Alien Books - a slightly inebrated stream of consciousness

[nycjadie]

I'm enjoying the Alien books to some degree, but I'm not sure they understand their fanbase.

First, there are probably 2-3K of us that buy the books on a regular basis, some of us many variants of the same issue. This is who you need to serve.

Their social media presence is in Discord, and that's how they advertise to connect with them.

Discord is one of my clients. I love Discord. Most people of my age do not know what Discord is. I am on Discord and I do not go there to discuss anything, let along comic books. Reddit, FB, etc. Discord? Please. I feel like this every time some young person says with a sneer they don't use MS Word or Paypal. JFC. If you take a credit card, it will be Visa first. If you don't want to take Amex, fine. But don't expect everyone to only be able to pay you using Metamask.

We don't want a reboot, multiverse or another reimagining. Chances are, unless the art and story are legend, then others won't want it as well.
If you create the next Watchmen or Return of the Dark Knight, everyone will read it. Chances are, a remiagining of Bloodshot won't be that. You never know, but even Gotham by Gaslight, which in my view is one of the most successful creatively, did not create a collectable book that transformed a publisher or line. I would like consistent books coming out that build off one another. I don't care about numbering any longer, but damn, can you make me care about a character into the next arc? Daredeveil Born Again is just that. Same with many film adaptations. Story arc in an existing line. We don't want a new origin story. Movie fans apparently agree. Tell us why we care?

Alien Books. Have you tried googling Alien Comics? How can you even find them? It takes work. It's a terrible brand. So bad, that they have no SEO, even in the comics world. It might be, from a distinctiveness perspective, one of the worst existing comic brands. If i bought them, I'd change the name. Nobody will miss it.

They wanted to charge more for an issue and forgo variants early on. I loved the idea. That's out the window. I like it to something inbetween a TPb and a traditional issue. Fans balked, as they will with any change. Still, it lasted a hot minute. I would have liked to see them give it 18 months. It takes so long for fans to commit or move to a new book. Similar to my clients. I have folks that use me that I've been talking with for years and years. You need to ignore the noise and commit for any change to happen. I'm not sure if they were able to do so, but it would have been great if they could and did.

I alphabetize my Valiant collection by publisher, and I've decided the eras are VH1, Acclaim, VEI and Alien. There was a shift in quality and direction under DMG, but in my view it was gradual. There was some continuity between the two. The change at Alien was much more apparent in terms of creator experience and overall storyline. I therefore do not separate DMG from VEI. However, for Alien it's a sharp change.

I know that there are VEI books that were produced when Acclaim owned the company, but they seem more VEI than Acclaim. That obviously was very different with Acclaim's reboot. My organization follows these subtleties.

[Ryan]

All good points.

[SouthernComicGeek]

Good points

[slack]

I know that there are VEI books that were produced when Acclaim owned the company, but they seem more VEI than Acclaim.

What VEI books were produced when Acclaim owned the company?

[nycjadie]

Acclaim acquired Valiant in 1994. The reboot didn’t occur until 1997, really. Existing Valiant lines continued through 1996. So, for example, the ends of the original lines were produced by Acclaim.

[Chiclo]

Acclaim acquired Valiant in 1994. The reboot didn’t occur until 1997, really. Existing Valiant lines continued through 1996. So, for example, the ends of the original lines were produced by Acclaim.

A confusion of terms. Acclaim printed VH1 books. VEI began with the 2012 reboot.

If you want to get reeeaaaalllllyyy technical, VEI did publish a handful of VH1 stories in the 2008 series of hardcovers.

[slack]

Acclaim acquired Valiant in 1994. The reboot didn’t occur until 1997, really. Existing Valiant lines continued through 1996. So, for example, the ends of the original lines were produced by Acclaim.

That did not answer the question.
When did (as you claimed) Acclaim produce VEI universe books?

I recall them producing VH1 and VH2 universe books, but I was under the impression that the VEI universe was created after Acclaim had sold their stake and left the picture.

[ManofTheAtom]

Acclaim acquired Valiant in 1994. The reboot didn’t occur until 1997, really. Existing Valiant lines continued through 1996. So, for example, the ends of the original lines were produced by Acclaim.

That did not answer the question.
When did (as you claimed) Acclaim produce VEI universe books?

I recall them producing VH1 and VH2 universe books, but I was under the impression that the VEI universe was created after Acclaim had sold their stake and left the picture.

Acclaim had nothing to do with VEI at all.

[nycjadie]

Acclaim acquired Valiant in 1994. The reboot didn’t occur until 1997, really. Existing Valiant lines continued through 1996. So, for example, the ends of the original lines were produced by Acclaim.

That did not answer the question.
When did (as you claimed) Acclaim produce VEI universe books?

I recall them producing VH1 and VH2 universe books, but I was under the impression that the VEI universe was created after Acclaim had sold their stake and left the picture.

Acclaim had nothing to do with VEI at all.

I mistyped. That should not have read "VEI", it should have read V1. Sorry to confuse.

[ManofTheAtom]

Acclaim acquired Valiant in 1994. The reboot didn’t occur until 1997, really. Existing Valiant lines continued through 1996. So, for example, the ends of the original lines were produced by Acclaim.

That did not answer the question.
When did (as you claimed) Acclaim produce VEI universe books?

I recall them producing VH1 and VH2 universe books, but I was under the impression that the VEI universe was created after Acclaim had sold their stake and left the picture.

Acclaim had nothing to do with VEI at all.

I mistyped. That should not have read "VEI", it should have read V1. Sorry to confuse.

Okay, in terms of production Acclaim was involved in the last couple of years of VH-1, but VH-2 did not become a thing until they hired Nicieza to replace Layton.

People tend to conflate the fictional continuities of VH-1 and VH-2 with Acclaim's ownership of Voyager Communications. The two are not the same.

[nycjadie]

You can see it in the site’s prove guide. Iron Man v XO is in V1.

[RyanMcLelland]

Alien does post on the Valiant Reddit. I’ve seen them post on there quite a bit. Once in awhile they’ll get snarky with a Redditor which surprises me. The one time I called it out they got snarky with me too. But for the most part they’ll at least post things about the books.

I’m on the mailing list for press releases and I feel those have completely stopped. Maybe they aren’t using Valiant’s list and they have a separate email list that I’m not on for Alien Books. But I’m not sure why they wouldn’t then ask for the emails of the Valiant press releases to help get their word out.

Maybe it’s not a bad thing though. At one point a few years back I swear to god the press releases were being written by a fourth grader.

Discord is a great way to speak with fans but there should be better ways for getting information about your books out there. I’m unfamiliar with what else Alien Books puts out as well. Maybe if you are interested in the All New But Completely Different Harbinger #1 Starring Archer you are then supposed to go look up what else the company has?