Crisis of confidence?

[paradise]

As a retailer, I have no doubt you have had the same experience with VEI, paradise.

Yeah, we have a "special" relationship. I have known Dinesh from these boards and art we traded for many years before VEI. Andy is my old employee, and Atom is a friend since his old days as another retailer here in LA.

[jmatt]

I totally agree! With some of this art and story telling... How could it not?

VEI changed me. In the beginning, I missed the old X-O characteristics, his manner of speaking, his mindset, etc. But after five years of VEI, now the old Aric seems like a crude cave-man by comparison and I like the new one more.

[agent_graves]

I'm not an OG Valiant fan from the early 90's, (I did however, already have Turok #1 from that era) but I am an OG VEI fan from its rollout in 2012..

Personally, I have no issues with the direction of the company, I love about 90% of the sh!t they do, the other 10% just ain't for me, and that's fine.

If I had to nitpick something. I want a Divinity #1 Gold, but that won't happen if they keep doing mini's.

Speaking of mini's, I guess I don't like the fact that all mini/event books, are only 4 issues...

But overall, again, I Love what VEI is doing, and I'm looking forward to the next 5 years of awesomeness.

[Ramses818]

I am a OG Valiant fan. I have been collecting for just over 30 years. I love Valiant. I love VEI even more. They are fine as two separate things. I can love a 69 Camaro and a 2017 Camaro and not love every model in between. Much like Valiant my life has very little semblance to my life 20 years ago. We have ups and downs. We have fond memories and horrible ones. Life is change. As long as it grows it will always be special. VEI is something special in my life. It has marked a lot of change for me. and like life I look forward to what's next, good or bad!

[Sunlight on Snow]

Perhaps Valiant should not have changed everything in the last couple of months!

1) Reducing the number of monthly books from 10 and more to just 5 to 6.
2) Switching from mainly ongoing to more and more limited series (ultimately leading to a higher frequency of re-numbering).
August 2017: 1 ongoing, 5 minis, 1 one-shot.
3) More new characters and series as compared to old ones.
4) Long waiting periods for follow-ups mainly because of 1).
With only a few spots every character and series has to wait in line for too long.

It's just a bad combination of things!

I'm still enjoying most of the monthly books and am very excited about most of the upcoming stuff but I'm also missing a lot of great characters at the very same time... and stories like Awakening and History of VU won't make good for the sheer absence of the Eternal Warrior and Rai otherwise.

Savage was awesome but now we have to wait for ages for the follow-up series.

Valiant's minimalist strategy makes it easy to find reasons to complain while the actual stories may still be good. Ironically that kind of strategy doesn't seem to be killing them which I find truly amazing. Must have to do with the quality of the books.

I LOVE VALIANT!

...not so much for what they're doing right now.
...but their strong line-up of characters and quality stories.

Also, I've added The Sovereigns and Magnus to my pull list. --*SQUEE* pending--

[Shadowman99]

Valiant's minimalist strategy makes it easy to find reasons to complain while the actual stories may still be good. Ironically that kind of strategy doesn't seem to be killing them which I find truly amazing. Must have to do with the quality of the books.

I don't mean to criticise in any way: have you ever wondered if you're a bit impatient when it comes to Valiant?

I'm happy for VEI to rotate books so I can stay all in every month. For me, that outweighs the suck of having to wait for a title to reappear again. In my case, when a title's return does get announced it usually inspires a sort of "hooray" feeling and then I've got something new to look forward to again in a few month's time, which suits me just fine. I think it's probably just patience that enables me to take this approach to titles going off the shelves for a while and then look forward to their return a few months following an announcement.

I guess it helps that 95% of VEI output to date has been genuinely enjoyable imo too - I don't have to worry that when a book does reappear it might be lame, 'cos it's most likely going to have been worth waiting for. I'd rather have to wait six months for a comic to be written to the standard that VEI think is good enough to publish, rather than just having a title coming out every month that's clearly suffering in quality because VEI have run out of ideas for a character for the time being and are just publishing filler.

[ASH74]

When Valiant relaunched I bought the five pack of #1 issues for $5 to try them and liked what I read. Picked up the Harbinger and XO Deluxe Editions. Liked those too. However, at the time I was too entrenched in Marvel and DC and Valiant fell by the wayside. I kept an eye on the company via Previews and the news sites but didn't buy any more books.

