VALIANT SOLD

[StarBrand]

I suspect Dino walks away sitting pretty. He deserves it.

[grendeljd]

Thanks for the tweets, grendeljd! My Twitter expulsion is killing me right now.

Sent from my HTC U Ultra using Tapatalk

Dear god, man - you must be positively twitchy!!!

Is it a permanent ban or temporary?

[lorddunlow]

Thanks for the tweets, grendeljd! My Twitter expulsion is killing me right now.

Sent from my HTC U Ultra using Tapatalk

Dear god, man - you must be positively twitchy!!!

Is it a permanent ban or temporary?

I'm still appealing. Appears to be a permanent ban, but their AI bots in customer service won't tell me what tweets were "threatening violence". I just keep getting form letter responses.

[tell]

One thing - and with all the posts going on folks will miss it - BUT - as a guy who has been packaged out in my career the legal terms generally dictate that you can't say much of anything. Mine indicated I could share details with "my spouse, accountant, and legal counsel" and no one else or I would face legal action from my former company.

So, Dinesh very likely can't say anything and I don't blame him. Just something else to keep in mind as you wonder why he hasn't spoken.

Exactly, I wouldn't ever expect a statement from Dinesh. He probably has a Non-Disclosure Agreement and some sort of gag clause that would prevent him from saying much of anything about VEI from here. That is most likely why he deleted the Shooter quote text, its best not to heap legal/financial trouble on top of his situation.

Also, I predictably agree with Dysart.

[grendeljd]

Thanks for the tweets, grendeljd! My Twitter expulsion is killing me right now.

Sent from my HTC U Ultra using Tapatalk

Dear god, man - you must be positively twitchy!!!

Is it a permanent ban or temporary?

I'm still appealing. Appears to be a permanent ban, but their AI bots in customer service won't tell me what tweets were "threatening violence". I just keep getting form letter responses.

Hmm... messing with AI bot algorithms to get dunlow banned from Twitter, eh?

Sounds like some kind of Canadian Machiavellian plot to me!!!

[pixierosa]

I'm seeing in various places around the net people tossing out that Dinesh being forced out is all due to the clause, but I don't think so.

VEI made a deal with a DMG, an entertainment co, for an influx of cash and name awareness for their non-comic development. VEI didn't need that money to survive - it wasn't a bailout. There is no way that Dinesh would have signed a voluntary agreement that allowed a third party to take over the company if the investment wasn't returned by a fixed date.

Even if they failed to repay, they wouldn't allow DMG to claim so large a share that Dinesh wouldn't be able to maintain steering the ship.

Someone else flipped and gave away their shares. Most unexpectedly for Dinesh, I'm sure. It's pretty easy to figure out by who's left standing that the original investors decided to move on to newer projects. VEI may have been counting on them to either help cover the expense, or in the least, maintain their shares.

I can't help feeling indignant for Dinesh. He was counting on the team backing him up, and they didn't have VEI's interests at heart by giving control to DMG. I keep seeing comments like this was all Dinesh's fault for a poor business choice, when in reality, this seems more like a betrayal.

On a happier note, I did see Matt Kindt post that he has plans for X-O through 50. That would be great to have another long run like that. Fingers crossed.

[nonplayer]

I'm seeing in various places around the net people tossing out that Dinesh being forced out is all due to the clause, but I don't think so.

VEI made a deal with a DMG, an entertainment co, for an influx of cash and name awareness for their non-comic development. VEI didn't need that money to survive - it wasn't a bailout. There is no way that Dinesh would have signed a voluntary agreement that allowed a third party to take over the company if the investment wasn't returned by a fixed date.

Even if they failed to repay, they wouldn't allow DMG to claim so large a share that Dinesh wouldn't be able to maintain steering the ship.

Someone else flipped and gave away their shares. Most unexpectedly for Dinesh, I'm sure. It's pretty easy to figure out by who's left standing that the original investors decided to move on to newer projects. VEI may have been counting on them to either help cover the expense, or in the least, maintain their shares.

I can't help feeling indignant for Dinesh. He was counting on the team backing him up, and they didn't have VEI's interests at heart by giving control to DMG. I keep seeing comments like this was all Dinesh's fault for a poor business choice, when in reality, this seems more like a betrayal.

