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05-07-2007, 04:56 PM
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THE CURRENT IMAGE: JIM VALENTINO ON SHADOWLINE
 by Benjamin Ong Pang KeanJim Valentino’s Shadowline Productions started out as an imprint and was one of the founding studios of Image Comics. In the late 1990s, Valentino took over as the Publisher of Image and the company shifted its focus from super-hero books to a wider variety of titles for just about anyone and everyone. In fact, in the first quarter of 2003 alone, Valentino and then Director of Marketing but now Executive Editor Eric Stephenson released 18 new #1 issues into the market, with titles like Aria: The Uses of Enchantment #1, Sammy: Tourist Trap #1, Shadows #1, Rotogin: Junkbotz #0, Bulletproof Proof Monk Tales, Parliament of Justice, PVP #1, Strangers #1, Mythstalkers #1, The Agents, Heirs of Eternity, Soul of the Samurai, and Victory. “My vision was for a company that was not all things to all people, but, rather, something for everyone. If you didn't like Powers, you might like Rex Mundi or PvP or A Distant Soil or Ministry of Space, Jim Mahfood or one of the more "mainstream" offerings like Noble Causes or Invincible. There would be at least one book for damn near every taste. I still believe in that concept, despite all evidence to the contrary,” he said in an interview from 2004 when he stepped down from his daily roles as Publisher at Image. Today, Shadowline publishes Jim Valentino’s and other creators’ properties. The current line-up includes Jimmie Robinson’s Bomb Queen, Manny Trembley and Eric A. Anderson’s Sam Noir, Christopher E. Long’s Ward of the State, and Howard Wong’s After The Cape. Newsarama.com caught up with Valentino to discuss about his upcoming plans for Shadowline. Newsarama: What differentiates Shadowline from others in the market these days? Jim Valentino: [Laughter] Well, all those books you just mentioned for one thing! Each book is completely unique. Different not only from pretty much everything else on the stands but also from one another in terms of their concept and approach. NRAMA: It all started with ShadowHawk in the early 1990s during the early days of Image Comics, right? And Shadowline was an imprint and one of the founding studios of Image at that time. In your views, how does Shadowline contribute, in terms of diversity and creativity, to the overall publishing and intellectual property plans of Image Comics under Erik Larsen?  JV: Image is basically a co-op with distinct divisions—TMP (Todd McFarlane), Top Cow (Marc Silvestri), Image Central (Erik) and Shadowline (me). While I appreciate what Erik is doing, he is merely carrying forward what I first started with the non-line in the late 1990s, then with Image Central during my five year tenure as Publisher. Shadowline is adding more diverse and quality books to the mix (as are Top Cow and TMP). What differentiates us is that we have no more than five books at any given time. All of our books are finite series or OGNs, so a reader can get in and out and we can ensure on-time delivery (within our control). All of our books are edited by Ms. [Kris] Simon and because we do so few, she and I are able to devote more time to them in terms of art and story direction. NRAMA: May sees your return to your autobiographical comics roots with the all-new collection of real-life stories in Drawing From Life. Shadowline is also set to expand with the release of a new mini-series by Christopher E. Long entitled Hiding In Time. What can we expect to see from you and your imprint in the coming months? JV: Well, I’m doing Drawing From Life, as you noted, a second issue is planned for late in the year and there may be a third, I’m not sure. After that, we’ll just have to see. We’re going to be seeing a couple of all-ages books, some OGNs, a few trades. There will be different formats from landscape to 12”x12” hard cover art books to 9” x 12” softcovers to a black-and-white “phone book” (which is a format that Dave Sim, not Marvel, pioneered incidentally) and, of course, comics. Our books, mentioned below, will all be diverse in style, content and even demographic from underground/alternative to new takes on super-heroes to all-ages books and everything in between.  May will see the release of Ward of the State by Christopher Long and Chee, June sees the Sam Noir trade for all of you who were waiting for it. This will collect both the Samurai Detective and Ronin Holiday minis with all kinds of other goodies. July sees Hiding in Time, The Collected normalman and the second trade of Bomb Queen: Dirty Bomb, which is about 128 pages of just plain wrong.Now, the following books have not been announced yet and we’ll give more information in due time… but in August we have PX!: A Girl and Her Panda, which is an all-ages landscape book from Sam Noir’s Manny Trembley and Eric A. Anderson. In Her Darkest Hour, by Fernanda Chiella… a wonderful young artist Kris found on Comicspace whom we expect to see a lot more from. The Surreal Adventures of Edgar Allan Poo, another all ages book (we’re trying to atone for publishing Bomb Queen) by Dwight L. Mac Pherson and Thomas Boatwright, which will be in the same format as Image’s recent Wonderful World of Oz book. And then the inevitable Bomb Queen IV! There are several other