Now, as I've grown tired of Marvel and DC books I went back to looking for other comics and re-discovered Valiant.

The people I see "leaving" Valiant are mostly collectors who buy hardcovers and then flip them. I've noticed a lot of people letting go the Deluxe Editions in favor of other high priced books or, in one case, to go 100% digital. One person in a Facebook group I'm in made the comment that something must be going on with the company because so many people seem to be dumping their Valiant hardcovers. His comment implied he didn't even read the books.

In my short time buying and reading Valiant I've encountered some of the nicest, most supportive fans I have ever met in my 32 years of reading and collecting. Fans that have gone out of their way for me. Stuff I probably wouldn't do for others in the past just to make a trade work.

You'll never be able to please everyone....especially comic book fans. I'm willing to bet if you took a five year run of books from a publisher like Marvel & DC, starting from one of their reboots and on through the five or six year mark, you'll find a lot of similarities to Valiant has and is doing.

[Sunlight on Snow]

Valiant's minimalist strategy makes it easy to find reasons to complain while the actual stories may still be good. Ironically that kind of strategy doesn't seem to be killing them which I find truly amazing. Must have to do with the quality of the books.

I don't mean to criticise in any way: have you ever wondered if you're a bit impatient when it comes to Valiant?

I'm happy for VEI to rotate books so I can stay all in every month. For me, that outweighs the suck of having to wait for a title to reappear again. In my case, when a title's return does get announced it usually inspires a sort of "hooray" feeling and then I've got something new to look forward to again in a few month's time, which suits me just fine. I think it's probably just patience that enables me to take this approach to titles going off the shelves for a while and then look forward to their return a few months following an announcement.

I guess it helps that 95% of VEI output to date has been genuinely enjoyable imo too - I don't have to worry that when a book does reappear it might be lame, 'cos it's most likely going to have been worth waiting for. I'd rather have to wait six months for a comic to be written to the standard that VEI think is good enough to publish, rather than just having a title coming out every month that's clearly suffering in quality because VEI have run out of ideas for a character for the time being and are just publishing filler.

I absolutely agree with you except for me being impatient. I can wait for more Savage - no problem. Wanting more sooner than later doesn't mean I cannot wait much less won't wait. Wanting more is a good sign. Not wanting more would be a bad one. At the end of the day I take it as it comes anyway. With 5, 6, or 7 monthly books there is only so much Valiant can do. While I don't mind the current rotation of series, characters, and different formats I do believe a few more books wouldn't hurt either.

[possumgrease]

This article in the Atlantic regarding Marvel's woes seems to relate to this topic as well.
https://www.theatlantic.com/entertainme ... es/527127/

[Phoenix8008]

This article in the Atlantic regarding Marvel's woes seems to relate to this topic as well.
https://www.theatlantic.com/entertainme ... es/527127/

I read this article the other day. It says to me that Marvel's sale practices are part of the problem. A big part. It's chickens are coming home to roost. Constant rebooting to new #1's and all these other practices that people have been saying are 'just the way the market is these days'. Well, it's 'just the way the market is' ... BECAUSE that's how Marvel (and DC to a lesser extent) have been shaping the market to be. Not because that's the only way the market CAN work.

So, at this point I choose to believe there's no real reason why VEI couldn't do things like keep an ongoing title running for hundreds of issues. Either way you go there's going to be some difficulty for new readers jumping in. One long run that's harder to jump into, or dozens of various titles with variations of the same name confusing the reader as to what goes where or when. This market that Marvel has created is what's now dragging them down. Ware to any that would follow.

[nonplayer]

This article in the Atlantic regarding Marvel's woes seems to relate to this topic as well.
https://www.theatlantic.com/entertainme ... es/527127/

I read this article the other day. It says to me that Marvel's sale practices are part of the problem. A big part. It's chickens are coming home to roost. Constant rebooting to new #1's and all these other practices that people have been saying are 'just the way the market is these days'. Well, it's 'just the way the market is' ... BECAUSE that's how Marvel (and DC to a lesser extent) have been shaping the market to be. Not because that's the only way the market CAN work.

