My Valiant story

[Lightning Strike]

Well, I'm not a new poster here, but I've never posted "my Valiant story" yet and figured why not now? So here goes:

About 15 years ago I walked into the comic shop in my town to pick up my weekly comics that the owner had pulled for me. On his counter he had a comic propped upright that caught my eye. It was Harbginer #0 pink:

<img src="http://www.monkeylord.net/avalon/cgi-bi ... r0pink.jpg">

The owner (who was never a greedy store owner and somebody who I considered a friend), was offering it as a prize, instead of trying to sell it for a huge chunk of change.
Everytime you bought anything from his store that month, you would be entered into a drawing for that comic.

While I had heard of Valiant, and thought the "pink" comic was cool looking, I never thought much about it----until I walked into the store a month later to pick up my weekly comics and the store owner smiled and said "Congrats, you won the drawing for the comic".

Needless to say, I was happy. Not because the comic was supposed to be "rare" and "valuable" as the owner had told me it was, but because it was the first time I had ever won anything in my life. And hey, it was a free comic!

So, I took it home and began reading it and was amazed at how different, but incredibly fantastic these characters were. I went back down to the store the next day and started questioning the owner about Valiant (what was this Valiant comic book company, what were the titles, who were the main characters, etc.). I really bugged him and he finally said something like "look, just try a few of the books and see for yourself". I think at that time he had a copy of X-O #11 that I thought looked cool:

<img src="http://www.monkeylord.net/avalon/cgi-bin/X-O11.jpg">

So I bought it and really dug it. The whole concept of a barbarian getting his hands on the most powerful weapon in the universe was brilliant to me, and I quickly started gobbling up all the previous issues.

I saw another neat looking comic that featured one of the most distinct and simple, but superb looking covers I had ever seen----Rai #0:

<img src="http://www.monkeylord.net/avalon/cgi-bin/Rai0.jpg">

The story was great and I really enjoyed it. Now, at this time, I'm buying X-O, Rai and Harbinger and then the Valiant books really started becoming the talk of the industry and people were buying up the back issues and driving up the prices in the process.

I heard about this book "Solar" and how some characters had made some appearances in it and how the company was inserting the first appearances of new characters throughout their existing books and so I started buying up any back issues of any Valiant books I could find. It was almost like a treasure hunt to me. The search for the back issues was as fun as reading the books themselves.

Eventually, I had all the issues published to that point and a short time later, the speculators began buying up all the books.

It was really fun trying to find all those back issues. I eventually sold that pink Harbginer #0 and some of my other valiant books because I needed money at the time, but I recently started hunting those rare issues down on Ebay and I hope to once again, have every Valiant book ever published. And that's my story.

[greg]

Welcome!

[Dr. Solar]

Cool story!

It seems you are one of the group of us that registered a while ago but only recently started posting stuff. Nice.

That's a great story! Cool how you won the Harby 0 pink!

[h-comics]

Wow!! very awesome story.That Harby 0 has been one that I can never get and to this day I am still looking for one and you win it in a contest that pretty cool.I wish i was that lucky.

[siren3-4]

Great story !! with pictures even . . .

Welcome . .

[96Valiantfan]

welcome

[ibreakhorses]

Welcome to the boards!

[TKWill]

My LCS would do giveaways back in the day but I always son crap. I thin I won a box of Batman returns waxpacks. They were the coolest. I sold the box in a garage sale for $1 six months later to help get the money to buy my Thrawn trilogy first print that a friend of the family's son was selling for $7, so in the end it all worked out.

And I would say welcome but you were here first. So thanks for the post.

[Elveen]

Hola compadre.

thanks for the visuals


Nice way to get your first Valiant.

[jedimarley]

You're not from Wisconsin are you?

[Lightning Strike]

You're not from Wisconsin are you?

Nope---Iowa

[jedimarley]

You're not from Wisconsin are you?

Nope---Iowa

[Daniel Jackson]

Too bad you sold the Harby book, not too many people can say they got one for free. The shops in my area were asking over 200 for one at the peak.

[xodacia81]

200 for Harby 0 pink, eh? I shall now entertain, shock and disgust you all with a tale of greed I encountered in Jnaury of 1994. Please, note the date, as the 1993 " high-peak speculator boom" had begun eroding. I walked into this place in my area called Pete's Comics. A newer shop, which later got closed due to very ill business practices. I saw a wall of comics, gorgeous covers, and the books were in mint condition. But none of them had a price tag of under 20 dollars. Yes, this even included a Turok #1. This was the VALIANT wall. There, I saw something called Rai # 3 for 290. A book known as Solar # 10 for 200. Harbinger # 1 was being sold-supposedly signed-for 300. There were Unity books for as low as 30 and as high as 120. This, my friends, was pure greed. I will never forget those prices. Never. Oh, yes...Dr. Mirage # 1 was going for 45 and even the previous week's VALIANT titles were bagged and marked up to between 5-10 on the owner's "recently new" shelf.

