Jim Valentino, thoughts? 0

[Blastaar]

I just picked up my first Valentino page from his Guardians run. It's a nice page, and I started thinking (Dangerous) his body of work is actually small for his name recognition. It's pretty much Guardians and ShadowHawk. He is certainly very talented and has done much for the comic industry leading Image and serving on the Hero Initiative board. I wish there was more of his work out there. Would have loved to have seen him on an x-men or Batman run. 

 

normalman #1–12, Annual #1 (writer and artist, 1984–1986)
Guardians of the Galaxy #1–29, Annual #1–2 (writer and penciler, 1990–1992)
ShadowHawk #1–18 (writer and artist, 1992–1996)
Avengers Vol. 2 #1–4 (1996–1997)
A Touch of Silver #1–6 (writer and artist, 1997)
Vignettes: The Auto-Biographical Comix of Valentino (1997)
Altered Image #1–3 (writer and penciller, 1998)
normalman 20th Anniversary Special #1 (writer and artist, 2004)
The Return of ShadowHawk #1 (writer and artist, 2004)
ShadowHawk vol. 2 #1–15 (writer and artist (#9–15), 2005–2006)
ShadowHawk One-Shot #1 (writer and artist, 2006)
Drawing from Life #1 (writer and artist, 2007)
Image United #1–3 (artist, 2009–2010)
What If? Vol. 2 #3, 5, 7, #11–12, 25, 30, 41 (writer)
Silver Surfer vol. 3 #32–33 (writer)
 

 

 

 

 

Edited March 5, 2020 by Blastaar

[Blastaar]

One of my favorite splashed of his.

 

[Unstoppablejayd]

51 minutes ago, Blastaar said:

One of my favorite splashed of his.

 

I like mine better

https://www.comicartfans.com/gallerypiece.asp?piece=1584690

 

[Blastaar]

8 minutes ago, Unstoppablejayd said:

I like mine better

https://www.comicartfans.com/gallerypiece.asp?piece=1584690

 

Such a braggart. 

That is a great page!

[Unstoppablejayd]

3 minutes ago, Blastaar said:

Such a braggart. 

That is a great page!

 not at all.. the one you posted just made me think of mine, because I believe they are the same issue. I was a big fan of the Valentino Guardians when is was coming out. I call him the forgotten Image founder, but some on here take offense to that. 

[Spidey 62]

I have a Jim Valentino con art that I got at Baltimore about 10 years ago.  I really like it. 

 

[Twanj]

I'm a big fan too. Guardians was a fun series!

https://www.comicartfans.com/gallerypiece.asp?piece=1335690

Edited March 6, 2020 by Twanj

[Dick O.]

Yeah Valentino is the forgotten Image founder. OA price-wise too - there's the skyrocketing Image5 late-'80s/early-'90s Marvel works (with Whilce X-stuff also rising) - then Jim's languishing GotG OA.

 

[Blastaar]

What’s interesting is that the lack of pages should drive the cost up on his OA. The page I bought below I thought was a steal at $200 but after a quick HA search I see it sold for $140 a couple years ago. The guardians of the galaxy  run has always been held in high regard by readers but it’s shocking to see the prices remain so low or flat for the series. 
And from everything I’ve read on the start of Image it sounds like it would not have succeeded without his guidance and business knowledge.

 

Edited March 6, 2020 by Blastaar

[Unstoppablejayd]

20 minutes ago, Blastaar said:

What’s interesting is that the lack of pages should drive the cost up on his OA. The page I bought below I thought was a steal at $200 but after a quick HA search I see it sold for $140 a couple years ago. The guardians of the galaxy  run has always been held in high regard by readers but it’s shocking to see the prices remain so low or flat for the series. 
And from everything I’ve read on the start of Image it sounds like it would not have succeeded without his guidance and business knowledge.

 

My theory on this is that he did not stay relative or main stream like the others.. nor the characters these guardians not the movie ones. The other image founders were on the X books.. or Spidey for the most part

[exitmusicblue]

Loved ShadowHawk as a kid... it was like Sin City PG-13.

[jjonahjameson11]

9 hours ago, O. said:

Yeah Valentino is the forgotten Image founder. OA price-wise too - there's the skyrocketing Image5 late-'80s/early-'90s Marvel works (with Whilce X-stuff also rising) - then Jim's languishing GotG OA.

 

This!

I had to double check my memory when I saw Jim Valentino's name in this post.  I knew that I recognized it from somewhere, but it took a while to make the connection with Image, and Shadowhawk, which is kind of odd considering I was the right age to embrace the launch of Image (still in school, but with a steady income from my part-time job, and few expenses to get in the way of my comics purchases).

Personally, Valentino was the least familiar of the Image founders.  I had no idea what he worked on previously, but since it wasn't Spidey/Hulk/X-Men, I suppose I didn't really seek out his work. 

Is he still a prominent figure in modern comics or do we classify him in the "where are they now" category

[Catwoman_Fan]

9 hours ago, jjonahjameson11 said:

 

Is he still a prominent figure in modern comics or do we classify him in the "where are they now" category

Wikipedia tells me that he was Image president, before Erik Larsen, from 1999 - 2004.  He brought diversity to image (not just superheroes) highlighted by publishing Kirkman on both The Walking Dead and Invincible. 

Currently he heads his own division of Image, Shadowline, Inc., which publishes Rat Queens, Memoirs of A Very Stable Genius and more. and more. He serves on the Board of Directors of the Hero Initiative

Also, he's 10 to 15 years older (!!) than the other Image creators, so it's possibly he's slowed down/moved on from penciling.  

Edited March 6, 2020 by Catwoman_Fan
adding age difference