A Valiant Story...

How did you become a VALIANT collector?

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greg
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A Valiant Story...

Post by greg »

(I received this email in the evening of Oct. 7, 2007. -Greg)


______________________________________

Introduction:
A significant portion of this story happens when I was too young to
recall minor details, I did not go back and check the dates on events
to makes sure that things happen in the order or at the age I say they
did.

(For example, I didn’t bother to check when Super Mario Bros. 3 was
first released at the Nintendo convention. All I remember is that I
was there when it was, and every machine in the place had a different
game, and each was set up to restart every five minutes. Super Mario
Bros. 3 had a bunch of consoles that either restarted every 15 minutes
or not at all, I don’t remember, in the story below I claim to be about
six at the time, cut me some slack on the details. I also remember
there being a game set up in a private room which I never saw which was
some kind of sports game which had inputs for 8 players using an
otherwise standard NES format.)

My Valiant Story

My Valiant story starts before Valiant was conceived, and even before I
was. My oldest sister went on stage with Cyndi Lauper, refused to let
the head-honcho of cabbage patch deface her doll with his signature and
if my memory serves, refused to believe that Tom Chapin was who he
claimed to be.

As I mentioned parenthetically, I recall going to the Nintendo
convention either as the negotiations for the comic books were
underway, or as they were being printed. And Thanksgiving of that
self-same year, I watched the Macy’s Thanksgivings Day parade from what
my memory tells me was a very small office for one that was housing a
company of more than a handful of employees.

Before I continue, I should warn everyone of something. I have a
collection of nearly every standard issue Valiant comic in the original
universe. I used to have a Gold Magnus 21, but at the age of the Malev
wars, when I was seven or eight years old, the value was completely
lost on me. Most of my comics still have their covers, but one which
lost its early was that gold edition. (The cardstock and the chromium
covers were such good ideas.) I did keep the cover separately for a
long while, but I had no sense of value in the comics, they were much
easier to read than books, much more interesting and enabled me to
pretend I knew what words like “dissipate” and “harbinger” meant.

Oh, and the warning: I have paid for a few books over the years, but
probably 1 or 2 percent of the total. Because every month a large
quantity, thick manila envelope would arrive on my doorstep addressed
to my mother. And since comics were a guy thing, I got away with
stealing the envelope, never letting my four sisters even care to know
that another batch of comics were to be added to the collection.
(About the time of the Acclaim relaunch, my little sister, who was
between six and seven at the time, started to get interested, and while
hoarding the original collection, I did let her read some of the new
stuff; but only what I thought she could easily understand, like the
new Shadowman.)

As the collection grew, I had to find new ways to store it, as it had
begun to outgrow the area on the shelf where I stacked them. I did
eventually go out and make my first comic-related purpose. A comic
box. One package of sleeves. One package of cardboard protectors.
(My attempt to stuff four comics into each plastic was pretty dumb, but
I thought I was being economical.)

Throughout the years, I visited the Valiant office a few times. Once,
I brought with me a list of the books I was missing from the
collection. And walked home with another handful of comics. I wrote a
few [hand-written] letters to the company, and I was enthralled for a
while with trying to legitimately win a gold. All of which was pretty
stupid, but for a nine year old I suppose stupidity is permitted.

I guess I wasn’t completely out of it, when I did give out comics as
part of the goody bag for one of my birthday parties, I insisted to my
parents that all the girls get Dr. Mirage books because I had read
somewhere that the book was marketed to women as it had a strong female
lead.

I didn’t get all my comics delivered to me through the mail, the next
year one of my best friends got me as a gift a CEAR signed by Bernard
Chang. Which I almost sold about four years ago, before I started
actively participating in the forum here, and is how I ended up on the
forums.

I could go on about the various amounts of free swag I accumulated over
the years. The largest single purchase I ever made for anything
comic-booky was to get a copy of the continuity bible here on the
forums.

In any event, when the acclaim take over was really complete and just
about everyone who ever made Valiant a name in one way or another was
gone, the monthly deliveries stopped, and for a few titles I did go and
purchase the books until the end of what I guess was ’95 or ’96… again
this is not a history, but the most recently published book that I
purchased was the teen sex issue of troublemakers.

After that, when I turned 13, the one man from Valiant who I had
invited to my Bar Mitzvah was unable to make it because he was having
nine inches removed from his colon due to cancer about a week before
the event.

As I grew and matured he and I got very close. And although I tried to
represent him as best I could on these forums, as a 20 year old, I was
still learning how to do that. It was my attempt when I had written in
the past to try and appear as an unbiased individual. But how can one
be unbiased regarding someone he loves? I will stand by his every
decision until the day I die.

At 23 years of age, I lost one of my best friends. I lost someone who
I think understood me better than my own father. I lost someone who I
will continue to carry with me in so many aspects of my life; someone
who taught me how to interact with people in a real way, make them feel
at ease and respected. Someone whose mother claimed he liked me best.
May his memory be an inspiration and a gift for all to treasure.

For my Uncle Steven,
David Gertler
aka DJSpecter (Spector being the name of the subsidiary of ORB.)

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Daniel Jackson
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Post by Daniel Jackson »

Sorry to hear about his Uncle, I remember when DJSpecter used to post here quite frequently.

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magnusr
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Post by magnusr »

David, please do post more. We're here because we love the comics that your uncle was part of creating. You can help keep your uncle's legacy alive.

/Magnus

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depluto
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Post by depluto »

Thanks for posting that.

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Elveen
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Post by Elveen »

depluto wrote:Thanks for posting that.

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myron
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Post by myron »

depluto wrote:Thanks for posting that.

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gavster
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Post by gavster »

Very touching, now this guy I'd like to hear more from.

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jedimarley
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Post by jedimarley »

magnusr wrote:David, please do post more. We're here because we love the comics that your uncle was part of creating. You can help keep your uncle's legacy alive.

/Magnus

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*SQUEE*
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Post by *SQUEE* »

That was a very well written and touching story. My thoughts are with him in his time of loss.

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Knightt
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Re: A Valiant Story...

Post by Knightt »

DJSpecter wrote:(It was my attempt when I had written in
the past to try and appear as an unbiased individual. But how can one
be unbiased regarding someone he loves? I will stand by his every
decision until the day I die.

At 23 years of age, I lost one of my best friends. I lost someone who
I think understood me better than my own father. I lost someone who I
will continue to carry with me in so many aspects of my life; someone
who taught me how to interact with people in a real way, make them feel
at ease and respected. Someone whose mother claimed he liked me best.
May his memory be an inspiration and a gift for all to treasure.

For my Uncle Steven,
David Gertler
aka DJSpecter (Spector being the name of the subsidiary of ORB.)

"Say not in grief, 'he is no more', but live in thankfulness that he was."

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worldsbestcomics
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Post by worldsbestcomics »

That is a great story from DJ. I also hope he posts more.

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betterthanezra
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Post by betterthanezra »

depluto wrote:Thanks for posting that.
-Brian


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