• When you click on links to various merchants on this site and make a purchase, this can result in this site earning a commission. Affiliate programs and affiliations include, but are not limited to, the eBay Partner Network.

Valiant first appearances (quick version for beginners) Now with pictures!
2 2

1,097 posts in this topic

I'm surprised that the print run of Harbinger 5 is shown as lower than that of 4, given that back when Valiant itself was publishing their list of "15 rarest" (regular) issues, Harbinger # 4 was listed as having the lowest print run after Rai 2-5.

 

Can anyone pull this up? It would be great to see again :wishluck:

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I'm surprised that the print run of Harbinger 5 is shown as lower than that of 4, given that back when Valiant itself was publishing their list of "15 rarest" (regular) issues, Harbinger # 4 was listed as having the lowest print run after Rai 2-5.

 

Can anyone pull this up? It would be great to see again :wishluck:

 

It has been posted on the valiant boards. From an issue of the Valiant Voice, I believe.

 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I'm surprised that the print run of Harbinger 5 is shown as lower than that of 4, given that back when Valiant itself was publishing their list of "15 rarest" (regular) issues, Harbinger # 4 was listed as having the lowest print run after Rai 2-5.

 

Can anyone pull this up? It would be great to see again :wishluck:

 

It has been posted on the valiant boards. From an issue of the Valiant Voice, I believe.

 

Link? I have googled as much as I can to find anything about this

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Believe it was spread over three consecutive issues of Valiant Voice, fairly early on, the 15 lowest-print regular issues, listed out 5 per over three months.

 

Books I remember on the list include Rai 2-5, Harbinger 4, Solar 9, Shadowman 2. There was also a note that two of the then-most valuable books, Magnus 12 & Harbinger 1, clocked in at # 16 & 17 "rarest."

 

In contrast, as previously noted, A+A 0 was by far the highest-printed of the pre-Unity issues.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Valiant Voice (25cent "newspaper") from comic shops had a list of the Top 15 Rarest Valiant pre-Unity books. Valiant Voice #2-#4 had the countdown (5 issues each).

 

The rankings match the Valiant Voice publication... the quantities listed are guesses from about 2010:

 

15. Solar 7 (50,000)

14. Shadowman 2 (35,000-40,000)

13. X-O Manowar 3 (40,000-45,000)

12. Solar 8 (50,000)

11. Harbinger 6 (40,000)

10. Harbinger 2 (40,000)

9. X-O Manowar 4 (40,000-45,000)

8. Solar 9 (45,000)

7. Harbinger 5 (35,000-40,000)

6. Harbinger 3 (35,000-40,000)

5. Harbinger 4 (37,500)

4. Rai 2 (35,000-40,000)

3. Rai 5 (35,000-40,000)

2. Rai 4 (35,000)

1. Rai 3 (35,000)

 

I found a quote from myself when this was discussed about 5 years ago on ValiantFans.com

 

The Valiant Voice info is definitely from Valiant, however, there was a lot of marketing going on in those days...

and the rumor that a book was rare was a good way to keep people talking.

 

I was told by more than one former Valiant employee that the rumors swirling about Valiant's print runs

and character appearances (or "hidden" character first appearances) were not discouraged by the marketing department.

 

Hype was money.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Thanks, Greg! And can you confirm the commentary in one of the issues that Magnus 12 & Harbinger 1 were ranked # 16 & 17?

 

Weird that the 2010 estimate for Solar 7 is as high as 50k given that we were all told back in 1992-'93 that Harbinger 1 (not on the list) had a print run of just ~35k.

 

I also recall that everyone thought Rai 4 was rarer than Rai 3 until the ranking came out in Valiant Voice.

 

Anecdotally, I always found more Rai 3s than Rai 4s, but Wizard was the one annointing Rai 4 as the rarest for a hot spell there...

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Valiant Voice (25cent "newspaper") from comic shops had a list of the Top 15 Rarest Valiant pre-Unity books. Valiant Voice #2-#4 had the countdown (5 issues each).

