The Comics Super Blog!
Fred Van Lente, Cary Nord and Clayton Henry head back into Valiant’s past with Immortal Brothers: The Tale of the Green Knight, a tale featuring Armstrong, the Eternal Warrior and Ivar, Timewalker in King Arthur’s court.
Continue reading “Immortal brothers unite in Valiant’s ‘The Tale of the Green Knight’”
The digital comics platform’s new program features exclusive comic content for comiXology and Kindle.
ComiXology has announced a line of exclusively digital comics, teaming with BOOM! Studios, Valiant Entertainment and the estate of Harvey Kurtzman on new content. Called “comiXology Originals,” the comics can only be found on comiXology and Kindle starting next year.
“Our mission is to make everyone on the face of the planet a comic fan, and with comiXology Originals we’re excited to offer a range of content by diverse creators,” said comiXology co-founder and CEO David Steinberger in a press release. “It’s fantastic to be working with publishers across the spectrum to deliver great comics to comiXology and Kindle, offering fans stories that they can’t get anywhere else.”
I’m a big fan of Valiant’s Faith and Archer & Armstrong titles at the moment, so I’m pretty excited to see that November brings the return of Harbinger in Harbinger Renegades by A&A writer Rafer Roberts and artist Darick Robertson.
Roberts (with artist David Lafuente) has told some really fun A&A stories thus far, and now he’s teaming up with the artist of such classics as Transmetropolitan and The Boys. I’ve missed seeing his art on a regular basis, so November can’t get here soon enough. It’s part of the bigger “Future of Valiant” wave of titles, which also included last month’s launch of a Faith ongoing series, plus the upcoming Generation Zero, Britannia, Bloodshot U.S.A. and Savage.
Continue reading “The kids aren’t all right in Roberts and Robertson’s ‘Harbinger Renegades’”
Limited-time Pokémon Go lures sponsored by Valiant will be dropped at 11 retailers in New York and California.
In a move that would make Team Mystic proud, Valiant has announced they are sponsoring “special Pokémon Go sponsorship program” to lure potential new readers into comic shops in New York and California.
According to the press release, Pokémon Go players can “join the excitement as your local comic shop transforms into your next PokéStop when Valiant drops Pokémon Go Lures at a slate of specially designated comic book retailers.” If you aren’t familiar with the worldwide sensation that is Pokémon Go, the virtual-reality-meets-actual-reality game combines the popular “Gotta catch’em all” collector’s drive that naturally comes with the Pokémon franchise with getting off the couch and walking around. Some have already suggested using it as a way to lure folks to polling places this November, so why not comic shops as well?
The lures only last for a limited time, so watch Valiant’s Twitter feed for details on when they’ll be available. And hopefully they’ll spread this to other parts of the country as well. Participating retailer include:
Bulletproof Comics
4506 Fort Hamilton Pkwy, Brooklyn, NY 11219
Carmine Street Comics
34 Carmine St, New York, NY 10014
Comickaze Comics Books and More
Madison Square Shopping Center
5517 Clairemont Mesa Blvd, San Diego, CA 92117
Collector’s Paradise
7131 Winnetka Ave, Winnetka, CA 91306
Forbidden Planet
832 Broadway, New York, NY 10003
Hi De Ho Comics
1431 Lincoln Blvd, Santa Monica, CA 90401
Level Up Entertainment
Hamilton Mall, 4403 E Black Horse Pike, Mays Landing, NJ 08330
Meltdown Comics & Collectibles
7522 Sunset Blvd, Los Angeles, CA 90046
Midtown Comics Downtown
64 Fulton St, New York, NY 10038
Midtown Comics Grand Central
459 Lexington Ave, New York, NY 10017
Midtown Comics Time Square
200 W 40th St, New York, NY 10018
Valiant shares plans for the extra-sized issue that marks Robert Venditti’s last on the title.
