tossing about 100+ images onto a JPanel at a time. I believe ImageIcon extends Image but is it pointless to use it on such a large scale According to the ImageIcon class api ImageIcon extends Object and implements the Icon interface (among others). It allows "easy" loading, can draw itself, can hold a descriptive
String and is used in Swing components such as JLabel and extensions of AbstractButton. If you don't need some of these things you could use an array of BufferedImage or, if you don't mind dealing with Generics, an ArrayList.