VALIANT MASTERS aka 90's VU HC editions discussion

Captain Craig · Post by **Captain Craig** » Fri Feb 21, 2014 11:19 am

The VALIANT MASTERS line is a great standard size hardcover format that I'm really liking. It's a great way to easily access and read the original universe for new and old fans alike.

The series so far includes:
Bloodshot
Ninjak
Shadowman
Rai

All are volume ones that collect the initial runs of each title.

Currently solicited for an April 2014 release is the H.A.R.D. Corps vol.1 Masters.
Previously solicited for late 2013 but never available at retail was the Eternal Warrior vol.1 Masters.

I hope VEI addresses the status on EW Maters as I think those of us enjoying this format would like to add it to our shelf.
Question, assuming EW is unknown, what could be the next original VU title to get a Masters volume?
With Dr.Mirage getting an ongoing this upcoming September my odds would be on Hwen's original title getting a possible Masters vol.1 sometime late 2014

Would love for XO, Harbinger and Archer&Armstrong(this one can be pricey in the aftermarket) to get the Masters treatment just for the A.D.D. in me for them to all have the same trade dress but not counting on it. The only one of these three '08 HC's I have is XO currently.

What do you think will be the first Masters title to get a volume 2 edition?

jeremycoe · Post by **jeremycoe** » Fri Feb 21, 2014 12:28 pm

I think we might see Bloodshot Vol 2 first, although I'm not sure when that would be. I wouldn't be surprised if Quantum & Woody got a Valiant Masters edition before long, either.

xodacia81 · Post by **xodacia81** » Fri Feb 21, 2014 1:14 pm

Obviously the most sought after series is going to be Geomancer.

In all honesty, I'd love to see a Shadowman volume that collects everything up through just before Jack set off on his trip across the USA.

BugsySig · Post by **BugsySig** » Fri Feb 21, 2014 1:29 pm

I would love to just get new trade dress for the "08 trades to match the VALIANT Masters

That being said, I think 2 volumes of Q&W are bound to happen. After that I'm not sure. I suppose Timewalker and Dr. Mirage would also get the treatment, assuming EW eventually gets released. Maybe by then enough time will have passed for them to re-re-master XO, Harby and A&A.

kevinbastos · Post by **kevinbastos** » Fri Feb 21, 2014 5:29 pm

The big hole is most certainly the missing Eternal Warrior stuff. And I am certain there is a story behind all of that - no info just speculation and guessing.

But if EW is being held up, future Archer & Armstrong volumes may face a similar fate.

I know this may be wishful thinking, but perhaps a Unity one? That could be really great, too. Legal questions aside...

I would love to see the QW one. Hmmm.....

The Noto · Post by **The Noto** » Fri Feb 21, 2014 6:25 pm

I hope they eventually release everything from VH1 and 2. I expect thats just wishful thinking though.

But im a needy *SQUEE* like that.

Magnus9178 · Post by **Magnus9178** » Fri Feb 21, 2014 8:01 pm

I wish we'd see these more frequently.

kjjohanson · Post by **kjjohanson** » Fri Feb 21, 2014 8:46 pm

kevinbastos wrote:I would love to see the QW one. Hmmm.....

I have a good reason to believe that VEI has plans for this. I would expect to see one pop up before Q2 launches

Bone-A-Fach-ee · Post by **Bone-A-Fach-ee** » Fri Feb 21, 2014 10:47 pm

I don't see them doing more HC's of Harby, XO or A&A, as they already did them a few years ago. So there are standard size HC's out there already.

MarkRoseHFX · Post by **MarkRoseHFX** » Fri Feb 21, 2014 11:54 pm

Bone-A-Fach-ee wrote:I don't see them doing more HC's of Harby, XO or A&A, as they already did them a few years ago. So there are standard size HC's out there already.

I wouldn't mind seeing some of that stuff that's already been put in a HC in a cheaper TPB form.

dornwolf · Post by **dornwolf** » Sat Feb 22, 2014 12:36 am

Magnus9178 wrote:I wish we'd see these more frequently.

I agree with this.

