The independent comics, while being around for quite a while got major media attention in the 1990s when the most popular Marvel artists (Rob Liefeld, Jim Lee, Marc Silvestri, Erik Larsen and Whilce Portacio) left the security of an established company to form their own comics group called Image. At first they partnered with an existing company, Malibu but then struck out on their own. With their superstar status boosted by the speculator craze, the Image group became a truly visible independent company.

The Philippines has had its own “Big Two.” The Pinoy Komiks Rebyu says that the two big publishers of the komiks magasin were Atlas and GASI both owned by the Roces family (This would make the two actually the “Big One”). Predating the Image founders by a good thirty years, Filipino artists and writers such as Pablo Gomez, Nestor Redondo and Alfredo Alcala formed their own komiks companies.

What would make these artists strike out on their own? One major reason is creative freedom. The creators basically want to create comics that they want to create and be fairly compensated for their work. More importantly, the creators wanted to own their creations. When it started, Image Comics was exactly that, a group of creatively driven visionaries. It would be argued though that the “group of guys” eventually became a company. Artists and writers were eventually hired to work for the Image founders. These “recruits” would then end up writing and drawing someone else’s vision.

Thus, if a creator wanted total creative freedom, he or she would need to go the route of self-publishing. For this presentation, I will be focusing on this route.

Pages 1 2 3 4 5 6

2 Comments | No Trackbacks