Valiant Monthly Anthology, imho the best way to go

[comicsyte95]

i just hope VEI does a few more HC's before they go monthly,i'd like to see what they have planed to add to Unity(they can lead off from there into monthly),if they do a few minis to test which character work,would go for me,as long as it doesn't stick like that forever,too many times minis don't work as well as planned..look at um um Deathmate,and Marvels Infinity Wars and Crusade,Death of supes ,ect...great hype but didn't work.

[Knob]

good responses, especially about the sales appeal. I always liked Dark Horse Presents and MCP but never really looked up the sales or popularity.

Perhaps mini series that have a finite # are the way to go. I just see something like Crossgen where every single series is ongoing as kind of unrealistic for a startup company especially with the economy.

I feel like with limited series like Dark Horse does at least story arcs come out as planned, not dictated by whether the book gets canceled or isn't selling.

[MoonChild]

well said.

good responses, especially about the sales appeal. I always liked Dark Horse Presents and MCP but never really looked up the sales or popularity.

Perhaps mini series that have a finite # are the way to go. I just see something like Crossgen where every single series is ongoing as kind of unrealistic for a startup company especially with the economy.

I feel like with limited series like Dark Horse does at least story arcs come out as planned, not dictated by whether the book gets canceled or isn't selling.

[yardstick]

I like the idea of 6-issue mini-series(es) with "bookend" quarterlies and annuals to tie them together. Kind of like Unity-lite every 3 months...

The 6 issues can be flip books to add additional continuity between characters.

[slym2none]

Six-issue runs, makes for great TPBs... unless, like some of the titles out there now, you get 3 issues worth of story in 6 issues.





-slym

[yardstick]

If you make the quarterlies "bookend" anthologies, You can reuse them for each TPB they are related to...

[slym2none]

If you make the quarterlies "bookend" anthologies, You can reuse them for each TPB they are related to...

I hope you didn't think I was dumping on your idea, but reading it back I can see how it might have been taken that way.

I hope DNV doesn't "get lazy" like some of these other companies *coughcoughMARVELcough* and give us three issues worth of story over six issues. I'd like to think they know better.





-slym

[yardstick]

If you make the quarterlies "bookend" anthologies, You can reuse them for each TPB they are related to...

I hope you didn't think I was dumping on your idea, but reading it back I can see how it might have been taken that way.

I hope DNV doesn't "get lazy" like some of these other companies *coughcoughMARVELcough* and give us three issues worth of story over six issues. I'd like to think they know better.





-slym

Not at all...

My idea was a combination of all the ideas I posted:

flip books of related stories (Bloodshot/XO Manowar for example, not necessarily characters- i.e.: Harbinger/HARD Corps) With tight continuity between the flipped stories and a prologue bookend anthology and an epilogue bookend anthology with four 8 page stories in each bookend.

Four 8 page anthology stories- 32 pages (for each prologue and epilogue) allows for 2-4 6 issue mini series at the editor's discretion, and a nice size TPB when the series is complete. Furthermore, as I said, each anthology can be used 2-4 times for the TPB publications.

[yardstick]

The flip-book implications, at the risk of stating the obvious could be:

Bloodshot/Harbinger
XO Manowar/Shadowman

et c.

so you could have

4 story anthology (8 page stories)
then 6-issue minis up to 4x
then 4 story anthology

Each anthology could not only be a prologue for one 6-issue series, but at the same time, could also be the epilogue of the previous 6 issue series. And of course, you could mix and match the minis with the anthologies...

[RyanMcLelland]

I think that an anthology is a horrid idea. Those who say, "They don't sell" are correct. Those thinking, "Yeah but you can have three stories running and then you can launch those into a trade" - well - what if the anthology does last ten issues?

Anthologies have gone the way of the dodo for the big companies. Indy peeps might do it but Valiant isn't exactly an indy company, is it?

Miniseries might be a way to go to start off with once publishing starts - and maybe one or two monthly titles. Test the waters...get the brand out there...get some of that investment back with interests in other industries, and the sky's the limit.

Now is not the time to rush into comics - as we can see what's happening in the industry, especially with what is going on at Diamond. I'd love to see new stories but I have the patience to wait for the right time in the comic world.

[slym2none]

Now is not the time to rush into comics - as we can see what's happening in the industry, especially with what is going on at Diamond. I'd love to see new stories but I have the patience to wait for the right time in the comic world.

Agreed - slow and low, that is the tempo.





-slym

[Chiclo]

[snip] but Valiant isn't exactly an indy company, is it? [further snip]

Best case scenario, the buying public can think of Valiant as an indy.

If it's anything else, it brings a lot of baggage in with it. Baggage that can weigh down a new company.