Today the company is still “the Marvel-DC alternative, with books like Invincible, but they’re more about offering high-quality comics by up-and-coming creators that offer an alternative to the mainstream,” Mr. Zalben wrote.

Mr. Kirkman was asked to join Image in part to reward him for his commitment to putting out his creations through the company for several years, said Eric Stephenson, who was promoted to publisher of Image last month. “Beyond that, Robert has a pretty strong vision of what he wants to do and what comics he wants to make,” Mr. Stephenson said.

That vision includes Invincible, which he created along with the artist Cory Walker, which was first published in 2003. It follows the title character, a k a Mark Grayson, the son of Omni-Man, a superhuman with alien origins, as he copes with his legacy, college and more. The comic received an A minus from Entertainment Weekly, which called it “a charming antidote to the histrionics present in so many fights-and-tights books,” adding that it had “the strongest female character seen in many a moon: Mark’s stoic mom.”

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Another Kirkman title, The Walking Dead, chronicles a world overrun by zombies. In 2004 Publishers Weekly said in a review of the first collected edition: “Forceful scripting that gives the book a strong grounding in reality, crisp B-and-W artwork, a shocking final sequence and brisk gory proceedings elevate this book from the trash heap of pedestrian horror comics.”

Mr. Kirkman’s first published book, in 2000, was Battle Pope, a satirical look at a condemned man of God on a mission to save St. Michael. Several companies, including Image, rejected the series when Mr. Kirkman proposed it, so he published it himself. (Image has since reprinted it. )

Through Battle Pope he met Mr. Larsen, one of Image’s founders and until last month the company’s publisher. “I would keep him on the phone from time to time chatting about comics,” Mr. Kirkman said. Mr. Larsen soon asked him, and Mr. Walker, to work on a mini-series. “They kind of liked what we did,” Mr. Kirkman said, “and I was kind of able to weasel my way into a ton of books for them.”

He was noticed by Marvel, which hired him to contribute stories to Captain America in 2004, and the next year to pen Marvel Team-Up, a series that frequently featured Spider-Man. For four years he worked under an exclusive contract, which Marvel and DC give only to their most popular creators. The contract, which excepted his Image titles, ended this month.

“I enjoyed my time at Marvel and I have an affinity for their characters, but they are their characters,” Mr. Kirkman said. “I wouldn’t feel creatively fulfilled if I was 40 and still writing Spider-Man and hadn’t done anything on my own.”

Besides being a fan of the Image founders — Mr. Kirkman said he had long followed their work after they left Marvel — he said he appreciated “the unprecedented amount of freedom that they offer.” He added: “If I wanted to kill Invincible, I wouldn’t have to get clearance. At the end of the day, the decisions fall on me and my creative team.”