Mags - Comic Shop News: Valiant Special

Found a scan of another edition of Comic Shop News that features a Valiant Comics cover. Last time it was #499 with a Quantum & Woody cover, this time its the Valiant Special Edition of Comic Shop News. Check it out:

The interior is the usual compilation of interviews, promotional art and announcements of new products. There are a few bits and pieces of interest and I'll be posting them soon.

Original Art - Bloodshot #7 cover

Another scan of black and white ink art for the collection. This time the cover to Bloodshot #7 featuring the first appearance of Ninjak in costume. Check it out:

And here is the cover as printed:

What's interesting about the comparison is that you can see that the original art wasn't tall enough and that the colorist had to extend the art to make space for the title and price box. Note the painted style and lack of ink lines in the leaves above the title.

Wizard Top Ten - Wizard #17: Valiant has seven in ten!

 Incredible. I can see Marvel Comics placing seven books in the top ten with a couple of Spider-Man books, a few X-Men books, an Iron Man, an Avengers and maybe a Captain America. It would take a real event for DC to get close to seven. But Valiant? Well it happened.

Valiant had Magnus Robot Fighter #12 (the first appearance of Turok: Dinosaur Hunter), Bloodshot #1, Eternal Warrior #4 (the first appearance of Bloodshot), Rai #4, Rai #3, Harbinger #4 and Shadowman #8 (the first appearance of Master Darque).

Credit to www.ValiantEntertainment.com for the scan.

Magnus Robot Figher Pin / Badge (SDCC 2010)

After searching for months and months, I finally got my hands on one of the Magnus Robot Fighter freebie giveaway pins that were being handed out by Dark Horse Comics at the San Diego Comic Con this year.  I've heard that while there were tons of bags of free Solar, Man of the Atom badges there was only one small bag of Magnus ones.  No one else I know has one.

Anyway, I had to pay $30 for it and wanted to ask what every out there thought. Did I get ripped off? Does anyone else even have one?

I've updated my San Diego Comic Con 2010 report to include a picture of the badge - yes, until now I didn't even have a picture of one!

UPDATE: Verdict is in and its unanimous...I got ripped off...

Valiant Quality Apparel

Valiant Comics and Planet Studios partnered for a number of years producing a line of very high quality Valiant Comics clothing (my favorite being the Valiant Comics logo baseball hat). As far as I know there is no master list of exactly what was produced. I'm going to attempt to compile such a list (with pictures) here. Bookmark this blog post as it will constantly be updated.

Credit to Sonic Dan's Valiant Webpage for the scan.

Mags - Hero Illustrated #1

Hero Illustrated is the magazine that tried to give Wizard Magazine a run for its money by spending crazy amounts on advertising and giving away the most valuable comics in history - the first issue came with a scratch and win card that automatically awarded prizes ranging from Harbinger #1 with coupon (the most in demand issue of the modern era as Hero Illustrated called it) to Amazing Spider-Man #1 (the most in demand issue of the silver era as Hero Illustrated called it).

The inaugural issue of Hero Illustrated featured a pretty amazing foil embossed (remember those days?) Second Life of Doctor Mirage cover.

And a cool article about the series.

Credit to www.ValiantEntertainment.com for the scans.

Wizard Top Ten - Wizard #31: Ninjak is #1

Growing up I used to live for the next issue of Wizard Magazine - yes, there was a time when Wizard wasn't a POS! My favorite part of a new issue was the "Top Ten Comics of the Month". Maybe that's why I love Valiant Comics so much, because when Wizard was good Valiant dominated the top ten. Every now and then I'm going to showcase a scan from the article, today I've got a scan of numbers 1 - 4 from Wizard Magazine #31.

As you can see the number one hottest comic in the world back then was Ninjak #1. It was even more popular than the hologram cover Wolverine issue where he gets his adamantium pulled out! (It's weird to think back to a time before we knew Wolvie had bone claws...)

Credit to www.ValiantEntertainment.com for the scan.