Shadowline - History

History

Shadowline was officially created in December 1992 when the logo first appeared on the inside front cover of Jim Valentino's ShadowHawk #3. The first book to sport the logo on its cover was Shadowline Special #1 (October, 1994).

In January 1997, Shadowline became more commonly referred to as the “Non-Line” with the publication of A Touch of Silver #1. The name referred to the fact that the comics in the line at that time were not in any way aligned with one another. There was no singular universe or line. Hence, non-line.

On August 25, 1999 Jim Valentino became the publisher of Image Comics and while he did not publish his own work (so as not to create a conflict of interest), other books in the Non-Line continued. When Erik Larsen eventually took over as the publisher, Valentino returned to the Non-Line and to publishing his own work.

In July, 2004 with the publication of the normalman 20th Anniversary Special, the name Shadowline was reborn. The first new book to have the Shadowline logo on the cover after the rebirth was Shadowhawk v. II #1 (May, 2005). Other titles to be created by Valentino, but executed by different creative teams were Blacklight, Task Force 1, The Intimidators and Emissary.

Today, Shadowline not only publishes Jim Valentino's properties but also properties owned by other creators such as Jimmie Robinson, Ted McKeever, Jeff Mariotte, Mike Mayhhew, Steve Niles and Michael Cavallaro.

With a diverse line of one-shots, miniseries and series of miniseries and a growing stable of Eagle- and Eisner-nominated creators, Shadowline is gaining recognition from fans, peers and critics in recent years.