Forbidden planet SUPPORTS VALIANT, WITH PERSUASION FROM ME

[Phantom..]

Spoke to the manager of forbidden planet.
Forbidden planet unfortunately is uk biggest chain. (Unfortunate - because they are saying this, I am not insulting the company- if they are doing well good for them)
If this manager is saying it - I would think others are saying throughout the company.

I met shadowman99 he had just come from the shop before he met me. As we chatted he told me what the manager had told him. new reader being put off my forbidden planet.

Afterwards shadowman99 went back to work. I walked into forbidden planet, said a quick hi to the manager. Quite busy in store. It was lunch time, I am not usually in town. Go to pick up books.

He says straight out - Do not expect much more from valiant, they got 6 months tops.
( I was a little prepared but not for such a blatant statement)
I said - where did you hear that from? Head office?
No, the words just out. Sales a down and no matter how good the reviews it gets they don't advertise enough. No new readers.
I replied - Xo manowar is starting a 6 part storyline.

Cannot recall exactly what was said but after a brief chat in the end he half retracted his comment. Telling me that if the trades go well maybe they will push through a bit longer. But with no advertising their will be no new readers.

In the end I laughed off his comments, saying untill they are in dollar bins they seem to be going well.

Ok it wasn't a stand off. I didn't kick off and yell and shout. Maybe I could of defended valiant better.
I find it sad that a manager is telling that to his valiant customers. This is the shop that put up the valiant poster Dino gave me ( at least for awhile).
I have to somehow advertise valiant in that shop somehow. But it is a chain shop, and everything has to go through head office - and they only accept cold hard cash for advertising. But they gave me a free ,cyber force,

Which leads to a little thing I have been thinking about. Having a free fan booklet - why collect valiant! . Listing some of the rarest valiants and the prices they go for. Outline of the company , some printed reviews of the comics - maybe a brief blurb on each title.
Anyone interested in helping?

[Mark Fuller]

I'm guessing this is not the London store?

I wouldnt worry too much, sounds like pretty ill-informed mouthing off from someone well outside of the loop.

I tend to go in the London store once a week (to pick up the Valiant variants they have) and they seem to be buying in and selling on a decent amount of Valiant comics.

[greg]

It would have been reasonable to say that the original Valiant was dying around the time of Rai #3 and Rai #4 (extremely low print runs for that era).

That would have been about 3 months before Valiant tripled its print runs. (Unity!)

[carter3175]

Wait a sec..He might be on to something. Every store that I go to DOES NOT advertise and Valiant titles or characters. That needs to change. Word of mouth goes only so far. How many Spiderman, Wolverine, Deadpool posters are out there? I think they should start marketing more of there characters.
As far as that guy and his 6 month prediction, I would have said that is 6 months of money you would not be getting from me.

[carter3175]

You know what...Kevin linked a sweet image of Valiant characters on this thread viewtopic.php?f=33&t=38809" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

That is a hell of a conversation starter to get people to ask questions.

[carter3175]

I'm on a roll with this one. Maybe Valiant should make more of those posters from back in the day."Welcome to the Valiant Universe, where dead is dead!" OR make some covers taking shots at Marvel and DC. They have no problem doing it to Valiant! We all saw the Nightwing cover. OR a recycle program, people bring in there trash Marvel and DC books and they get something special from Valiant to support a charity. I'm just saying, I can go on and on about this. I want this company to succeed!

[KXXX]

I would've punched that person repeatedly.

My LCS recently put all their back issues on sale.

Front and center?

VALIANT

I push where I can.

[VEI Reborn]

Guy is off his rocker. Just wait until the movie rumors start flowing. Anyone that went to the NY Con probably knows what Im talking about

[Savant]

Just keep what he said in mind, and make sure to remember exactly which employee it was.

6 months-1 year later, if/when Valiant is doing well, bring the topic up and laugh at him, while asking him what the hell he was blabbering on about.

It is bad that he was saying that sort of thing. Other customers could have overheard his comments (And he made such comments to at least 2 people), and that could discourage potential readers from trying the company line out.

