Valiant Comics was formed in 1990 by former Marvel Editor-In-Chief and legendary writer Jim Shooter. Shooter left Marvel to co-create Valiant characters and the Valiant universe with top comic book creators from Marvel (Bob Layton, Barry Windsor Smith, etc.).
Valiant stormed onto the market with stories of unequaled quality and quickly became an industry leader. During the 1990s, a period which saw more competition in the market than ever before as many new publishers sprang up, Valiant Comics sold more than 80 million comic books, and became the third industry giant in the newly formed 'big three' (as opposed to the previous 'big two' of Marvel and DC) and was awarded Publisher of the Year.
In 1994, Valiant Comics was bought for $65 million by video game giant Acclaim Entertainment (the company responsible for the Mortal Kombat franchise). Acclaim marginalized the comic book publishing division and focused on mining the Valiant properties for video games. Acclaim sold approximately 10 million video games featuring Valiant characters including the Turok and Shadowman franchises. In 2000, after sustaining heavy losses from its sports games, Acclaim discontinued comic book publishing and other non core businesses.
Valiant Comics is the third most recognizable universe of characters in comics. The rapid rise of Valiant can be attributed to both the quality of its stories and the flawed realism of its characters. Valiant Comics have been praised by many in the industry as superior examples of comic stories and continuity. A pivotal event for Valiant was the 1992 Unity storyline, which has resulted in the term "pre-Unity" to describe the earliest Valiant comics produced before the Unity event. About 50 comics comprise the pre-Unity issues of Valiant comics.
Collectors who have recently re-discovered Valiant might be interested to find out more about What Happened to Valiant? since the mid-1990s.
In addition to the database of comic book cover scans and issue information, VALIANTcomics.com also maintains an online price guide using average sales compiled from eBay auctions.
Since 1999, the VALIANTcomics.com website has grown through the contributions of other collectors. There are dozens and dozens of web pages available here, please take your time exploring the website and learning more.
The goal of VALIANTcomics.com is to continue to provide comprehensive information on the internet to Valiant collectors around the world. To better serve this purpose, VALIANTcomics.com is also home to Message Boards allowing continuous dialogue between those new collectors who've recently discovered Valiant, those who've been actively collecting from the beginning, and everyone else in between.
Valiant's first logo appeared on its licensed products (Nintendo and Wrestling comics) before being seen on its superhero line. In May 1991, the logo first appeared on a superhero comic when it appeared on Magnus Robot Fighter #1 but without a comic box. In January 1992, the logo first appeared in a comic box on Solar #5 and Magnus #8.
In November 1992, Valiant updated its logo changing the typeface from a fancy script to a thick bold script. This change occurred only two months after the end of the successful Unity crossover and on the back of the departure of Jim Shooter.
Immediately after the Chaos Effect crossover the logo was updated again. The type face was kept but the wording was changed to "Valiant Presents. The compass logo was diminished in size and moved from below the text.
After the sale to Acclaim Entertainment Inc. for $65 million, the logo was completely revamped. The compass logo was replaced by a large letter "V" that appeared above the wording "Valiant", which appeared in a new type face.
To coincide with the Acclaim Comics relaunch another completely revamped logo was created. This logo signified the synergy between Acclaim and Valiant, merging the letters "A" and "V" into one logo with the wording "Acclaim Comics Valiant Heroes".
Most recently, the compass logo has reappeared along with a variation of the original type face. The only major change is the addition of the wording "Entertainment".
References: http://www.valiantcomics.com/
http://www.answers.com/topic/valiant-comics
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