Book of Death: Legends of the Geomancer

[wwise03]

Who in the world thought this was a good idea? Let's keep doing our initiatives to bring in new readers by limiting the amount of people that can read our books??

[geocarr]

Did anyone else think about the Buffy episode where she did the mystical thing that allowed to "travel back in time" to meet the first slayer when they read the description or was that just me?

[lorddunlow]

I think this is incredible interesting, fascinating, imaginative, and innovative.

And a terrible idea.

QFT

[BugsySig]

I think this is incredible interesting, fascinating, imaginative, and innovative.

And a terrible idea.

QFT

I suppose at least they're trying new things

Maybe we will see the story at least distributed digitally. But if I was a collector...I'd be *SQUEE*.

[agent_graves]

Nice idea, I just hope I can get them all through my local retailer, and not off eBay...

[Ramses818]

Is it just me or does that look a lot like Kay?

[lorddunlow]

Nice idea, I just hope I can get them all through my local retailer, and not off eBay...

ZERO% chance my LCS will get this unless I tell him to order enough just for me to qualify. I will not be doing that.

He only ordered big for Unity because I gave his info to Atom and he talked him into ordering big. It ended up screwing me out of getting a Unity 3D because of the weird requirement that needed a bigger order for some book above Unity #1 orders. (I think that was the book - I could be mistaking the actual book that had that requirement.) He was actually pretty upset about that because he told me that if he had just ordered his ordinary amount, then he would have qualified for a copy that he would have sold to me cheap.

That made me pretty upset as I still don't have a Unity 3D.

My only hope is Ed hooking members up or someone on here hooking me up. I won't pay more than $30 for the whole miniseries, though. More than that is just ridiculous.

[Brapbrap]

It's so trippy, I was watching Daredevil and got to a bit where a major character dies and thinking about how often characters can be killed for a hero's motivation when there are way more good stories to be told with them - I thought a good example of this was Kay and literally thought to myself that Valiant should have given her a mini before she died and then within that minute I clicked on to the valiant website and news and saw that they were doing a Geomancer mini.

Sadly I don't think I will ever be able to read it, whoever came up with the idea of not collecting comics in trade as a retailer incentive can *SQUEE* off tbh.

[dornwolf]

Sadly I don't think I will ever be able to read it, whoever came up with the idea of not collecting comics in trade as a retailer incentive can *SQUEE* off tbh.

As a trade waiter QFT

[bygranddesign]

bada$$!!!

[bygranddesign]

Is it just me or does that look a lot like Kay?

Yeah, this has to be Kay ... she must play a part in the story. Maybe a little something that bridges the gap between FVL's arc and The Valiant


the other pictures must be the first Geomancer

[chriskay99]

How will digital readers like me be able to get this series?

Stand behind someone who has a physical copy and take photos as they're reading it?

[bygranddesign]

I think this is incredible interesting, fascinating, imaginative, and innovative.

And a terrible idea.

QFT

I suppose at least they're trying new things

Maybe we will see the story at least distributed digitally. But if I was a collector...I'd be *SQUEE*.

I think the only time i've ever been *SQUEE*'D off as a collector of Valiant is the Unity 3D cover.

It was supposed to be rare ... and there were quite a number of people who spent huge money on it ... and then the market got flooded with the book - and the price got slashed 90+%.

I really don't think its going to be that difficult to get this book - VEI wants to create some buzz with this comic by making it an incentive - but ultimately they want us fans to read it.

[BugsySig]

How will digital readers like me be able to get this series?

Stand behind someone who has a physical copy and take photos as they're reading it?

I'm guessing quite a few PDFs of scanned pages will be appearing...

[lorddunlow]

How will digital readers like me be able to get this series?

Stand behind someone who has a physical copy and take photos as they're reading it?

I'm guessing quite a few PDFs of scanned pages will be appearing...

That will likely be how I read it. (Just being honest. I prefer digital.)

[Ricomortis]

Is it just me or does that look a lot like Kay?

I could have sworn that I read an article where Dino said "are you sure Kay is dead." But the interviewer or interview went somewhere else rather quickly. My personal opinion is she is not dead and the Nanites will have something to do with it.

Rico

[ErikG]

I'm not happy about this at all... If retailers can obtain one for each Book of Death ordered, fine, but somehow it doesn't seem like this is going to be the case.
My LCS chain doesn't have many Valiant customers (7-8?) and isn't going to pump up orders for Book of Death issues. Like many others, it experienced the 90s Valiant speculator boom and bust, probably has hundreds (if not thousands) of unsold copies still sitting in a back room gathering dust, and is unwilling to commit to Valiant again in any big way.

My other gripe is that I see this as a gimmick. Incentives are nothing more than gimmicks. I promised myself when VEI began that I wouldn't stick around when the gimmicks began, as I suspected they would. I am a story completist -- I don't care about variant covers -- and if any kind of gimmick made it difficult or expensive for me to obtain a story or part of a story, I'd walk away from Valiant. So far the gimmicks have been limited to variant covers, which was fine by me, but now...?

