My first "1st Signed" comic!!!!! By Joshua Dysart!

Imperium #5 by Joshua Dysart, Scott Eaton and Brian Reber! Many, Many Thank Yous to my bud Chris for this awesome surprise!

FINALLY!!!!!!!!

MANY THANK YOUS TO FLETCHER FOR HELPING MAKING THIS FAN-MADE PROJECT COME TO LIFE- CARDSTOCK LIFE!

Ninjak cosplayer about to get ridiculed on the internetz

Rocking Out with VEI since 2012!!

Father Made Me do It

30 new cards. The "VALIANT FIRST - THE EXPANSION" as I'm calling it for now.
Coming soon-ish! ;)

"GILAD, AXE DOWN!"

Amazing. Simply amazing.

THANK YOU, Christan! This will be one of those "must grab if house is on fire" items for me. Together with that JD signed Harby #1 you also sent me and my Combat Belt Batman fig. :P

EDIT- Forgot to add to that list of items the Cary Nord signed X-O #1. Guess who hooked me up with that? ;)

Also, huge thanks to Roberto Duque for taking the time to get this.

It's Gilad Anni-Padda (my favourite Unity character and the biggest bada** of the Valiant universe, in case you don't know :P) by Mico Suayan. 

Needless to say, it's exquisite artwork. 

o/\o

VEI, Legacy & the Redundancy of Superhero Comics

Blame it on my flu meds, but I've been thinking about how VEI and their approach to comics is SO different from the other superheroic funnybooks out there.

But first, let me give you my quick background as a reader/fan:
I learned how to read with comics, at age 4. I learned my first english words by trying to decipher my copies of Star Wars comics that my older cousin passed to me. I dressed-up as Robin when I was a pre-school kid. One year, my mom made me a Superman outfit for the Mardi Gras (Carnaval) festivities, and I remember thinking that I'd rather be Batman, but I was still out of my mind with joy. My Marvel- and some select DC- collection reached the hundreds by the time I was 13/14.
Point is, I loved US comics with a passion.

And at the same time, in my elementary and junior high school, teachers told me how "stupid" american comics were. Yes, you should read funnybooks, but stick with the european ones (Asterix, Lucky Luke, Spirou e Fantasio, Marsupilami, Tintin, etc) they would preach. Why?

Because "US/superhero comics" (edit- as if they were the same thing)  are written and drawn as in a factory. Every month, that book has to have a new story to tell, wether it makes sense or not.
This, my teachers would say, pointing at my Iron Man sweatshirt, is what makes american comics like "your beloved Batman and Spider-man" look "silly" when compaired to the works of the european greats like Uderzo or Hergé.

Becuse they are "factory" products- not true Band Dessinée (bd) "art."

Of couse, I always treated their reasoning as BS, but I was more than aware that my superhero books were sometimes "garbage". I just blamed it on the guy who wrote/draw that issue I disliked and no think about it. How could those old farts know what Cyclops went through after Jean killed herself (oops, spoilers)? And then coming back from the dead? Ha!!!

Ha? ha...

I was naive and very protective of my passions. Still am.

Growing up, I left superhero comics for a while and only began to re-read them when I was in college due to a friend who was not only the coolest guy you can think of, but he also LOVED comics. He would read Chomsky, Kafka and Spider-Man. While listening to Black Flag and burning 5 joints in a row.
To that barely-20 year old me, this was COOL.  :P

But even when I began to dive back into american comics, I was only looking for self-contained stories. -Graphic novels, THANK YOU for existing.
I was not interested in going back to collecting, for many reasons, but one of them, BS as I might once though it, was the fact that ongoing series are going nowhere (no pun intended).
I suddenly was thinking like my teachers. Is this what getting old means?!

These were my "I only read manga and GN" years, where I only would read what I KNEW in advance had an ending. A satisfactory (is this a word???) meal, from entrance to dessert. No waiting.
Even if they were issues from an ongoing- like "Knightfall" for a random example, they had to be compiled logically and have an ending to. That. Story.

