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Analyzing the target audience for the Image Comics of the 2010s
Marisa Negron
Professor Danner
PB 204
17 March 2021
Who Is This For?- Best Selling New Image Graphic Novel Series of the 2010s
About Image Comics
On their FAQ page, Image Comics several key pieces of information that are critical to establishing who this publisher claims to serve. For starters, Image claims to offer “science fiction, fantasy, romance, horror, crime fiction, historical fiction, humor, and more by the finest artists and writers working in the medium today” (para. 1). Additionally, the publisher lists a number of different places where their titles can be found including big retailers, such as Amazon, independent bookstores, your local library via the platforms OverDrive and HooplaDigital, and other digital retailers (para. 7-13). The variety of genres offered and the widespread accessibility of their products seems that Image wants to give the impression that they have something to offer all comic and graphic novel readers. While Image may have a wide selection overall, I will be focusing on their new series of the past decade and though the publisher boasts about their range, there are many similarities within these titles that reveal a particular target audience.
Top Best Selling New Graphic Novels Overall of the 2010s
Compiling a list of Image Comics’ best sellers was somewhat challenging as the publisher does not have an official list of their best-selling titles. However, looking deeper I found that Image Comics are distributed by Diamond Comics Distributors. Diamond distributes the comics of several notable publishers including Marvel, Dark Horse, and Image to name a few. On their Industry Statics page, I found that Diamond has a list of the Top One Hundred best-selling graphic novel volumes for the 2010s. Since Diamond carries many publishers this Top One Hundred is not exclusive to Image titles. Unfortunately, this means that the list of titles I will provide is in no way a complete list of Image’s best sellers. Even so, the titles that did make it into Diamond’s Top One Hundred do provide useful insight into their target audience for this past decade.
According to Diamond’s Top One Hundred list, fifty-one volumes belong to Image Comics. The best selling overall for both the publisher and distributor was Robert Kirkman’s The Walking Dead. However, since The Walking Dead began its series run before 2010 for the purposes of this research it will be excluded in addition to the 2009-2016 series Chew. Excluding these two, the rest of Image’s best sellers included in Diamond’s list were new series for the 2010s making a total of twelve titles.
Graphic Novel (As It Appears on the List) | Primary Genre (As Listed on Hoopla) | Female Lead | Rating |
Saga by Brian K. Vaughan and Fiona Staples | Fantasy | Yes | M |
Paper Girls by Brian K. Vaughan and Cliff Chiang | Science Fiction | Yes | T+ |
Monstress by Marjorie Liu and Sana Takeda | Fantasy | Yes | M |
The Wicked + The Divine by Kieron Gillen and Jamie Kelvie | Fantasy | Yes | M |
East of West by Jonathan Hickman and Nick Dragotta | Science Fiction | No | T+ |
Sex Criminals by Matt Fraction and Chip Zdarsky | Crime | Yes | M |
Rat Queens by Kurtis J. Wiebe and Roc Upchurch | Fantasy | Yes | M |
Deadly Class by Rick Remender and Wes Craig | Crime | No | M |
Descender by Dustin Nyguen and Jeff Lemire | Science Fiction | No | M |
Black Science by Rick Remender and Matteo Scalera | Science Fiction | No | M |
Wytches by Scott Snyder and Jock | Fantasy | Yes | M |
Low by Rick Remender and Greg Tocchini | Fantasy | Yes | M |
Who Is This For? Commonalities Explained
Mature Themes
In July 2011, Image Comics adopted a new rating system for their comics and graphic novels: E for all ages, T for ages twelve and up, T+ for teens 16 and up, and M for adults eighteen and older (Image, 2011). Almost all twelve titles are rated as M with the exception of Paper Girls and East of West categorized as T+. This means that, according to Image Comics, their best-selling titles of the last decade are aimed at those who are at least sixteen years old, but their target audience for these comics is primarily adults.
As described by Image, the M or Mature rating category suggests that these titles “may contain nudity, profanity, excessive violence and other content not suitable for minors”. This seems to be confirmed by many of the themes and images found in these selections. One thing that I personally think especially defines a target age group is a piece of media’s shyness when it comes to sex since, in my experience, American culture is still very prudish when it comes to the topic. As promised by Image’s rating system, many of the new titles of the last decade include scenes with full or partial nudity in addition to explicit depictions of characters’ sexual relations. Aside from depictions of sex, several of these titles also devel into topics suited for a more mature audience. For example, Sex Criminals by Matt Fraction and Chip Zdarsky is unsurprisingly loaded with images of sexual encounters, but it also uses itself as a platform to address other aspects of human sexuality, such as sexual exploration and sexual assault. I have found that the MeToo Movement among other movements regarding sexual health and rights that have taken off within the last decade has been particularly influential on this decade of media, especially in terms of representations of the female sexual experience. Whereas many comics of the past had often utilized depictions of female sexuality for the sexual satisfaction of men, modern comics and graphic novels make an effort to address female sexuality with the same honesty and respect that historically has been given to discussing and illustrating male sexuality.