I'll see what happens. I've just ended my support of Marvel and DC. I intended sticking with VEI because Valiant means a lot to me. But they'll lose me with this "incentive" nonsense. I've been disappointed with the development of the VEI universe, so it won't be THAT difficult to cancel my orders. As my dropping of Marvel and DC has shown me, the pain is fleeting...

[Brapbrap]

I don't think I'm going to be buying any Book of Death comics if this doesn't go in the Deluxe Hardcover

[agent_graves]

No disrespect to trade waiters, we all gotta get it how we can, but, thinking long-term, and seeing the recent sales numbers, we need more people buying these Valiant* titles on a monthly basis, or their won't be a trade to buy at a later date...

*I understand that Valiant is well financed, even before the new nine figure deal, but I cringe when I look at the numbers because, no matter how much money they have, they can't continue to put out product, that doesn't make a profit. Dinesh said recently, in an interview on Cbr, that they're ahead, where they thought they would be at this point, profit wise, but still, more people should try and support the monthlies, as best you can.

[Elveen]

I can understand all of the comments in this thread.
Honestly I can.

But.....
One thing VEI has not had is heat on a back issue. Not a hard to find variant, there are a few of those ( but you can get the inside story easy, just not he specific cover).

But they do not have any heat, nor have they had any on any back issue they have released.
THEY NEED it! Maybe this is the way they can get it.
I'm not saying that keeping a story from your readers is a good idea, but maybe, at this time it might be? I'm not sure.

But VEI needs heat on a non-variant book.
For the record I'm not saying I think it is good to keep a story from you readers. Just offering a perspective.

And maybe this book becomes easy to get, so it's a moot point?

[jeremycoe]

They are making a product that you can choose to purchase or choose not to. Those who want it will find a way to get it. Count me as one who thinks it's a cool idea.

[jeremycoe]

I don't think I'm going to be buying any Book of Death comics if this doesn't go in the Deluxe Hardcover

How will you know what goes in to the Deluxe Hardcover (or if there will be one) so far ahead of solicitation?

[turbod16]

Is it just me or does that look a lot like Kay?

I could have sworn that I read an article where Dino said "are you sure Kay is dead." But the interviewer or interview went somewhere else rather quickly. My personal opinion is she is not dead and the Nanites will have something to do with it.

Rico

+ 1

[nycjadie]

Love this idea. While it might be hard to find in 1st print hard copy, I'm sure it will be available in some form to everyone. If Valiant does one thing well, is provide every opportunity to get the books in front of anyone they can, despite the medium. Well done and count me in.

I was not pleased with the Unity 3D debacle. I paid $200 for my first copy based on what they messaged. Someone screwed this up majorly. I bought copies for as little as $20. Hopefully, this project won't be mishandled in the same way.

[lorddunlow]

They are making a product that you can choose to purchase or choose not to. Those who want it will find a way to get it. Count me as one who thinks it's a cool idea.

No. They are not doing that. They are making a product that only some can purchase. When boiled down to that, it doesn't make any sense. (I do understand why they are doing it - promotional gimmick) Why limit your audience to a book? That's crazy.

I'll preface the following with an acknowledgement that I have no idea what will be required by a retailer to qualify (maybe they get one book for ordering one of each of VEI's other books, maybe one for each isssue of Book of the Dead plus one-shots, maybe they have to order more than copies of Unity #1, who knows?):

I will likely not be able to purchase this book from my LCS. Unless it is some really small order that qualifies, I will have to go elsewhere. You may say, "well, then get another LCS or order from DCBS". I don't like that. I like to support my LCS. I am lucky to have a shop as close as mine is, and to be perfectly honest, the only reason I buy from him at all is to show support - he's a great guy with great staff. He runs the place essentially by himself (only has 2 employees who are essentially patrons who he pays to check people out so he doesn't have to physically be there 7 days a week open to close). His shop is in an area of town that, much like the comics industry, boomed in the late 80s and 90s, but then became a "bad part of town". (The biggest shopping center in the metro area was about 1000ft from his shop and it was a very affluent area; another mall was built about 1997 and this area saw a huge economic downturn.) He continues to support his family there and they are all very nice people. Things like this hurt his shop. I cannot expect him to "order big" just to get this incentive for me when it will hurt him. True, I could order enough copies of whatever to qualify, but why the hell do I need more than one copy of a book that will be worth pennies in a few months? And if you're saying by having that option, then I can "choose to purchase or choose not to", then you would have to divide out your cost for each extra book plus the cost of this limited series by the number of copies of the limited series. If that comes to $15 a book, then VEI is just saying "hey, we're making this book $15 an issue". If they just said it was $15 on the cover, they would probably sell and print just as limited a number because only idiots and rabid fans would pay that much for a single comic issue.

Like I said, I have no idea what the requirements will be, but this does not make me happy at the current time with the information we have. This reeks of not having enough readers, so bleed the true fans dry. I hope I am wrong about this. Please VEI/Dino - make me pleasantly surprised.