 

The rankings match the Valiant Voice publication... the quantities listed are guesses from about 2010:

 

15. Solar 7 (50,000)

14. Shadowman 2 (35,000-40,000)

13. X-O Manowar 3 (40,000-45,000)

12. Solar 8 (50,000)

11. Harbinger 6 (40,000)

10. Harbinger 2 (40,000)

9. X-O Manowar 4 (40,000-45,000)

8. Solar 9 (45,000)

7. Harbinger 5 (35,000-40,000)

6. Harbinger 3 (35,000-40,000)

5. Harbinger 4 (37,500)

4. Rai 2 (35,000-40,000)

3. Rai 5 (35,000-40,000)

2. Rai 4 (35,000)

1. Rai 3 (35,000)

 

I found a quote from myself when this was discussed about 5 years ago on ValiantFans.com

 

The Valiant Voice info is definitely from Valiant, however, there was a lot of marketing going on in those days...

and the rumor that a book was rare was a good way to keep people talking.

 

I was told by more than one former Valiant employee that the rumors swirling about Valiant's print runs

and character appearances (or "hidden" character first appearances) were not discouraged by the marketing department.

 

Hype was money.

 

 

Thanks so much for sharing !

Link to comment
Share on other sites

is there a main character that has only appeared in the relaunched Valiant....just wondering if there's any 2012 stuff to grab ahold of.

It's a little early to know who will be a main character less than 3 years into the relaunch, but...

 

Totally New Characters since Valiant 2012:

 

Bleeding Monk

Cronus

Darpan

Divinity

GIN-GR

Kay McHenry

 

A few of the old Valiant characters are so different, they're basically new:

Livewire

Dr. Mirage

Vine (formerly Spider Aliens(?))

 

Here's some discussion on the ValiantFans.com board: http://valiantfans.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=1&t=45390

 

 

It is fun to speculate on stuff like this but what are people's thoughts on the viability of VEI? Even with the new movie deal the deck is still stacked against them as those movies will actually need to be made (which is a long way from being "in development") and also be great (and successful) movies.

 

I say this because there is very little chance the publishing operation will sustain them, especially with how much money they are clearing pouring into what they are doing. Hiring top creators and designing, producing, packaging, printing, and marketing great looking comics is not cheap. You have to sell a lot of comics to start making that kind of money back. And while it seems like VEI is making all the right moves in terms of creating a quality line of comics I have to wonder how many people are actually buying them. It'd be interesting to know the print runs of the new VEI comics -- probably not as big as we might think.

 

Obviously it's all about the movie deal for VEI, but even with that it will be tough for them since their characters aren't known outside of fandom. And even in comics fandom the Valiant characters aren't THAT popular when compared to DC and Marvel.

 

I certainly hope they can pull it off and not be another operation with big plans who ends up fizzling out, but we've all seen it before where people with deep pockets get into the comic book publishing game and then flame out when the money runs out. The original Valiant had phenomenal initial success but could not sustain it. And anybody remember Crossgen? I'm not saying that is where VEI is heading but they have a long, tough road ahead of them. At least they do have a movie/TV development deal in their pockets. That will theoretically keep them going for while even if the movie/TV plans don't pan out.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

 

I say this because there is very little chance the publishing operation will sustain them, especially with how much money they are clearing pouring into what they are doing. Hiring top creators and designing, producing, packaging, printing, and marketing great looking comics is not cheap. You have to sell a lot of comics to start making that kind of money back. And while it seems like VEI is making all the right moves in terms of creating a quality line of comics I have to wonder how many people are actually buying them. It'd be interesting to know the print runs of the new VEI comics -- probably not as big as we might think.

.

 

The print runs on the 2012 Valiant run are lower for a lot of titles than they were for some of the "low print" pre-unity books. In February the top selling non-#1 issue was The Valiant #3 at 9800 copies. The best of the longer running titles, X-O #33, was only just above 7000. Some of these books will be harder to find if the movies are produced and hit than the pre-unity books.........

Link to comment
Share on other sites

 

I say this because there is very little chance the publishing operation will sustain them, especially with how much money they are clearing pouring into what they are doing. Hiring top creators and designing, producing, packaging, printing, and marketing great looking comics is not cheap. You have to sell a lot of comics to start making that kind of money back. And while it seems like VEI is making all the right moves in terms of creating a quality line of comics I have to wonder how many people are actually buying them. It'd be interesting to know the print runs of the new VEI comics -- probably not as big as we might think.

.

 

In February the top selling non-#1 issue was The Valiant #3 at 9800 copies.

 

Crazy huh? That has been a terrific book so far.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Create an account or sign in to comment

You need to be a member in order to leave a comment

Create an account

Sign up for a new account in our community. It's easy!

Register a new account

Sign in

Already have an account? Sign in here.

Sign In Now
2 2