Another My Valiant Story

[mateo107]

Like a lot of people, my first exposure to Valiant came in the early 90‘s. At that time I was still a teenager on a limited budget and hadn’t yet attained the financial independence of a minimum wage job. Fortunately, back then comic stores had a thing called a 25-cent bin. Buying new comics was a rare luxury, usually a reward I’d get from my parents periodically when I got my braces tightened. Being able to collect a series month after month not only seemed unattainable, it never really occurred to me that people bought comics that way. As a result, my early collection consisted of sporadic issues, mostly Marvel and DC, but occasional independents. A Solar here, an X-O Manowar there. I knew collector’s items like Turok #1 and Magnus #25 were worth the 25-cent investment and would pay my way through college someday. I saved up $20 and bought a Magnus #1, the first comic book I ever bought off the wall of the shop.

When I was old enough to start a job, Valiant was long gone. There was this new company called Acclaim, but their Magnus just didn’t look right to me so I never bought an issue. Instead, I started buying JLA, Batman and Superman, I guess being able to afford not just monthly but weekly comics was a newfound status symbol. For the next 15 years i was almost exclusively a DC reader, sticking with Superman purely off the momentum of better stories that I remembered affectionately from a decade before. I watched it progressively deteriorate, including a disastrous year without Superman even in his own books (World of New Krypton) and a boring year of being “Grounded”. When I thought things couldn’t possibly get any worse, DC did the unthinkable and re-booted their entire line. I knew from the awful first teaser image of Grant Morrison’s Action Comics #1 with Superman in a t-shirt and jeans that this wasn’t for me, and I quit reading comics altogether. It might sound silly for me to say this, but the “new 52” put me in a state of depression, it was like an old friend had died and an integral part of life had ended. I tried buying up some 90‘s Superman back issues to fill the holes in my collection, but it just wasn’t the same anymore.

Even though I hadn’t been making my weekly visits to the comic store in a while, people still considered me a comic book guy. An actor friend thought of me when he got an extra pass to Wonder Con, and so I went along with him. As expected, nothing I saw from Marvel and DC impressed me anymore, but as I wandered aimlessly through the convention, I stumbled across something I never thought I’d see: Valiant had a booth! Sometime in the year of my absence from comics some crazy nut actually resurrected that company. I knew enough of the troubled history of the characters after Acclaim to know that this was something special, probably the greatest comeback in comic book history. A guy in a Valiant t-shirt, who I later found out was CEO Dinesh Shamdasani, started talking to me. I was initially disappointed that Magnus wasn’t a part of the new Valiant, I was more familiar with the Gold Key characters, slightly familiar with X-O Manowar and Eternal Warrior, but knew absolutely nothing about Bloodshot. Yet before I knew it, I had bought two X-O Manowar trades. I went back to the hotel and read them that night, and came back to the convention the next day to buy the Harbinger and Bloodshot trades. I couldn’t believe I was actually excited about comics again, I jumped right into Harbinger Wars the next month.

Since then, I’ve been catching up on the whole line. My monthly buying habits are now closer to what they were at 14 years old, just getting an issue here or there if it looks interesting, only now I do eventually catch up on everything later in the trade. anyways, I've been lurking on the boards for a few months, and since I'm not Canadian I figured it was safe to finally register an account and participate.
Mateo

[lorddunlow]

anyways, I've been lurking on the boards for a few months, and since I'm not Canadian I figured it was safe to finally register an account and participate.
Mateo

Best first post ever! Welcome to the board. It's fun here.

You don't post on the XDA forums by chance, do you? (One of the developers I follow is named mateorod)

[betterthanezra]

Seriously a wonderful first post

Welcome

-Brian

[mateo107]

if you thought that was great, wait'll you see my second post. oh, wait...

[mateo107]

You don't post on the XDA forums by chance, do you? (One of the developers I follow is named mateorod)

nope, that's not me, sorry.

[lorddunlow]

if you thought that was great, wait'll you see my second post. oh, wait...

[Man Of The Atom]

Good story. Welcome to the board.

[mkb28]

Hello Mateo:

Great story and welcome to the Board!

Michael
mkb28

[kevinbastos]

Awesome. Welcome. It's fun here.

[caxiotis]

Welcome

[Daniel Jackson]

Welcome to the board.

[comicsyte95]

Welcome!

[Burrito Boy]

Welcome to the board.

Here, have a taco.

[MarkRoseHFX]

and since I'm not Canadian I figured it was safe to finally register an account and participate.
Mateo

It's safe for Canadians we just have to put up with dunlow

Welcome to the board!

[caniac]

Awesome story! Welcome to the boards

[leonmallett]

Welcome to the board Mateo, and thanks for sharing your story.

