It’s not often I read a book and think to myself, “This really needed an editor.” Unfortunately, The Rise of Image Comics (affiliate link) by Daniel Best is one of them. Overall, it was a worthwhile book and had some great information it, but the editorial sloppiness nearly ruined it for me.
These days, sadly, it’s fairly common for a book to contain errors. Usually, the errors consist of misspelled words, correctly-spelled but wrong words, and other typographical errors. The Rise of Image Comics has all of these, and it contains more egregious problems. There are many instances throughout the book where quotes are repeated in close proximity to each other, almost exact paragraphs repeated on the same page or close by or rephrasing previously conveyed information, and frequently wrong name. Some of the incorrect names I saw included Crisis on Infinite Universes, Mike High Comics, Windstorm Productions, and Ron Perlman and Ronald Perelman used interchangeably.
The sloppiness of the book almost detracts from the fact that it contains some great information. I liked the way Best established the historical background of comic book creator treatment that ultimately led to Image Comics’ rise. Best goes into great detail on the industry and the original founders, and paints a fascinating portrait of a chaotic, dysfunctional group that helped shake up the comic book industry in the ’90s.
I hope that this book gets a proofread and editing round before a second edition comes out. It contains great information, and it could have been a formative historical text on the comic book industry. As it stands, the sloppiness detracts from what it could have been.
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