[GGSAE]

Let's be honest, a lot of store managers in comics aren't the most savvy of businessmen anyway!

[Phantom..]

Just keep what he said in mind, and make sure to remember exactly which employee it was.

6 months-1 year later, if/when Valiant is doing well, bring the topic up and laugh at him, while asking him what the hell he was blabbering on about.

It is bad that he was saying that sort of thing. Other customers could have overheard his comments (And he made such comments to at least 2 people), and that could discourage potential readers from trying the company line out.

Thats the main point ~ other people hearing it ~ and aslo telling people who are buying the comic from their pull box! if someone was thinking of dropping a title from thier pull box for finacual reasons ~ after hearing that ~ which would it be.


As for hitting someone for voicing their opinion? yeh ~ not going to happen. I will disagree, but not phyisically fight over it. I mean ~ really? come on.

[Chiclo]

Just keep what he said in mind, and make sure to remember exactly which employee it was.

6 months-1 year later, if/when Valiant is doing well, bring the topic up and laugh at him, while asking him what the hell he was blabbering on about.

It is bad that he was saying that sort of thing. Other customers could have overheard his comments (And he made such comments to at least 2 people), and that could discourage potential readers from trying the company line out.

I don't think I have ever made the decision not to buy a comic based on the ramblings of a stranger.

I do think I have made the decision to purchase many comics based on the ramblings of a stranger. Probably the best ever was "Imagine Han Solo as a monkey." "SOLD!" That was disappointing.

[Phantom..]

chicho what on earth?
hans solo as a monkey.
Google search about to happen

[Phantom..]

saw an image on google images ~ but nothing else.
Was it a full comic? or di I misread you post

[MarkRoseHFX]

Sales are down

OF course the sales drop a bit after the first couple of issues. I'm sure Valiant expected that. look at how quick they are climbing in terms of market share vs competitors with more titles on the shelf. And watch what the TPB's do for overall sales.

And yes most LCS owners are terrible businessmen and salesmen. Why the hell would he say something like that about a product that you like to buy? That would be like opening a restaurant and telling everyone the food sucks.

[BugsySig]

This just shows how uninformed the person is.

If they were talking about a line like Atlas, where there was little to no publicity, late shipping, poor quality, etc. then I could understand.

Valiant is constantly in the news, has very good reviews across the board, ships multiple titles on time every month, and the sales have begun to stabalize (after the naturally inflated initial launch numbers) at a very respectable level.

I do agree with the posters. Most stores are plastered with them; covering every wall and window (possibly why their employees are so pale...either that or the LCS is the new Vamipire den ). That is a great way to get the word out to regulars who may not read through the internet news sites.

[Phantom..]

That would be like opening a restaurant and telling everyone the food sucks.

Brilliant quote. Well said.

[xodacia81]

I would agree with the idea that many LCS owners don't know what they are doing. I've seen so many shops come and go, and so many others trade hands, it is ridiculous. The only one to remain in the same hands has been around about 30 years and...while they aren't what I would call amazing business people, they did shut up about Valiant after seeing initial sales and some word of mouth.

Something about going from 5 books a month to 12, I think. For a store that orders as conservatively as they do, that seems a good indicator of how the local market is. I know the last time I was in, another gent was buying a few copies of XO and another asked both of us if the books were as good as the buzz.

[VEI Reborn]

I would agree with the idea that many LCS owners don't know what they are doing. I've seen so many shops come and go, and so many others trade hands, it is ridiculous. The only one to remain in the same hands has been around about 30 years and...while they aren't what I would call amazing business people, they did shut up about Valiant after seeing initial sales and some word of mouth.

Something about going from 5 books a month to 12, I think. For a store that orders as conservatively as they do, that seems a good indicator of how the local market is. I know the last time I was in, another gent was buying a few copies of XO and another asked both of us if the books were as good as the buzz.

I pre-order every issue of Valiant but want to read them as soon as they come out so I hit my local stores [have 3 locally]. They literally sell out by 2pm

[xodacia81]

I would agree with the idea that many LCS owners don't know what they are doing. I've seen so many shops come and go, and so many others trade hands, it is ridiculous. The only one to remain in the same hands has been around about 30 years and...while they aren't what I would call amazing business people, they did shut up about Valiant after seeing initial sales and some word of mouth.

