VALIANT Firsts Revealed! Holy *SQUEE*

[hunter_peterson]

Two things:

It's been stated that Armour Hunters is an 18-part event, so I think that some people's prediction lists of what books will feature as part of it are most likely correct. The Bloodshot and Harbinger 'Armour Hunters' books aren't going to be one-shots, they're going to be four-part runs like we saw in Harbinger Wars.

Secondly, everyone keeps talking about titles resuming their regular numbering after Armour Hunters/Valiant Firsts/miniseries 'event's: What makes everyone so sure that'll happen? It doesn't seem to have occurred to anybody that this might not be the case for every comic What are the chances that we might see (for example) a new run of Archer and Armstrong or Bloodshot that restart as new issue #1s after the event? Marvel do it all the time as part of keeping their sales model (seemingly) fresh, so why won't Valiant? It'd make a lot of sense in keeping with the Valiant Firsts scheme, in that restarting books from #1 again would extend the window of opportunity for new readers to jump onboard, therefore building the readership further.

My main reason for why they won't is pretty simple: Valiant is a young company. They will want to have ongoings with high issue numbers so that they can proclaim their staying power as loudly as possible. If you see XO 75, you know that the character has staying power.

Also, people aren't necessarily turned off by large runs. See how well Invincible and Walking Dead do in spite of that, even before the show. You just need to provide good jumping on points and well-thought-out trades. Plus Valiant has the best recap pages in the business, so anyone can pick up any Valiant book and get what is happening. And if they feel they want the earlier issues, that's a positive, not a negative.

[SJS4]

Also, people aren't necessarily turned off by large runs. See how well Invincible and Walking Dead do in spite of that, even before the show. You just need to provide good jumping on points and well-thought-out trades. Plus Valiant has the best recap pages in the business, so anyone can pick up any Valiant book and get what is happening. And if they feel they want the earlier issues, that's a positive, not a negative.

Probably my favorite non-Valiant comic is BPRD. For the longest time they numbered their issues, on the outside, as a series of mini-series. However, at the same time they kept and internal number system (on the inside front cover where all the legal mumbo jumbo is located) that was continuous. This gave clear "jumping on" points for new readers.

Recently Dark Horse (or whoever makes decisions about Mignola's book) decided to go with and external number system that matched the internal number system. They are now well over 100 issues. I thought this was a pretty interesting marketing strategy. Definitely going against the grain of the big two.

Personally i liked the "series of mini series" format, because even though there were occasionally breaks between the mini's, the creative teams on each mini series were very consistent, which made each story arc feel more like a coherent story. And as a reader i knew the internal numbering was there as well, and they never felt the need to "reboot" anything in that continuity.

[xodacia81]

Also, people aren't necessarily turned off by large runs. See how well Invincible and Walking Dead do in spite of that, even before the show. You just need to provide good jumping on points and well-thought-out trades. Plus Valiant has the best recap pages in the business, so anyone can pick up any Valiant book and get what is happening. And if they feel they want the earlier issues, that's a positive, not a negative.

Probably my favorite non-Valiant comic is BPRD. For the longest time they numbered their issues, on the outside, as a series of mini-series. However, at the same time they kept and internal number system (on the inside front cover where all the legal mumbo jumbo is located) that was continuous. This gave clear "jumping on" points for new readers.

Recently Dark Horse (or whoever makes decisions about Mignola's book) decided to go with and external number system that matched the internal number system. They are now well over 100 issues. I thought this was a pretty interesting marketing strategy. Definitely going against the grain of the big two.

Personally i liked the "series of mini series" format, because even though there were occasionally breaks between the mini's, the creative teams on each mini series were very consistent, which made each story arc feel more like a coherent story. And as a reader i knew the internal numbering was there as well, and they never felt the need to "reboot" anything in that continuity.

That was the original plan for Tales of the Jedi.

[ShadowTuga]

Hmmm, anyone noticed the typo on their VALIANT First banner?

"In 2014, there's more reasons then ever to read VALIANT FIRST"

[jmatt]

Hmmm, anyone noticed the typo on their VALIANT First banner?

"In 2014, there's more reasons then ever to read VALIANT FIRST"

I guess editing not being one of them.

[ShadowTuga]

Hmmm, anyone noticed the typo on their VALIANT First banner?

"In 2014, there's more reasons then ever to read VALIANT FIRST"

I guess editing not being one of them.

[Phantom]

My reaction was more like Jedi - I'm a bit worried.
Best wish the best for valiant.

[Ryan]

It seems like a good business plan to me. How many other companies have tried to establish a super hero universe outside of the Big Two? Tons. How many have made it past 5 years? None (I think). Image is still around but definitely not as a character based super hero universe as launched.