On a happier note, I did see Matt Kindt post that he has plans for X-O through 50. That would be great to have another long run like that. Fingers crossed.

Unless someone actually makes a starment its all up for individual interprainterpretation.

[pixierosa]

They're not going to be making any official statements - I'm sure there's a legal silence factor at play as there is in any deal of this sort.

[SuperMage]

I'm seeing in various places around the net people tossing out that Dinesh being forced out is all due to the clause, but I don't think so.

VEI made a deal with a DMG, an entertainment co, for an influx of cash and name awareness for their non-comic development. VEI didn't need that money to survive - it wasn't a bailout. There is no way that Dinesh would have signed a voluntary agreement that allowed a third party to take over the company if the investment wasn't returned by a fixed date.

Even if they failed to repay, they wouldn't allow DMG to claim so large a share that Dinesh wouldn't be able to maintain steering the ship.

Someone else flipped and gave away their shares. Most unexpectedly for Dinesh, I'm sure. It's pretty easy to figure out by who's left standing that the original investors decided to move on to newer projects. VEI may have been counting on them to either help cover the expense, or in the least, maintain their shares.

I can't help feeling indignant for Dinesh. He was counting on the team backing him up, and they didn't have VEI's interests at heart by giving control to DMG. I keep seeing comments like this was all Dinesh's fault for a poor business choice, when in reality, this seems more like a betrayal.

On a happier note, I did see Matt Kindt post that he has plans for X-O through 50. That would be great to have another long run like that. Fingers crossed.

The fact that Dinesh quoted Jim Shooter is all the confirmation we need. Based on the information publicly available, it looks like Dinesh simply made a miscalculation with the movie deal.

But the fact that Dinesh compared his situation to Shooter is enough for us to speculate that someone sold additional shares to DMG to allow the buyout to happen. There's no way for sure. We don't know the details of the deal, such as when the deadline for films were. We no way to prove it obviously. We most likely won't know for years. Dinesh's contract will probably keep him silent for years.

Sometimes in these situations they also try to keep the fired staff from simply starting a new company. There might be a clause preventing Dinesh from working for a competitor to Valiant. Maybe that's why he's stuck as a consultant.

[valiantdude]

An interesting, and metaphysical thought to consider, is the unbelievable manifestation power of dinesh.. His ability of having a birthday cake with the valiant symbol as a kid, to being an Uber valiant fan to being the guy running the show, ala shooter..and guiding those characters, that's pretty stellar..
Even though I personally disagree with how the stories and the books played out over time, I'm just one person, and there are many other people with many different opinions, I think he did a great job keeping Valiant alive, when it was literally a dead universe...
But the most interesting thing to consider is in his manifestation of valiant (vei)and being a part of it, which he literally pulled together with the power of his mind, is that unfortunately he also attached the situation where the creative guy is forced out, and a corporate entity takes over...
If you analyze this from a metaphysical perspective, its really crazy!..
Somehow, in his subconscious mind he programmed himself that the Valiant publishing, working experience paradigm , ends with the creative guy getting forced out and the strange entity a corporate entity taking over and thus it manifested...ponder that one!

[BugsySig]

An interesting, and metaphysical thought to consider, is the unbelievable manifestation power of dinesh.. His ability of having a birthday cake with the valiant symbol as a kid, to being an Uber valiant fan to being the guy running the show, ala shooter..and guiding those characters, that's pretty stellar..
Even though I personally disagree with how the stories and the books played out over time, I'm just one person, and there are many other people with many different opinions, I think he did a great job keeping Valiant alive, when it was literally a dead universe...
But the most interesting thing to consider is in his manifestation of valiant (vei)and being a part of it, which he literally pulled together with the power of his mind, is that unfortunately he also attached the situation where the creative guy is forced out, and a corporate entity takes over...
If you analyze this from a metaphysical perspective, its really crazy!..
Somehow, in his subconscious mind he programmed himself that the Valiant publishing, working experience paradigm , ends with the creative guy getting forced out and the strange entity a corporate entity taking over and thus it manifested...ponder that one!

