When I was growing up I loved X-Men. It was Jim Lee’s art that defined those characters in X-Men for me. I wasn’t aware of who Jim Lee was by name, but I knew the look and feel of his illustrations. Ever since then whenever X-Men comes up in conversation I think of Lee’s work with Chris Claremont. It was a collaboration that defined the best of what superhero comics could be in the late eighties and early nineties.
I was becoming aware of what independent comic publishers were around the time that the Spawn movie was coming out. The brand of Image Comics always seemed like a series of Marvel knock off comics to me (with the exception of Top Cow). But even so I recognized Jim Lee’s art and I respected the work that Todd McFarlane and Erik Larsen were doing. There was no denying that the guys at Image were among the most talented creatives working in comics during the nineties.
Patrick Meaney’s film The Image Revolution (2014) looks behind the scenes at how Image got started and how it has lasted. Meaney’s film is essentially a series of interviews with the comic creators involved that have been strung together to form a historical narrative. As a reservoir of interesting anecdotes it is pretty interesting but it never feels like it escapes the trap of being a kind of promotional video for the publisher.
The Image Revolution is at its most compelling when it dives into what made these creators such a part of the zeitgeist of the early nineties. The appeal of this section of the film has a lot to do with my own nostalgia for comics of that era but it also pulls the curtain back on how and why these guys all left Marvel comics, revealing a story that I was too young to care about.
At the same time, as a total nerd, I wish that Meaney and company had delved deeper into side projects like McFarlane Toys. As a collector of action figures I want to know the business end of how that got started and what its relationship to Image was. Meaney hardly addresses this at all, suggesting that one fine day Todd McFarlane just woke up and started a toy company.
I suppose the question is “who is going to watch The Image Revolution?” I imagine that it is most likely going to be comic book fans with far more knowledge than me. If so then I can’t see this film offering much more than nostalgia as it promotes the titular publisher.