So, at this point I choose to believe there's no real reason why VEI couldn't do things like keep an ongoing title running for hundreds of issues. Either way you go there's going to be some difficulty for new readers jumping in. One long run that's harder to jump into, or dozens of various titles with variations of the same name confusing the reader as to what goes where or when. This market that Marvel has created is what's now dragging them down. Ware to any that would follow.

Exactly
You could easily do one shots or yearly what ever they are called annual books to lure new readers in. Just because the big two does it doesn't make it right.
It is what it is and if Valiant wants me to buy more which I've not stopped wanting to do. they will need to put out stuff I want to buy.
Right now not much so that's on them.

[Shadowman99]

Valiant's minimalist strategy makes it easy to find reasons to complain while the actual stories may still be good. Ironically that kind of strategy doesn't seem to be killing them which I find truly amazing. Must have to do with the quality of the books.

I don't mean to criticise in any way: have you ever wondered if you're a bit impatient when it comes to Valiant?

I'm happy for VEI to rotate books so I can stay all in every month. For me, that outweighs the suck of having to wait for a title to reappear again. In my case, when a title's return does get announced it usually inspires a sort of "hooray" feeling and then I've got something new to look forward to again in a few month's time, which suits me just fine. I think it's probably just patience that enables me to take this approach to titles going off the shelves for a while and then look forward to their return a few months following an announcement.

I guess it helps that 95% of VEI output to date has been genuinely enjoyable imo too - I don't have to worry that when a book does reappear it might be lame, 'cos it's most likely going to have been worth waiting for. I'd rather have to wait six months for a comic to be written to the standard that VEI think is good enough to publish, rather than just having a title coming out every month that's clearly suffering in quality because VEI have run out of ideas for a character for the time being and are just publishing filler.

I absolutely agree with you except for me being impatient. I can wait for more Savage - no problem. Wanting more sooner than later doesn't mean I cannot wait much less won't wait. Wanting more is a good sign. Not wanting more would be a bad one. At the end of the day I take it as it comes anyway. With 5, 6, or 7 monthly books there is only so much Valiant can do. While I don't mind the current rotation of series, characters, and different formats I do believe a few more books wouldn't hurt either.

Fair enough

That's a good point you make about wanting more being a good sign actually, I hadn't considered that but it's right I reckon.

I agree that another 3-odd issues per month would be good, I could handle that financially and it'd be a means to getting more going on in a shorter space of time in the VU if the title rotation strategy was maintained.

[doodlebird]

Well...

I'm definitely considered old school.

Here is my opinion.

Pre-Unity rocked! Something new and fresh to the comic world. Loved it!

Post-Unity sucked! Hated the majority of it.

Acclaim sucked! Wasn't even in to comic books anymore during that fiasco.

VEI! I was so skeptical in the beginning. Nervous that it would be worse than Acclaim. Boy was I wrong. As a hard core VH1 collector.... And now after 5 years of printing.... I honestly have to say... I like VEI more than VH1. All the variant, gimmicks, stunts, etc. have zero impact on my view on what they have been able to accomplish.

Everyone through the years focus on the negative... Y is that? People afraid to talk up the good... Afraid of being a suck *SQUEE*? Well, I can say... Bravo! To Dinesh and company for taking such risks and breathing such a breath of fresh air into this crap comic world.

I mean... Really... Step back and look at the big picture of VEI! Tell me that we are not better off with VEI than without. X-O (V-Ditty) and even the great beginning by Matt Kindt. Dysart's Harbinger, Harbinger Wars and Imperium.... Those right there are enough to call ball game! What about FVL on Archer and Armstrong and the masterpiece of Ivar, Timewalker?

Artists... We now have , Mico, Larosa, Henry, Diego, Cafu to name a few... That just BLOW away the majority of the competition. Man some of these guys... Just WOW!

Marketing... Advancements in the industry. Always... Always pushing forward and taking risks.

Just saying... I am very impressed on how they push forward on EVERY aspect of the company. They are relentless and I LOVE it. The way they treat and respect their fans... I LOVE it. There truly is no other company close to them IMO. And to be honest... I think my opinion does matter... (Not to be arrogant) but because I spend a LOT of money on this hobby.... Well... And the majority of it goes to VEI!

Keep it up boys.... Keep it up!

What he said, though a there were a few issue here and there post Unity I liked, and Unity 2000 for Acclaim (wish they had finished it...)