Dynamite Comics is releasing new Gold Key comics....

[leonmallett]

ART PENDING LICENSOR APPROVAL.

This is the NUMBER ONE REASON I do NOT want these characters as a part of the VEI Universe.

That is a pretty good point.

Indeed.

[Daniel Jackson]

Makes me wonder what the interest really is on the part of Dynamite. After seeing the lackluster sales with the failed Dark Horse relaunch (and that was with JS at the helm), you would think most companies would be a bit hesitant to try the same.

[leonmallett]

Makes me wonder what the interest really is on the part of Dynamite. After seeing the lackluster sales with the failed Dark Horse relaunch (and that was with JS at the helm), you would think most companies would be a bit hesitant to try the same.

Since their model is largely predicated on licensed ventures, maybe that is the attraction in itself? Maybe they are running out of available licenses, LOL.

[Donovan]

After seeing the lackluster sales with the failed Dark Horse relaunch (and that was with JS at the helm), you would think most companies would be a bit hesitant to try the same.

I agree with you here, but in terms of sales, I seem to recall the Dark Horse line charting numbers not too far off from where VEI is (per issue) now?

I'm not 100% on that, and don't know where to find these numbers. Hoping someone else can chime in.

[bygranddesign]

Makes me wonder what the interest really is on the part of Dynamite. After seeing the lackluster sales with the failed Dark Horse relaunch (and that was with JS at the helm), you would think most companies would be a bit hesitant to try the same.

There is a much more engaged Valiant fan base now

VEI established strong sales for well over a year now ... a lot of old Valiant fans have re-entered the comic market place and many are clamoring for a GK3 revival(you see it all the time on the Valiant FB page).

With the big marketing push VEI has put together for Unity and Futureverse .... Dynamite picked a good time to revive the GK3. Add 2 VEI writers and Mark Waid to the mix and you can't help but take notice.

Just look at all the discussion and threads that have popped up about this as further proof ... They have the attention of an engaged VEI fanbase - I'm not sure Darkhorse had that.

[mateo107]

I agree with you here, but in terms of sales, I seem to recall the Dark Horse line charting numbers not too far off from where VEI is (per issue) now?

I'm not 100% on that, and don't know where to find these numbers. Hoping someone else can chime in.

Doctor Solar, Man of the Atom ended after issue 8 with sales in the 6-7K range, whereas VEI has books going over a year with sales in the 10-12K range. for some of the books, that's about twice as much.

[MoonChild]

I agree with you here, but in terms of sales, I seem to recall the Dark Horse line charting numbers not too far off from where VEI is (per issue) now?

I'm not 100% on that, and don't know where to find these numbers. Hoping someone else can chime in.

Doctor Solar, Man of the Atom ended after issue 8 with sales in the 6-7K range, whereas VEI has books going over a year with sales in the 10-12K range. for some of the books, that's about twice as much.

True. But there were huge delays by that point at dark key its still a total mistery what happened there

[grendeljd]

While I really did enjoy the main Kirby: Genesis series from DE, I'm not a fan of anything else they do, nor do I buy anything they publish. I have zero intention of supporting their use of the GK3 - though I am on record as also not being a fan of seeing those characters show up in the VEI universe, either.

[nonplayer]

Um did you see who the artist who did thoes pages. We have sears doing Turok= sweet! And a suprise for me we have Juan Doe doing solar. Im sorry Im a xo and Turok fan fist but if Juan is doing solar I may jump on board.

[Chiclo]

Makes me wonder what the interest really is on the part of Dynamite. After seeing the lackluster sales with the failed Dark Horse relaunch (and that was with JS at the helm), you would think most companies would be a bit hesitant to try the same.

Since their model is largely predicated on licensed ventures, maybe that is the attraction in itself? Maybe they are running out of available licenses, LOL.

I heard Nicky B at a Dynamite panel say that the advertising budget for most licensed books is paid for by the holder of the license, so in this case Classic Media, rather than the publisher.

[leonmallett]

Makes me wonder what the interest really is on the part of Dynamite. After seeing the lackluster sales with the failed Dark Horse relaunch (and that was with JS at the helm), you would think most companies would be a bit hesitant to try the same.

Since their model is largely predicated on licensed ventures, maybe that is the attraction in itself? Maybe they are running out of available licenses, LOL.

I heard Nicky B at a Dynamite panel say that the advertising budget for most licensed books is paid for by the holder of the license, so in this case Classic Media, rather than the publisher.

Interesting; do they advertise much outside their own books? (I don't read Previews etc, so a genuine question).

[NapoleonBlownapart]

I agree with you here, but in terms of sales, I seem to recall the Dark Horse line charting numbers not too far off from where VEI is (per issue) now?

