New guy here: My Valiant story!

How did you become a VALIANT collector?

Moderators: Daniel Jackson, greg

Post Reply
ComicAficionado
Working on the first full appearance of me
Working on the first full appearance of me
Posts: 7
Joined: Fri Feb 01, 2019 11:32:55 am
New guy here: My Valiant story!

Post by ComicAficionado »

Hello all,

My Valiant story takes me back to the mid 90's when I became heavily involved with comics. Having had the random comic book laying around my bedroom as a child of the 80's I guess I've always been a fan of the medium, but I didn't become a hardcore collector until 1994 when I was 14 years old. I was enthralled by the X-Men at the time, and also dabbled in some Spider-Man books, but unfortunately I turned a blind eye to almost everything else in comics at the time. Some time in 1998 I received 4 long boxes of comics as a gift from a local church that sold them for $10 a box, and in these boxes were a random assortment of comics from the late 80's and early 90's, many of them were Valiant titles. Sadly to say I basically ignored anything that wasn't something I was interested in at the time, or wasn't a hot find, and all the Valiant stuff ended up in a box in the basement that got soaked over time.

As the years unfolded I was done with single issues and had sold of my collection and put the money into TPB's of my favorite stories, and stories I've yet to read, and life was good. Then in late 2011 I got the itch to get into a "universe" of comics, thanks to a discussion I had with a friend about Crossgen Comics, which I had fallen in love with in 2000 until their demise in 2004, and was feeling nostalgic about following a single universe of characters again. That drove me to pick up much of the DC "new 52" launch, which I enjoyed but I was thirsty for something original and different from what I've been reading my whole life. Which is what I loved about Crossgen so much.

I read that Valiant was coming back to publishing and the concept art I saw, as well as story synopsis, got me really excited to give it a shot when it finally launched. I was all over the books when they came out and was thirsty for more. Month after month I made sure I was at my local LCS for these books and it felt amazing to be a part of something so new and exciting. It reminded me of going to the shop every week for my new Crossgen books and I was truly in heaven for a short period of time. Then life started to get in the way. I got a huge promotion at work and was putting in 60+ hours a week, I met the love of my life and we moved in together and eventually got married, and I simply had no time to keep up with comics or videogames or anything else I was into at that time. But things are different now and the time was right to get back into Valiant.

Recently I noticed an online comics retailer was having a huge sale on Valiant TPB's with some being offered as low as $2.99, with many coming in at $4.99, so that led me to believe that maybe they were out of business or possibly about to leave publishing. I was surprised to find out they're actually doing quite well and that they've even come some feature films in the works. Then finally, after much self debate, I went willy-nilly and picked up like 30 Valiant TPB's from that site and have been playing catchup ever since. What a roller-coaster its been re-reading some of these awesome stories and delving deep into what I've missed through the years. It's truly great to be "home again" as it pertains to comics.

It's very nice to meet you all and I look forward to all the great discussion that lies ahead!

User avatar
Ricomortis
lookin pu nub in all da wong pwaces
lookin pu nub in all da wong pwaces
Posts: 1905
Joined: Mon Dec 06, 2004 9:31:46 pm
Valiant fan since: 1991
Favorite character: Shadowman - Harada
Favorite title: Imperium
Favorite writer: Dysart & Fred Van Lente
Favorite artist: Larosa, Henry & CAFU
Re: New guy here: My Valiant story!

Post by Ricomortis »

:clap:

Awesome story... and welcome!

Rico
Image
Image
Image

Check out my Gallery for this year: A year in the life of Ricomortis (2018) http://www.valiantfans.com/forum/viewto ... 35&t=50927" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;
Check out my Gallery for last year: "A year in the life of Ricomortis (2017)" http://www.valiantfans.com/forum/viewto ... 6#p1056798" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

User avatar
greg
The admin around here must be getting old and soft.
The admin around here must be getting old and soft.
Posts: 22861
Joined: Wed Feb 04, 2004 9:39:27 am
Valiant fan since: Rai #0
Favorite character: Depends on title
Favorite title: Depends on writer
Favorite writer: Depends on artist
Favorite artist: Depends on character
Location: Indoors
Contact:
Re: New guy here: My Valiant story!

