Live Chat With Jim Shooter - Monday August 15th - 8:30PM EST

[iggy101us]

Can you briefly tell the story of how, after Acclaim recieved my "VALIANT: 1999" book that they decided totally out of the blue to make Unity 2000?

What is Valiant:1999?

http://www.valiantfans.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=6023" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

[eschnit]

im devastated man...i waited a long long time, and i thought it was the 18th or 21st..
no one asked the questions i was going to, and i prepared questions for weeks..
im still in the grieving stage...

Idk if the questions you had in mine were answered on it, but there's an interview just done, about 2 hours on YouTube, pretty comprehensive.

[valiantdude]

Yes...I know...I'm still crushed...I'm crushed I missed this....just devastated...I've been a fan since 91, and been on this board since 2002, I was the firest poster...I know stuff that no one knows, or at least ever talks about...
Like.... what was the original ending to unity 1 before Layton rewrote it after Jim left...
I've been compiling questions for over 20 years...
I was out of town...I even checked the board that day and the thread was buried on the second page and I didnt look...I'm so bummed, i might retire from posting...

[Ladakh]

PM sent.

Hours ago...

[Phantom]

Sorry I missed this.
Back to normal soon.
Will read through
Thanks for doing it.

[valiantdude]

KNOB ROW IS THE KING!!!!!! COOLEST GUY EVER IN THE HISTORY OF TIME AND SPACE!!!!!

[Ladakh]

I sent BWS this:

Does $1,000 cash inspire you to give me one day of your life?

He replied:

Thanks, but no. If you are looking for validations of, or counterpoints to, your Jim Shooter Valiant video I suggest you make your cash offer to Bob Layton.

I then forwarded this to Jim and he said:

Not surprising.

Ask Mike Richardson about BWS. And Layton, for that matter.

A related subject: You might want to check out the June 21, 1993 issue of Forbes. They found the VALIANT endgame interesting enough to run an article entitled "How Not to Start a Company: What do you do when your partner says he's sleeping with the venture capitalist who backed your business?"

[vikingspawn]

What did Melanie Okum look like back in the day? I can't imagine her being remotely hot for an investor. And cause all that trouble for Jim and Valiant. Probably in her 60s by now.

[Ladakh]

Well... Massarsky was old, fat and balding... not much of a hot guy but he had money to make/screw Jim over and make...

[Ladakh]

Just got off the phone with Jim and it was the usual 1/2 hour conversation about comics from his point of view.

I told Jim "You can't be a BWS or Layton fan if you're a Jim Shooter fan and he said he signs lots of stuff already signed by Layton.

I would love to get Layton's reaction/impression of all of this.

The most succinct thing is that Layton is an inker... that's what he does... so how is he all of a sudden a writer?

And it was Layton's XO 66-68 which spawned by 1999 book... Layton broke continuity with that trilogy.

[valiantdude]

i think layton was over it at that point...phoning it in..

You know one thing that i would like to know...
Was shooter aware that that valiant properties were up for sale in 05 or 06?
I mean, the guy made something from nothing over and over, and was able to get financing which is hard as hell..
So, 500k seems like peanuts he could've pulled that off easy..
, I wonder if he knew?

[buff-beardo]

I don't know the man, but, I would assume Jim saw the valiant properties for sale and said *SQUEE* that! Lol. Valiant, Defiant, Broadway. You've got to know when to hold'em, know when to fold'em, know when to walk away, and know when to run.

[buff-beardo]

I told Jim "You can't be a BWS or Layton fan if you're a Jim Shooter fan and he said he signs lots of stuff already signed by Layton.

I respectfully disagree Knob. Jim is my favorite writer ever and BWS is up there for me in regards to artist. I am a fan of Stan Lee as well as Jack "The King" Kirby and Steve Ditko. I love both Chris Claremont and John Byrne. I prefer John Lennon over Paul McCartney, but I'll take any Beatles collaborative work over Lennon's solo stuff every time.

[Ladakh]

Well, I agree with your tastes.

[eschnit]

I am a fan od David Lee Roth and Eddie Van Halen, Kobe and Shaq, Shooter, Layton, and Windsor-Smith.

Sometimes conflict can help creativity. Not sure if that was ever the case with them, perhaps not. I watched the whole Shooter interview, or what's out there, would purchase the DVD if one comes along, and have friends who have chatted with Shooter and Layton. Power struggle was our loss. But them coming together at all was our gain. If you can't be a fan of both, or all three, then you can't be a fan of Solar 10 or Rai 0 I guess .

