Art & Creativity Quote by Robert Kirkman

A throwaway brag, delivered with the casualness of someone noting the weather, but it lands like an industry tell. When Robert Kirkman says he made more from his Image books than anywhere else, he is not just tallying income; he is pointing to where leverage lives. In a comics economy built on work-for-hire prestige and corporate-owned icons, Kirkman is highlighting the quiet power of creator ownership: you can make less upfront and still end up with the only thing that compounds.

The intent is strategic, almost evangelistic. Kirkman has long functioned as living proof that the safest bet in comics might be betting on yourself - not in the motivational-poster sense, but in the contractual one. Image Comics, founded on the premise that creators keep their rights, turns a comic from a gig into an asset. That distinction matters because the modern entertainment pipeline treats comics as R&D for TV, film, games, merch. If you own the underlying property, you do not just get paid once; you get paid when the culture keeps returning.

The subtext is also a subtle rebuke: the marquee publishers can offer reach, stability, and cultural cachet, but the biggest upside is increasingly elsewhere. Coming from the writer behind The Walking Dead and a key Image figure, the line doubles as recruitment copy for the next generation. It says: the real center of gravity has shifted, and the people who understand IP are the ones writing the future - and collecting on it.