Valiant Era Comics
05-09-11 | 11:37 AM
#26
DVD Talk Godfather
Re: Valiant Era Comics
I read all of the Valiant titles for a couple of years, but started dropping titles and not getting new ones after they shitcanned Shooter.
My first Valiant books were Shadowman #1, Harbinger #6, and Solar #9. Picked them up a flea market because I had some money to spend and wanted something new to read. Loved all three books and quickly went about acquiring all of the back issues before the prices went insane. By the time Unity started, I had every Valiant Universe comic except for Harbinger #1 and didn't pay more than cover price for most of them, a handful like Magnus #1 and X-O #1, I paid about $5-$6.
But by the time Shooter was out, I found myself slowly losing interest because of uninvolving storylines and the constant expansion of the line. Books like Harbinger and A&A lost their direction after Lapham and BWS left them, and other titles just started petering out. And they kept adding shitty, pointless books like Secret Weapons and Armorines to their line-up.
By the time they did BIRTHQUAKE, it was over. Ye Gods, what a total clusterfuck. They canceled half of their line, made the surviving books biweekly, and in their effort to attract new readers (which they were unable to do) they alienated the few faithful Valiant readers they had left.
My first Valiant books were Shadowman #1, Harbinger #6, and Solar #9. Picked them up a flea market because I had some money to spend and wanted something new to read. Loved all three books and quickly went about acquiring all of the back issues before the prices went insane. By the time Unity started, I had every Valiant Universe comic except for Harbinger #1 and didn't pay more than cover price for most of them, a handful like Magnus #1 and X-O #1, I paid about $5-$6.
But by the time Shooter was out, I found myself slowly losing interest because of uninvolving storylines and the constant expansion of the line. Books like Harbinger and A&A lost their direction after Lapham and BWS left them, and other titles just started petering out. And they kept adding shitty, pointless books like Secret Weapons and Armorines to their line-up.
By the time they did BIRTHQUAKE, it was over. Ye Gods, what a total clusterfuck. They canceled half of their line, made the surviving books biweekly, and in their effort to attract new readers (which they were unable to do) they alienated the few faithful Valiant readers they had left.
They definitely didn't have a flashy art style, but they had guys like David Lapham, BWS, Bart Sears, and Bernard Chang. I think people were just comparing them to Image.
05-09-11 | 05:43 PM
#27
DVD Talk Hero
Re: Valiant Era Comics
I always appreciated the Valiant House style; and there was definitely a house style -- you couldn't mistake a Valiant for a comic book from another company or vice versa.
The one thing I loved about Valiant was that each book, while having its own story, was also a part of a larger picture, and that things happening in one book had an impact on every other book. And that the history of the whole universe had been plotted out for thousands of years in both directions.
It was interesting to have a comic book universe that operated this way, under its own set of rules. No thunder gods, no magic, the (fictiony) science worked a certain way.
And then Rai #0 came out and offered a glimpse of what was to come. Shadowman would die in 1999 battling Master Darque. We saw how and when Archer and Bloodshot and X-O would die (though in an interview they implied that Bloodshot might not have been as dead as he appeared), how far the Harbinger/HARDCorps war would escalate, etc.
Very cool stuff, and completely unique at the time. I would love to see what they could have done if Shooter had stayed in charge of the company and the company had never lost focus and diluted their product.
The one thing I loved about Valiant was that each book, while having its own story, was also a part of a larger picture, and that things happening in one book had an impact on every other book. And that the history of the whole universe had been plotted out for thousands of years in both directions.
It was interesting to have a comic book universe that operated this way, under its own set of rules. No thunder gods, no magic, the (fictiony) science worked a certain way.
And then Rai #0 came out and offered a glimpse of what was to come. Shadowman would die in 1999 battling Master Darque. We saw how and when Archer and Bloodshot and X-O would die (though in an interview they implied that Bloodshot might not have been as dead as he appeared), how far the Harbinger/HARDCorps war would escalate, etc.
Very cool stuff, and completely unique at the time. I would love to see what they could have done if Shooter had stayed in charge of the company and the company had never lost focus and diluted their product.
Last edited by Josh-da-man; 05-09-11 at 05:50 PM.
05-09-11 | 05:48 PM
#28
DVD Talk Hero
Re: Valiant Era Comics
What I saw (the FCBD Magnus/Solar flip book from last year) didn't impress me at all, and I'm not surprised the line flopped.
The only thing that really would have interested me is if Dark Horse would have acquired the rights to the Gold Key characters AND the Valiant characters and let Shooter pick up where he left off. Which would probably have been cost prohibitive and had a shit-poor ROI considering today's market, but I don't see a lot of interest in the old Valiant (and Gold Key) characters in and of themselves without the context of the greater Valiant-1 Universe.
