issue of creator rights within the comic industry a very interesting, and prickly, subject. After all, creator owned properties are the primary way that most new creators get into the industry, as getting straight in with the big two nowadays is a feat nigh on impossible.

Rich raises a good point here about Marvel’s Icon imprint. They only seem to publish work from high profile creators that are already on their books e.g. Bendis, Brubaker, and Millar. I had also heard rumours of the creative limitations being placed on creator owned stuff though DC’s Vertigo and Wildstorm imprints. It is sad to see this happening.

At the same time, it is good to know that Image might being improving their deal for new creators, so they don’t have to live in abject poverty until their royalties kick in, as this can sink many new writers and artists. If this is true, I would imagine we will find a heck of a lot of writers moving to Image after their contracts expire, and several creator owned projects might very well move across. With DC’s market share dropping ever down, could we see Image overtaking them?

RE: FROM DUSK TILL CON

I had that Christos Gage had been signed to Avatar Press, through reading the Whitechapel message boards, but it is nice to have a title for the project now: Absolution. Jesus, look at that Jacen Burrows cover. Anyone mind explaining to me why he isn’t Über famous???

RE: ANT MANIA

I thought this was old news? Oh well. Simon Pegg would work really well, but I would hate Edgar Wright get stuck in that rut that Kevin Smith is in, where every film has to star his best buddies

RE: PHONOGRAM 2

nice promo piece for Phonogram 2 here:

McKelvie has really outdone himself there. I’ll be pre-ordering that as soon as I can

RE: SAY CHEESE

Hahahaha! That is freaking hilarious. If Millar was at all worried about getting an over-inflated ego, there is nothing quite as deflating as that

ALL THE RAGE

To play us out, Rich is doing a new Youtube feature called All the Rage. The first episode investigates why so many comic book creators actually hate comics. It is good stuff, check it out here

Related posts:

1. Cleaning Out the Gutters - Discussing LITG V. 2 #165
2. Dead Men Tell No Tales + LITG + My Body is Full of Pain!
3. Robert Kirkman is Becoming a Partner at Image Comics
4. The Rumour Mill: Rick Remender is the New Writer of Booster Gold … [UPDATE]