Something about going from 5 books a month to 12, I think. For a store that orders as conservatively as they do, that seems a good indicator of how the local market is. I know the last time I was in, another gent was buying a few copies of XO and another asked both of us if the books were as good as the buzz.

I pre-order every issue of Valiant but want to read them as soon as they come out so I hit my local stores [have 3 locally]. They literally sell out by 2pm

This one has started to end up with maybe 1 extra copy after the first week of release and none after 2. Sellout after sellout. Not to too my horn but I told them and told them VEI knew what they were doing and they thought I was some uninformed fan. I always responded that patience and putting the right people in place would see VEI win out in the long run. "You can't hit it big in comics" they said and my reply was "nobody is looking to topple Marvel or DC with the first day's sales. If that's your rubric, failure is always going to happen." That said, it pleases me to no end to see and hear of so many sellouts all over the place.

[X-O HoboJoe]

Sounds like a Marvel Zombie spouting the Kool-Aide. Same thing was said back before Unity so it's not a new tune.

IMO, the next hurdle VEI will have is overcoming the Diamond SNAFU's which will oddly get worse as Valiant cuts into Marvel and DC's markets -- that Disney can pull Marvel away and get their own distribution scheme going which will either force Diamond to give a damn about it's customers again or break the monopoly into a few distributors that actually compete.

[Rufusharley]

There are a lot of new Valiants at my lcs that I fully expect to be in the dollar bin before long.

[nutflush76]

Let's be honest, a lot of store managers in comics aren't the most savvy of businessmen anyway!

Isn't that the truth. Most of these guys just realized that they had a lot of comics lying around and they loved comics, so they opened a store.

Why a person would badmouth a line that they carried is beyond me. You would think that they would love to have Valiant, or any line, succeed and bring new people into his store. That is a win-win situation.

Sadly, too many of these guys fall into the "I'm a Marvel guy" or "I'm a DC guy" and everything else is garbage to them. That is usually why most of these places never make it.

Oh and the sales are down comment just completely shows the ignorance of the business this guy is showing. I would like him to tell me how many titles increase in sales after the first issue. Not many. That's why there is the line of thinking that sometimes it's better to invest in the second issue of a series than the first since there are usually less issues that were printed. (even though I have never seen that actually increase the value of a #2)

[hawkeyeps]

But what is encouraging that VALIANT's numbers are leveling and maintaining instead of dropping like stone after #3, this shows the dedication to build a fan base and dicipline to get books out on time.

I was talking to an LCS guy and he was telling me about the huge launch for Uncanny X Avengers and then the forth comming delay and artist change on the title...losing steam already and 2 just came out. It won't matter Marvel, will sh!t can it after 12 issues and make a new #1 anyway, puke

Another example of not smart comic guy was this same LCS guy who didn't order any XO TPB because it would under sell the XO 1-4 he still had on the shelf but honestly some of these copies were pretty shelf worn and it was no wonder they were hanging around. His promotion efforts for VALIANT were non-existant even though he likes the books and is behind them.

[ShadowTuga]

But what is encouraging that VALIANT's numbers are leveling and maintaining instead of dropping like stone after #3, this shows the dedication to build a fan base and dicipline to get books out on time.

I was talking to an LCS guy and he was telling me about the huge launch for Uncanny X Avengers and then the forth comming delay and artist change on the title...losing steam already and 2 just came out. It won't matter Marvel, will sh!t can it after 12 issues and make a new #1 anyway, puke

Another example of not smart comic guy was this same LCS guy who didn't order any XO TPB because it would under sell the XO 1-4 he still had on the shelf but honestly some of these copies were pretty shelf worn and it was no wonder they were hanging around. His promotion efforts for VALIANT were non-existant even though he likes the books and is behind them.

I'm so happy that I had the gut feeling to jump off board as soon as I heard about this stupid, *SQUEE* relaunch. Already changing artists after that whole advertising for this book? The flagship book, as they call it? I'll just say:
AHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!