DMG Decision Making Ability

[FormerReader]

This is a general question as to what others thought DMG was thinking in removing Dinesh and the rest of the staff at Valiant. I still can’t grasp what the reasoning would be to remove your greatest spokesman and the team that had shown consistency since day one. Sales have fallen dramatically since that point and the company I would assume is losing money. The quality in my opinion and in the opinion of others on this board, has fallen, in some cases dramatically, Bloodshot is the worst offender.

The most recognized assests that DMG paid for are no longer used, instead being replaced by a bunch of secondary characters.

So what did DMG have to gain by removing the core team that built Valiant? Was it cost cutting? If your revenue plummets, which it has, this seems to be a bad business decision. If it was to take the company if a different direction to reach a wider audience, that has failed and it would seem to me that you would want to keep people in place who built the company and knew the characters.

It almost seems to me that the publishing side of the house is being allowed to languish and it is only kept around for the IP.

Thoughts? Am I missing something?

[nonplayer]

This is a general question as to what others thought DMG was thinking in removing Dinesh and the rest of the staff at Valiant. I still can’t grasp what the reasoning would be to remove your greatest spokesman and the team that had shown consistency since day one. Sales have fallen dramatically since that point and the company I would assume is losing money. The quality in my opinion and in the opinion of others on this board, has fallen, in some cases dramatically, Bloodshot is the worst offender.

The most recognized assests that DMG paid for are no longer used, instead being replaced by a bunch of secondary characters.

So what did DMG have to gain by removing the core team that built Valiant? Was it cost cutting? If your revenue plummets, which it has, this seems to be a bad business decision. If it was to take the company if a different direction to reach a wider audience, that has failed and it would seem to me that you would want to keep people in place who built the company and knew the characters.

It almost seems to me that the publishing side of the house is being allowed to languish and it is only kept around for the IP.

Thoughts? Am I missing something?

Its the same as buying a house and unfortunately the current tennants need to go. To meny
Cooks in the kitchen.
The take over was also a betrayal of trust.
Im glad they removed Dinesh he doent need to be on a sinking ship.

[IMJ]

Thoughts? Am I missing something?

Its the same as buying a house and unfortunately the current tennants need to go. To meny
Cooks in the kitchen.

Yup, it really is that simple.

If you by a piece of property from someone but let them linger then their force of control doesn't transfer to you. This is magnified when large groups of people are involved as well. You don't want dissent within your new investment, and even though all of the old people promise to work with [and for] you cheerfully, it just never happens. So you get rid of any archetype representing "the old control' in order to exert your own.

I've never met Dinesh, but given what I've read about his maneuvering to buy the IP's, and saw him build over the years, then I'd say that he is also a smart enough guy to understand these paradigms when the company was changing hands. Gonna have to get over it and not come back to this topic regularly. If we are going to complain, I'd rather ramble on about how Valiant jumped the shark when they became a yuppie mini-series publishers with outlier IP's.

[Jrosen]

I disagree that everything has been bad. HW2 and Bloodshot were terrible, and Psi-Lords isn't showing much promise. However, I really enjoyed Fallen World, Punk Mambo, LDOTH, Incursion, and Forgotten Queen. Livewire has been meh, but not terrible. And some of the stuff at the end of Denesh could have been better...renegades, Adventures of A&A....

[DirtbagSailor]

Not everything is bad. There have been strong moments.

However, VEI is a lot more hit/miss today than it was under Dinesh.

[FormerReader]

I haven’t said everything is bad. I have said the quality is worse and sales are worse. If you are doing something that produces negative results you don’t keep doing what you’re doing if you plan to be successful. That is the part I find confusing. You had a team in place who was successful. You buy the company, but have no experience running a comic book company and you remove all your subject matter experts?

[nycjadie]

Not everyone was ousted. There are key employees still there. I think it’s clear that the takeover rankled some employees more than others. Some people, when they see something that is *SQUEE* up, point it out, and say so. Others are fine looking the other way. Thing is, if all the fixers go, then you are left with those that don’t care as much, and the end result is a team that is less happy, less invested.

Me, I’m a fixer.

[TheFerg714]

I get the corporate rationale that others have explained throughout this thread, but honestly, it still baffles me. It's not like Valiant was some huge success, but they had legitimate promise that could have been huge. Maybe it's still possible, but now that Harbinger and Bloodshot have been separated in the movies, I can't really imagine Valiant going anywhere but down at this point.

Like OP said, Dinesh and co might have had their misfires, but all in all, they were making incredible comics. It's *SQUEE* insane that we got ~6 years of consistently HIGH quality from the majority of VEI's monthly output. DC can't do that. Marvel isn't even attempting to do that, and every other superhero universe dies within a couple years.

There are STILL people asking for reading orders and how to jump into the universe ALL OVER THE INTERNET. Just imagine where Valiant would be if DMG decided to throw a bunch of money at Dinesh, rather than finding a sneaky way to kick him out. With the right amount of funding, Valiant post-HW2 (back when it had potential) could have absolutely jumped onto the scene in a major way. I can't help but imagine the next publishing initiative that included huge names writing and drawing Livewire, X-O, and Bloodshot, and seeing Eric Heisserer take over Harbinger or just continue with Secret Weapons. There was also apparently talk of a Gold Key crossover which could have been huge for the company.

It's all just so frustrating. This could have gone a different way, but one or two *SQUEE* with money got involved, and destroyed everything that passionate people had been building for years.