Point is what VEI is trying to pull off is extremely difficult especially in the current comics market. It's actually really smart how they're able to create these kind of marketing opportunities to create attention and interest in the market. As fans we should encourage this as a way to continue getting new stories from these characters. Whether it's new #1's or #45's they've already proven they have a high standard of quality and care about these characters, so whatever's going to make it work in the long term needs to be done for the good of all. Oh and Rai looks AMAZING

[Chiclo]

It seems like a good business plan to me. How many other companies have tried to establish a super hero universe outside of the Big Two? Tons. How many have made it past 5 years? None (I think). Image is still around but definitely not as a character based super hero universe as launched.

Would Ninja High School and related titles (Warrior Nun Areala, the Redeemers) count as a superhero universe?

[Shadowman99]

Can I echo the RAI love any louder?!! I sure hope Crain is around for at minimum a year on the book.

It's confirmed that he's drawn the entire first arc at least. I think it's probably reasonable to expect an artist change after that. Bit of a shame really because Crain's my absolute favourite artist at VEI and his vision of 4001 Japan has already amazed me from the preview pages. I'd like for him to stay on the book longer, but I just don't think it'll happen.

[Phoenix8008]

Can I echo the RAI love any louder?!! I sure hope Crain is around for at minimum a year on the book.

It's confirmed that he's drawn the entire first arc at least. I think it's probably reasonable to expect an artist change after that. Bit of a shame really because Crain's my absolute favourite artist at VEI and his vision of 4001 Japan has already amazed me from the preview pages. I'd like for him to stay on the book longer, but I just don't think it'll happen.

+1 to all that. I'd love to see him hang around longer, but doing that level of detail and painting it all must take longer than the normal lead time for comics. Maybe he'll do every other arc or something if we're lucky. Unless they've had him slaving away at this already for a few months to get ahead of the game...

[xodacia81]

Can I echo the RAI love any louder?!! I sure hope Crain is around for at minimum a year on the book.

It's confirmed that he's drawn the entire first arc at least. I think it's probably reasonable to expect an artist change after that. Bit of a shame really because Crain's my absolute favourite artist at VEI and his vision of 4001 Japan has already amazed me from the preview pages. I'd like for him to stay on the book longer, but I just don't think it'll happen.

+1 to all that. I'd love to see him hang around longer, but doing that level of detail and painting it all must take longer than the normal lead time for comics. Maybe he'll do every other arc or something if we're lucky. Unless they've had him slaving away at this already for a few months to get ahead of the game...

I'd be fine with having a fill in for an issue or two and having Crain do 4-6 issue arcs. If that is possible.

[hawkeyeps]

Can I echo the RAI love any louder?!! I sure hope Crain is around for at minimum a year on the book.

It's confirmed that he's drawn the entire first arc at least. I think it's probably reasonable to expect an artist change after that. Bit of a shame really because Crain's my absolute favourite artist at VEI and his vision of 4001 Japan has already amazed me from the preview pages. I'd like for him to stay on the book longer, but I just don't think it'll happen.

+1 to all that. I'd love to see him hang around longer, but doing that level of detail and painting it all must take longer than the normal lead time for comics. Maybe he'll do every other arc or something if we're lucky. Unless they've had him slaving away at this already for a few months to get ahead of the game...

I'd be fine with having a fill in for an issue or two and having Crain do 4-6 issue arcs. If that is possible.

I think I could handle Mico Suayan doing a few issues, that wouldn't upset me too much

[xodacia81]

Can I echo the RAI love any louder?!! I sure hope Crain is around for at minimum a year on the book.

It's confirmed that he's drawn the entire first arc at least. I think it's probably reasonable to expect an artist change after that. Bit of a shame really because Crain's my absolute favourite artist at VEI and his vision of 4001 Japan has already amazed me from the preview pages. I'd like for him to stay on the book longer, but I just don't think it'll happen.

+1 to all that. I'd love to see him hang around longer, but doing that level of detail and painting it all must take longer than the normal lead time for comics. Maybe he'll do every other arc or something if we're lucky. Unless they've had him slaving away at this already for a few months to get ahead of the game...

I'd be fine with having a fill in for an issue or two and having Crain do 4-6 issue arcs. If that is possible.

I think I could handle Mico Suayan doing a few issues, that wouldn't upset me too much

How about a rotation of Crain and Darrow?

[Donovan]

A Darrow drawn Valiant issue would actually be the first one I would skip.

[xodacia81]

A Darrow drawn Valiant issue would actually be the first one I would skip.

Not a fan of his style?

[Donovan]

A Darrow drawn Valiant issue would actually be the first one I would skip.

Not a fan of his style?

I respect the level of detail, but for me there's too much and I find it to be too distracting rather than serving the story.

The near continuous gore gets desensitizing after a while, imo.

He'd be great at drawing really violent Where's Waldo books, though!

Would love to see Marcos Martin do a take on an issue, however!

[xodacia81]

If you want a simple style, how about Javier Saltares?

