Off and on since Magnus #1 in 1991

[bamaphilosopher]

Hey, all! I think I told my story on this site about ten years ago, but I'll tell it again since I just returned.

I feel so fortunate that one of my friends talked Magnus up to my roommate, who then got me interested in looking at it, so when the very first Valiant VH1 title came out, Magnus #1, we all three got a copy. My roommate in college had gotten me into comics, and we mostly collected DC, mainly Batman and Superman. We both graduated in May 1991, and Magnus came out shortly thereafter in July 1991.

With Valiant, I was hooked from the first page. After that, I bought everything Valiant. I never did have to go back and get back issues later like some people did, thank goodness. Solar, I bought it, loved it. Then I picked up X-O and Harbinger. Loved them too. And of course, I bought Shadowman as well. I talked my roommate into getting the other titles, too, with me, and we had such a blast discussing them. And a couple of our friends read Magnus and Rai. Then Archer and Armstrong and Eternal Warrior, leading into Unity.

When Unity came along, Valiant suddenly started getting hotter and hotter, but I very much mourned the loss of Jim Shooter, whose writing had hooked me from the start.

Nevertheless, I kept buying all Valiant issues, and so did my roommate for a time. But I was disappointed in so many of the titles, like H.A.R.D. Corps, Secret Weapons, Psi-Lords...the only thing I think I still liked was Eternal Warrior, Bob Hall's Shadowman, Tim Truman's Turok, and Second Life of Dr. Mirage.

But then, somewhere between Chaos Effect and Birthquake, I read a really sucky Archer and Armstrong issue, and was complaining about it to my former roommate.

He looked at me with shock and said, "You're still buying Valiant?" And he revealed he had quit a couple of months before.

Since he had quit, I looked at the quality and realized it wasn't there anymore, and I quit too. I was very sad...it was a hard decision, because I had loved Valiant so much. But at that point, the entire line was sucking really bad, and getting worse.

I remember I had to tell him that Acclaim was buying Valiant...we had both stopped reading at that point. I said I couldn't believe they paid 70 million for it. He said, ah, they'll probably make that up on the first few videogames out of it. At that point, we really didn't much care anymore. But, I kept my pre-Unity and Unity issues in thick mylar, because I still loved them. My former roommate told me soon thereafter that he had outgrown comics.

Ten years later, when this site came along, I got on here and started talking with everyone. I realized then that VH1 had ended, and that through ebay, I could get the entire VH1. So I did that. But then I kind of lost interest, because there was nothing new to get into.

A few years later, one of my philosophy students showed me how to use CBR and read digital comics, and I was able to get tons of comics online. I downloaded the VH1 line at that time, so I wouldn't have to touch the comics. But then there was nothing left to do.

So, I quit going to this site. I regret that, because I had no idea about the VEI relaunch at the time.

Then, about six months ago, toward the end of 2013, while I was on amazon, I found one of the new Harbinger trade paperbacks and learned Valiant had restarted. So I thought, hmm, I'll try it. I bought the first two Harbinger trades and the first two XO Manowar trades.

The magic was back! These were as good as the Jim Shooter issues!

So I found a local comic shop, about an hour away, and had them help me get all the back issues and get caught up. And anything I didn't get from them, I got from ebay.

Enthused again, I also bought some of the variant covers I liked from ebay, and even went back and got some things I never had before, like a Unity 0 red and a Chaos Effect alpha red. I figured out my favorite cover ever was the Lupacchino Harbinger 7 with Flamingo, and finally found three of them on ebay.

And I've been buying thick mylar bags. I've placed all my pre-Unity and Unity, plus the special rare VEI covers, in this mylar, so I never have to touch them again.

I have to accept the fact that I can't get every variant cover. But any that I like, I try to get.

I haven't tried to get my former roommate back into them, since he told me those many years ago that he had outgrown comics. I guess I never have.

Well, so I'm back! And I've decided to write Kindle worlds stories too, in hopes of writing for Valiant someday. After all, a guy can dream, and since the time I collected VH1, I became a writer and self-published some of my books, plus had my dissertation published. So, now that I'm more confident in my writing, I'm super glad they have Kindle worlds as an outlet for fan fiction.

So, that's my story. Who knows, maybe I'll write for Valiant one day. I sure hope so.

Thanks for reading this. And thanks to Valiant, past and present, for the awesome stories!

Richmond West
(bamaphilosopher)

[FormerReader]

Welcome back Richard!

[AnthonyF]

Glad to have you back, thanks for sharing!!

[lorddunlow]

Welcome - aw screw it. You've been on here longer than me.

Blah blah blah... Something about stinking Canadians... blah blah blah

[bobby97801]

Welcome back

[Daniel Jackson]

Nice story.

[grendeljd]

Welcome back! Best of luck to you pursuing your dream of writing

[bamaphilosopher]

Welcome back! Best of luck to you pursuing your dream of writing

Thanks, grendel! As soon as this semester's over, I'm going to finish my second Kindle Worlds story, then start pitching ideas to them. I figure if I just keep at it, maybe it'll happen one day.

[doodlebird]

Re-welcome !
Support Valiant and get prizes at the contest here
http://www.valiantfans.com/forum/viewto ... =1&t=43222

[leonmallett]

It has been good to see you return.