Valiant's Influence
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Todd Luck
- Doomed to forever roam the black halls
- Posts: 4729
- Joined: Fri Jun 04, 2004 1:02 pm
- Location: Winston-Salem, NC
Valiant's Influence
I was just thinking about how many staples and innovations at Valiant became common place through out the industry. Valiant wasn't the first company to do all of these but it was the first company I know of to become popular doing them. Valiant didn't nessecarily make all of these popular but the fact that these things became popular, does show that the industry has gone in a "Valiant direction".
SHORT TERM INFLUENCE (common while Valiant was up but it's effect has since faded)
The book-end cossover format (practically a requirement for any new line of comics back then)
Advertising how low or limited your print runs are
Chromium and black embossed covers
The creation of new unified, story-driven superhero universes (still happens today but far less common)
LONG TERM INFLUENCE (that we're seeing today)
Zero issues (comic numbering has never been the same
)
The use of "real science" in a comic as a sales point (did anyone see the DC editorals promoting Final Night?)
Bringing "reality" into a comic, not by being "gritty", but by making the characters act and dress like humans, and by making the world around them more real.
Putting more depth and substance into stories.
Realist art is now a popular and "hot" art style.
Limited edition variant comics are now very common.
Experimentation in the formats of the "universe wide" crossovers by DC and Marvel.
Being able to portray violence more graphically and touch on controversial topics on a normal basis in a mainstream series.
COINCIDENCE OR POSSIBLE INFLUENCES OUTSIDE THE COMIC INDUSTRY (these are things I noticed Valiant do first and then were done everywhere else after that, which could be coincidence)
The Valiant Vision process (which has been widely used outside the comic industry after Valiant used it; hell I still use the "3-D glasses" I got in Nintendo Power to look at my VV stuff!)
Many, many shows and movies portraying superheroes and similar material in a world governed by real science and with a cynical public that doesn't believe that such fantasic things could exist.
SHORT TERM INFLUENCE (common while Valiant was up but it's effect has since faded)
The book-end cossover format (practically a requirement for any new line of comics back then)
Advertising how low or limited your print runs are
Chromium and black embossed covers
The creation of new unified, story-driven superhero universes (still happens today but far less common)
LONG TERM INFLUENCE (that we're seeing today)
Zero issues (comic numbering has never been the same
)The use of "real science" in a comic as a sales point (did anyone see the DC editorals promoting Final Night?)
Bringing "reality" into a comic, not by being "gritty", but by making the characters act and dress like humans, and by making the world around them more real.
Putting more depth and substance into stories.
Realist art is now a popular and "hot" art style.
Limited edition variant comics are now very common.
Experimentation in the formats of the "universe wide" crossovers by DC and Marvel.
Being able to portray violence more graphically and touch on controversial topics on a normal basis in a mainstream series.
COINCIDENCE OR POSSIBLE INFLUENCES OUTSIDE THE COMIC INDUSTRY (these are things I noticed Valiant do first and then were done everywhere else after that, which could be coincidence)
The Valiant Vision process (which has been widely used outside the comic industry after Valiant used it; hell I still use the "3-D glasses" I got in Nintendo Power to look at my VV stuff!)
Many, many shows and movies portraying superheroes and similar material in a world governed by real science and with a cynical public that doesn't believe that such fantasic things could exist.