My Valiant Story...
Moderators: Daniel Jackson, greg
My Valiant Story...
My Valiant story doesn't begin in the early 90s. Around that time I was just getting into comics, and while I saw Valiant's titles on the racks, the coloring and art looked so different from the books I was buying (IMAGE), that I didn't pick them up.
The first comic I ever bought was Spawn#1, and for the first few years I collected, anything that didn't look like that just didn't work for me.
As I entered the 7th grade, however, my history teacher changed my view of all of that. He taught me not only the history of the US, but also the history of comics. From him I learned about comics going all the way back to the 1930s, and it really expanded my view of comics.
After that I started looking at other books, but at about this same time BIRTHQUAKE happened. The Birthquake books didn't do much for me, and I missed the boat on Valiant. When the Acclaim line came out, I gave it a try, but again...it just didn't work for me.
Years later, I was looking at getting into comics by using a licensed property. I had worked on proposals for 80s cartoon properties that have ultimately been licensed by larger companies, and I was interested in licensing SOLAR because I'd always liked the concept behind him, and I knew the rights were back at Western.
So, I started to do research. I grabbed as much Solar stuff as I could off of Ebay, and immediately fell in love with the entire Valiant Universe. Complications with the Solar rights prevented any licensing at the time (a year or two back), but I now have a decent collection of Solar books, and I have really enjoyed them.
Through Solar I also developed a fondness for X-O, and I have to say that he has become one of my favorite characters in all of comics. I hope that X-O and the rest of Valiant will come back one day, and with Acclaim's recent bankrupcy, maybe it will happen. If someone gets ahold of those properties then perhaps we'll see Valiant rise again.
I wish I hadn't missed out on it the first time, but I'm glad I found it eventually.
The first comic I ever bought was Spawn#1, and for the first few years I collected, anything that didn't look like that just didn't work for me.
As I entered the 7th grade, however, my history teacher changed my view of all of that. He taught me not only the history of the US, but also the history of comics. From him I learned about comics going all the way back to the 1930s, and it really expanded my view of comics.
After that I started looking at other books, but at about this same time BIRTHQUAKE happened. The Birthquake books didn't do much for me, and I missed the boat on Valiant. When the Acclaim line came out, I gave it a try, but again...it just didn't work for me.
Years later, I was looking at getting into comics by using a licensed property. I had worked on proposals for 80s cartoon properties that have ultimately been licensed by larger companies, and I was interested in licensing SOLAR because I'd always liked the concept behind him, and I knew the rights were back at Western.
So, I started to do research. I grabbed as much Solar stuff as I could off of Ebay, and immediately fell in love with the entire Valiant Universe. Complications with the Solar rights prevented any licensing at the time (a year or two back), but I now have a decent collection of Solar books, and I have really enjoyed them.
Through Solar I also developed a fondness for X-O, and I have to say that he has become one of my favorite characters in all of comics. I hope that X-O and the rest of Valiant will come back one day, and with Acclaim's recent bankrupcy, maybe it will happen. If someone gets ahold of those properties then perhaps we'll see Valiant rise again.
I wish I hadn't missed out on it the first time, but I'm glad I found it eventually.