I'm not 100% on that, and don't know where to find these numbers. Hoping someone else can chime in.

Doctor Solar, Man of the Atom ended after issue 8 with sales in the 6-7K range, whereas VEI has books going over a year with sales in the 10-12K range. for some of the books, that's about twice as much.

That was largely because they completely failed to keep any sort of regular schedule going; fans gave up on the books and assumed they were cancelled because there were routinely waits of over three months between issues. At the beginning it was a lot more successful than even VEI has been. Solar #1 had a whopping 20K sales if memory serves me right.

EDIT: *SQUEE*, I wrote "sails" instead of "sales"

[Chiclo]

I agree with you here, but in terms of sales, I seem to recall the Dark Horse line charting numbers not too far off from where VEI is (per issue) now?

I'm not 100% on that, and don't know where to find these numbers. Hoping someone else can chime in.

Doctor Solar, Man of the Atom ended after issue 8 with sales in the 6-7K range, whereas VEI has books going over a year with sales in the 10-12K range. for some of the books, that's about twice as much.

That was largely because they completely failed to keep any sort of regular schedule going; fans gave up on the books and assumed they were cancelled because there were routinely waits of over three months between issues. At the beginning it was a lot more successful than even VEI has been. Solar #1 had a whopping 20K sales if memory serves me right.

EDIT: *SQUEE*, I wrote "sails" instead of "sales"

A print run of less than half VEI's corresponding first issue, X-O Manowar 1.

[BugsySig]

I agree with you here, but in terms of sales, I seem to recall the Dark Horse line charting numbers not too far off from where VEI is (per issue) now?

I'm not 100% on that, and don't know where to find these numbers. Hoping someone else can chime in.

Doctor Solar, Man of the Atom ended after issue 8 with sales in the 6-7K range, whereas VEI has books going over a year with sales in the 10-12K range. for some of the books, that's about twice as much.

That was largely because they completely failed to keep any sort of regular schedule going; fans gave up on the books and assumed they were cancelled because there were routinely waits of over three months between issues. At the beginning it was a lot more successful than even VEI has been. Solar #1 had a whopping 20K sales if memory serves me right.

EDIT: *SQUEE*, I wrote "sails" instead of "sales"

Every one of VALIANTs first 5 titles sold over 20k. XO was the first of the launch (as was Solar for Dark Key I believe) and sold 46k.

[mateo107]

At the beginning it was a lot more successful than even VEI has been. Solar #1 had a whopping 20K sales if memory serves me right.

Dark Key's Solar #1 sold 22K
VEI's X-O Manowar #1 sold 42K

again, that's about twice as much. I wouldn't expect Dynamite's Solar to start out much better than that, but it may last a year or two if they avoid delays. but I think the only way a Solar #1 would sell better than X-O Manowar #1 is if VEI were publishing it.

[NapoleonBlownapart]

Whoops, guess I incorrectly assumed that VEI's sales where always at 10-12K.

At any rate, I stand by my point that the Gold Key heroes are capable of competing with the Valiant characters. Not having Jim Shooter on board like they did during the Dark Horse revival might complicate that, but the fanbase is definitely there.

[Captain Craig]

http://www.comicbookresources.com/?page ... e&id=48387

Have You guys seen this.Together the images show the question "What is the key?"

So what i understand is

Greg Pak On Turok
Fred Van Lente on Magnus
Frank Barbiere on Solar
Mark Waid on Doctor Spektor.

I'm a fan of comics and several different companies interconnected universes.
I don't begrudge Dynamite for being the next company to try their hand at the GK characters. Valiant did it in the 90, DH a few years back so why not Dynamite?

I honestly have never been the biggest Solar or Magnus fan, but Turok? I'm also very intrigued on Spektor as I don't think he's been in print since the GK days. I have the 3 hardcovers put out a few years ago collecting them and Waid writing it, sold.

I'll try the first arc of each though.

That said, should VEI ever fully acquire the rights to the GK3, locking them down as VALIANT characters I'd welcome them back into the fold whenever that might be.

[Aomalle27]

I'm geeked to be getting another Turok series. Loved VH1 take, especially with the robo enhanced Dino's. the new Magnus looks like it has promise too. As long as they don't make too many titles ( hoping for just 5, the 4 announced and a mighty Samson too). Won't abandon my VEI though, and am definitely looking forward to VEI's expansion plans ( rai can't come soon enough).

[mateo107]

I have the 3 hardcovers put out a few years ago collecting them

your mission, if you choose to accept it, is to find the elusive 4th volume.

[betterthanezra]

I'll go on the record and say that I will NOT be supporting Dynamite at all in this. i expect Dinesh and VEI to crush them... This will do one thing for VEI. Motivate the *SQUEE* out of the company and make them that much stronger...