Via press release today, Valiant Entertainment announced the cover for “X-O Manowar” #50 will feature 50 different versions of the character drawn by 50 different artists. Check it out right here:
Featuring colors by David Baron, the cover includes renditions of the character as drawn by:
1. Neal Adams (Green Lantern/Green Arrow)
2. Raul Allen (WRATH OF THE ETERNAL WARRIOR)
3. Al Barrionuevo (The Authority)
4. Diego Bernard (X-O MANOWAR)
5. Doug Braithwaite (ARMOR HUNTERS)
6. Dave Bullock (Wednesday Comics)
7. CAFU (UNITY)
8. Eric Canete (RunLoveKill)
9. Carmen Nunez Carnero (X-Factor)
10. Sean Chen (Iron Man)
11. Collen Coover (Bandette)
12. Clayton Crain (4001 A.D., RAI)
13. Jay Fabares (Valiant cover artist)
14. Tom Fowler (QUANTUM AND WOODY)
15. Manuel Garcia (BLOODSHOT)
16. Robert Gill (BOOK OF DEATH)
17. Adam Gorham (Zero)
18. Butch Guice (BLOODSHOT REBORN)
19. Bob Hall (SHADOWMAN)
20. Rebekah Isaacs (Buffy the Vampire Slayer)
21. Phil Jimenez (DC Universe: Rebirth)
22. J.G. Jones (Final Crisis)
23. Kano (Gotham Central)
24. Matt Kindt (Mind MGMT)
25. Bob Layton (X-O MANOWAR)
26. Mike Leeke (X-O MANOWAR)
27. Jeff Lemire (Essex County)
28. Steve Lieber (The Fix)
29. Emanuela Lupacchino (Supergirl)
30. Mike McKone (Fantastic Four)
31. Stephen Mooney (Half Past Danger)
32. Cary Nord (X-O MANOWAR)
33. Pat Olliffe (Thor)
34. Pere Perez (FAITH)
35. Brandon Peterson (Uncanny X-Men)
36. Brent Peeples (Last of the Greats)
37. Stephen Platt (Prophet)
38. Rafer Roberts (HARBINGER RENEGADES)
39. Paolo Rivera (THE VALIANT)
40. Riley Rossmo (Batman)
41. Juan Joe Ryp (BRITANNIA)
42. Rafa Sandoval (X-O MANOWAR)
43. Donovan Santiago (“Valiant 8-Bit” cover artist)
44. Marguerite Sauvage (FAITH)
45. Joe St. Pierre (RAI)
46. Philip Tan (Batman & Robin)
47. Michael Walsh (The Vision)
48. Ryan Winn (DIVINITY)
49. Kevin VanHook (BLOODSHOT)
50. Ramon Villalobos (E is for Extinction)
“X-O MANOWAR #50 will be, without a doubt, the single biggest milestone ever produced by Valiant,” said Valiant CEO & Chief Creative Officer Dinesh Shamdasani said in the release. “Beginning with the incredible jam cover, this issue will stand on its own as both a tribute to the character’s vital place in the Valiant Universe and the entirety of the years-long epic that Robert Venditti – along with artists Cary Nord, Lee Garbett, Trevor Hairsine, Doug Braithwaite, Diego Bernard, Rafa Sandoval, Robert Gill, and Valiant’s amazing editorial team– forged into one of the greatest narrative feats of the modern era. Big moments don’t get much bigger than this.” The issue also marks Venditti’s last on the title. Look for it in September.
Introducing Davey the Mackerel …
Get a glimpse of what the future holds for Ninjak, Divinity and more.
With 2015 winding down, Valiant Entertainment has released several teasers for upcoming storylines and returning titles from the publisher. Of note: Jeff Lemire, Mico Suayan and David Baron journey to “Bloodshot Island,” while Matt Kindt and Diego Bernard plan a siege for Ninjak. And oh yeah, Archer and Armstrong return! I’m really looking forward to seeing what Rafer Roberts does on the title.
Check out all the teasers below …
Comic fans in France and Italy will soon have access to Archer & Armstrong, Harbinger and the rest of Valiant’s comic line in their native tongue.
Comic fans in France and Italy will soon have access to Archer & Armstrong, Harbinger and the rest of Valiant’s comic line in their native tongue.
Today Valiant announced partnerships with Italy’s Star Comics and France’s Bliss Comics for print and digital translations. In addition, they’ve also announced a long-term extension to their partnership with Spain’s Aleta Ediciones. Along with the comics, they’re also planning creator appearances at various conventions in Europe.
More details are available in the press release below.
Press Release
Valiant Entertainment is proud to announce new foreign-language publishing partnerships with three of Europe’s preeminent publishers of comic books and graphic novels – Spain’s Aleta Ediciones, Italy’s Star Comics and France’s Bliss Comics – for print and digital translations of Valiant’s award-winning superhero library.
Valiant and Aleta, whose inaugural line of Spanish-language Valiant titles debuted earlier in 2015, will soon begin a long-term extension to their partnership with an expanded array of series encompassing many of Valiant’s most acclaimed titles.
Meanwhile, Valiant’s newly announced publishing partners in Italy and France will begin publication in both print and digital in early 2016 with new editions of best-selling series including X-O Manowar, Bloodshot, Harbinger, Archer & Armstrong, Divinity, Quantum and Woody and many more.
Additionally, each publisher will be introducing Valiant’s line of titles to fans in Spain, Italy and France with appearances and promotions at some of the largest conventions across Europe.
“Valiant has a large, vibrant, and ever-growing fan base throughout Europe. Each of these publishers has been specifically selected for the quality of their foreign-language editions and their extensive knowledge of their respective marketplaces,” said Russell A. Brown, Valiant’s President of Licensing, Promotions & Ad Sales. “In concert with our new publishing partners at Aleta, Star, and Bliss, we look forward to bringing Valiant’s beloved library of characters to fans in print and online in Spain, Italy, France and beyond.”
Aleta Ediciones has already begun to publish 10 of Valiant’s most notable titles, including Archer & Armstrong, Bloodshot, Eternal Warrior and Harbinger. Aleta is an award-winning publisher of comic books, graphic novels and trade paperbacks since 1996, based in Valencia, Spain. Renowned for its diverse catalog of licensed and independent titles, Aleta publishes some of the most successful and popular titles in the industry, including Invincible, Tex, Dylan Dog, Aliens, Predator, Terminator, Robocop and Xenozoic by creators like Alan Moore, Tiziano Sclavi, Frank Miller, Robert Kirkman, Mark Schultz, G. R. R. Martin, Michael Avon Oeming, Alfonso Font and Paul Grist.
