Shadowline

Overview

Shadowline was founded in December of 1992 by Jim Valentino, one of the co-founders of Image Comics. Through the remainder of the 1990s, Shadowline was involved in widely varied titles, earning it the nickname "Non-Line" for its discontinuous universe and unrelated titles. From 1999 into the early 2000s Shadowline produced little, due to Valentino having become publisher of Image Comics. Publisher duties were later handed over to Erik Larsen, and Shadowline officially returned with the publication of the normalman 20th Anniversary Special in 2004. Valentino continued to exercise creative control over a number of titles, but shared responsibility for producing many of his works among various creative teams. In 2007 Shadowline hosted the "Who Wants to Create a Super-Heroine" contest, in which fans submitted ideas for a three-issue miniseries about a new super-heroine. The winner of the contest failed to receive enough fan support to justify the launch of his series; instead, runner-up Kate Cahill's I Hate Gallant Girl was released in 2008. The Shadowline website was relaunched in 2008, and currently hosts a number of webcomics. That year also saw the launch of the all-ages imprint Silverline, which was created to differentiate between titles appropriate for younger readers and some of the more mature content offered by Shadowline. Shadowline's stable of artists and writers continues to increase, and Shadowline is involved in the production of a number of popular titles, including Bomb Queen and Morning Glories.