As a fellow 'mainly DC' guy, I could recognise a lot of what you posted about DC and its deterioration (although it was not Superman for me) and the effect of the new 52.

[MarrowMan]

Why does everyone hate on Canada?

[leonmallett]

Why does everyone hate on Canada?

Not everyone; I have always thought of Canadians as being like Brits who are more tolerant of the French ( ), are more civilised than shared-language cousins the Aussies ( ), and who are to be more trusted with firearms than Americans ( )...

[lorddunlow]

Why does everyone hate on Canada?

Not everyone; I have always thought of Canadians as being like Brits who are more tolerant of the French ( ), are more civilised than shared-language cousins the Aussies ( ), and who are to be more trusted with firearms than Americans ( )...

That is an amazingly accurate description of Canadians.

[FormerReader]

and who are to be more trusted with firearms than Americans ( )...

[FormerReader]

Welcome to the boards!

[MarkRoseHFX]

Why does everyone hate on Canada?

It's mostly just dunlow the lord of the dance. I still think he's a closet Canadian lover.

[Chiclo]

Why does everyone hate on Canada?

Not everyone; I have always thought of Canadians as being like Brits who are more tolerant of the French ( ), are more civilised than shared-language cousins the Aussies ( ), and who are to be more trusted with firearms than Americans ( )...

Trusted or otherwise, this American has firearms.

[String]

Like a lot of people, my first exposure to Valiant came in the early 90‘s. At that time I was still a teenager on a limited budget and hadn’t yet attained the financial independence of a minimum wage job. Fortunately, back then comic stores had a thing called a 25-cent bin. Buying new comics was a rare luxury, usually a reward I’d get from my parents periodically when I got my braces tightened. Being able to collect a series month after month not only seemed unattainable, it never really occurred to me that people bought comics that way. As a result, my early collection consisted of sporadic issues, mostly Marvel and DC, but occasional independents. A Solar here, an X-O Manowar there. I knew collector’s items like Turok #1 and Magnus #25 were worth the 25-cent investment and would pay my way through college someday. I saved up $20 and bought a Magnus #1, the first comic book I ever bought off the wall of the shop.

When I was old enough to start a job, Valiant was long gone. There was this new company called Acclaim, but their Magnus just didn’t look right to me so I never bought an issue. Instead, I started buying JLA, Batman and Superman, I guess being able to afford not just monthly but weekly comics was a newfound status symbol. For the next 15 years i was almost exclusively a DC reader, sticking with Superman purely off the momentum of better stories that I remembered affectionately from a decade before. I watched it progressively deteriorate, including a disastrous year without Superman even in his own books (World of New Krypton) and a boring year of being “Grounded”. When I thought things couldn’t possibly get any worse, DC did the unthinkable and re-booted their entire line. I knew from the awful first teaser image of Grant Morrison’s Action Comics #1 with Superman in a t-shirt and jeans that this wasn’t for me, and I quit reading comics altogether. It might sound silly for me to say this, but the “new 52” put me in a state of depression, it was like an old friend had died and an integral part of life had ended. I tried buying up some 90‘s Superman back issues to fill the holes in my collection, but it just wasn’t the same anymore.

Even though I hadn’t been making my weekly visits to the comic store in a while, people still considered me a comic book guy. An actor friend thought of me when he got an extra pass to Wonder Con, and so I went along with him. As expected, nothing I saw from Marvel and DC impressed me anymore, but as I wandered aimlessly through the convention, I stumbled across something I never thought I’d see: Valiant had a booth! Sometime in the year of my absence from comics some crazy nut actually resurrected that company. I knew enough of the troubled history of the characters after Acclaim to know that this was something special, probably the greatest comeback in comic book history. A guy in a Valiant t-shirt, who I later found out was CEO Dinesh Shamdasani, started talking to me. I was initially disappointed that Magnus wasn’t a part of the new Valiant, I was more familiar with the Gold Key characters, slightly familiar with X-O Manowar and Eternal Warrior, but knew absolutely nothing about Bloodshot. Yet before I knew it, I had bought two X-O Manowar trades. I went back to the hotel and read them that night, and came back to the convention the next day to buy the Harbinger and Bloodshot trades. I couldn’t believe I was actually excited about comics again, I jumped right into Harbinger Wars the next month.

Since then, I’ve been catching up on the whole line. My monthly buying habits are now closer to what they were at 14 years old, just getting an issue here or there if it looks interesting, only now I do eventually catch up on everything later in the trade. anyways, I've been lurking on the boards for a few months, and since I'm not Canadian I figured it was safe to finally register an account and participate.
Mateo

+10

Exactly how I felt when DC launched the New 52, as if old and trusted friends had vanished with nary a trace.

Howdy and welcome to the boards!

[doodlebird]

Welcome ! Dino waved his Valiant magic upon you !