Star Comics is one of the leading Italian publishers active in the comic field. Since its foundation, Star Comics’ mission has been to encourage the diffusion of comic books as a form of entertainment and as a cultural phenomenon by making comic books available to all readers in Italy. Star Comics was founded in Perugia by publisher Giovanni Bovini in 1987. Its first publications were translations of several Marvel Comics series including Spider-Man, X-Men and Fantastic Four. Since that time, Star Comics has gone onto produce foreign-language editions of titles by DC Comics, Image Comics, and Wildstorm, in addition to the first Italian language line of Japanese manga. In just over 25 years, Star Comics has published more than 500 titles including monthly series, limited series and standalone books.
Bliss Comics is a relative newcomer to French publishing. Bliss is dedicated to bringing Valiant’s fan-favorite series to France starting in 2016. With an incredible number of talented creators working on Valiant’s strong, diverse characters and epic stories, Bliss looks forward to introducing Valiant’s award-winning universe to new French readers as well as longtime comics fans.
Bliss Comics, Star Comics, and Aleta Ediciones are just the latest additions to Valiant’s growing roster of international publishing partners. They join OVNI Press Editorial in Argentina, HQM Editora in Brazil, Tencent in China, ShoPro in Japan, Kamite in Mexico, Viverra in Russia, and Büyülü Dükkan in Turkey in bringing Valiant’s award-winning library of superhero titles to an international audience.
It astounded me to learn that Fred Van Lente‘s Ivar, Timewalker (published by Valiant) was initially slated to be a four-issue project. One part love story three times the adventure the story stars two versions of Neela Sethi (thanks to time travel) the tale deserves and has 12 issues to tell its story. For my money that is a hell of a compliment that Valiant gave Van Lente and Sethi that much freedom. Fortunately she has Ivar, Timewalker, in her corner. Now it’s down to history’s most jaded, most tempestuous time traveler to stop the worst of everything that is, was, and will be…before time runs out!
Tim O’Shea: Who is to blame –I mean credit –with issue titles like let’s not kill Hitler seriously those titles are absolutely hilarious.
Fred Van Lente: Thanks. Originally, the title was Let’s Kill Hitler but then Clayton posted some inks of the story on Facebook and somebody told him that was already the title of a Dr. Who episode. I have seen exactly two — well, now three — episodes of Dr. Who in my entire lifetime and I went and watched that one on Netflix as soon as I saw the Facebook post. The two stories don’t have much to do with each other beyond that killing-Hitler part, but since the whole point was you can’t kill Hitler I thought I should change the title to differentiate ourselves from the episode.
Am I right in thinking the time travel aspect is the most logistically complicated element of the story?
Sort of. Making sure the time-tossed characters are all consistent — like older Neela still sounds like Neela and younger Ivar still sounds like Ivar, that’s sort of the complicated part, depicting these two people at such different parts of their own lives, which, thanks to time travel, are so consistently at odds with each other.
How early in the planning of the story did you realize Armstrong needed to be part of the plot?
I went a couple rounds with the editors as to who exactly would go with Ivar on his suicide mission to rescue Ivar from the end of time. After a couple discussions I just realized his immortal brothers were the most fun choice, as well as the most logical, as who else could survive a trip to the end of eternity but some immortals?
Are there members of the cast that ended up with expanded roles because you grew to like them?
Definitely the Lurker, who was just a one-off bit in #2 that the editors loved and begged for me to bring him back. I think people just liked his truncated text message-speak, kind of like an extreme version of newspeak from 1984. Also the fact he’s basically 4chan come to life, which is a terrifying thing to even type…
How much of the success of the series can be credited to the art team.
All of it. Clayton is such a great designer, and Francis kills the far-future bits with his design, and Pere is so good at the acting and action. I’d be nothing without them.
The 5 Guys bit was an instant classic. How did it come about.
I really like 5 Guys!
OK the Juggalo Clowns of issue 9 how did you pull that gem off?
Well, I already knew that I was going to do the Roman dinosaurs — seemed like a natural fit, what with their Latin names. And I needed another historical mash-up to kind of introduce the idea that the multiverse is made up of infinite numbers of recombinations of matter. I wish I could even remember what the other candidates were. The first thing I thought of may have just been Clown Vikings, and I was like, “Full stop. That’s it!”
How critical is Tom Brennan to the success of the series?
Very. He’s been a tireless advocate for the book and great sounding board for making it better, exactly what I want from an editor.
Was it always set to be a 12 issue series.
No, it was originally four, but Valiant was very cool about letting me extend the story and flesh out the characters to tell the tale I wanted to tell. It was very generous and not something every publisher would do.
Anything we neglected to discuss?
The ending is coming soon. The team is pretty happy with it, I’m not sure. I hope people dig it. There’s a moment that pretty much sums up the idea of the whole series. I hope it lands. Time will tell!
Ha ha, that was totally unintentional humor, I swear…