books coming, including a hard cover coffee table art book that I believe will blow fans away, and we have a very special Fall release from Manny Trembley called Sara Punkinhead. NRAMA: Things are definitely looking good for Shadowline then. Without getting ourselves way too far into the future, let’s look at some of the current titles and the ones that will be hitting stores in the foreseeable future, we have: After The Cape. I see references to Sin City and Jim Steranko’s work (thanks to Marco Rudy’s artwork), an homage to Action Comics’ logo… and Tony Stark's struggle with alcoholism in Iron Man #120-128… JV: I’m sorry, but I have to take exception to your Tony Stark comparison. First, Tony Stark is a billionaire industrialist. I don’t know about you, but I find it difficult to relate to that. Ethan Fall, the protagonist in After the Cape, is a guy with a skill-set limited to one thing: being a super-hero. He’s made some very bad choices in his life, and now that he can no longer perform that job (being a super-hero), he’s trying to figure out how to support his young family. That I can relate to. A guy in so far over his head he keeps making the wrong choices and things keep getting worse for him. Any similarity to Tony Stark is merely in their choice of poison. The logo is definitely based on the Action Comics’ logo, true. However, despite what many people in comics seem to think, Frank Miller did not invent chiaroscuro. That said, I’m sure he was one of Marco’s influences.  NRAMA: Fair enough. Next up, Bomb Queen – superhero hunter and killer, and ruler of the fictional city of New Port…JV: Bomb Queen is a satire. It lampoons super-heroes, super-villains, “bad girl” comics and in a very real sense our hedonistic society. To see it as merely “hunter-killer” is, if you’ll forgive me, rather simplistic! NRAMA: Hiding In Time, a Time Cop for the new Millennium? JV: Hiding In Time is about a witness protection program. It’s only similarity to Time Cop, which was about temporal law enforcement, is the fact that both use time travel. NRAMA: Sam Noir, a fusion of hardboiled noir fiction and a samurai adventure tale… JV: More or less. I describe it as Kurosawa meets Chandler with tongue planted firmly in cheek. As far as I’m aware there hasn’t been anything quite like it. Manny and Eric revel in the bad pun and I think the series is stronger for it. NRAMA: Ward of the State, think Oliver Twist with a gruesome touch of Mean Streets, correct? JV: [Laughter] Yeah, talk about your off-the-wall juxtapositions! That one’s as good as any I’ve heard. And it goes to what I’ve said before; I like to see concepts with a new twist—sometimes, as in the case of Ward of the State and Sam Noir, it’s the combination of two seemingly disparate sources create something new. Powers did the same thing as did a few others I’m most likely disremembering. NRAMA: How do you decide on your publishing plans with editor Kris Simon?  JV: As for how Kris and I decide on what to publish, we look first and foremost for a strong story. A unique concept or spin on an old concept. This must be coupled with strong art. When a book interests us we ask the writer for an issue by issue synopsis, because we want to read the story. Sometimes a creator will have a great idea but no story, so we ask for things incrementally, helping out in whatever capacity is necessary; be it help with plotting, writing or art direction.NRAMA: A Shadowline Submissions Guideline is made available on the Shadowline Comicspace page. Can you tell the readers just how many submissions do you get from budding creators and interested individuals on a given day? JV: Kris actually handles that, she goes through them first and then makes recommendations to me. I believe we get several in any given week, we’d really love to see more. All we ask is that submitters follow the guidelines and not try to over-think it. It’s pretty basic. NRAMA: What are your thoughts on the quality of pitches that come your way compared to the early Image Comics days and even during your time as Publisher of Image from 1999 to early 2004? JV: Oy! Well, I hate to say it but, as in all things, Sturgeon’s Law (90% of everything is crap) applies. The joy comes from finding those gems in the pile and from giving someone new their first shot. That makes it all worthwhile. Always has, always will. NRAMA: Do you still think that there's hope for the independent comic segment of the comic book industry? JV: I believe today, as I always have, that independent comics are our only hope of survival. As the industry moves into new venues-- book stores, online downloads and such-- it is the independent comic, not the super-hero, that will appeal to the broader spectrum of people. Super-hero action movies aside, we’re talking about readers here. So, yes, there’s hope. NRAMA: Most of the titles that we see coming out from Shadowline these days are the works of creators with whom you already have a working and professional relationship with, for example Small Gods' J. R. Rand and Juan E. Ferreyra on Emissary. Either that, or they, with the exception of the Toronto-based Howard Wong, have already broken into the industry on their own such as Jimmie Robinson with his self-published works Amanda and Gunn, Cyberzone, Avigon, Evil & Malice; Christopher E. Long with Easy Way, X-Men