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So what's your story? I'm Greg Holland. In addition to authoring this website (and others), my "day job" is in research and information quality for a corporation specializing in consumer and business data. It is important to note that I am not and have not been affiliated with VALIANT/Voyager Communications, Inc., Acclaim Entertainment, Inc, or Valiant Entertainment, Inc. Voyager Communications, Inc., produced Valiant Comics 1991-1994, and the company ceased to exist in 1994 when it was purchased by Acclaim, Ent. "Valiant Comics" were no longer produced after 1996, newer comics were "Acclaim Comics". This website is a "fan site" and not officially endorsed by any publisher, past or present. The purpose is to provide reference information for collectors of Valiant comics, with some references to the other comics produced before and after 1991-1996. MY VALIANT STORY I've collected different things since about 1988, mostly sportscards, comic books, and action figures. In 1992, I bought my first Valiant comic book right off the stand... It was Rai #0. I was impressed by the story... I've always enjoyed time-travel themes, so the "past, present and future" presented in the comic was intriguing. Like most others at the time, I had missed almost 2 years of Valiant comics. When I started searching for those issues that I had missed, I found that they were hard to come by. Price guides indicated that early Valiant issues were hard to find everywhere. These "Pre-Unity" Valiant books were in demand for 3 main reasons. 1. They were the stories that many people had missed. 2. They were the first issues of these Valiant comics. 3. They were not produced in large quantities like Marvel and DC books of that day. I bought all the "current" Valiant titles in 1993, and I found a few of the older issues, mostly from the Unity storyline. But I didn't have the money or even a source for building my collection of 1991 and early 1992 Valiant comics. In late-1993, when I felt like many stories weren't worth reading anymore... and when the comics I just bought for $3 were now in the bargain bin for 50cents each, I couldn't take it anymore. I still couldn't buy those early Valiant comics that I wanted. They were still $20, $50, $100... I gave up on Valiant. Although I wasn't buying comics, I was watching the comic book industry. It became apparent very quickly that the story was not the driving force in the popularity of the comics... Art was the seller. More specifically: flashy, seductive, variant cover art. Was anyone reading these comics? No. I guess everything has ups and downs... It was definitely a "down time" for reading comics. Through-out the mid-1990s, I checked in the comics industry... The "latest greatest" comics with the most scantily-clad females still ruled the market. When I looked again at Valiant, to see what happened to them... Valiant as a company was gone, and Acclaim owned all the rights. The original stories had stopped in 1996, and many weren't as good after those magical early years... Then I looked again at the prices... Not only had the 1993-and-later Valiants dropped in price... But the 1991 and 1992 issues dropped in price as well! It was time... Starting late in 1998, I began buying all those early Valiants that I couldn't afford 5 years earlier. Through my local comic shop, through national dealers, and mainly through online auctions, I have built my Valiant collection into one of the best that money can buy... (And it wasn't a lot of money either...) When I couldn't find a lot of information about Valiant comics online, I decided to start a website of Valiant Reference information... Though it is a few years late...the website idea grew from the early Valiant contests asking fans to "Do Something To Promote Valiant". In June of 1999, I registered the ValiantComics.com domain name, and with the help of many fellow collectors, I have steadily added pages, graphics, and databases to the site. In 2004, I registered the ValiantFans.com domain name to provide the community messageboard with a better webhosting platform. I love reading and re-reading the earliest books in my Valiant collection, especially issues from Magnus #1 (May 1991 issue) to Rai #0 (Nov 1992). That's about 100 comics... and let me tell you, those are great stories. Since you've found this website, you probably already knew that. When "reading your comics" becomes popular again, people may finally realize that the "latest, greatest comics" are really just the "latest comics". "Great" doesn't happen everyday. Throughout the 20th century, there were thousands of great comic stories. Some of those great comics now cost as much as a car or a house. But a few of those great stories are from 1991 and 1992. GOT VALIANT? |