Post by greg »

Welcome!

User avatar
TheeBaldMoose
Rockin' out in Torquehalla
Rockin' out in Torquehalla
Posts: 2451
Joined: Fri Jun 03, 2016 12:03:41 pm
Valiant fan since: ECCC April 2016
Favorite character: Bloodshot/Ninjak/Divinity
Favorite title: Divinity/BS Reborn/Britannia
Favorite writer: Kindt/Lemire/Roberts
Favorite artist: All of them, really
Location: Tacoma
Re: New guy here: My Valiant story!

Post by TheeBaldMoose »

Man, that's an awesome story ( and not in a "cool story bro" kind of way)! Welcome to the club, think you'll like it here. Yea, lots of people are getting excited for the first Valiant movie, Bloodshot.
Moose

User avatar
The Dirt Gang
Just jumpin' through time arcs, that's all.
Just jumpin' through time arcs, that's all.
Posts: 1505
Joined: Fri Jun 15, 2007 9:33:31 am
Valiant fan since: VH1 Unity #1
Favorite writer: Shooter/Dysart
Favorite artist: BWS
Location: Astral Plane
Contact:
Re: New guy here: My Valiant story!

Post by The Dirt Gang »

:headbang:
Multum In Parvo

User avatar
grendeljd
innerSPACE does whatever I tell them
innerSPACE does whatever I tell them
Posts: 8132
Joined: Mon Jun 18, 2012 6:51:43 am
Valiant fan since: 1991
Favorite character: Aric
Favorite title: Harbinger
Location: On the 7.5th floor of LesterCorp, headed through the back door to John Malkovich's brain.
Re: New guy here: My Valiant story!

Post by grendeljd »

Welcome!
I like to draw stuff... http://grendeljd.deviantart.com/" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

My wife likes to draw stuff too, and she is better than me! [I'm very proud of her]... https://www.facebook.com/pages/Sara-Dec ... ref=stream" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

kaspercole
2 posts down, 2 million to go
2 posts down, 2 million to go
Posts: 2
Joined: Sun Mar 31, 2019 3:09:44 pm
Valiant fan since: return of Ninjak in X-O
Favorite character: Ninjak
Favorite title: X-O Manowar
Favorite writer: Joshua Dysart
Favorite artist: Tomas Giorello
Re: New guy here: My Valiant story!

Post by kaspercole »

Welcome to the Valiant boards Comic Afficionado! Reading your post, I found similar paths with my own story of reading comics growing up thru the 80s, 90s, 2000s, and settling into my work and family life in the past 7 years. I too started as a fan of the comic book genre thru different media, but was not a serious collector of comic books until the 90s. And I also tried to get back into a shared universe of collecting single issues with DC's New52. I also felt that the New52 was lacking something and happened into the Valiant reboot. I still collect 5 DC comics titles (Teen Titans, Justice League, Shazam, Green Lantern, Detective Comics). But my true loyalties are with Valiant comics. I am looking forward to more great Ninjak, X-O, Bloodshot, and Joshua Dysart written stories! :thumb:

User avatar
IMJ
I have a Quasar collection. And I love it. So there.
I have a Quasar collection. And I love it. So there.
Posts: 4752
Joined: Thu Mar 17, 2005 12:05:45 am
Valiant fan since: VH1 X-O Manowar #1
Favorite character: VH1 Sting | VH2 Rai
Favorite title: VH2 Rai
Favorite writer: Kurt Busiek
Favorite artist: Sean Chen
Location: Chicago, IL
Re: New guy here: My Valiant story!

Post by IMJ »

Cool story about the ups and downs of years of collecting and reading in the hobby. We'll be curious to see where you land over more time, given the various incarnations of Valiant over the years. Welcome aboard!


Post Reply