Purchase includes free access to book updates online and a free trial membership in the publisher's book club where you can select from more than a million books without charge. Excerpt: Awesome Comics or Awesome Entertainment (also known as Awesome-Hyperwerks when they were briefly joined with Hyperwerks Entertainment) is an American comic book studio that was formed in 1997 by Image Comics co-founder Rob Liefeld. The company folded in 2000. In 1992, seven high-profile comics artists left Marvel Comics to form their own publisher, where comics creators could publish creator-owned material without having to give up copyright-control to their characters. The seven artists (bar Whilce Portacio, who opted not to become a full partner) formed a partnership between their individual studios, and published their comics under the over-arcing Image Comics banner. Image's early titles were distributed by Malibu Comics (a company chosen for its good marketing and distribution practices), while Image established itself independently. The studios were: Todd McFarlane's "Todd McFarlane Productions", Marc Silvestri's "Top Cow Productions", Jim Lee's Wildstorm Productions, Erik Larsen's Highbrow Entertainment, Jim Valentino's ShadowLine and Rob Liefeld's Extreme Studios. Extreme Studios's Youngblood became the first comic released under the Image banner, and became the first independent (non-Marvel/DC) title to be a number-one best-seller. Other "Extreme" titles published through Image included: Badrock, Bloodstrike, Brigade, Team Youngblood, Youngblood Strikefile, Glory, Prophet, Supreme, Troll and New Men. Titles thought not to fit with the Image brand were self-published under Liefeld's separate imprint: Maximum Press. These titles included Avengelyne, Warchild, Law and Order, Black Flag, Risk, and even licensed properties such as the classic sci-fi TV show Battlestar Galactica (based on the original 1978-1979 TV series). After Liefeld's. More:
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