BobLayton.com: Unpublished VALIANT Yearbook Cover Timewalker

[ManofTheAtom]

http://www.boblayton.com/Archive/Novemb ... ind.nov.06

[cobra_commander]

Very cool

[myron]

that's sweet. Damn!

[depluto]

Too bad Bob doesn't post here any more ...

[dave]

ivar looks very BWS actually...was bob ever a regular penciller?

i always enjoy his art, but it seems that he only does covers.

[x-omatic]

ivar looks very BWS actually...was bob ever a regular penciller?

i always enjoy his art, but it seems that he only does covers.

What about Bob?

http://www.boblayton.com/aboutbob.htm

[cinlach@aol.com]

i too wish bob would return here...however i think the chances of that are about the same as mazzarsy, shooter, layton and smith all mending fences and moving in together as roommates.

obviously bob has his view of things, shooter has his view, smith has his view and mazzarsky has all the money.

likewise, the popularity of valiant and the rabidness of it's fans is such that "sides" inevitably take shape.

fans on shooters side give layton a huge amount of grief about the way things went down "back in the day".

unfortunately for us, bob is rather mercurial in nature and has a short fuse to boot.

so basically, bob's decided "screw you guys, i'm going home" even though only a small number of members here actually had the temerity to bring up the past and blame him for it.

in my opinion, it wasn't bob's fault, shooter's fault, mazzarsky's fault...it was all of them together. they all contribited equally to the eventual destruction of valiant comics.

while i'm definitely no fan of fabian nicieza or vh2 he simply cannot be blamed entirely for the death of the company.

valiant was on it's last legs LONG before fabian became involved...fabian didn't help the situation to be sure, but a miracle of almost cosmic proportions would've had to occured in order to keep valiant/acclaim afloat.

bob simply decided that his view of events and the views of certain other members was never going to meet and bob just wasn't willing to allow that to happen.

he decided to blame only a few for the transgressions but punished us all for them.

for my part, i think we'll always be incomplete without the input of at least one of the company's founders.

greg's done an incredible job, nothing i say here should be taken as disrespect for what he's done.

but having a valiant comics fan site without bob, jim, or barry's input...no matter how small or infrequent...is like making a grilled cheese sandwich without cheese.

[Elveen]

I'm with you Cin....

I like cheese on my grilled cheese snadwhiches.....

[ManofTheAtom]

while i'm definitely no fan of fabian nicieza or vh2 he simply cannot be blamed entirely for the death of the company

He's the one who decided to replace on universe with another, so he can be blamed for his decisions the same way he'd be praised for them had they had the intended effect.

[Thomas Crown]

i too wish bob would return here...however i think the chances of that are about the same as mazzarsy, shooter, layton and smith all mending fences and moving in together as roommates....

If you read on to his post on his news section:

INTERVIEW CONDUCTED IN SEPTEMBER BY JAMIE COVILLE

http://www.boblayton.com/Archive/Novemb ... .editorial

Q) How did the ups and downs of your time with Valiant Comics affect your relationship with Jim Shooter?
Bob: Jim and I haven’t spoken since that day in Baltimore when he tried to fire me for not supporting his illegal attempt to takeover Valiant. Let’s just say that I’ve seen the real Jim Shooter and it wasn’t pretty

Does anyone have have any more info on "The Baltimore" Incident

[dellamorte]

Great piece. Bob does a BWS style pretty well.

[Elveen]

cool art...


dang... I miss VALIANT books....

[slym2none]

cool art...


dang... I miss VALIANT books....

I do to, sometimes... then I just go and open up my comic box with the VALIANTS, and I'm with them again...........





-slym

[Blood of Heroes]

I like cheese on my grilled cheese snadwhiches.....

I could go for a grilled cheese snadwich right about now

[slym2none]

I like cheese on my grilled cheese snadwhiches.....

I could go for a grilled cheese snadwich right about now

Nadwich? Isn't that what occurs during a DV/DA? (Not the ONLY thing, mind you...)



-slym (is at Elveen's newest gay post)

[magnusr]

Does anyone have have any more info on "The Baltimore" Incident

The deal itself was just the beginning of the horror show. All the way down to Baltimore where the conference was, was Bob who was with me, acting strange and talking about how he and I were probably the only ones who could do this kind of work; create Universes like this, and running on and on about how important he was, how good he was and I was thinking "why are you selling yourself to me?". I think now that he wanted affirmation from me that if it didn't work out; if I ended up parting company with VALIANT over this, he could do it, he could take my place. That was my first clue that Bob (and Barry, and Jon Hartz) were in cahoots with the pirates.

While described very differently, it sounds as if it could be the same event.

/Magnus

[Rufusharley]

I like cheese on my grilled cheese snadwhiches.....

I could go for a grilled cheese snadwich right about now

Nadwich? Isn't that what occurs during a DV/DA? (Not the ONLY thing, mind you...)



-slym (is at Elveen's newest gay post)

The creators of Southpark call the name of their band DVDA.

http://www.treyparker.com/

(no Elveen ... you don't want to know..)