Unlimited, Blackfoot Braves, Manny Trembley and Eric A. Anderson with their PandaXPress webcomic, Jim Keplinger with Ted Noodelman… For those who’ve been keeping tabs know that you’re the one who “took the company away from the much derided "Image style" by presenting a diversified line of quality authors and titles,” a vision that we still see being implemented by Erik Larsen and Eric Stephenson today…  JV: Actually, I’ve published a lot more first-timers than I have established professionals. I’m definitely not trying to toot my own horn here, but I’ve given a lot of people either their first break or their first shot at the “big time” as much if not more than nearly anyone. With the possible exception of Jimmie who published Cyberzone on his own, and Christopher who had a book published through IDW, I gave all of those people their first shot and many more besides. I think that the assumption that I only work with individuals with whom I have a prior relationship is not consistent with my professional history. You’ve selected certain creators to try and make that point, but the ones you left out are in much greater number. As I noted earlier, nothing gives me greater pleasure than launching a new career…well, a few things, but this is for a general audience!NRAMA: You'd said in an interview that one of your dream projects would be to do a Justice Society someday. Do you think you could do something similar with the rich tapestry that is the Image Universe? JV: I have no desire to create an ersatz Justice Society. I would want to work with those specific characters due to their rich history and personalities. NRAMA: Okay, let me rephrase that. Shadowline, as you mentioned and as it’s evident to everyone right now, offers a more diversified and different mix of titles for everyone… As you said, “a place where both the new and established creator can get a foothold and present his ideas without fear that his creation will be stolen out from underneath him by a corporation”. In other words, and if I may say so, it’s pretty much Image Comics under Jim Valentino as Publisher… Heck, it even goes back to the genesis of Shadowline when you first introduced it in the early 1990s. In saying that, what’s your next five-year plan for Shadowline? JV: I can see where it might appear that way, but Shadowline has some major distinctions from Image Central. Ours is a much smaller operation, as it’s only Kris and myself. We publish a very limited number of books per month which allows us to provide a much more hands-on approach than Image Central is capable of. So we’re not working on a 5-year plan per se, we feel that we’re evolving as we go, implementing the changes that we hope will continue to improve the line as it carries us into the future. NRAMA: Citing the success of company crossovers and events like DC's Infinite Crisis and Marvel's Civil War as examples, do you think an inter-studio Image crossover would be a boost to the company? JV: It would represent a temporary sales spike and that’s all. While we’ve done them in the past (Shattered Image, Alternate Image, Mars Attacks Image) they’re difficult in that unlike Marvel and DC, Image doesn’t own any of the characters we publish. So, there’s no way for us to dictate that any character should appear in one of these stories. Also, at the end of the day, it has to be said that despite the sales spike and hyperbole not much happens in these huge crossovers of any long term significance. NRAMA: Finally, going back to one of your first and most well-known creations when Image was founded in 1992, will we see more of the Eddie Collins ShadowHawk anytime soon? His most recent appearance was a cameo in Jay Faerber's Dynamo 5, right? JV: Yes, that’s correct. I have plans for Eddie but right now I’m into doing more auto-bio and humor work than I am into doing super-heroes. Next time that particular muse comes knocking at my door I may revisit Eddie, we’ll just have to see. |
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05-07-2007, 05:14 PM
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#2 |
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...First pos[WHAP!]OW!!!
...Either way, you go Jim! Especially since we all know that one of the 52 Earths is where Norm, Cap and Sophie reside!  |
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05-07-2007, 05:18 PM
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Met Jim a million years ago at a con - really nice guy.
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05-07-2007, 05:47 PM
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Well done, Jim!
These are exciting times for Shadowline--no doubt about it! |
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05-07-2007, 05:52 PM
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I think Jim and Kris do more to give new talent an opportunity than any other publisher. With their current model of no more than 5 titles at a time, and with each title being a one-shot or miniseries, it really opens a lot of doors for aspiring creators.
So, props to you guys and keep up the good work! Elton |
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05-07-2007, 06:15 PM
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#6 | |
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Just to set the record straight.....
