Valiant Universe: Current state, where it's going and your prospects for it

[hunter_peterson]

I am not into Fialkov's "I, Vampire" despite his considerable writing talents, but his Masters of the Universe: Origin of Skeletor #1 last week was EXCELLENT. I would definitely buy a Valiant book written by Fialkov.

While I've loved I, Vampire, I think the first year of it suffered a bit for the rescheduling of its pace. It was obviously meant to move slower than it has, at first, and it didn't really get comfortable with the pace until after the JLDark crossover. After that it's been fantastically paced, though. And that's really an editorial problem. A similar thing happened when Bendis left Secret Warriors and Hickman figured readers wouldn't wait 60 issues and halved the span of the series, pushed it into high gear and never slowed down.

Which is another reason Fialkov would be great at Valiant- because they're not market-dominant, their books don't need to sell as highly to be considered successes. Which means their position is less volatile, as the numbers are smaller anyway. So he'd likely be able to pick his pace and not have to suddenly swap gears. Plus he's proven great at guest stars (his Batman and Stormwatch were both fantastic), which is really perfect for Valiant.

Dammit, now I'm getting all psyched for something I completely made up! Everyone, email Warren Simons! Get Fialkov!

[Sentinel Supreme]

While I've loved I, Vampire, I think the first year of it suffered a bit for the rescheduling of its pace. It was obviously meant to move slower than it has, at first, and it didn't really get comfortable with the pace until after the JLDark crossover. After that it's been fantastically paced, though. And that's really an editorial problem. A similar thing happened when Bendis left Secret Warriors and Hickman figured readers wouldn't wait 60 issues and halved the span of the series, pushed it into high gear and never slowed down.

Which is another reason Fialkov would be great at Valiant- because they're not market-dominant, their books don't need to sell as highly to be considered successes. Which means their position is less volatile, as the numbers are smaller anyway. So he'd likely be able to pick his pace and not have to suddenly swap gears. Plus he's proven great at guest stars (his Batman and Stormwatch were both fantastic), which is really perfect for Valiant.

Dammit, now I'm getting all psyched for something I completely made up! Everyone, email Warren Simons! Get Fialkov!

Interesting. Hadn't realized that the pace of the book had shifted since the JLDark crossover. Haha well considering Jordan, Venditti, and Swirzy are all writing books at DC maybe we'll see DC's less appreciated writers like Fialkov and Paul Cornell shift over to Valiant?

[Sherlock]

I'm a huge VALIANT fan and registered here to join this thread. I read all the original VALIANT twenty years ago and I'm really enjoying the new stuff. It's so much more engaging to me than D.C. or Marvel.

I hope they don't mistake the same mistake they did twenty years ago. They had SO MANY FREAKING CROSSOVERS it was pretty much IMPOSSIBLE to just read your favorite books. You pretty much had to buy every single title they published.

This was a greedy mistake and really hurt them. It got to be a job reading their titles, not fun. I hope they don't go down that path again because I think it cost them a lot of readers.

[BugsySig]

Interesting. Hadn't realized that the pace of the book had shifted since the JLDark crossover. Haha well considering Jordan, Venditti, and Swirzy are all writing books at DC maybe we'll see DC's less appreciated writers like Fialkov and Paul Cornell shift over to Valiant?

Paul Cornell on Ninjak and the Secret Weapons, please. That would be my wet dream combination of VALIANT and CB&MI:13.

[BugsySig]

I'm a huge VALIANT fan and registered here to join this thread. I read all the original VALIANT twenty years ago and I'm really enjoying the new stuff. It's so much more engaging to me than D.C. or Marvel.

I hope they don't mistake the same mistake they did twenty years ago. They had SO MANY FREAKING CROSSOVERS it was pretty much IMPOSSIBLE to just read your favorite books. You pretty much had to buy every single title they published.

This was a greedy mistake and really hurt them. It got to be a job reading their titles, not fun. I hope they don't go down that path again because I think it cost them a lot of readers.

I think their goal is to model themselves after what made early VALIANT a success and not what made later VALIANT a failure. As long as editorial and leadership stays consistent, I think they can maintain that.

And if you want to talk VALIANT, try ValiantFans.com!

[Sentinel Supreme]

I think their goal is to model themselves after what made early VALIANT a success and not what made later VALIANT a failure. As long as editorial and leadership stays consistent, I think they can maintain that.

And if you want to talk VALIANT, try ValiantFans.com!

Seconded! ValiantFans.com has a great fan community and active boards.

[Captain Craig]

Tonight at the comic shop a guy comes in and asks my LCS clerk if what he's heard online about Aquaman is true? Is it really a good book? To which he tells him yes it is, where have you been "hearing it's good". He says Twitter and Newsarama and that since the Avengers movie he's decided to resample some newer material. He hasn't read in over a decade and never when Aquaman was considered cool apparently. I chime in with Peter David and Morrison's take on him in the 90's.