A self-fulfilling prophecy. Interesting. So are we all just doomed to repeat history over and over again like Bill Murray in Groundhog Day? Until one day one of us gets it right?

[paradise]

I suspect Dino walks away sitting pretty. He deserves it.

I will never argue he does not deserve it, but I would bet everything I own right now, my businesses, my house, everything, that if he was given a chance to reverse the course of the last few days, he would not even think for a heartbeat. Sitting pretty is not an accurate description of the man right now. Trust me.

[paradise]

Please read: http://www.valiantfans.com/forum/viewto ... =1&t=51069" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

[lorddunlow]

The thing I'm going to have a hard time with is if VEI becomes a success. I'll be very torn. Dino put in the effort, the blood, sweat, and tears to resurrect this very very dead universe of characters we all love. Then, when at the 11th hour, when success is just where he can taste it - the payoff for him would have been so gratifying (the money would have been great too from all the success). Just to have some vultures who care nothing about the characters aside from how they can be pimped out for cash must be like a family member was killed.

The money Dino got in the buyout will not be much of a comfort if VEI makes millions of dollars from movies in the next few years and Mintz collects all the profits...

Sent from my HTC U Ultra using Tapatalk

[valiantdude]

An interesting, and metaphysical thought to consider, is the unbelievable manifestation power of dinesh.. His ability of having a birthday cake with the valiant symbol as a kid, to being an Uber valiant fan to being the guy running the show, ala shooter..and guiding those characters, that's pretty stellar..
Even though I personally disagree with how the stories and the books played out over time, I'm just one person, and there are many other people with many different opinions, I think he did a great job keeping Valiant alive, when it was literally a dead universe...
But the most interesting thing to consider is in his manifestation of valiant (vei)and being a part of it, which he literally pulled together with the power of his mind, is that unfortunately he also attached the situation where the creative guy is forced out, and a corporate entity takes over...
If you analyze this from a metaphysical perspective, its really crazy!..
Somehow, in his subconscious mind he programmed himself that the Valiant publishing, working experience paradigm , ends with the creative guy getting forced out and the strange entity a corporate entity taking over and thus it manifested...ponder that one!

A self-fulfilling prophecy. Interesting. So are we all just doomed to repeat history over and over again like Bill Murray in Groundhog Day? Until one day one of us gets it right?

or somehow, because he knows the valiant story so well, and the subconscious mind manifests what you experience, he manifested the valiant experience that was in his subconscious...he wanted to be valiant jim shooter, so he got the valiant jim shooter experience,
meshed with the Layton acclaim experience..because that was he valiant experience as well, if youre conscious of the universal laws at play, you could have used one law to cancel out another law, thereby negating what is the expression of the subconscious....he just didn't know what was in his subconscoious, and how things happen in cycles..if he did he could've manuvered around it..

[paradise]

The money Dino got in the buyout will not be much of a comfort if VEI makes millions of dollars from movies in the next few years and Mintz collects all the profits...

I think those who know Dinesh personally would tell you that Dinesh would not give a flying (F) about the money and would be super proud and happy to see those movies do well.

[lorddunlow]

The money Dino got in the buyout will not be much of a comfort if VEI makes millions of dollars from movies in the next few years and Mintz collects all the profits...

I think those who know Dinesh personally would tell you that Dinesh would not give a flying (F) about the money and would be super proud and happy to see those movies do well.

I'm quite sure he would rather be the CEO when VEI becomes a success.

Sent from my HTC U Ultra using Tapatalk

[The Chosen 1]

An interesting, and metaphysical thought to consider, is the unbelievable manifestation power of dinesh.. His ability of having a birthday cake with the valiant symbol as a kid, to being an Uber valiant fan to being the guy running the show, ala shooter..and guiding those characters, that's pretty stellar..
Even though I personally disagree with how the stories and the books played out over time, I'm just one person, and there are many other people with many different opinions, I think he did a great job keeping Valiant alive, when it was literally a dead universe...
But the most interesting thing to consider is in his manifestation of valiant (vei)and being a part of it, which he literally pulled together with the power of his mind, is that unfortunately he also attached the situation where the creative guy is forced out, and a corporate entity takes over...
If you analyze this from a metaphysical perspective, its really crazy!..
Somehow, in his subconscious mind he programmed himself that the Valiant publishing, working experience paradigm , ends with the creative guy getting forced out and the strange entity a corporate entity taking over and thus it manifested...ponder that one!