Genre
Nearly all of Image’s last decade of bestselling graphic novels fall under science fiction and/or fantasy. On the surface this could mean that they are primarily targeting readers who are interested in these genres, but I think this actually says more about their target age audience. Associate Professor of English at Clark University Esther Jones wrote an article on the importance of science fiction and fantasy for young readers. In her 2020 article “How Reading Science Fiction Can Build Resilience in Kids”, Jones makes the claim that the popularity of science fiction and fantasy novels is because they offer young readers an escape and gives them space to process reality (Jones, 2020). As I have already established, the mature nature of these graphic novels clearly demonstrates that they are targeted at an adult audience and having these titles fall under these genres does not change this fact. However, it is important to note that science fiction has gained most of its popularity only recently. “Why science fiction is the genre of the 21st century” by UC Davis student Noah Pflueger-Peters claims that the science fiction genre began its climb in 2000 gaining significant popularity in the 2010s with the rise of science fiction films (para. 4). What this could suggest is that these titles are not aimed at children, they are not even necessarily aimed just at science fiction and/or fantasy readers either, but those that grew up during this genre’s peak in popularity. This would narrow down the target audience to individuals between the ages of eighteen to those about mid thirty.
Female Leads
Speaking of women in graphic novels, the Image titles of the 2010s also carry a larger presence of female characters in general, specifically female leads. Of these twelve titles, over half have at least one female lead with several among these featuring an entirely female main cast. These particular graphic novels also often spotlight their female characters by representing them in the cover art and/or using feminine nouns in their titles. For instance, Paper Girls and Rat Queens both have main casts that are entirely made up of women. Both utilize their casts in the cover designs and the use of “Girls” and “Queens” in their respective titles also draw attention to this fact.
Another important fact to note is how the female characters are depicted. As previously discussed, comics of the past often made use of female characters for the satisfaction of men and this often resulted in representations of women that we might describe today as objectifying. However, the women of Image’s graphic novels are illustrated and written in a more realistic and desexualized manner. This is true, for example, on the cover of Brian K. Vaughan and Fiona Staples’ Saga where one of its main characters is shown breastfeeding.
The increase of female characters and desexualized portrayals of women is likely due to the growing population of women comic readers. At ComicsPRO 2014, Image publisher Eric Stephenson made the claim that “Right now, the fastest growing demographic for Image Comics, and I'm willing to speculate, for the entire industry, is women” (CBR Staff, 2014). This would mean that Image has likely spent some of the last decade trying to produce content that would appeal to this demographic. This is not to say that the target audience of these titles is exclusively women, but rather appealing to this audience widens the net of potential readers.
Diversity
The increased diversity of comic characters has not been limited to just increased portrayals of female characters either. The Image graphic novels of the 2010s have included a wider range of diversity in regards to race, gender, sexual orientation, etc.
Similar to female-driven titles, a few of these selections have made it a point to showcase their diverse casts on their covers. In addition to the previously mentioned Paper Girls and Rat Queens, another example of a cover that shows off its cast’s diversity is Deadly Class. One thing that interests me about this title is that while the narrative takes place in the 1960s and is driven by a white, male protagonist, it features an extremely diverse range of characters, many of whom are consistently represented in the cover art.
The diversity found in these titles may have something to do with the structure of Image itself. Image Comics is a creator-owned publishing company, which means that the creators of their comics and graphic novels retain the rights to their work. In a 2015 interview for the LA Times, writer Brian K. Vaughan credited his decision to make an all-female team in Paper Girls to Image’s creator-owned structure. Vaughan states, “Now being at Image, where we could do anything we want. Here's a great opportunity to do what I always wanted to do, just a group of females and not have to defend it or explain it, and just get to write them” (para. 7). Without the pressures from the publisher that many other creators face, Image has allowed its creators to tell the kinds of stories that they want to tell. In doing so, Image has given its creators the ability to simply create diverse characters without needing to explain themselves. Additionally, several key movements within the past decade, such as the previously mentioned MeToo Movement and the revival of Black Lives Matter, have all created a greater demand for diversity in the media. It is possible these events have also prompted a rise in the diversity seen in this last decade of Image graphic novels as the lack of creative interference from the publisher allows them to more easily meet this demand.
Works Cited
“Frequently Asked Questions.” Image Comics, imagecomics.com/faq.
Jones, Esther. “Science Fiction Builds Mental Resiliency in Young Readers.” The Conversation,
11 May 2020,
~:text=The%20mental%20health%20of%20reading,engage%20reality%20based%20on
%20science.
Pflueger-Peters , Noah. “Why Science Fiction Is the Genre of the 21st Century.” The California
Aggie, 25 Apr. 2017,
cience%20fiction%20has%20exploded%20since,of%20the%20last%20five%20years. Staff, CBR. “Image Publisher Eric Stephenson Emphasizes Direct Market Importance in
ComicsPRO Speech.” CBR, 28 Feb. 2014,
comicspro-speech/.
“Top 100 Graphic Novels: The 2010s.” Diamond Comic Distributors, Inc. - Nexus of Comics &
Pop-Culture, www.diamondcomics.com/Home/1/1/3/237?articleID=239675.
“THE RATING GAME.” Image Comics, imagecomics.com/news/the-rating-game.
“You All Should Be Reading Brian K. Vaughan's 'Paper Girls' Comic Series Now.” Los Angeles
Times, Los Angeles Times, 28 Dec. 2015,
n-20151130-htmlstory.html.