Over at Spunky the Wonder Blog, the question was raised over why Image comics is still around:

Would Age of Bronze do better if it were published by, say, Fatagraphics? Dunno. But the book design would probably look a little better, since Image seems incapable of publishing anything outside of the traditional comics and trade paperback formats. And Age of Bronze should be published in a format that makes one think of Dan Clowes rather than Todd McFarlane. Moreover, brand identity is important; I know from past experience that Fantagraphics tends to publish cartoonists that I enjoy, and thus I’m more likely to buy one of their books. With Image, the inverse is true, and it becomes guilt by association.

A major point about the history of Image is brought up: it was more about an “image” rather than “substance” from day one - and the company really hasn’t changed since then:

To me, that big “I” on the cover on of an Image publication represents an industry dinosaur, a throwback to a time when “style” had won such a thundering victory over “substance” it could only be called a no-contest. Frankly, I can’t for the life of me understand why Image even exists anymore, except that the remaining Founders are too damn stubborn to admit that their grand experiment has largely been a failure.

Some analysis reveals that other than The Walking Dead, Image really isn’t selling much of anything:

What we can glean from this is that Image only has one book that could be called a hit, The Walking Dead, and a few others that do reasonably well. The old warhorses like Spawn and Witchblade still have their fans, but nothing like what they were selling in their heyday.

And best of all:

For most of us, Image is like the friend from high school that you long ago outgrew, yet for some reason he still keeps calling. Witness the bemusement that met the announcement that founder/whipping boy Rob Liefeld was returning to the fold. Although it did at least get people talking about Image again, which is certainly not something the rest of their books have done for quite some time (outside of The Walking Dead, of course).

Ouch, but the question still stands, why is Image still around?  Other than The Walking Dead and Invincible none of Image’s books seem to sell well.  Not many people are reading Spawn anymore - even though the Armageddon arc was great, it was overshadowed by Civil War and all the hype that Marvel/DC are generating.  The Savage Dragon stays afloat mostly because Erik Larsen keeps it afloat and because it has an insanely devoted group of readers (if you question this, turn to the last few pages of TSD and read the mail letters, they are almost twice as long as other books).

Add into it that the company seems to be plagued with delays.  Half the time when I even get an issue of Spawn it has been so long that I’ve already forgotten what happened in previous issues.  And I was one of the people who picked up the book again after I heard about the Armageddon arc, and honestly, I will probably cancel it because of the delays.