Remembering the Image euphoria

Spawn was one of the titles that were part of the first wave of Image releases. Photo: Image Comics

It was the best of times, it was the strangest of times ... for the comic-book industry and fandom, at least. When Image Comics started back in 1992, there was a great deal of excitement. At the comics specialty store where I used to hang out in those days, fans came in droves to pre-order the titles – many of them booking multiple copies of the first issues.

And, since it was the 1990s after all, they also wanted all the gimmick covers – die-cut, holofoil, embossed, polybagged, you name it.