IMAGE COMICS ADDS RON RICHARDS AS DIRECTOR OF BUSINESS DEVELOPMENT

January 18, 2013 – Image Comics is excited to announce the hiring of Ron Richards as Director of Business Development. In this role, Richards will be focusing on sales and marketing strategies for the publishing line, ranging from print to digital products while also extending the Image Comics brand to wider audiences.

Richards is best known for co-founding iFanboy.com, one of the leading comic book websites, in 2001. For over 11 years, he has covered the comics industry with news, reviews, and podcasts. In addition to his time at iFanboy, Richards spent years in the technology industry, most recently at Graphicly, helping to pioneer and innovate eBook publishing and distribution. In 2012, he also co-organized MorrisonCon, the successful comic conference.

"The opportunity to work at Image Comics, the source of such talented people creating amazing comics, is truly an honor,” said Richards. "By melding together my knowledge of the comic book industry with years of business and technology experience, I hope to contribute and continue the tremendous success they've had and help propel Image to even greater heights.”

"I've worked with Ron for years in a variety of roles, and it's a real pleasure to finally be working with him here at Image,” said Eric Stephenson, publisher of Image Comics. "For everyone who was impressed by what Image accomplished over the last few years, I'm not exaggerating at all when I say you haven't seen anything yet. We're adding some much needed depth to our bullpen, and 2013 is going to be nothing short of amazing as a result.”

In the position of Director of Business Development, Richards will be working closely with publisher Eric Stephenson and PR and Marketing Director Jennifer de Guzman on strategies to broaden the awareness and availability of Image Comics releases via Diamond Distribution, retail stores, digital initiatives and other sales and marketing programs.

ABOUT IMAGE COMICS

Image Comics is a comic book and graphic novel publisher founded in 1992 by a collective of best-selling artists. Image has since gone on to become one of the largest comics publishers in the United States. Image currently has five partners: Robert Kirkman, Erik Larsen, Todd McFarlane, Marc Silvestri and Jim Valentino. It consists of five major houses: Todd McFarlane Productions, Top Cow Productions, Shadowline, Skybound and Image Central. Image publishes comics and graphic novels in nearly every genre, sub-genre, and style imaginable. It offers science fiction, romance, horror, crime fiction, historical fiction, humor and more by the finest artists and writers working in the medium today. For more information, visit www.imagecomics.com