Valiant Market - X-O Manowar #1 page 27

A new post in my series on recent interesting Valiant sales (you can find the first in the series here, the second here and the third here). These posts are meant to track original art sales of pages that are in high demand and appear very rarely such as pages from UNITY or Deathmate Prologue, splash pages etc. Today, we have something a little different. No doubt that page 27 of X-O Manowar #1 by Barry Windsor-Smith is sought after. But we've seen pages from this (over-sized, meaning more pages available) book before, and Barry Windsor-Smith Valiant art is available quite readily from his dealer. X-O Manowar pages are very easy to obtain and while this page is absolutely beautiful it is not particularly exciting. So why am I featuring this page. I'll give you 1,525 reasons but first check out the page:

Yup, this page just sold for $1,525 on ebay. That is by far the highest price I have ever seen for an interior page of Valiant Barry Windsor-Smith art. Higher than his splash pages have sold for. More than double this Deathmate page he did with Jim Lee. Almost double this UNITY page, which is more exciting, from a more important book and is one of just 16.

So what happened? I think it's pretty clear that Valiant Comics return to publishing in 2012 is having a big effect on the market. It doesn't hurt that Valiant recently debuted the new look of X-O Manowar:

I would be remiss if I didn't mention that the lack of yellowing, the action and the fact that the page is signed all would have helped the price. Nevertheless $1,525 is well above the market.

Valiant Comics FCBD 2012 Edition Announced!!!!

so tired...but this just popped up online. IT. IS. AWESOME!

analysis coming later

VALIANT COMICS Announces FREE COMIC BOOK DAY Special

Valiant Entertainment is proud to announce its first ever Free Comic Book Day release – the Valiant Comics FCBD 2012 Edition!

On May 5th, get the inside track on the year’s most groundbreaking comic book event with this exclusive look at the all-new Valiant Comics! X-O Manowar! Bloodshot! Harbinger! Some of the best-selling heroes of all time return this Free Comic Book Day, just as all-new #1 issues of Valiant Comics begin arriving in stores!

"This has been an event a decade in the making, and we're approaching this with dedication, passion and a commitment to excellence," said Executive Editor Warren Simons. "We've lined up some colossally talented colleagues – both new and old friends alike – and if you have a love for great comics and innovative stories, we've got some great stuff in store for you.”

Featuring a cover of the brand new X-O Manowar by superstar artist Jelena Kevic-Djurdjevic, this sneak peek into Valiant’s extraordinary first year comes packed with never-before-seen stories, character redesigns, and interviews with Valiant’s team of visionary creators.

"We couldn't be happier to be partnering with comics retailers, Diamond and ComicsPro for Free Comic Book Day 2012, the most exciting day in comics," said Publisher Fred Pierce. "In 2012, fans and retailers can expect some of the best books in all of comics to be shipping monthly from Valiant."

Valiant's Free Comic Book Day special edition is just the first title that the publisher has lined up for the month of May. Look for announcements regarding the full array of new titles, creative teams, and shipping dates to be released in the New Year.

"Free Comic Book Day is just the beginning," said Valiant Chief Creative Officer Dinesh Shamdasani. "For anyone who loves comics and top-notch storytelling, the return of the Valiant Universe will be an event not to be missed."

Valiant Entertainment is a character-based publishing and licensing company that owns and controls some of the most cherished comic characters ever created across all media worldwide. Since their creation in 1989, Valiant characters have sold 80 million comic books and have been the basis of a number of successful video game franchises. Valiant’s extensive library includes over 1,500 characters, such as X-O Manowar, Bloodshot, Harbinger, Shadowman, and Ninjak. Visit:
ValiantUniverse.com.
www.facebook.com/ValiantComics
www.twitter.com/ValiantComics

Valiant Secret Tumblr: Harada?

I promised more analysis of the secret Valiant Comics Tumblr so here it is!

The latest post on the Man of War Tumblr (posted Nov 23rd 2011) is the image below:

Tres interesting no?  Okay, so what do we see?  

Cork Board:

The top half looks to be some kind of cork board with several items tacked onto it.  The most prominent is the top half of a head that looks to belong to a new version of Toyo Harada. It's hard to say for sure because he's missing his trademark white stripes of hair but he does sport slanty Asian eyes (racist!). If it is him, he now has a new close cropped haircut (quite befitting a high powered CEO in today's world) and has been illustrated in a pretty cool photo realistic style! To the right of the Toyo Harada illustration is what looks to be a copy of Shadowman #13. Check out the cover below and compare the logos and color scheme:

Lastly, the very top of the photograph shows something that has a white background and what looks to be red blood dripping in the image. I have no idea WTF that is...please email any guesses. There is also a yellow tack and a page from a lined yellow legal pad on the board but I don't see anything particularly exciting about either.

Computer

The bottom half is of a average looking computer (Mac laptop? Notice the Mac icons on the top right of the screen) with an older version of Microsoft Word open and a file named 112111.dox displayed. The only thing we can see from the files contents is: "RBING". 

So what does the 112111 file name mean? I'm going to guess that it's a date and not a catalog number. If that's true it refers to the date November 21st 2011 -- just 3 days before the photo was posted on the blog. And what does the RBING mean? Probably part of the word HARBINGER (dun dun dun!). So can we surmise that this document is a pitch of script for Harbinger and was turned in to Valiant on November the 21st? It would certainly make sense if the slanty eye'd dude (racist!) on top was Toyo Harada.

Conclusions

Whatever the main image is, it looks damn interesting and pretty freaking cool. Also, the Man of War Tumblr continues to provide a surprising and mysterious look into the work being done by Valiant Comics for the 2012 return of comic books.

Stay tuned for more analysis of previous posts. I'm looking forward to searching them for clues.