So, how does this relate to VALIANT, it's state and where it's going? Glad you ask.
He then says he's mostly stuck to Indie fare, like Walking Dead and Saga and Aquaman was going to be his first attempt at a DC book.
I then ask if he's heard of VALIANT and knowing the Avengers film lured him back tell him the wonders of the one man avenger book called XO Manowar.
We walk down "the board" to the area containing last month's books and I run him through all the titles with descriptions and a 30 sec elevator speech on each of the 5 titles. He got Shadowman #1 cause it was there and he was wowed by the art but asked where he could get all the XO's, he was sold.

In order to keep VALIANT out there and viable, drawing in new readers I hope these type discussions happen more often. Have they with anyone else here? This is the second time I've done this. Last time the guy, Mick, was drawn into Bloodshot and got all the issues out of the bins.

Are we happy with where the relaunch thus far has taken us? I think this board would say yes, but what say you?

What is the first new book we are likely to see?
Ninjak? Eternal Warrior? Geomancer? Rai? Dr.Mirage?

[Hawkeyeps]

Tonight at the comic shop a guy comes in and asks my LCS clerk if what he's heard online about Aquaman is true? Is it really a good book? To which he tells him yes it is, where have you been "hearing it's good". He says Twitter and Newsarama and that since the Avengers movie he's decided to resample some newer material. He hasn't read in over a decade and never when Aquaman was considered cool apparently. I chime in with Peter David and Morrison's take on him in the 90's.

So, how does this relate to VALIANT, it's state and where it's going? Glad you ask.
He then says he's mostly stuck to Indie fare, like Walking Dead and Saga and Aquaman was going to be his first attempt at a DC book.
I then ask if he's heard of VALIANT and knowing the Avengers film lured him back tell him the wonders of the one man avenger book called XO Manowar.
We walk down "the board" to the area containing last month's books and I run him through all the titles with descriptions and a 30 sec elevator speech on each of the 5 titles. He got Shadowman #1 cause it was there and he was wowed by the art but asked where he could get all the XO's, he was sold.

In order to keep VALIANT out there and viable, drawing in new readers I hope these type discussions happen more often. Have they with anyone else here? This is the second time I've done this. Last time the guy, Mick, was drawn into Bloodshot and got all the issues out of the bins.

Are we happy with where the relaunch thus far has taken us? I think this board would say yes, but what say you?

What is the first new book we are likely to see?
Ninjak? Eternal Warrior? Geomancer? Rai? Dr.Mirage?

How about HARD Corps lead by Live Wire? What if Bloodshot's raid exposes PRS and the old order changeth? Maybe an altrustict group of soldiers/firemen/emts etc. being brodcast the powers via Livewires control of machines and understanding of Psiots due to being a mole in Harada's group from PRS all along?

I am probably the biggest or close too VALIANT fan in my town, people will discover these books and when they do they'll get quality.

[BugsySig]

I think the launch has been very successful thus far. The sales per title has to be more than they hoped for, and more importantly have been stabilizing over the past few months. It also seems as though the reader base is growing (based on what I see on twitter, Facebook and various message boards).

Valiant definitely has dedicated fans who go out of their way to promote the publisher. Your story is just one example. A few of the ValiantFans.com members started the "Valiant Free-View" where they give out extra copies of Valiant books to readers at their LCS for free and ask only, if they like the book, to pick up the next issue. If they don't, they ask them to pass the book back along to someone else. Overall these are small efforts, but grassroots campaigns like that are important for building a base beyond the average Indy reader.

As far as future titles, I think given he was the first major character to get a big reappearance push, and the next to receive a VALIANT Masters Collection, Ninjak is most likely to be the 6th title. That is likely to be followed by Eternal Warrior, then Rai. after that, I could see HARD Corps. Warren Simons dropped some HC teasers the other day on twitter, basically saying they are coming and keep a look out in Harbinger #7 and Bloodshot #7.

[nosocialize100]

Tonight at the comic shop a guy comes in and asks my LCS clerk if what he's heard online about Aquaman is true? Is it really a good book? To which he tells him yes it is, where have you been "hearing it's good". He says Twitter and Newsarama and that since the Avengers movie he's decided to resample some newer material. He hasn't read in over a decade and never when Aquaman was considered cool apparently. I chime in with Peter David and Morrison's take on him in the 90's.