I wouldn't mind Timewalker

KXXX · Post by **KXXX** » Sat Feb 22, 2014 6:30 am

Not to be a wet blanket, but... not all of the Valiant stuff needs to be reprinted. EW would be nice, but I think a volume 2 there would be a detriment. Sure, us hardcore collectors would pick them up, but the stuff immediately after issue 7 is bad news.

Captain Craig · Post by **Captain Craig** » Sat Feb 22, 2014 9:02 am

KXXX wrote:Not to be a wet blanket, but... not all of the Valiant stuff needs to be reprinted. EW would be nice, but I think a volume 2 there would be a detriment. Sure, us hardcore collectors would pick them up, but the stuff immediately after issue 7 is bad news.

The title went 50 issues. Bad news=4/5 of the series run...does not compute.

I think we will at minimum get volume 2s of most of the ones already out.
I don't even rule out XO, Harby or A&A at some point being re-remastered.

MarkRoseHFX · Post by **MarkRoseHFX** » Sat Feb 22, 2014 9:06 am

KXXX wrote:Not to be a wet blanket, but... not all of the Valiant stuff needs to be reprinted.

But i'm DYING to get my hands on a Valiant Masters: Punx HC

Captain Craig · Post by **Captain Craig** » Sat Feb 22, 2014 9:11 am

^^^^
Only if it contains an original story set in the original universe!!!

MarkRoseHFX · Post by **MarkRoseHFX** » Sat Feb 22, 2014 9:13 am

KXXX is mainly interested in a Deathmate Omnibus I think

xodacia81 · Post by **xodacia81** » Sat Feb 22, 2014 10:42 am

Captain Craig wrote:
KXXX wrote:Not to be a wet blanket, but... not all of the Valiant stuff needs to be reprinted. EW would be nice, but I think a volume 2 there would be a detriment. Sure, us hardcore collectors would pick them up, but the stuff immediately after issue 7 is bad news.
The title went 50 issues. Bad news=4/5 of the series run...does not compute.

I think we will at minimum get volume 2s of most of the ones already out.
I don't even rule out XO, Harby or A&A at some point being re-remastered.

Indeed. I think Eternal Warrior, Bloodshot and Shadowman, were the only books to be great from start to finish, without any major, extended lulls. XO, amazing through the first forty or so, got terrible for a good 20 issues, only improving during it's last few, when a certain DARQUE character got what was coming, and then The End? came along. Magnus was bad, post BQ, though I did, among the later issues, enjoy the Eternal Geomancer arc. Solar was never the same. Turok started out as a turd, and wound up a fun book. Same with Ninjak. That's pretty much it for the long running books. oh, except Harbinger shouldn't have ended. There was at least another 7 issue storyline there to be had.

dbngaa · Post by **dbngaa** » Sat Feb 22, 2014 11:12 am

I've been keeping my eye on these collections as I wouldn't mind replacing my single issues with hardcover collections, but not enough has been collected yet for me to take the plunge. Also, I have the same OCD issue Captain Craig has about the first 3 collections (and I never liked the re-coloring). So I would like to see them continue the line, and once it gets to the point I can have a complete pre-Unity through Unity run in HC I'll be on board.

About the Rai HC - does it really only have 1-8 and no 0? That irks me. I would buy that collection for sure if it included 0. Or did they stick in the Bloodshot one by some chance? I'll go look this up after I post, but that's the kind of thing that is keeping me from buying these.

The Noto · Post by **The Noto** » Sat Feb 22, 2014 12:43 pm

dbngaa wrote: About the Rai HC - does it really only have 1-8 and no 0? That irks me. I would buy that collection for sure if it included 0. Or did they stick in the Bloodshot one by some chance? I'll go look this up after I post, but that's the kind of thing that is keeping me from buying these.

Rai 0 wasn't in either HC

KXXX · Post by **KXXX** » Sat Feb 22, 2014 1:20 pm

I'm sorry guys, I should have clarified:

I'm only on about issue #20 of the original run of EW. I was in no way trying to comment on the entire run, just 9-20. If the originally solicited Masters were to have included 1-7, a volume 2 would have consisted of a complete mess IMO.