05-09-11 | 08:25 PM
#29
Senior Member
Joined: Sep 1999
Posts: 857
Likes: 0
Received 0 Likes
on
0 Posts
From: Baton Rouge, LA USA
Re: Valiant Era Comics
I wish that whomever the rights holder is for the non Gold Key characters would do something with that license.
I got into Valiant at the time of Unity and kept reading until Acclaim cancelled some of my titles like HARD Corps and Harbinger while rebooting XO and Eternal Warrior into crap books.
Lucky forr me, I've collected the trades over the year, getting Unity, the TPBs for Rai, Solar, Harbinger, XO, and an additional Valiant universe one which reprinted important issues like Shadowman 8 and Rai 0. I also grabbed a megatorrent several years back with the whole V1 run in it, which has made for great reading whenever I have the time.
I got into Valiant at the time of Unity and kept reading until Acclaim cancelled some of my titles like HARD Corps and Harbinger while rebooting XO and Eternal Warrior into crap books.
Lucky forr me, I've collected the trades over the year, getting Unity, the TPBs for Rai, Solar, Harbinger, XO, and an additional Valiant universe one which reprinted important issues like Shadowman 8 and Rai 0. I also grabbed a megatorrent several years back with the whole V1 run in it, which has made for great reading whenever I have the time.
05-10-11 | 12:53 AM
#30
DVD Talk Godfather
Joined: Oct 2003
Posts: 57,769
Received 1,727 Likes
on
1,388 Posts
From: Home of 2013 NFL champion Seahawks
Re: Valiant Era Comics
It was announced just the other day that Dark Horse canceled that line of books.
What I saw (the FCBD Magnus/Solar flip book from last year) didn't impress me at all, and I'm not surprised the line flopped.
The only thing that really would have interested me is if Dark Horse would have acquired the rights to the Gold Key characters AND the Valiant characters and let Shooter pick up where he left off. Which would probably have been cost prohibitive and had a shit-poor ROI considering today's market, but I don't see a lot of interest in the old Valiant (and Gold Key) characters in and of themselves without the context of the greater Valiant-1 Universe.
What I saw (the FCBD Magnus/Solar flip book from last year) didn't impress me at all, and I'm not surprised the line flopped.
The only thing that really would have interested me is if Dark Horse would have acquired the rights to the Gold Key characters AND the Valiant characters and let Shooter pick up where he left off. Which would probably have been cost prohibitive and had a shit-poor ROI considering today's market, but I don't see a lot of interest in the old Valiant (and Gold Key) characters in and of themselves without the context of the greater Valiant-1 Universe.
05-15-11 | 06:58 PM
#31
DVD Talk Legend
Re: Valiant Era Comics
I loved Shooter-era Valiant. I got in with Magnus #1, even getting two copies of the coupon issues so I could have one mint and one to send in. I had a complete pristine NM collection of the books (including a "Gold" Archer & Armstrong #0), then turned around and sold them at the height of the speculator boom. The money they were going for was too good to pass up.
Then I blew the whole lot on airfare to and living it up with two insanely hedonistic weeks in Chicago/Michigan during the summer of 1993. I was 22. Good times indeed. Thanks Harbinger #4!
The books were great though. Pushing Shooter out the door was the single dumbest thing they could have possibly done. Everything fell apart almost instantly after Rai #0.
Then I blew the whole lot on airfare to and living it up with two insanely hedonistic weeks in Chicago/Michigan during the summer of 1993. I was 22. Good times indeed. Thanks Harbinger #4!
The books were great though. Pushing Shooter out the door was the single dumbest thing they could have possibly done. Everything fell apart almost instantly after Rai #0.
05-15-11 | 09:59 PM
#32
Re: Valiant Era Comics
Reading an interview he did, it sounds REALLY messed up what the Voyager Communications did to him. He sounds like a stern guy to work for, but it sounds like when he works he gets results.
He apparently was working 7 days a week, paying Barry Windsor Smith out his pocket for artwork, and pencilling a little in addition to all the titles coming out.
Even though Dark Horse cancelled the recent line, I'll still pick up Solar, Turok, and Magnus, because Shooter is a solid, if not excellent writer, and there's plenty of story per page.
I'm not too familiar with the Valiant stuff, but his last run on LOSH from DC in the mid 2000s was really FUN.
He apparently was working 7 days a week, paying Barry Windsor Smith out his pocket for artwork, and pencilling a little in addition to all the titles coming out.
Even though Dark Horse cancelled the recent line, I'll still pick up Solar, Turok, and Magnus, because Shooter is a solid, if not excellent writer, and there's plenty of story per page.
I'm not too familiar with the Valiant stuff, but his last run on LOSH from DC in the mid 2000s was really FUN.
