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If Dark Horse loses the license to the Gold Key characters, would there be any clues to that on the Dark Horse website, or would we just gave to wait for an announcement?

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Everybody Is Right Until Someone Else Disagrees.

I dont think they would announce it there either. I meant would we find any clues there, such as no Gold Key archives being listed at their site when usually there are some listed.

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Everybody Is Right Until Someone Else Disagrees.

I wish they'd use the Gold Key license for new books or let it go or lose it.

Dark Horse still lists the Magnus/Predator crossover, too.

I think if they PUBLISHED it - it still can be referenced.

Future, though...

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Everybody Is Right Until Someone Else Disagrees.

The license obviously costs them money. At some point selling the same archives over and over has to lose momentum.

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Everybody Is Right Until Someone Else Disagrees.

Dark Horse has not solicited any Gold Key Archives (Turok, Boris Karloff, Space Family Robinson, etc...) in 4 months. Sales of these volumes are well under 1000 copies. Maybe they did pull the plug...

--Phil

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VikingSpawn alluded to this. I didn't realize it had been four months.

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Everybody Is Right Until Someone Else Disagrees.

Huh? Just look at the sales charts - I'd recon that the Gold Key stuff is at the BOTTOM of those licensed materials in terms of sales numbers. As StarBrand points out, it's not profitable if it loses momentum. I think not publishing any Gold Key books for four months means they've lost momentum. For the last four months, they've technically paid a licensing fee, and have done NOTHING to recoup that cost.

In short, StarBrand is 100% right. Yes, licensed properties are DH's bread and butter, but their not going to PAY A FEE for something that gives no return on that investment.

That being said, I don't see Valiant paying that fee for these properties. I don't remember where I'd heard it mentioned, but I swear I saw that the Gold Key license was actually fairly expensive...

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I could be wrong but it seems to me that VEI has always answered licensing questions by stating that they want to focus on the fully owned Valiant original properties. I have a feeling that the idea of re introducing those characters as part of their own new Universe is something that they have completely decided against even if the licensing was cheap.

There is a fan bas and demand... But not enough to warrant long term risks to continuity. I Dont see Goldkey characters ever coming back unless somehow Valiant was able to outright purchase the rights to them, or unless they created a secondary line... Like dcs vertigo or marvel's 2099 or something.

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This.

+1

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And you know the price tag to buy them outright would be far more expensive than you could reasonably recoup. I'm fine with this universe excluding Solar, Turok and Magnus.

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It is going to be tough for fans of the original for a while, but the universe is coming together nicely thus far, and new readers won't know the difference.

And I figure: A) If there is no future timeline (as has been rumored/suggested) then Magnus wont be missed, B) If another character, such as Ivar, can fill the Deus Ex Machina role Solar often played, then his loss is diminished, and C) The man-out-of-time role of Turok is easily filled (and done better IMHO) by XO.

I know it's a bit more complicated than just that, but that's my story and I'm sticking to it.

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Funny how times change... I remember when the consensus here was that they just couldn't relaunch the Valiant universe without Solar, Magnus, and Turok. Now it seems a lot of people, myself included, would prefer they not even bother licensing those characters (but an outright purchase would be OK).

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Everybody Is Right Until Someone Else Disagrees.

That just says something about what Valiant is doing. Originally, I only wanted a relaunch that kept the old continuity which would mean the GK3 had to be there. Now, I can see how terrible that would have likely turned out. I know we haven't seen a lot from the new line, but so far everything looks great and I'm really excited that they chose to reboot. If you would have told me I'd be saying that a year ago I would have thought you were nuts. I also agree that as much as I love Solar and Magnus, I think Valiant is better off leaving them alone. Licensing just seems like a major pain. I will miss Solar, though.

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Everybody Is Right Until Someone Else Disagrees.

Agreed, would love to Have new books but they dont have to be incorporated into Valiant anymore and of course if Valiant could purchase them outright that'd be great. It's just not necessary anymore. We've all seen the proof in the pudding so to speak

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