Me and my pal we had many a conversation about this, and he was the first to admit he still bought monthlies "out of habit". Nowadays, he is a comic-free guy for more than 3 years, and no matter how hard I try to convince the guy to give VEI a try, for example, he will not: He "knows ongoings are going nowhere". I have no arguments.


Now, VEI.

This is the first time in my life as a reader, that I feel that the people who are making these books are very much aware of the BS that populates 90% of superhero comics. Valiant (VH1) had this amazing cadre of characters and VEI is putting them to very good use. And that's why they are different AND BETTER than ALL the other shared universes: by using- among other things, of course- what I call the "Legacy" mechanic:

This means, simply, that- save a few, rare, exceptions- EVERY character in the VEIverse is disposable/replaceable.

For example:

YOU CAN'T KILL/ REPLACE BRUCE WAYNE. For good.

YOU CAN'T KILL / REPLACE PETER PARKER. Idem.

When these characters "died", they always came back.
People- as in, the majority of buyers- would never accept that their self-established notions of these character identities' were forever changed- and that "self-established notion DO "implies "changes", but we all know that these "changes" are not permanent, e.g. Peter Parker and Bruce Wayne had to return from their non-deaths.
That's the point where every-day logic disappears from our conscient selves, and we enter comic-book mode. We go with the flow.  

Poin is: these are characters that no longer belong to the medium, they're on the pop culture zeitgeist and readers be damned. You'll never read the true "death" of Superman. Never.


But you CAN kill Aric of Dacia AND still have X-O Manowar. Some new GREAT character could take the armor.

You CAN kill any of the Harbinger kids and replace them with - who knows- even more interesting kids.

You can put those NANITES on someone else, and you still have Bloodshot.

Shadowman is obvious. So is Rai. And so on.

I love Valiant for many reasons, but the game of not knowing what can happen to each of my fav characters is one of the top. AND This may include OR NOT a sudden death of a very dear/important character. If the story is worth telling, I know VEI is the company to do this for "real".

As  real as a comic can get, of course. :P

Sure, Valiant would really have to be pretty, I mean, HUGELY, ballsy in offing one of their IPs for good (seriously HUGE balls), but the suspension of disbelief that the VEIverse brings me every month, makes me think that this is one Universe you don't want to miss (and that anything can really happen. Like, among other things, unexpected deaths of major characters for good).

Story is first.

Dead is dead and all that.

Count me as loyal as a dog, for as long as you keep them counting.

Seriously, to the VALIANT team, THANK YOU for making these books.

Peace

MAGIC: THE VALIANT - BLUE

BLUE 

Blue is the thinking man's color, in Magic. Blue cards are all about giving card advantage, be it by looking what's coming in your deck or making your opponents mad by denying them their fav spells. It's also the color of technology, meaning that blue cards have a thing about artifacts, in practical terms. Also, Ninjas (ninjutsu is all about manipulating your opponent's mind, don't forget).
So, in the VALIANT universe who are the thinking cap-wearing characters? Obviously, powerful psiots like Toyo Harada and Livewire (the tech-savy psiot of the Valiant universe) come to mind, but I decided to include here some other type of characters. Smart-asses like Kris or Woody have Blue in their veins, imho. 

11) FORCED RETREAT

Here's our first "No, you don't" card. Opponents will be pissed at you when they try to get their awesome creature cards into the battlefield, and you deny it. Also serves (as the name implies) as a quick exit for your "about to be dead" creature. All around usefull. I like it a lot.

That bubble comes handy...

The art and quote refer to the moment when Toyo Harada is about to kill Bloodshot, but is run over by some kids. On a tank. Or something like a tank.

TMOV gets a GOLD and a whole lot more

THANK YOU A MILLION, VALIANT. YOU ARE THE BEST.

Interview: Peter Milligan

Bloody Disgusting posted an interview with brand-new SHADOWMAN scribe, Peter Milligan. Check it out.

Not Sandman, SHADOWMAN.