Holding out hope the book gets better.

KXXX · Post by **KXXX** » Sat Feb 22, 2014 1:25 pm

As for upcoming Masters editions, a Dr. Mirage would be cool. I enjoy what I've read of that book quite a bit.

SJS4 · Post by **SJS4** » Sat Feb 22, 2014 2:10 pm

KXXX wrote:I'm sorry guys, I should have clarified:

I'm only on about issue #20 of the original run of EW. I was in no way trying to comment on the entire run, just 9-20. If the originally solicited Masters were to have included 1-7, a volume 2 would have consisted of a complete mess IMO.

Holding out hope the book gets better.

There were some crappy issues for sure, but IMHO 9-10 was a good story arc (Darque trying to get the book of the geomancer) and issue 11 was one of the best of the whole run. The "aborted arc" where he was chasing after the silver coins was pretty bad (the bottom?), and the series kind of muddled along until chaos effect (25 or 26?). From there is was hit and miss for a bit, but from about issue 36 it was good all the way till the end, including the "Fist and Steel" mini (follow up to the end of the series) and the "Wings" one shot (really good stand alone issue...fits in good with the for 11 issues).

kjjohanson · Post by **kjjohanson** » Sat Feb 22, 2014 2:48 pm

dbngaa wrote:Also, I have the same OCD issue Captain Craig has about the first 3 collections (and I never liked the re-coloring).

I imagine that the problem with the earlier collections is that there weren't digital files available from which they could reprint the collections. So the original comics would have had to been scanned in, the color removed, and then recolored. (For reasons I won't dive into right now, you can't easily reprint from scans of something that's been printed.) Doing it that way means a certain loss of quality, since you're going to have areas where the color was dark and they're going to be interpreted to some degree as black (linework) when scanned in. If I get the chance, I'll put together some visuals to illustrate what I mean. Regarding the editions that have been printed that feature the original colors, for those issues there were probably digital files available of the original comics, so they didn't have to go through the necessary process (and expense) of scanning, cleaning up, and re-coloring. My guess is that for the early Valiant issues, we're never going to see a printed edition that meets or exceeds the quality of the original comics or trade paperbacks.

This is mostly speculation, but it comes from the position of knowledge. My first job out of college was for a company that did computer coloring for comics. (I worked with some people that worked for Valiant.) Some of the work that we did was re-coloring some Classics Illustrated comics for Acclaim, which resulted in work that looks a lot like the Valiant Remasters. At some point the company had done some work for Valiant, as I had seen discs of some late-run Valiant issues. The big question is when digital archiving of Valiant comics started (it seems like the early '90s is a good general guess of when digital archiving became widespread; before that, if comic production work was archived at all, it was probably done so in film or plate form, and they may have only been kept for a limited amount of time due to the space required for storage), and whether VEI has everything that was archived digitally.

dornwolf · Post by **dornwolf** » Sun Feb 23, 2014 9:49 pm

The Noto wrote:
dbngaa wrote: About the Rai HC - does it really only have 1-8 and no 0? That irks me. I would buy that collection for sure if it included 0. Or did they stick in the Bloodshot one by some chance? I'll go look this up after I post, but that's the kind of thing that is keeping me from buying these.
Rai 0 wasn't in either HC

If it makes any difference Bloodshot's didn't have the 0 either. I think Shadowman and Ninjak are the only ones that have so far.

Also what are the actual odds on the original Unity being collected? I understand it probably won't because of the Gold Key rights but it still makes me wonder.

Captain Craig · Post by **Captain Craig** » Mon Feb 24, 2014 1:39 pm

When someone upthread mentioned a UNITY Masters I hadn't thought of that but liked the idea.
Sadly, you're probably right about the GK characters and rights being an issue. I assume that's why there hasn't been a Solar, Magnus or Turok MASTERS as well.

Maybe when VEI does their Fall solicits coming off Armor Wars we can get an update on the Eternal Warrior MASTERS if not before.

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VALIANT MASTERS aka 90's VU HC editions discussion

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