Image Comics

Every week, Image Comics sends a newsletter about our upcoming releases to retailers with a letter at the beginning. This message, by Image Comics PR & Marketing Director Jennifer de Guzman was in the August 14, 2012 newsletter.

If you take a look at the books coming out this week and those whose final order cut-off is next Monday, you’ll find nary a #1. Unless a publisher takes the insane strategy of publishing 52 new titles a year, not every week can be a debut week.

So I’m going to ask you to play a little game called “Let’s Pretend Every Issue Is as Important as the First Issue.”

Well, except it’s not a game. It’s reality. And, if we really look at it, perhaps every issue after the first is more important than the one that preceded it. This is importance based not on novelty, not on an “event,” not even on a hitting a landmark number but on supporting ongoing storytelling in comics.

In a series, you don’t get a full story in a single issue. It’s a format that some have eschewed in favor of graphic novels or “trade-waiting.” But if we’re going to support the issue as an integral part of the comics business model, we need to support every issue. We need to foster the habit of comics buying and not let a title fall from people’s attention.

Because there are stories at stake. Every creator has a story he or she wants to tell. None of them would say, I’m sure, that they’re entitled to tell their whole stories. But I think they deserve at least a chance.

-JdG