From Superman to Valiant

How did you become a VALIANT collector?

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spong107
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From Superman to Valiant

Post by spong107 »

Hi, this is my first post on ValiantFans. Here's my Valiant story...

I first really got into comics in 1992, when I heard on the news that DC Comics was going to kill Superman. I read comics a bit before, but I never really visited a comic shop before. Back then, I was a young teenager that had my mom drive me to a comic shop every week to pick up new issues. I bought all the Superman and Batman issues (both Return of Superman and Knightfall).

It was an exciting times for the comic industry as a lot of new readers like me were discovering comics. I did try new comics here and there in the early to mid 90s, and Valiant was one of them. I think my first exposure to Valiant was Eternal Warrior (EW). I loved it so much that I used "GiladAP" as my America Online (AOL) screen name! For those of you too young to remember, this was when AOL was an Internet Service Provider (ISP) for dialups. I think my family was using 28k baud modem back then.

So it was through Superman's death that led me to discovering comics first through EW. I became interested in the Valiant universe as I noticed that the writing and universe continuity was just so much better than any other publisher. I picked up reading Unity, Harbinger, Shadowman, Archer & Armstrong, and so much more! I was hooked!

Yes, the Valiant books were often more expensive than a lot of other comics at the time, but too often the 'gimmicks' publishers used was in packaging comics with cards, chromium/silver/gold covers, etc. Things looked good on the outside, but the content on the inside was little to none. Huge splash pages, non-existant stories and characters... all these things made me appreciate Valiant as a publisher even more.

However, things started to turn for the worse when they were acquired by Acclaim in 1994. It just wasn't the same as the universe just expanded too quickly and the quality also went down. This also coincided with me becoming more interested in other things such as anime/manga and also preparing for college. I stopped reading Valiant comics.

I still read comics over the years here and there, but nothing serious. I really preferred trade paperbacks (TPBs) to buying individual issues. In 2010 I attended San Diego Comic Con for the first time, and loved it. The last time I went to a comic convention was Anime Expo in LA and Wizard World Chicago back in the mid 90s.

So just a few weeks ago, around fall of 2012, I visited the comic book shop again to see what's going on. I found out that Valiant was back and I was excited to hear this! So I picked up some comics and started reading on a weekly basis again. I enjoy the issues they put out and look forward to future issues!

Thanks Valiant for making comics fun again!

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FormerReader
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Re: From Superman to Valiant

Post by FormerReader »

Welcome back! :clap:

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greg
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Re: From Superman to Valiant

Post by greg »

Welcome to the site!

Many of our stories are similar to yours... except that some of us have been talking about Valiant non-stop since Acclaim messed it up. :D

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caxiotis
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Re: From Superman to Valiant

Post by caxiotis »

welcome :thumb:
Pull List: I only buy TPB's, HC's and Hellboy comics

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drmirage
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Re: From Superman to Valiant

Post by drmirage »

Thanks for sharing.

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caniac
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Re: From Superman to Valiant

Post by caniac »

Welcome to the boards :thumb:
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spong107
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Re: From Superman to Valiant

Post by spong107 »

Thanks everyone! It looks like ValiantFans.com is a great community.

I haven't used a traditional forum in such a long time. I've mostly been on the StackExchange (SE) sites such as the SciFi SE: http://scifi.stackexchange.com to get my nerd on. Hope I can get used to this quickly! :)

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Re: From Superman to Valiant

Post by kevinbastos »

About some things we are old school, and others we are VERY old school.

But that may be the best part about us.
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MarkRoseHFX
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Re: From Superman to Valiant

Post by MarkRoseHFX »

Welcome :clap: :thumb:
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http://about.me/markrosehfx

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Re: From Superman to Valiant

Post by lorddunlow »

Welcome. It's fun here.

You made me feel old with the comment "for those of you too young to remember AOL".

Fun fact - LordDunlow has been my only online screen name for any online presence since I signed up for AOL in 1993 or 1994. I remember AOL 2.0 had just come out. I had very limited time online as I was on 14.4k connection and the number for the dial up to AOL was long distance, so VERY expensive for me. It would take a week to download an MP3. Hard to believe it's been nearly 20 years since then. I owe my relationship to my wife to AOL though. We didn't meet there, but that is where got to really know each other - through AIM. I digress. Sorry to clog your thread.
*SQUEE* your science, I have a machine gun.

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Daniel Jackson
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Re: From Superman to Valiant

Post by Daniel Jackson »

Welcome.

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drmirage
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Re: From Superman to Valiant

Post by drmirage »

Nice meeting you at Burbank House of Secrets!

Meeting a VF Fans Member at an LCS is very rare.

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spong107
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Re: From Superman to Valiant

Post by spong107 »

Nice meeting you too drmirage! Small world indeed!

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grendeljd
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Re: From Superman to Valiant

Post by grendeljd »

Welcome back to Valiant, and welcome to the board! I have a pretty good feeling you won't regret either choice :)
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;

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Re: From Superman to Valiant

Post by Tim »

lorddunlow wrote:You made me feel old with the comment "for those of you too young to remember AOL".
Hope no one says "For those of you too young to remember dialing in to a BBS to play Legend of the Red Dragon". That might make me feel old. :lol:

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lorddunlow
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Re: From Superman to Valiant

Post by lorddunlow »

Tim wrote:
lorddunlow wrote:You made me feel old with the comment "for those of you too young to remember AOL".
Hope no one says "For those of you too young to remember dialing in to a BBS to play Legend of the Red Dragon". That might make me feel old. :lol:
I don't think most people know what a BBS is, or that they even existed. I remember a friend my Dad worked with got me set up with own. He was only one to use it, though. These young'uns don't appreciate nuthin nowadays!
*SQUEE* your science, I have a machine gun.

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MarkRoseHFX
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Re: From Superman to Valiant

Post by MarkRoseHFX »

Tim wrote: Hope no one says "For those of you too young to remember dialing in to a BBS to play Legend of the Red Dragon". That might make me feel old. :lol:
:lol: yeah i remember dialing in on a 14.4 modem to use BBS's. I was a newsnet and DOS based IRC junkie WAY back when too.
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