Valiant Era Comics
 

Back in the 90's the early Valiant comics were all hot. Collectors zoomed in and the specs shot the prices up for things like Harbinger 1 and the first Turok appearance way up.

Now... not so expensive.

I wouldn't mind picking up some of the old issues and/or tpbs to get a flavor of what I missed. I have the Rai tbp and the rare issue one that had a couple issues from various magazines. I have a handful of scattered issues and some things from the ~ Chaos Effect timeframe.

I have an eye on the X-O Retribution, Harbinger Children of the 8th Day, maybe the Unity Saga. An Eternal Warrior and Solar one would be good. Or Magnus. Not interested in the latter stuff.

Any suggestions? Or just random Valiant thoughts?

I'll tell ya; I picked up issues 1-25 Harbinger MINT on ebay for like 48 bucks shipped a couple months ago... worth every penny.

I've been reading comics since I was a little kid for over 20 years now, & to this day, some of the best comics I've ever read were those Valiant books. And to this day, the countless epic event-crossovers, from the bid 2 publishers, Unity the big Valiant crossover is probably my all-time favorite. My all-time favorite Valiant series was Solar: Man of the Atom & then Archer & Armstrong, man that was such a great series, to this day there hasn't been a book like that.

But if you are looking for a place to start I can't recommend enough the recent Harbinger Hardcover Valiant just put out. It's a hell of a nice looking HC, completely re-colored, has the first 7 issues plus & brand new prequel story by Jim Shooter.

I agree with Sessa, I loved Valiant. The early days with a very confined universe was awesome and I bought every single title. It really couldn't maintain that quality as the line became more popular and expanded, and it especially dipped after Shooter left.

I used to read Valiant back in the day. My favorites were Harbinger, Bloodshot, Archer & Armstrong and Shadowman.

More or less everything was excellent before Shooter left. Solar was always a favorite of mine.

Are there any trades that I'm missing or is checking out eBay for early runs the best way?

When is this resurgence of new Valiant titles going to come out? I keep hearing the rumors, and the comic book dealers keep whipping out their old pre-unity Valiants at comic shows as they try to cash in on the next wave of Valiants to show up.

Funny thing is, the pre-Unity comics aren't the rare ones. The rare ones are the end of some of the series, like Blood Shot 51 (I think it ended at 51, It's been awhile)

They still hold some value though. I sold an entire Valiant set, including all gold/special issues (Including the 2 special Unity TPBs from Diamond destributors) for $2,300 4 or 5 years ago.

Loved Harbinger. Great series.

Loved Shadowman, Bloodshot, Eternal Warrior and Ninjak.

Definately hit Ebay. I finished up collecting the entire Valiant and Acclaim eras two years ago. And as another poster stated above, the last couple of issues from each title are generally the hardest to come by due to the low print runs. It gets worse with the Valiant-Acclaim runs. Try finding a Shadowman Vol. 3 number 6 and you'll see what I mean!

Good luck!!

The real question was though, how was the read that far in on the run?

I got into Valiant just at the beginning of the explosion, and had the entire Shooter run. I immediately recognized that the reason these books were so great was because Shooter remained in control of every one of them, making sure that continuity was being followed, etc. It was one of the best-run companies I knew of... events that happened in, for example, Solar, could have results that would be felt across several other books... but if you didn't read Solar, you weren't left scratching your head in bewilderment. Sometimes you wouldn't even know that it was a side-effect of another issue's events. If you were like me, though, and you read every Valiant book, you would recognize what was going on and get a greater view of the Valiant universe.

As soon as it was announced that Shooter had been basically fooked over and booted from the company in favor of the Van Hooks and their greed, I sold my collection for a nice profit. Normally I wouldn't do that, but I had invested a lot of money into the early issues, and I didn't want to see it all go to waste.

A few years ago when I got back into collecting, I grabbed most of the old Shooter era from dollar bins and such. I'm still missing a few of the harder to find issues (early X-O, Shadowman and Rai), but I'm getting there. I have about 90% of the Shooter era, and best of all I got them all signed by the man himself when he did an appearance at a local con. I ended up talking to him for a good amount of time about the Valiant universe and what had happened to him.

It's just a shame that his next foray into creating a universe (Defiant) was complete and utter shit.

He's watching you...

http://www.shooterswork.com/misc/shooter.gif

Yeah, so did they ever resolve that lawsuit over the name/characters/etc.? I guess the Harbinger trade actually coming out is a good sign.

wow Valiant comics.

these were about the best it can get for comic continuity and stories just being flat good.

i think i have everything.
it's been a long time but when these were being published i worked at a comic shop and bought nearly everything that was published including all the Valiant books and the mail ins.

But what about the Super Mario Bros. and Captain N books? Can't have a complete Valiant collection without those... :)

A big thumbs up for Solar: Man of the Atom. It was the only Valiant comic I really got into.

I cringe at how much I spent on some of the earlier issues, though...

you guys interested in Valiant should check out: www.valiantfans.com

price guide
issues list
fan projects
awesome forums
and a bunch of good guys who will sell you cheap back issues

:)

also Valiant Entertainment did resolve the trademark/copyright issues and is launching a site next month. there is also an XO trade soon to be released :thumbsup:

Re: Valiant Era Comics
 

Valiant was awesome. It seemed like comics for SF fans. Even though I disliked the comic line at the time for the art and the not-cool-compared-to-Spawn type of characters, I never read an issue I didn't find interesting and fun.

Turok The Dinosaur Hunter was supposed to be a big flop, but I found the art really good and the premise was great.

Solar Man of the Atom was the one I never actually read, but the one that seems like it had the most promise.

Magnus Robot Fighter was my favorite. Robots rebelling against their creators, along with an ever expanding future world.

Harbinger is another one I haven't read but heard good things about.

Re: Valiant Era Comics
 

Valiant had tons of great titles. One to check out would be Archer & Armstrong, which could have been the basis of a great movie or television series.

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.

Re: Valiant Era Comics
 

Wow....the Valiant ERA...making me feel old!

I found an old Wizard in my basement the other day (i was having a laugh reading the old ads: "phone cards! the next level in collecting!", and seeing all the Image ads for series that lasted 3 years but only had like 7 issues) and it has an article with Jim Shooter in it and one thing they touched on was how mad he was everyone said all Valiants were drawn the same...and he challenged anyone to show him that...and I couldn't help but think that they did all look to be largely the same style. Short Turok and A&A I think a lot of them DID look to have a "house" style.

That being said, I really liked Magnus and Turok. Solar was cool too. And I didn't mind their house "style"....it was very clean and classic compared to the spastic explosion that was most 90s comic art.

Re: Valiant Era Comics
 

I guess I'll pick up the Harbinger TPB sometime.

Any thoughts on the new Dark Horse versions of Dr Solar, Magnus Robot Fighter, etc.?