[kjjohanson]

Can I echo the RAI love any louder?!! I sure hope Crain is around for at minimum a year on the book.

It's confirmed that he's drawn the entire first arc at least. I think it's probably reasonable to expect an artist change after that. Bit of a shame really because Crain's my absolute favourite artist at VEI and his vision of 4001 Japan has already amazed me from the preview pages. I'd like for him to stay on the book longer, but I just don't think it'll happen.

Assuming that Crain can't handle the monthly deadline to do every issue, I'd love to see him and Nord (using the style of X-O #19) alternate arcs.

[kjjohanson]

The biggest question for #1's is how many new readers does a #1 bring in vs. how many existing readers does it alienate, and potentially lose. From personal experience, when the VH1 line was relaunched under the Acclaim banner, I dropped all the titles. Not sure how many other readers that applies to, but looking at the VH1 sales numbers vs. the Acclaim numbers, it had to be significant. You have to throw in the decline of the speculatin era as well, so the numbers might not be that significant. Would be interesting to see some polling data on percentage of readers that Acclaim attracted that hadn't read the previous VH1 stuff, vs percentage of VH1 fans that never read any of the Acclaim stuff.

They should have every issue be #1 and just increase the volume number by 1.

[Shadowman99]

Can I echo the RAI love any louder?!! I sure hope Crain is around for at minimum a year on the book.

It's confirmed that he's drawn the entire first arc at least. I think it's probably reasonable to expect an artist change after that. Bit of a shame really because Crain's my absolute favourite artist at VEI and his vision of 4001 Japan has already amazed me from the preview pages. I'd like for him to stay on the book longer, but I just don't think it'll happen.

Assuming that Crain can't handle the monthly deadline to do every issue, I'd love to see him and Nord (using the style of X-O #19) alternate arcs.

I wouldn't be surprised if Crain refuses to sacrifice quality for the sake of meeting a deadline that that he knows he can't meet with his usual standard. From what I've seen of his work in Valiant so far he's most often utilised for drawing covers and short sequences within comics primarily illustrated by other artists. That's my perspective anyway.

At a guess ('cos obviously we can't know this without asking the man himself) I reckon that he was given a long lead time for creating the pages of this arc so that the comic makes a strong impression when it hits the shelves. As I said, I think his work is always amazing so I'm not putting him down here, but I don't think he can maintain this quality given regular working timeframes.

[lorddunlow]

They should have every issue be #1 and just increase the volume number by 1.

Can I echo the RAI love any louder?!! I sure hope Crain is around for at minimum a year on the book.

It's confirmed that he's drawn the entire first arc at least. I think it's probably reasonable to expect an artist change after that. Bit of a shame really because Crain's my absolute favourite artist at VEI and his vision of 4001 Japan has already amazed me from the preview pages. I'd like for him to stay on the book longer, but I just don't think it'll happen.

Assuming that Crain can't handle the monthly deadline to do every issue, I'd love to see him and Nord (using the style of X-O #19) alternate arcs.

Big ol' +1 to that!

[Manaf82]

[Manaf82]

Can I echo the RAI love any louder?!! I sure hope Crain is around for at minimum a year on the book.

It's confirmed that he's drawn the entire first arc at least. I think it's probably reasonable to expect an artist change after that. Bit of a shame really because Crain's my absolute favourite artist at VEI and his vision of 4001 Japan has already amazed me from the preview pages. I'd like for him to stay on the book longer, but I just don't think it'll happen.

Assuming that Crain can't handle the monthly deadline to do every issue, I'd love to see him and Nord (using the style of X-O #19) alternate arcs.

They should have every issue be #1 and just increase the volume number by 1.

Can I echo the RAI love any louder?!! I sure hope Crain is around for at minimum a year on the book.

It's confirmed that he's drawn the entire first arc at least. I think it's probably reasonable to expect an artist change after that. Bit of a shame really because Crain's my absolute favourite artist at VEI and his vision of 4001 Japan has already amazed me from the preview pages. I'd like for him to stay on the book longer, but I just don't think it'll happen.

Assuming that Crain can't handle the monthly deadline to do every issue, I'd love to see him and Nord (using the style of X-O #19) alternate arcs.

But that would be very much in opposition to their art styles as that art style Cary Nord utilised focuses on the character and sacrifices the background images.At least that is how it was in the X-O issue he did.Most of it had a white background.It's like what Jae Lee does on his art.If he can also expand the background images it would be perfect.
Since Clayton Crain draws digitally I thought he would be a very fast artist..

[leonmallett]

I am sure there are some sound decisions behind the strategy, and I am not going to suggest VEI are wrong on that front, but simply even as a reader of the line of 2 years this feels like I may need a road-map and just feels messy. Magnify that somewhat for *some* new readers who may be possibly confused by the plethora of 'titles' across the still-young line.