What can I learn from Dinesh suffering a hostile takeover?

[Oxmyx]

What could Dinesh have done differently to have not suffered the loss of his company?

I mean, we are assuming he had to have investors, no matter what.

[ManofTheAtom]

Find alternate investors with whom to offer his own bid?

The part that irks me is knowing that Netflix was interested until Mark Millar soured them on it.

[RyanMcLelland]

Basically get in with other money people who were serious about the comic game.

[DJMoonChild]

Maybe since the same thing happened to Jim Shooter he should have made any investors sign a contract declaring they could never do that this time, in specific legal terms, of course.

[Oxmyx]

Basically get in with other money people who were serious about the comic game.

Yes, Dinesh's first mistake was not being born insanely wealthy. Come to think of it, I made that miscalculation myself.

But seriously my question is not to criticize Dinesh. He was the victim of some bad dudes. I am just curious how it could have been prevented

[syzhang28]

Was there a mistake in the first place? We assume that there was a way to accomplish everything he accomplished and not get pushed out but I don't think that's true. Lets look at what was accomplished

He brought Valiant back
He maintained the core feel and ideas
It was a sales success
It was a critical success
It won awards
He grew it bigger every year
He grew sales every year
Critical acclaim never left
He kept winning awards
He added new marketing ideas that are now standard Valiant ideas
He integrated the best VH2 ideas
He expanded the existing characters with new supporting characters and new ideas
He added new characters and ideas
He pushed into new merchandise territory
He got a bunch of a-level Hollywood talent to pay attention
He got a movie made
He did this for longer than VH1 lasted.
And he built it strong enough that even though evil people bought it and make terrible comics its still going for at least another 8 years later and counting.

That's a huge list. Pre-2012, any Valiant fan would say that accomplishing that list is impossible. Maybe it took getting killed to make it happen?

[syzhang28]

double post

[Rai-fan]

Excellent post - and spot on.

I remember buying the first Valiant relaunch books back in 2012.

And I would have bet $1,000 - right then and there, that there was *no way* the new Valiant line would outlast (in years, let alone output) VH1.

Seriously - VH 1 lasted from what, 1991-1996 - but for most of us, it was summer 1992 to summer 1994 (post market crash when the speculators had left). Me?

My first book was Magnus # 12, and I left at Chaos Effect.

I still have a near-complete set (I think I'm short 16 books of VH1, nearly all of them minor golds like Deathmate, Shadowman or Bloodshot).

But what Dinesh did was not only improbable but borderline impossible.

Neer forget that Jim Shooter himself tried (and failed) to relaunch Valiant twice - first, with Unity 2000; and again with his Dark Key Magnus / Solar / Turok books.

Dinesh deserves all the kudos.

[Ryan]

If the VEI books were actually as good as a few of the hardcores on here think, they would have had a much bigger impact. People would actually still be re-reading them today and there would be more Valiant fans left.

I think they were very successful for a certain type of reader, but removed from the hype of the moment they lacked the depth and re-readability that made Vh1 a cult classic.

The length of time that something lasted does not always equate to the amount of impact that it had.

[RyanMcLelland]

Excellent post - and spot on.

I remember buying the first Valiant relaunch books back in 2012.

And I would have bet $1,000 - right then and there, that there was *no way* the new Valiant line would outlast (in years, let alone output) VH1.

Seriously - VH 1 lasted from what, 1991-1996 - but for most of us, it was summer 1992 to summer 1994 (post market crash when the speculators had left). Me?

My first book was Magnus # 12, and I left at Chaos Effect.

I still have a near-complete set (I think I'm short 16 books of VH1, nearly all of them minor golds like Deathmate, Shadowman or Bloodshot).

But what Dinesh did was not only improbable but borderline impossible.

Neer forget that Jim Shooter himself tried (and failed) to relaunch Valiant twice - first, with Unity 2000; and again with his Dark Key Magnus / Solar / Turok books.

Dinesh deserves all the kudos.

Well… three times really.

[GammaJosh]

I'm still holding out hope that Valiant will be spun off from DMG at some point and someone who cares about comics will be able to buy it. We all know DMG doesn't give a *SQUEE*. With the MCU already on the downturn, if Superman tanks this month you have to wonder if DMG will reevaluate their position. With no serious licensing income from the IP currently, and no good future prospects, cashing out might be the best option.

On the other hand if Valiant does go up for sale again it probably still runs the risk of being purchased by Marvel/Disney just to be buried with the Ultraverse.

Still...a fella can dare to dream, right?

[GammaJosh]

If the VEI books were actually as good as a few of the hardcores on here think, they would have had a much bigger impact. People would actually still be re-reading them today and there would be more Valiant fans left.

I think they were very successful for a certain type of reader, but removed from the hype of the moment they lacked the depth and re-readability that made Vh1 a cult classic.

The length of time that something lasted does not always equate to the amount of impact that it had.

I think this discounts the fact that people were reading VH1 as *children* and *that's* a huge reason why they connected with the material and want to continue being fans and re-reading it to this day. People don't connect with things the same way when they're older. VEI books are not on an even playing field with VH1 in that respect.

[The Chosen 1]

I'm still holding out hope that Valiant will be spun off from DMG at some point and someone who cares about comics will be able to buy it. We all know DMG doesn't give a *SQUEE*. With the MCU already on the downturn, if Superman tanks this month you have to wonder if DMG will reevaluate their position. With no serious licensing income from the IP currently, and no good future prospects, cashing out might be the best option.

On the other hand if Valiant does go up for sale again it probably still runs the risk of being purchased by Marvel/Disney just to be buried with the Ultraverse.

Still...a fella can dare to dream, right?

Who knows what DMG's long game is. There doesn't seem to be a plan to make Valiant movies, and superhero movies don't seem to have audience numbers as they did 10 years ago. DCU might re-energise audiences and hopefully this may help get some Valiant movies made, or even a TV series. Otherwise, this whole DMG takeover has been for nothing.

[syzhang28]

this whole DMG takeover has been for nothing.

Just being funny here but fixed your post for you

Serious note, DMG are proof positive that you can be a real, heavily funded company but without vision, innovation, intelligence and work ethic even a kid from a message board can out run you. Dinesh is a billion dollar asset waiting to be unleashed for DMG, if they just got out of their own way and hired him (for whatever it costs) Valiant would be a major player again. Imagine if Dinesh took the Planet Death team and put it into X-O Manowar. Or Mike Carey was writing Shadowman instead of CulDeSac etc.