(maybe you already do )

[slym2none]

The creators of Southpark call the name of their band DVDA.

http://www.treyparker.com/

(no Elveen ... you don't want to know..)

(maybe you already do )

Yep, had one of their t-shirts years ago...





-slym

[k_c_collectibles]

Bob's work kicks *SQUEE*, but I am not real jazzed about the colors... I told Bob that a while ago and he agreed that they could have been done a bit differently.

I contacted Paul Fairchild myself to see if he would mail me a pic of the inks (since I am sure they will look better than the colored version - at least in my opinion). I will post the pic if I receive one.

Chris

[cinlach@aol.com]

while i'm definitely no fan of fabian nicieza or vh2 he simply cannot be blamed entirely for the death of the company

He's the one who decided to replace on universe with another, so he can be blamed for his decisions the same way he'd be praised for them had they had the intended effect.

...and the fact that you have a well known extreme distaste for all things fabian nicieza has nothing to do with that statement...lol

look, valiant was going downhill...fast.

the creators have said so, the print runs and sales figures have said so, and plain being there when it was happening said so.

if you'd like to continue to blame nicieza (who i'm not a fan of by a long shot by the way) then that's great. but the plain simple truth of the matter is that the titanic had already hit the iceberg due to poor decision making WAY before vh2.

by the time fabian came along there was nothing he could do but frantically bail water out of the boat by any means necessary.

in fact, that's the mandate he was given...this company is foundering, right the ship and do it now.

you're going to choose not to believe (or should i say accept) that truth...and that's fine.

but that doesn't mean it's not still the truth.

[cinlach@aol.com]

Bob's work kicks *SQUEE*, but I am not real jazzed about the colors... I told Bob that a while ago and he agreed that they could have been done a bit differently.

I contacted Paul Fairchild myself to see if he would mail me a pic of the inks (since I am sure they will look better than the colored version - at least in my opinion). I will post the pic if I receive one.

Chris

fairchild was always a super nice guy.

when i was working at heroes aren't hard to find here in town we'd get calls from him every month.

our greenville store sold more valiant then any other store in our company including charlotte which is about 3 times the size of greenville.

paul would actually call and get opinions from us and our customers about storylines, characters, artists and writers...it was very flattering to be honest.

i don't necessarily think we made an impact but to just be asked, sincere or not, was quite an honor.

incidentally, i had lots of good dealings "back in the day" with jon hartz as well.

[ManofTheAtom]

...and the fact that you have a well known extreme distaste for all things fabian nicieza has nothing to do with that statement...lol

I like Thunderbolts.

if you'd like to continue to blame nicieza (who i'm not a fan of by a long shot by the way) then that's great. but the plain simple truth of the matter is that the titanic had already hit the iceberg due to poor decision making WAY before vh2.

Nicieza's responsible for the decisions he makes, no one else can take credit for VH 2 except him. He's the one that decided that the characters needed to be replaced and his friends could use the money to create new ones because in his mind people were only interested in buying the name on the credit box.

[cinlach@aol.com]

...and the fact that you have a well known extreme distaste for all things fabian nicieza has nothing to do with that statement...lol

I like Thunderbolts.

if you'd like to continue to blame nicieza (who i'm not a fan of by a long shot by the way) then that's great. but the plain simple truth of the matter is that the titanic had already hit the iceberg due to poor decision making WAY before vh2.

Nicieza's responsible for the decisions he makes, no one else can take credit for VH 2 except him. He's the one that decided that the characters needed to be replaced and his friends could use the money to create new ones because in his mind people were only interested in buying the name on the credit box.

so how does that place the extraordinary failures of the past that had driven valiant into near ruin as fabian's fault?

did fabian's ideas and strategies drive the final nail in valiant's coffin? absolutely.

but the funeral was already well under way before he arrived.

anyone who suffered through those last issues before fabian relaunched (or reimagined, whatever) the valiant universe can attest to that.

blaming fabian for the ultimate demise of valiant comics is like blaming the writer of our american cousin for abraham lincoln's assassination.

[ManofTheAtom]

Only if he supplied Booth with the bullet.

Image still exist today, and their "universe" titles like Top Cow's and Spawn didn't have to reboot to do it.

Sales on comics went down for everyone, but not everyone decided to reboot and turn the credit box into the selling point, Fabian was the only one who chose to do that and because of it VALIANT became *SQUEE*.

If Layton's to be believed, Fabian was hired to dumb down the VALIANT Universe, which he did.

[cinlach@aol.com]

as you say my friend...

let's not even start this again.

i know better then to attach the bad decisions of 3 years prior to a man who wasn't even on the payroll yet.

valiant vision, birthquake, firing shooter, selling to acclaim...all these instances and others like them were not decisions fabian was a part of or even had influence over.

fabian was simply not responsible for the mis-steps of his predecesors that would lead to the downfall of valiant comics...period.

the bulk of the damage was done long before he arrived, and while he didn't provide the best care possible for the dying entity he cannot be blamed for the eventual cardiac arrest that resulted.