Jim Shooter fried my brain

Zardoz · Post by **Zardoz** » Wed Jan 25, 2006 10:03:22 am

I was a fan of Doctor Solar Man of the Atom as a kid. Yeah, I'm an old fart. So when I saw he had been revived I dove in. It was simply brilliant. That and the first issues of Harbinger, Eternal Warrior, and XO made me believe that comics had finally achieved the level of fine literature. Don't laugh, Jim Shooter fried my brain. Little did I know I would be sucked in to the whole Valiant Universe like the world was into Solar's black hole.

I loved all the titles and started collecting them and then selling them off for ridiculously high prices. I sold Magnus 0 for around $100. I sold XO #3 for $80 and scores of others from my collection that I later replaced at blow-out sales and whatnot for next to nothing after the speculation craze crashed. Every once in a while I reread whole runs and try to fill in the holes that are still left. Presently I'm on an XO kick and have almost everything replaced.

I became disillusioned and frustrated with Valiant however shortly after Shooter was robbed of his creations and pitched out of his own company. The quality of the stories and art suffered so terribly that I discontinued my obsession with Valiant titles until sometime after the crash. I started reading them again and picking up every back issue I could lay my hands on in the cut-out bins around town.

I have the honor of having my letter published in Solar Man of the Atom #7. Yeah, that was me prattling on about my love of the Solar character. I think this was the last letter to be published in the series. I was a bit irritated that they got my address wrong. I can't recall but I think they may have gotten my last name wrong too. I'll have to dig it out and check.

I followed Jim Shooter's fantastic stories at Defiant but only bought a couple of issues of Broadway comics. I've always thought Shooter should be writing screenplays and making films. XO should have been a series of films and Eternal Warrior should have been a television series. What is he doing now?

Z

depluto · Post by **depluto** » Wed Jan 25, 2006 10:23:28 am

Welcome aboard!

cinlach@aol.com · Post by **cinlach@aol.com** » Wed Jan 25, 2006 10:49:42 am

welcome aboard indeed...another gold key fan.

i used to get the whitman/gold key comic packs every week when i was little.

so when solar, magnus and turok came back i was all over them.

have you checked out the magnus and solar hardcovers from dark horse? they're spectacular.

Daniel Jackson · Post by **Daniel Jackson** » Wed Jan 25, 2006 11:24:09 am

Cool story and welcome to the boards. Man, selling X-O #3 for $80 has to be some kind of record high. Even during the height of the Valiant frenzy I never saw it go for more than half of that. I’ll bet the person that paid that much for it is really kicking himself now.

Zardoz · Post by **Zardoz** » Wed Jan 25, 2006 11:32:03 am

Thanks guys. I just discovered via Answers.com that Jim is working at Phobos Entertainment, a sci-fi outfit. Check him out: http://www.phobosweb.com/corporate/bios/shooter.html

Z

Zardoz · Post by **Zardoz** » Wed Jan 25, 2006 12:00:58 pm

Daniel Jackson wrote:Cool story and welcome to the boards. Man, selling X-O #3 for $80 has to be some kind of record high. Even during the height of the Valiant frenzy I never saw it go for more than half of that. I’ll bet the person that paid that much for it is really kicking himself now.

It was really odd. He was a temp. security guard were I worked. I was advertising on a board on the Internet selling some other books and got an inquiry about XO #3, which I wasn't planning to sell. I was astonished to discover the guy worked in the same building I did. What are the odds? Anyway, I talk to the guy and find out he really wants XO #3. So, it went back and forth until the guy offered me, to the best of memory, $80. It kinda sticks out you know but I could be wrong. (insert fish tale here) I may have some record of this still hanging around in a folder somewhere. I'll look. He had the jones. What could I do, I couldn't pass it up. When he paid me he said if his girlfriend found out she would kill him. I took no pity on him however, I had a house payment to make.

Talk about kicking yourself. I exchanged email back then with some poor Joe who had bought several long boxes full of Valiant comics, maxing out his credit cards in the process. He was a speculator (hiss, boo), he really had no interest in the comics themselves. The crash occurred and he went into deep despair but refused to sell the comics for anything less that what he had paid for them. He might still be sitting on them for all I know.

I just couldn't see why someone who cared nothing about comics would make such an investment. These were the guys who created the balloon that popped in the first place. You could argue that guys like me contributed to it, but I only had one issue of anything I sold and they were from my personal collection. I never believed that the prices would stay where they were at the time and that I would eventually get them all back without selling one of the kids into slavery. I never recovered a Magnus #0 however.

Z

ibreakhorses · Post by **ibreakhorses** » Wed Jan 25, 2006 12:14:27 pm

He fried mine too!

Vault-Keeper · Post by **Vault-Keeper** » Wed Jan 25, 2006 12:23:16 pm

Who is Jim Shooter?