So, how does this relate to VALIANT, it's state and where it's going? Glad you ask.
He then says he's mostly stuck to Indie fare, like Walking Dead and Saga and Aquaman was going to be his first attempt at a DC book.
I then ask if he's heard of VALIANT and knowing the Avengers film lured him back tell him the wonders of the one man avenger book called XO Manowar.
We walk down "the board" to the area containing last month's books and I run him through all the titles with descriptions and a 30 sec elevator speech on each of the 5 titles. He got Shadowman #1 cause it was there and he was wowed by the art but asked where he could get all the XO's, he was sold.

In order to keep VALIANT out there and viable, drawing in new readers I hope these type discussions happen more often. Have they with anyone else here? This is the second time I've done this. Last time the guy, Mick, was drawn into Bloodshot and got all the issues out of the bins.

Are we happy with where the relaunch thus far has taken us? I think this board would say yes, but what say you?

What is the first new book we are likely to see?
Ninjak? Eternal Warrior? Geomancer? Rai? Dr.Mirage?

That's great news. I hope Valiant continues to slowly launch new series. I'd hate for them to pound out 2 new series a year simply because it's part of some corporate plan.

[Billy the Cat]

Any one else read this ??? So upset over this "joke" as this sort of thing puts people off picking up titles as they think its coming to an end


http://www.the-gutters.com/

[BugsySig]

Any one else read this ??? So upset over this "joke" as this sort of thing puts people off picking up titles as they think its coming to an end


http://www.the-gutters.com/

Well there are lies, damn lies and statistics...This guy took the last year after Shooter, the last year under Acclaim, and the first 4 months of VEI.

Of course the sales go down after the first issue...go check the new 52 or Marvel NOW! sales after isse 1, duche bag. Justice League is down almost 40% I believe. When you compare to other non-Big 2 publishers, VALIANT's numbers are higher than all but the biggest sellers (TWD, Saga, Buffy, Star Wars, etc).

Oh, and lets not forget the MILLIONS of issues of Bloodshot and Turok's first issues alone that were sold before the company was bought out in 1994. I wonder what Marvel's sales looked like that year after X-Men #1 (or any other publisher for that matter)? What a failure that company is!

And to equate Jason and Dino to two stoners is just ignorant and rediculous. These guys graduated with degrees is business and entertainment from high level universities, spent years battling lawsuits from other "stoners" who wanted these "worthless" properties, and slowly recruited investors and built a business strategy years in advance.

This guy is obviously bitter over something and has no real insight into the company. Do comic publishers start up and fail all the time? Of course. But it is due to mismanagement (Atlas, CrossGen) and market forces beyond individual's control (Everyone in the md-90s). I'm pretty sure Marvel went bankrupt at one point and DC was sold to Time Warner for Ted Turner's mustache clippings...grrr...this makes me so angry...

[Hawkeyeps]

Well there are lies, damn lies and statistics...This guy took the last year after Shooter, the last year under Acclaim, and the first 4 months of VEI.

Of course the sales go down after the first issue...go check the new 52 or Marvel NOW! sales after isse 1, duche bag. Justice League is down almost 40% I believe. When you compare to other non-Big 2 publishers, VALIANT's numbers are higher than all but the biggest sellers (TWD, Saga, Buffy, Star Wars, etc).

Oh, and lets not forget the MILLIONS of issues of Bloodshot and Turok's first issues alone that were sold before the company was bought out in 1994. I wonder what Marvel's sales looked like that year after X-Men #1 (or any other publisher for that matter)? What a failure that company is!

And to equate Jason and Dino to two stoners is just ignorant and rediculous. These guys graduated with degrees is business and entertainment from high level universities, spent years battling lawsuits from other "stoners" who wanted these "worthless" properties, and slowly recruited investors and built a business strategy years in advance.

This guy is obviously bitter over something and has no real insight into the company. Do comic publishers start up and fail all the time? Of course. But it is due to mismanagement (Atlas, CrossGen) and market forces beyond individual's control (Everyone in the md-90s). I'm pretty sure Marvel went bankrupt at one point and DC was sold to Time Warner for Ted Turner's mustache clippings...grrr...this makes me so angry...

Hee Hee, I was waiting for you to go ballistic about this-



Go Bugsy!

[rasx]

All I know is that before VALIANT came back I was not this excited about comics and was buying fewer books.

[BugsySig]

Hee Hee, I was waiting for you to go ballistic about this-



Go Bugsy!

After reading his blurb at the bottom (missed it the first time in my blind rage) I am slightly less disgusted by him, but I still find the graphic to be misleading and rude.

Basically the guy isn't a fan of original VALIANT so he doesn't see why it's necessary to bring it back. While he acknowledges the top notch creative teams and hard core fans, he obviously has not actually read any of the books and has a "well these usually fail, so why bother?" attitude.

But as one of America's great patriots once said, "Hatters gonna hate."