The New York Times is reporting that at this week’s San Diego Comic-Con Image Comics will announce that writer Robert Kirkman has been named an Image Partner.  Kirkman is the first creator to achieve this status since the seven original founders/partners of Image left the major comic book publishing companies to strike out on their own and form Image Comics in 1992.  According to The Times Image’s “partners profit mainly from their own work but also have a say in what will be published.”

Image Publisher Eric Stephenson told The Times that Kirkman was asked to become the first new Image Partner “in part to reward him for his commitment to putting out his creations through the company for several years.”  Kirkman has been working for Marvel under an exclusive contract (now expiring), but when he signed the Marvel deal he grandfathered in his creator-owned Image books, Invincible and The Walking Dead and has continued to publish them through Image.

Kirkman’s Invincible, an innovative saga about the trials and tribulations of a teenage superhero who has to deal with the image and exploits of his super-powered father, will soon start appearing on MTV in a series of music-driven animated shorts that blend the comic’s original art with a rock and roll soundtrack, wild panel-to-panel jump cuts, and dialogue taken directly from the comic read by actors.

Although Invincible with its innovative take on the superhero genre might be Kirkman’s most original conception, there is little doubt that his compelling, character-driven zombie saga, The Walking Dead is his most popular creation.  The Walking Dead is clearly Image Comic’s best-selling graphic novel series (in June Image had two books in Diamond Comic Distributors Top Ten Graphic novels, The Walking Dead Vol. 8 at #3 and Invincible Vol. 9 at #10, see “Top 100 Graphic Novels June”).