Daniel Jackson · Post by **Daniel Jackson** » Wed Jan 25, 2006 2:00:58 pm

Zardoz wrote:
Daniel Jackson wrote:Cool story and welcome to the boards. Man, selling X-O #3 for $80 has to be some kind of record high. Even during the height of the Valiant frenzy I never saw it go for more than half of that. I’ll bet the person that paid that much for it is really kicking himself now.
It was really odd. He was a temp. security guard were I worked. I was advertising on a board on the Internet selling some other books and got an inquiry about XO #3, which I wasn't planning to sell. I was astonished to discover the guy worked in the same building I did. What are the odds? Anyway, I talk to the guy and find out he really wants XO #3. So, it went back and forth until the guy offered me, to the best of memory, $80. It kinda sticks out you know but I could be wrong. (insert fish tale here) I may have some record of this still hanging around in a folder somewhere. I'll look. He had the jones. What could I do, I couldn't pass it up. When he paid me he said if his girlfriend found out she would kill him. I took no pity on him however, I had a house payment to make.

Z

It's really too bad the guy just didn't look around a little harder. I don't think any issue of X-O was bringing anything close to that at the time. That price is more in line with what people were getting for Rai #3.

Vault-Keeper · Post by **Vault-Keeper** » Wed Jan 25, 2006 2:12:31 pm

Daniel Jackson wrote:
Zardoz wrote:
Daniel Jackson wrote:Cool story and welcome to the boards. Man, selling X-O #3 for $80 has to be some kind of record high. Even during the height of the Valiant frenzy I never saw it go for more than half of that. I’ll bet the person that paid that much for it is really kicking himself now.
It was really odd. He was a temp. security guard were I worked. I was advertising on a board on the Internet selling some other books and got an inquiry about XO #3, which I wasn't planning to sell. I was astonished to discover the guy worked in the same building I did. What are the odds? Anyway, I talk to the guy and find out he really wants XO #3. So, it went back and forth until the guy offered me, to the best of memory, $80. It kinda sticks out you know but I could be wrong. (insert fish tale here) I may have some record of this still hanging around in a folder somewhere. I'll look. He had the jones. What could I do, I couldn't pass it up. When he paid me he said if his girlfriend found out she would kill him. I took no pity on him however, I had a house payment to make.

Z
It's really too bad the guy just didn't look around a little harder. I don't think any issue of X-O was bringing anything close to that at the time. That price is more in line with what people were getting for Rai #3.

I remember X-O #4 getting a big price spike because of the Harbinger x-over. It also made Wizard's Top Ten for several months. There was a time when nearly all of the Top Ten belonged to Valiant. So maybe he meant X-O #4?---Steve

cinlach@aol.com · Post by **cinlach@aol.com** » Wed Jan 25, 2006 2:13:07 pm

keep in mind also that there was a regional variance in the secondary market price of the early valiant books...at least in my experience.

i remember not finding any around the greenville area but charlotte area stores were well stocked. hence prices were higher in greenville then in charlotte or even atlanta.

so considering the beast called ebay didn't exist at the time you could have difficulty finding certain issues without paying higher then "normal" prices.

one of my former roomates had to buy a copy of shadowman #1 for $50 in charlotte because it was going for $75 in town.

that makes me wonder, did anyone else experience this sort of regional price differences in their '91-'92 valiant period?

Zardoz · Post by **Zardoz** » Wed Jan 25, 2006 2:20:11 pm

I thought it was #3 but I'll have to say a lot of water has passed under the bridge since then. And #4 is missing from the collection at the moment and I know I used to have it.

Whichever it was, dude if you're out there reading this, I'm sorry and I hope your girlfriend never found out.

Z

"This is a good skin!"

jedimarley · Post by **jedimarley** » Wed Jan 25, 2006 4:22:49 pm

Welcome to the site

dave · Post by **dave** » Wed Feb 01, 2006 12:40:19 pm

i remember ALL the pre-unity issues being sky-high in my neck of the woods back then. i wasn't in detroit though, colorado. in denver, colorado springs those issues were through the roof-and rai 3 and 4 were HUNDREDS of dollars-not $80. maybe it's due to the proximity of mile high or something-i dunno-but i think $80 for number 3 is possible-remember he's saying he didn't even want to sell it but the guy pressed him...

dave · Post by **dave** » Wed Feb 01, 2006 12:41:06 pm

oh yeah, you should go to buy-sell-trade and say that you'd like a magnus #0-you'll get one!

childres · Post by **childres** » Mon Feb 06, 2006 5:29:17 pm

Welcome to the boards Zardoz!

-Joe

tarheelmarine · Post by **tarheelmarine** » Tue Feb 07, 2006 7:07:38 pm

In Ft. Bragg, NC, the prices were rather high when Valiant exploded, but once again there was the scarcity of issues in Ft. Bragg that led to it. A lot of new shops opened during the early 90's with all of the big events going with Superman, Batman, Lady Death, etc. Just like everyone has already said--all of the new shops closed when the boom came to an end.

Personally, as a kid back then, all I could do was look and wonder what the first issues were like, but thanks to eBay I have comleted my pre-unity search.