Quote:
Actually the *only* self-published work of mine, was CyberZone (8 issues). All the rest were indeed published by Jim Valentino, under the Image Comics / Shadowline banner. My other books, Amanda & Gunn, Code Blue, Evil & Malice, and Avigon should be credited to Valentino (and Larry Marder). Valentino has done more for this industry - upfront and behind the scenes - that I fear the full scope will be unsung for a long time. Sorry if I'm baised... over the years he's also become my friend. Also... let's not forget, Manny & Eric's PX! was a webcomic (still ongoing) before the Image deal. In essence it was self-published, too. Thanks Newsarama for all your "Current Image" features - job well done and I look forward to more. Jimmie Robinson |
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05-07-2007, 06:18 PM
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#7 |
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Working at Shadowline as a writer on one of Jim's properties was by far one of the best experiences I've had in this industry. I learned a lot about the industry and my craft during my time there (and got to meet lots of great professionals). They can be tough sometimes, but every bump and hurdle was for the good of the story. They're dedicated to helping creators put out the best story they can, and I'm glad they keep to a low volume of titles to stay on that path. Send submissions their way... if you make the cut to become a Shadowline title, you'll be glad you did.
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05-07-2007, 06:28 PM
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#8 |
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Hell yeah. Great people creating and releasing great comics.
It rarely gets better than that, folks. Congrats to everyone involved. |
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05-07-2007, 06:31 PM
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#9 |
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That was a great and insightful interview.
I hope that it helps debunk that notion that a nobody can't get published. Everyone has to start somewhere so do follow the submission guidelines and go for it! I for one feel very fortunate that my start is with Jim and Kris. They truly go out of their way to help you be the best creator you can be and for that I will always be thankful. |
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05-07-2007, 07:34 PM
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#10 |
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Fantastic interview! Shadowline is the home of many of my favourite books each month. Bomb Queen brought me into Shadowline and I stayed for damn near everything else. I should go back to the Shadowline forums...it was fun posting there and I'm not really sure why I stopped.
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05-07-2007, 07:58 PM
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#11 |
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We miss ya' Varrus.
The Shadowline Forums (Jim Valentino's boards) are among the busiest on the Image Comics site. In fact, our total posts are second *only* to the main Image Comics board. We have the best readers and fans and appreciate them all. |
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05-07-2007, 10:07 PM
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#12 |
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Jim greenlit our first book Small Gods, and he was always supportive and alway giving advice, even when he was no longer in charge of Image central, when giving advice it wasnt his job anymore.
then when our comic ended he offered us to do a comic for him and we couldnt say no offcourse! and now I'm preparing a comic of my own and I always thought of Shadowline first to do it. nice people, even Kris!  |
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05-07-2007, 10:31 PM
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cool interview, i've enjoyed the books released since larsen took over more than I did previously, but either way image has become a great publisher.
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05-07-2007, 11:06 PM
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#14 |
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Man, I have to say this is the best interview an aspiring creator could have come down the wire. Plus, some of these titles sound so good I can't say no.
Steve Ekstrom |
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05-07-2007, 11:43 PM
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#15 | |
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Quote:
Your book looks cool, man! |
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05-07-2007, 11:52 PM
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What happened to the issues of Emissary after 6 ?
I'd like to see the others be published. Small Gods was to have a two issue series as well,but never saw that after the original series. I am happy to buy these series and think they are great but i need them to finish or come out when soliciated or it makes me worry about not geting a complete story. |
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05-08-2007, 01:10 AM
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#17 |
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Jim has his fingerprints on some of my favorite comics, so it’s a real thrill to be working with him.
(Kris ain’t so bad either. ) |
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05-08-2007, 01:18 AM
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#18 | |
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Quote:
Thanks! |
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05-08-2007, 01:22 AM
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#19 | |
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Yeah... you're passable. |
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05-08-2007, 01:22 AM
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#20 | |
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Quote:
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05-08-2007, 04:58 AM
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#21 |
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Too bad Guardians of the Galaxy is owned by Marvel or would be a big comeback for Jim Valentino!
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05-08-2007, 10:23 AM
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Very cool interview.
*waves to the Shadowline Bunch* |
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05-08-2007, 12:42 PM
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#23 |
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Very cool feature on Shadowline!
Very excited about Shadowline! Really looking forward to reading The Surreal
Adventures of Edgar Allan Poo!! There is not enough good all ages stories out there! |
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05-08-2007, 12:55 PM
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#24 | |
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Quote:
Thanks, brother! I totally agree. You should really check out the other all-ages books from Shadowline, too. Lots of good stuff for the kiddies here. |
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05-08-2007, 01:14 PM
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#25 |
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I guess I'm the newbie in the gang...
So far so good so great, I can't be more thankful to Jim, Kris and everyone. See dudes and dudettes...it works! |
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