A Valiant story from the Sooner State

sbcomics · Post by **sbcomics** » Sat Nov 27, 2010 10:38:21 am

I've recently gotten back into Valiant Comics - the motivation was probably a combination of a few things, including the new Shooter comics at Dark Horse and finding a box of Valiants when sorting some comic books for my store.

The first Valiant I bought was Magnus, Robot Fighter #5. I'd seen it mentioned in the comics press - I think maybe Comics Values Monthly - and decided to give it a try. I enjoyed it enough that I started picking up Solar, and then when they started, the rest of the Valiant line. Really enjoyed the books through Unity, but was disappointed when Shooter left. Stayed on with some of the books because of how much I was enjoying BWS on Archer and Armstrong. Once BWS left, though, I stopped everything except Shadowman, I believe, and then eventually fell away from that one as well.

Shortly after Turok #1 came out, I decided to sell off a chunk of my then-expensive Valiant run, though I kept a set of Solar and some others. I had bought duplicates of a lot of them as they were coming out, so, I had a decent amount left that I occasionally re-read.

I was excited about Shooter's return to work on the Dark Horse/Gold Key books, and while I haven't liked those as much as his work at Valiant (or Defiant) back in the day, it did get me thinking more about those characters again. When I was trying to get a storage area for my store (Speeding Bullet Comics in Norman, OK) cleared out, I came across a box of Valiant Comics that had some of the gaps in my collection. Researching those, I came across this site.

I had planned to do a big project for my blog next year - attempting to read 2,011 comics in 2011. Since I have a decent percentage of the Valiant Comics now, I'm thinking a big chunk of this project will now involve re-reading the Valiant Comics universe titles. (I'm still missing some key issues, but hopeful that I can turn them up before they come up in the release order.)

My blog is at blog.newsok.com/nerdage if you want to follow along, or if you want to know much of anything else about me.

Thanks for this great resource!

- Matt

iggy101us · Post by **iggy101us** » Sat Nov 27, 2010 11:20:55 am

Welcome.

comicsyte95 · Post by **comicsyte95** » Sat Nov 27, 2010 11:23:15 am

Welcome!Sounds like a worthy challenge reading 2,011 comics next year!

xodacia81 · Post by **xodacia81** » Sat Nov 27, 2010 11:26:05 am

Welcome

Daniel Jackson · Post by **Daniel Jackson** » Sat Nov 27, 2010 11:39:07 am

Nice story. Welcome to the board.

iggy101us · Post by **iggy101us** » Sat Nov 27, 2010 11:42:06 am

You mentioned that you've read Defiant. Have you read Shooter's Broadway comics?

Draco · Post by **Draco** » Sat Nov 27, 2010 2:04:25 pm

Pretty cool dude.

See you real soon.

slym2none · Post by **slym2none** » Sat Nov 27, 2010 3:36:06 pm

Welcome abroad!

-slym

sbcomics · Post by **sbcomics** » Sat Nov 27, 2010 5:13:40 pm

Thanks for the welcome!

Reading 2,011 will be a challenge, but I hope I can knock out some big runs on some weekends and vacation.

Iggy - I read a few of the Broadway Comics - I remember the first issues of Star Seed and Knights on Broadway for sure - but I never collected them as obsessively as I had Valiant or Defiant. It seemed like it came and went before I had a chance to really get into it. I think I probably read 6-10 of them, but I'm not sure how many they even put out. Maybe that'd make a good addition to my Valiant project! (I've been debating on how difficult it would be to try to also re-collect the Defiants... I think I'll try to finish the Valiants first!)

- Matt

caniac · Post by **caniac** » Sat Nov 27, 2010 7:44:30 pm

Welcome

dhudson1 · Post by **dhudson1** » Sat Nov 27, 2010 10:02:25 pm

Welcome

96Valiantfan · Post by **96Valiantfan** » Sun Nov 28, 2010 9:39:31 am

Welcome

400yrs · Post by **400yrs** » Sun Nov 28, 2010 10:07:35 am

sbcomics wrote: Reading 2,011 will be a challenge, but I hope I can knock out some big runs on some weekends and vacation.

Welcome!

I'm currently working on re-reading Valiant which is about 700 issues, but I can only manage about 2 per day. 2,011 comics is about 5.5 comics per day which is definitely doable if you have the time.

Do you have any idea what other runs you are going to bang out aside from Valiant?

sbcomics · Post by **sbcomics** » Sun Nov 28, 2010 1:32:18 pm

I'm thinking about doing "Shadow of the Bat" and "Legends of the Dark Knight." I haven't tried to physically put together those runs yet, but I think I have a good chunk of them. If I get through Valiant and Acclaim I might see how many Ultraverse and Defiant I can put together in short order.