-Brian

[Carson]

I'll go on the record and say that I will NOT be supporting Dynamite at all in this. i expect Dinesh and VEI to crush them... This will do one thing for VEI. Motivate the *SQUEE* out of the company and make them that much stronger...

-Brian

+1

[ShadowTuga]

I'll go on the record and say that I will NOT be supporting Dynamite at all in this. i expect Dinesh and VEI to crush them... This will do one thing for VEI. Motivate the *SQUEE* out of the company and make them that much stronger...

-Brian

+1

+100. What is this Dynamite thing? Is he/she a new member of H.A.R.D. Corps?

[hawkeyeps]

I predict it will be a decent roll out then quickly die off due to inconsistencies with creators and the inability to get a monthly book out much as it was with Dark Horse.

Nothing is worse than waiting 3 months for a book only to have a decline in quality.

To put books out on time like Valiant takes a lot of drive and commitment and don't know that there is another publisher like them including the big 2 that can do that.

I think that is key (no pun intended) to a new launch being successful in the long run.

The same thing happened with Image back in the day, strong launch only to lead to sputtering failures due to an inability to get books out.

Dynamite needs to have a strong Editor like Warren and a cool CEO like Dinesh to compete and I'm pretty sure they don't have at least half of that equation.

We'll see what happens but if Valiant fans don't take to it the remaining market for the GK books will be a pretty tiny slice. It's going to be tough for Dynamite to pay for all the quality talent if the books don't sell especially with the licensing fees on top.

Ideally it will be a giant fail once again and and the owners of the IPs will realize Valiant is the only company that can do something with them and they just sell them flat out to VEI (at fire sale prices ).

If VEI can not own them out right then they are more trouble than they are worth and I hope VEI wouldn't get in to a licensing deal, it would hamper the current universe and business plans down the line.

[AnthonyF]

Ideally it will be a giant fail once again and and the owners of the IPs will realize Valiant is the only company that can do something with them and they just sell them flat out to VEI (at fire sale prices ).

But, that ship has probably sailed.

[Aomalle27]

Makes me wonder what the interest really is on the part of Dynamite. After seeing the lackluster sales with the failed Dark Horse relaunch (and that was with JS at the helm), you would think most companies would be a bit hesitant to try the same.

There is a much more engaged Valiant fan base now

VEI established strong sales for well over a year now ... a lot of old Valiant fans have re-entered the comic market place and many are clamoring for a GK3 revival(you see it all the time on the Valiant FB page).

With the big marketing push VEI has put together for Unity and Futureverse .... Dynamite picked a good time to revive the GK3. Add 2 VEI writers and Mark Waid to the mix and you can't help but take notice.

Just look at all the discussion and threads that have popped up about this as further proof ... They have the attention of an engaged VEI fanbase - I'm not sure Darkhorse had that.

Just to be fair, because I did kind of come down on Dynamite, and I'm not speaking to what may have been VALIANT's objectives starting out or even now - and I'm a huge fan of 90% of what has been put out and buy everything they put out digitally - the sales numbers, just from the outside looking in, are not strong. It's actually got me a little worried if something multimedia doesn't happen soon, though obviously I don't know the nature of their investment/investors.

I'm pretty sure there's not a VALIANT title in the top 100, and they mostly just squeeze into the top 200.

If you look at the sales numbers from Diamond, VEI has 5 titles in the top 10 for Small print publishers. Not too shabby.
And you can also go to Comicchron for sales figures, and pretty much all the titles are north of 10k, except A&A which is lagging at about 9K (this was puzzling to me, since I consider A&A to be the strongest VEI title overall in terms of Art, writing, and storytelling,
Not sure why more VEI fans aren't reading this, they should be in the 15K range)
But you also have to remember that VEI sells retail for 3.99 an issue as opposed to the 2.50-2.99 range for most other titles out there on the racks, bigger per issue take for VEI as opposed to other publishers, meaning 10K sales range compares to 15kish sales range for most other publishers. Plus there's the TPB business and the digital, although I've never seen numbers on either of these, and not sure how strong digital sales of comics are industry wide. Maybe for the younger generation, but for us older guys, the feel of print on paper is still the preferred method of comic delivery. Assuming a 40% return on sales, and 70,000 units selling per month (profit assumition)
this comes to 112,000 per month before expenses, and 1,344,000 per annum. So I'm not really in panic mode. Actually with Unity debuting in November, and the futureverse debuting early next year, I expect these figures to really pop. Won't be surprised to see Unity sell somewhere in the 60 K range, what with the wealth of variants. And of course once word of a RAI title being released pops (fingers crossed this happens) these sales figures will climb to the 16K-19K monthly range per title, and the low water tiwill probably sell in the 12K-14K range.