[Daniel Jackson]

200 for Harby 0 pink, eh? I shall now entertain, shock and disgust you all with a tale of greed I encountered in Jnaury of 1994. Please, note the date, as the 1993 " high-peak speculator boom" had begun eroding. I walked into this place in my area called Pete's Comics. A newer shop, which later got closed due to very ill business practices. I saw a wall of comics, gorgeous covers, and the books were in mint condition. But none of them had a price tag of under 20 dollars. Yes, this even included a Turok #1. This was the VALIANT wall. There, I saw something called Rai # 3 for 290. A book known as Solar # 10 for 200. Harbinger # 1 was being sold-supposedly signed-for 300. There were Unity books for as low as 30 and as high as 120. This, my friends, was pure greed. I will never forget those prices. Never. Oh, yes...Dr. Mirage # 1 was going for 45 and even the previous week's VALIANT titles were bagged and marked up to between 5-10 on the owner's "recently new" shelf.

Those sound like a couple of shops that used to be around my area. They made nice wall decorations, but they priced themselves way out of even the most avid collectors price range. It was sweet to walk into the places after the crash and find them in quarter bins. As I took an armload of golds and early issues up to the counter once the guy looked like he was going to cry when the total added up to less than 10 bucks.

[leonmallett]

Well, I'm not a new poster here, but I've never posted "my Valiant story" yet and figured why not now? So here goes:

About 15 years ago I walked into the comic shop in my town to pick up my weekly comics that the owner had pulled for me. On his counter he had a comic propped upright that caught my eye. It was Harbginer #0 pink:

The owner (who was never a greedy store owner and somebody who I considered a friend), was offering it as a prize, instead of trying to sell it for a huge chunk of change.
Everytime you bought anything from his store that month, you would be entered into a drawing for that comic.

While I had heard of Valiant, and thought the "pink" comic was cool looking, I never thought much about it----until I walked into the store a month later to pick up my weekly comics and the store owner smiled and said "Congrats, you won the drawing for the comic".

Needless to say, I was happy. Not because the comic was supposed to be "rare" and "valuable" as the owner had told me it was, but because it was the first time I had ever won anything in my life. And hey, it was a free comic!

So, I took it home and began reading it and was amazed at how different, but incredibly fantastic these characters were. I went back down to the store the next day and started questioning the owner about Valiant (what was this Valiant comic book company, what were the titles, who were the main characters, etc.). I really bugged him and he finally said something like "look, just try a few of the books and see for yourself". I think at that time he had a copy of X-O #11 that I thought looked cool:

So I bought it and really dug it. The whole concept of a barbarian getting his hands on the most powerful weapon in the universe was brilliant to me, and I quickly started gobbling up all the previous issues.

I saw another neat looking comic that featured one of the most distinct and simple, but superb looking covers I had ever seen----Rai #0:

The story was great and I really enjoyed it. Now, at this time, I'm buying X-O, Rai and Harbinger and then the Valiant books really started becoming the talk of the industry and people were buying up the back issues and driving up the prices in the process.

I heard about this book "Solar" and how some characters had made some appearances in it and how the company was inserting the first appearances of new characters throughout their existing books and so I started buying up any back issues of any Valiant books I could find. It was almost like a treasure hunt to me. The search for the back issues was as fun as reading the books themselves.

Eventually, I had all the issues published to that point and a short time later, the speculators began buying up all the books.

It was really fun trying to find all those back issues. I eventually sold that pink Harbginer #0 and some of my other valiant books because I needed money at the time, but I recently started hunting those rare issues down on Ebay and I hope to once again, have every Valiant book ever published. And that's my story.

That store where you won the book sounded like a cool place to frequent. That Rai cover is a true classic, no matter what the origins of the image. If a book of 100 best comic book covers of all time were ever compiled, that should certainly make it in ther in my view.

Great to read your story, thanks for sharing and letting us know (even though you have been here much longer than I have...).

[worldsbestcomics]

A free pink Harbinger 0

Your LCS owner sounds cool. Mine also preferred to give away his Valiant premium books rather than selling them. I won a bunch for doing various Valiant-related promos. But, I don't remember him getting a pink Harby 0. I got mine from a buddy who clipped the coupons from his books - I couldn't bear to do it to mine.

[Rufusharley]

welcome aboard!