Comments on: Valiant Comic Book Alphabet of Cool - A

By: Hondo

Hondo — Sun, 27 Apr 2008 03:50:34 +0000

I've never known anyone to have read the original BWS A&A issues and not love 'em.

They're a classic team and a great buddy book. Hopefully we'll see more of them along with Eternal Warrior, maybe in a combined title more like Acclaim did with the Eternal Warriors series of one-shots.

Oh I hope against hope that BWS could somehow in any way be involved with the revived Valiant that's coming.

By: Michael Sacal

Michael Sacal — Thu, 24 Apr 2008 15:50:47 +0000

For more information on this and other VALIANT comics, check out the Official VALIANT Universe Wiki at http://www.valiantentertainment.com/wiki/index.php/Main_Page

By: Derek J. Goodman

Derek J. Goodman — Tue, 22 Apr 2008 20:46:10 +0000

Actually, I wan't entirely joking. Valiant's Nintendo comics came out when I was at just the right age to think they were completely awesome.

By: Lynxara

Lynxara — Tue, 22 Apr 2008 06:54:43 +0000

Actually, the Captain N comic is regarded as quite cool in some highly nostalgic circles-- since it jettisoned the cartoon's embarrassing take on Castlevania in favor of a rather awesome take on Metroid.

By: Andrew-TLA

Andrew-TLA — Tue, 22 Apr 2008 05:20:15 +0000

Quantum can be listed under what Woody almost always called him: "Eric".

By: Zach Adams

Zach Adams — Mon, 21 Apr 2008 22:57:38 +0000

Nah. What we really need is Steve Ditko's slumming on WWF comics. Of course, then we couldn't have Quantum and Woody get separate entries.

By: "Archer and Armstrong" at CBR

"Archer and Armstrong" at CBR — Mon, 21 Apr 2008 22:40:20 +0000

[...] Cronin at Comics Should Be Good at Comic Book Resources started a new “Comic Alphabet of Cool,” this time focusing on [...]

By: Brian Cronin

Brian Cronin — Mon, 21 Apr 2008 21:31:20 +0000

I've considered it, Derek.

By: Derek J. Goodman

Derek J. Goodman — Mon, 21 Apr 2008 19:37:31 +0000

A Valiant alphabet, huh? Does this mean Captain N is going to be on here?

By: Keith B

Keith B — Mon, 21 Apr 2008 17:17:54 +0000

Brian, kudos to you for doing this. Valiant was an odd bird in that it was caught up in the speculation frenzy of the early 90's, but at least at first the reason for it was the excellent stories that were being told. It was a shared universe done right. That didn't last long, of course, as some of the principals saw the potential dollar signs and quite literally sold the company out. With 8-10 books or so, having one or two major menaces at a time that impacted the entire line worked. But they expanded too rapidly, lost some of their best writers and artists (including Jim Shooter, BWS and David Lapham).

In any event, their early stuff is definitely worth being celebrated. Hopefully the new Valiant and pick up the legacy and bring out some really strong new stuff. Their collections to date (Harbinger and X-O Manowar) were some great comics and I encourage you all to give them a shot.

Maurice Fontenot is a name I remember fondly from the Valiant era, and I'm glad to see he stopped by this thread. I hope that the new Valiant gets the "band" back together and you end up with them!

By: Maurice F

Maurice F — Mon, 21 Apr 2008 16:45:46 +0000

Cool, a little A&A love. I worked at Valiant Comics for many years and had the pleasure of coloring A&A #0-12 (I moved on to writing and editing after that), and it was a delight working with BWS. Not only a great artist, but a fantastic human being.

By: Bill Reed

Bill Reed — Mon, 21 Apr 2008 15:05:34 +0000

More comics need beer tie-ins.

By: Craig

Craig — Mon, 21 Apr 2008 14:51:05 +0000

I don't mean to nitpick, but...

1) A&A/Eternal Warrior #8 was a flipbook. Everything you said up there was true, but what you didn't say could lead people to believe that they were the same book with two different covers.

2) According to http://www.valiantcomics.com, the Armstrong Ale (along with Darque Brew) was sent as a gift to dealers in 1994, after A&A was cancelled! The final issue of A&A, number 26, was another Eternal Warrior flipbook and had an October 1994 cover date.

http://www.valiantcomics.com/valiant/valiantmiscitem.asp?id=192 is the direct link to the Holiday Brew page.

By: GarBut

GarBut — Mon, 21 Apr 2008 14:46:49 +0000

This will be an, ahem, Valiant effort indeed Brian.

Any NYC-based GUD fans out there who can check in on Brian and make sure he didn't catch a fever at the Con?

By: wwk5d

wwk5d — Mon, 21 Apr 2008 14:33:43 +0000

Valiant had some good stuff, done in a 'real' way...more real than much of the stuff being passed off now as 'realistic'. Most of the early stuff is really good, but as someone mentioned, there were a lack of diversity among the villains in that there weren't enough of them. Still, 'Unity' was a great crossover.

By: Tomer S

Tomer S — Mon, 21 Apr 2008 13:51:24 +0000

My only experience with Valiant was Shadowman #0 and I wasn't impressed at all.

Some of the other books (like Archer & Armstrong) I looked through in a quarter bin at a local book store couple of years ago. Again, wasn't impressed.

By: Jeff Ryan

Jeff Ryan — Mon, 21 Apr 2008 12:50:22 +0000

I was a casual Valient reader, and noticed a glut of heroes without neough villains to fight. Bloodshot, Ninjak, Hard CORPS (Excellent idea ofr a team book, BTW) : invarianbly they'd all fight the Spider-Aliens for two issues or so, and then they'd fight the Turok dinosaurs for a bit. I'm all for shared universes, but it seemed a bit much.

By: Andrew

Andrew — Mon, 21 Apr 2008 10:56:54 +0000

I picked up a few issues of this recently fro ma second-hand bookstore (only for BWS' art) and found it really enjoyable. I missed the Valiant bus back when they were "hot" but can highly recommend the first dozen or so issues of this series.

It'd make a great animated series.