I've been considering GI Joe Special Missions for some reason, too.

Plus I'll go ahead and read some of the new stuff as it comes out.

From there we'll see; I have a feeling there will be some random issues in there as I'll need to maintain a pretty ruthless pace, but I'd like to do as many runs as I can.

I have all the Captain Americas (Silver Age and up, anyway), so that's an option, but I haven't totally decided if I'll try to do that.

I'm also going to "count" trades, like if I read the "Chew" trades I'll count however many issues that collects.

I have no idea if I actually have the time to do this, but I'm hoping it'll drive some blog traffic, and I'm a pretty fast reader, so we'll see! People like to watch a potential train wreck, right?

- Matt

slym2none · Post by **slym2none** » Sun Nov 28, 2010 1:43:42 pm

sbcomics wrote:People like to watch a potential train wreck, right?

- Matt

-slym

400yrs · Post by **400yrs** » Sun Nov 28, 2010 7:59:35 pm

sbcomics wrote: From there we'll see; I have a feeling there will be some random issues in there as I'll need to maintain a pretty ruthless pace, but I'd like to do as many runs as I can.

You may want to consider phone book style archives to help out both cost-wise and issue-wise. Plus they are convenient to read. For instance, the 2 Noble Causes archives are $20 and $25 retail and cover 55 issues which is the whole run. The Walking Dead Compendium is $60 and covers 48 issues. You can get all that stuff nearly half off retail online.

sbcomics wrote: I have all the Captain Americas (Silver Age and up, anyway), so that's an option, but I haven't totally decided if I'll try to do that.

The Mark Waid, Kirkman and Brubaker stuff is all really good. You should fly through that.

sbcomics wrote:I'm also going to "count" trades, like if I read the "Chew" trades I'll count however many issues that collects.

Chew is fantastic.

sbcomics wrote:I have no idea if I actually have the time to do this, but I'm hoping it'll drive some blog traffic, and I'm a pretty fast reader, so we'll see! People like to watch a potential train wreck, right?

- Matt

Definitely.

sbcomics · Post by **sbcomics** » Sun Nov 28, 2010 8:08:51 pm

I've read all of the Caps before, but never all in a row. I love the Brubaker run.

I may go for some compendiums; I have a lot of Essentials around and I enjoy that format.

I co-own a comic store with my wife, so if I have like, 300 issues to go and nothing handy to read, I'm pretty sure I can sell myself a box of complete random nonsense for very little. Which would actually be fun, if ridiculous

As part of my Marvel retailer membership, I also have a membership to their online library, so I could knock some out that way, too. I prefer reading regular print comics, but again - to get to 2,011 I'm probably going to have to blaze and squeeze in reading comics anywhere/any time I can. My day job at the newspaper keeps me busy, but I'm planning on trying to squeeze in a comic or 2 during my lunch break most days. Since the blog is for the newspaper, they should be OK with that.

Right now I'm thinking about starting at 12:01 a.m. on Jan. 1. Maybe with Magnus #1.

- Matt

robb77 · Post by **robb77** » Mon Nov 29, 2010 5:20:11 pm

welcome

sbcomics · Post by **sbcomics** » Mon Nov 29, 2010 5:44:06 pm

Thanks!

StarBrand · Post by **StarBrand** » Fri Dec 03, 2010 11:41:22 am

I too would like to welcome you! Good to see the new Dark Horse line has been helping get at least some folks interested in Valiant again!

sbcomics · Post by **sbcomics** » Fri Dec 03, 2010 12:47:28 pm

Thanks! I have found them somewhat hit or miss so far, but I think they're improving as they go.
I also figure that if I want to read more Jim Shooter comics in the future, I'd better support them when I have the chance!

StarBrand · Post by **StarBrand** » Fri Dec 03, 2010 12:49:25 pm

sbcomics wrote:Thanks! I have found them somewhat hit or miss so far, but I think they're improving as they go.
I also figure that if I want to read more Jim Shooter comics in the future, I'd better support them when I have the chance!

I totally agree with this sentiment!

dave · Post by **dave** » Sat Dec 04, 2010 10:14:23 am

Welcome! Great story, and keep up the posting. I'll try to keep up with your blog...

dave · Post by **dave** » Sat Dec 04, 2010 10:18:06 am

Where is your store?

You should consider linking your blog to your profile too.

I have a blog myself, and I get a nice bump from my buddies here whenever I post a link.

sbcomics · Post by **sbcomics** » Sat Dec 04, 2010 2:29:05 pm

My store is in Norman, OK:

http://www.speedingbulletcomics.com

And here's my blog:

http://blog.newsok.com/nerdage

I should probably put both of those in the profile somewhere.

Feel free to check 'em out!