A self-fulfilling prophecy. Interesting. So are we all just doomed to repeat history over and over again like Bill Murray in Groundhog Day? Until one day one of us gets it right?

More like Battlestar Galactica "All of this has happened before, and all of this will happen again". This is the first thing i though of when i saw Dinesh's tweet.

[TheFerg714]

I'm a little rusty on my Valiant history...

Why did Shooter get forced out? And who took his place?

[paradise]

I keep seeing comments like this was all Dinesh's fault for a poor business choice, when in reality, this seems more like a betrayal.

[Phoenix8008]

I keep seeing comments like this was all Dinesh's fault for a poor business choice, when in reality, this seems more like a betrayal.

Interesting way of saying something without saying anything there, Ed.

[Phoenix8008]

I'm a little rusty on my Valiant history...

Why did Shooter get forced out? And who took his place?

As I recall, the venture(vulture) capitalists that had funded Shooters building of Valiant saw the dollar signs being created after Unity, and wanted to make back their bank plus profit, so with the help of Massarsky, they forced Shooter out because he wanted to keep a tight rein on the number of titles they were producing, fearing the lack of quality if they just gushed out titles.

Here is a good source for more detail.

[jxm640]

I keep seeing comments like this was all Dinesh's fault for a poor business choice, when in reality, this seems more like a betrayal.

Honestly, while I do understand how this can be seen as a betrayal (and definitely is in terms of how this was done [at least from what I can gather here]), the business man in me understands the drive for profit that the other parties have.

While you, fortunately (thanks for sharing what you can), can get one side of the story, there are always three sides to every story.

Those are:
Party One
Party Two
And the Truth

I apologise if this sounds wrong in any way.

Once again, thank you for sharing what you can.

[lorddunlow]

I can totally understand having to have a business mindset. Disney is a perfect example. Walt ran his first animation stuido into the ground and lost rights to his most popular character. When he started again, he let Roy (a banker) run the business while he supplied the ideas. Roy reeled him in when he went to wild, made crucial savvy business decisions, and now we have the juggernaut that is Disney.

This is not that. As pointed out, Shooter was the Disney in this situation. He had failure #1 like Disney. He was not able to pick up the pieces and make a success later. The company died a painful death. Dino was a fan who picked up the pieces and had a dream. He ran with it and had savvy business partners. The lightning in a bottle that spurred Disney's second success didn't come for VEI. It may have, though. We'll never know because Dino wasn't given a chance. There were obviously some mistakes made financially, but a lot of that I'm sure has a lot to do with the nature of the broken comic book market. Getting in bed with DMG was obviously seen as a necessary evil.

The thing that bothers me with DMG isn't' the fact that they are business/profit-focused. It's their track record. All the stuff that Iron Man 3 was criticized for came from DMG/Mintz trying to make the movie "Chinese-friendly". I was worried about this when DMG first invested, and now I'm terrified of what will come from their "ideas". I have nothing personally against the Chinese (and I personally love Chinese action films - they're beautiful and fun), but I'm not Chinese. i'm not thrilled about a company I love changing things to appeal to an audience that isn't me. It would be like if Disney World leadership said, "let's change the park to appeal to rich socialites without kids instead of families". I wouldn't be happy with that and it would likely be a bad decision.

[kinggirlfriend]

I get that everything is a business and profits etc, etc. But they'd be better off investing in property if they're that money hungry. Comics aren't ever going to be a big money maker. Especially a smaller company like Valiant. No one gets into comics for the money. They get into it for the love of the medium.

DMG should be happy that there was a very loyal base that bought almost everything Valiant put out. I feel like that was lost on them. But they've already set a crummy tone and are at risk of putting us all off.

THEY CAN MAKE IT ALL UP BY RELEASING A LEGENDS OF THE GEOMANCER HC COLLECTION RIGHT AWAY!

sorry for shouting.