05-16-11 | 07:03 PM
#33
DVD Talk Godfather
Re: Valiant Era Comics
If you listen to him (and read that threeboot LOSH ending) he got screwed by DC on that too (since Johns was doing Legion of 3 worlds, which I liked, but geez, what do they pay these DC editors for anyway?). The interview is probably more famous for him calling out Francis Manapul, the artist on that series (and the artist on John's Flash series, which is now gone).
05-20-12 | 10:15 PM
#34
DVD Talk Limited Edition
Re: Valiant Era Comics
Just wanted to bump this to see if anyone picked up X-O Manowar #1? I grabbed it, and I think I am back hooked in the Valiant world. Sucks because I don't think I have the money to follow all of the up coming series, but I will check out the first Bloodshot and Harbinger, and I probably will Skip Archer and Armstrong.
05-21-12 | 01:25 AM
#35
DVD Talk Godfather
Joined: Oct 2003
Posts: 57,769
Received 1,727 Likes
on
1,388 Posts
From: Home of 2013 NFL champion Seahawks
Re: Valiant Era Comics
Thanks for bumping, as I've been meaning to do that. I missed the FCBD issue, unfortunately.
I read the new Dr Solar trade and thought it was pretty decent. I was a little disappointed by the Harbinger HC, though. Maybe my expectations were too high but I didn't think it was extraordinary.
I read the new Dr Solar trade and thought it was pretty decent. I was a little disappointed by the Harbinger HC, though. Maybe my expectations were too high but I didn't think it was extraordinary.
05-21-12 | 10:45 AM
#36
DVD Talk Limited Edition
Re: Valiant Era Comics
I actually liked X-O a bit, but that was really the only one I bought. I remember going into one comic book store the day that Rai #0 came out and the store was already selling it for $5 (I assume cover price was $2). When I asked the guy why he had already jacked up the price, he says "This comic book is the linchpin for the entire Valient universe. Next year it will be selling for $100."
Riiiight.
Riiiight.
05-21-12 | 09:27 PM
#37
DVD Talk Limited Edition
Re: Valiant Era Comics
I actually liked X-O a bit, but that was really the only one I bought. I remember going into one comic book store the day that Rai #0 came out and the store was already selling it for $5 (I assume cover price was $2). When I asked the guy why he had already jacked up the price, he says "This comic book is the linchpin for the entire Valient universe. Next year it will be selling for $100."
Riiiight.
Riiiight.
05-21-12 | 09:33 PM
#38
DVD Talk Limited Edition
Re: Valiant Era Comics
Thanks for bumping, as I've been meaning to do that. I missed the FCBD issue, unfortunately.
I read the new Dr Solar trade and thought it was pretty decent. I was a little disappointed by the Harbinger HC, though. Maybe my expectations were too high but I didn't think it was extraordinary.
I read the new Dr Solar trade and thought it was pretty decent. I was a little disappointed by the Harbinger HC, though. Maybe my expectations were too high but I didn't think it was extraordinary.
Of course big YMMV if they still have it.
05-22-12 | 11:25 AM
#39
DVD Talk Godfather
Joined: Oct 2003
Posts: 57,769
Received 1,727 Likes
on
1,388 Posts
From: Home of 2013 NFL champion Seahawks
Re: Valiant Era Comics
That would be cool, but I'll consider it a nice bonus if it happens. Thanks for the thought, shadowhawk!
05-24-12 | 01:50 AM
#41
DVD Talk Godfather
Joined: Oct 2003
Posts: 57,769
Received 1,727 Likes
on
1,388 Posts
From: Home of 2013 NFL champion Seahawks
Re: Valiant Era Comics
Cool, thanks
05-25-12 | 06:26 PM
#42
DVD Talk Godfather
Joined: Oct 2003
Posts: 57,769
Received 1,727 Likes
on
1,388 Posts
From: Home of 2013 NFL champion Seahawks
Re: Valiant Era Comics
I got the Valiant FCBD issue on Comixology! But thanks a ton for being willing to grab one, shadowhawk.
05-26-12 | 06:56 PM
#43
DVD Talk Limited Edition
Re: Valiant Era Comics
I had just come in to say I can probably get it. The guy who runs the shop I went to used to shop at the same shop as me growing up. He didn't have any spares but can get his hand on an extra.
05-28-12 | 02:44 AM
#44
DVD Talk Godfather
Joined: Oct 2003
Posts: 57,769
Received 1,727 Likes
on
1,388 Posts
From: Home of 2013 NFL champion Seahawks
Re: Valiant Era Comics
I think I'll pass since I can read it now, and as you say it'd be kind of a PITA to send it. I really appreciate the effort, though, and thanks to the shop guy as well.
