[NKino808]

My favorite Image titles have to be Wayward, Paper Girls, Saga and Birthright.  It's a shame that Image titles aren't doing better in monthly sales.  Sometimes they deserve more success than the big two.

[misappear]

Your Image favorites are good ones, NKino.  I would add Gideon Falls, Death or Glory, Infidel, and Days of Hate.  I'm not as obsessive as some, but I'm still buying about 15 comics per week, plus a lot of graphic novels, compilations, and artist editions.  My rule of thumb is "no Marvel or DC". 

I'm a huge fan of European albums, and there is a ridiculous amount of stuff out there worth acquiring.  My fav publishers are Cinebook, Europe Comics (all digital), and Delcourt/Soleil.  IDW's Eurocomics brand has issued stunning work.  Lion Forge is putting great material out, and Amigo Comics is really good too. not to mention NBM, Fantagraphics, and Drawn and Quarterly.

The American market for comics has always been wound around super-heroes.  Currently, with all the relaunches and devastation to character continuity, I just can't abide the shameless multi-covered marketing designed to grab market share.  The Batman #50 debacle was a horrible abuse heaped on the fans of super-hero comics.  Then there's DC's Wal-Mart comics selling for absurd amounts on eBay.

I feel like a pariah in a comic shop.  Super-heroes are a comics shop's raison d'etre, and all I'm interested in is what they have on their racks that's not that. I drive my guy nuts with all my special orders and product questions.  But they are good folks and tolerate my quirks.   

But I'll tell you what--I've been in an amazing amount of comic shops around the country and I very rarely see a shop aggressively marketing new, non super-hero product.  It's like they acknowledge quality products, but still regress to the same old same old. 

I'm glad your enjoying Image.  I believe the best comics that have ever been done are being done right now.

[narfstar]

The only comics I currently get are InDELLible Comics publications and AC Comics publications in paper. I get Bandette in digital, plus some stuff from others like ACP, Empire Comics Lab, Lucky and Surprising Comics. The Indy market. Past Image favorites are ANT,  and Big Bang

[misappear]

A couple suggestions for folks who haven't totally given up on newer comics product.

I would recommend the Black Hammer Universe to super-hero fans here.  Dark Horse publishes Jeff Lemire's work on this series.  There's an original Black Hammer title, Sherlock Frankenstein, Age of Doom, Doctor Star, and Quantum Age.  Probably mentioned before, it has the relative lightness of Golden and Silver Age characters, with a bit more plot gravitas reflecting modern storytelling. 

Last time I checked, Diamond still had random back issues "orderable" through one's LCS, and trades are available. 

My current best of the best of modern super-hero type stuff is the Escapist series created and largely written by Michael Chabon.  It's an extension of the author's novel "The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier and Clay".  The author's earlier work, "The Wonder Boys" was a successful book and movie.  Kavalier and Clay is a "fictional history" of the comics industry from its early days, with the two main characters, being comic creators, based loosely on Siegel and Shuster.  The fictional history is carried through to the comics and the Golden Age vibe is clearly present.  Again, Dark Horse was the publisher of this work. There are three recent paperback collections, all in stock through Diamond/LCS, that reprint everything.  And if you haven't read that Kavalier and Clay novel, it is truly amazing. 

[paw broon]

While I can't say much about Image as I haven't read enough in recent years, I can completely sympathise and agree with a lot of what misappear writes.  So much of the European material is very good to excellent.
It got me thinking that last weekend I was at the Glasgow Con where there was a dealers room but I realise that I bought only a few comics and G.N's.  I tend to stay away from the big 2. But I did buy and have thoroughly enjoyed, some of the collections from The Phoenix, a kids weekly. And I can recommend Mega Robo by Neill Cameron, there are 2 collections available.  Also Tamsin, again currently 2 collections - Tamsin and The Deep and Tamsin and The Dark, by Neill Cameron and Kate Brown. Both are designed for younger readers but both are great fun and the sheer enthusiasm in Mega Robo is catching.
I also dipped a toe into Markosia books.  This one was good, pirates and dinosaurs, how can you go wrong?:-
https://markosia.com/books/worlds-of-wonder/pirates-of-the-lost-world/
Currently reading this one:-
https://markosia.com/books/worlds-of-wonder/the-lady-the-lost-world/
and it's quite entertaining in a simple, easy-to-read way.
So, despite being a self-confessed superhero geek, I didn't buy anything like that.  Actually, I haven't bought many modern superhero books at all recently.
As for comic shops there is a dearth of them in Scotland right now, but Gosh in London does cater for a lot of non-superhero tastes.  Here, even at marts and cons, there is an awful lot of 50p boxes, tpb's from the main publishers and relatively recent, high priced, alternative cover crap on many of the stalls. You want to dig for Dell, GK, Charlton?  Tough.
I might have mentioned WesterNoir before, but if so, it's worth mentioning again.  If you were a fan of The Sixth Gun, then this might appeal.  This is a review from Starburst:-
https://www.starburstmagazine.com/reviews/westernoir

[misappear]

I went back four months in the Previews catalogue. No listings for Markosia product. Not surprising.

The best selling creator of graphic novels in the American market is Raina Telgemeier. Her work is published by Scholastic, the company that sells the greatest number of graphic novels in America. Seeing as Scolastic product to the bookstores is returnable, their sales can be matched to consumers. Comics via Diamond sales are matched to retailer purchases with, actually, no real data on consumer sales. Retailers in the comics market ARE the consumers. Plus, Diamond is out of the loop on new releases to the book trade. They offer graphic novels product like Scholastic weeks, if not months after the bookstores have had the stuff.

It