Shooter's perspective seemed to have merit the way he tells it, but I haven't heard the other side.

[Ryan]

Dang sorry I missed this. Great job on the videos guys, really enjoyed it. A couple of questions that come to mind, if Jim should ever happen by this thread again.

1) It's obvious that your comics have a certain style to them (6 panel grids, no breaking panel borders, clarity over style, etc.), so in the VALIANT days was there a list of rules that all the books had to follow, and what were they? Also, this might be the same question, what are the 'Shooter rules for good comic storytelling'? Would love to hear you talk about this, or just write a book about it and I would buy it

2) If you had carte blanche to do any new comic book series, what would it be? Whether existing properties or your own new concepts.

Thanks Jim, Joe and crew!

[jmatt]

We touched on it a little in Parts 3 and 4.

Part 3 (26:44)
The creation of Valiant: business and money talk
Nintendo, WWE and eventually, Valiant
David Lapham (11:33)
The early art crew (14:55)
Let's not be Image (16:32)
BWS (17:25)
More panels, more story (18:10)
The role of Editor-in-Chief (22:20)

Part 4 (27:03)
Tight continuity and editorial coordination

But yeah, I'd love to hear him talk more about it, specifically, guidelines for how issues and arc should wrap, etc.

[Ryan]

We touched on it a little in Parts 3 and 4.

Part 3 (26:44)
The creation of Valiant: business and money talk
Nintendo, WWE and eventually, Valiant
David Lapham (11:33)
The early art crew (14:55)
Let's not be Image (16:32)
BWS (17:25)
More panels, more story (18:10)
The role of Editor-in-Chief (22:20)

Part 4 (27:03)
Tight continuity and editorial coordination

But yeah, I'd love to hear him talk more about it, specifically, guidelines for how issues and arc should wrap, etc.

Definitely. I also just found a page on Jim's blog that collects a bunch of his ideas about storytelling http://storytelling.jimshooter.com/" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false; . But I was curious if there was a specific list of rules that they used at VALIANT. I guess he was writing most of the books at the time, so maybe they didn't need to make a list.

[nonplayer]

I missed this but I have a few questions for him if this ever reaches him.
When he was doing Turok for dark horse was it Jims intention to make Andar a more capable a companion to Turok. And what I mean is in Son of stone Andar was always getting into trouble. He was the one to trip or get hurt and complained alot. One thing that struck me odd and out of sorts was Andar actually saved Turok he said Follow me or something can't quite remember but I do remember being impressed.
I really enjoyed dark horse Turok and I thought he did a good Job wrighting it.
I would also like to thank Jim for doing that comic. I enjoyed it right to the end some said the art was rushed but I was just happy to have a Turok comic in my hand and not this garbage dynamite (Sucks) has made. It's actually a mockery
The pilot guy did he have a back story.
Thanks

[Ladakh]

Dang sorry I missed this. Great job on the videos guys, really enjoyed it. A couple of questions that come to mind, if Jim should ever happen by this thread again.

1) It's obvious that your comics have a certain style to them (6 panel grids, no breaking panel borders, clarity over style, etc.), so in the VALIANT days was there a list of rules that all the books had to follow, and what were they? Also, this might be the same question, what are the 'Shooter rules for good comic storytelling'? Would love to hear you talk about this, or just write a book about it and I would buy it

2) If you had carte blanche to do any new comic book series, what would it be? Whether existing properties or your own new concepts.

Thanks Jim, Joe and crew!

According to Jim from what he told me...

Look at any great comic book story- they're all 6-9 panel pages... that's what you need to do good writing. It's when you let the artists have freedom that one 25 page story turns into a miniseries...

[Ryan]

Dang sorry I missed this. Great job on the videos guys, really enjoyed it. A couple of questions that come to mind, if Jim should ever happen by this thread again.

1) It's obvious that your comics have a certain style to them (6 panel grids, no breaking panel borders, clarity over style, etc.), so in the VALIANT days was there a list of rules that all the books had to follow, and what were they? Also, this might be the same question, what are the 'Shooter rules for good comic storytelling'? Would love to hear you talk about this, or just write a book about it and I would buy it

2) If you had carte blanche to do any new comic book series, what would it be? Whether existing properties or your own new concepts.

Thanks Jim, Joe and crew!

According to Jim from what he told me...

Look at any great comic book story- they're all 6-9 panel pages... that's what you need to do good writing. It's when you let the artists have freedom that one 25 page story turns into a miniseries...

Thanks! Tell Jim we're always looking forward to more comics from him (kickstarter? )