The Blood of Heroes

April 9, 2004 1:03 PM

Valiant Comics are Back! After a brief surge in popularity and value at the start of 1991, Valiant comics soon died during the great comic crash of the mid nineties. Now it seems that valiant comics are worth their weight in gold with comics worth only a few dollars (or less) a few years ago, now bringing in 200 dollars. Is this surge in price a sign of a new comic book crash or are collectors finally finding value in Turock and Man-O-War?
posted by drpartypoopercrankypantsesquire (17 comments total)

I don't know that much about comics, but I do know that eBay prices for those slabbed CGC numbers have always been ludicrous.

(Like the candle at both ends, I don't think this thread will last the night.)
posted by blueshammer at 1:10 PM on April 9, 2004

Hell, if Rob Liefeld's back on X-Force, anything's possible.

And terrible.
posted by ice_cream_motor at 1:14 PM on April 9, 2004

Also- check the ongoing CGC Hall of Shame.
posted by ice_cream_motor at 1:16 PM on April 9, 2004

got, valiant comics were so horrible...

and rob liefeld? while yes, he created my favorite marvel character of all time (cable), he also recreated the same damn character about 20 more times while on Image...
posted by lotsofno at 1:26 PM on April 9, 2004

got = god.

oh yeah.
posted by lotsofno at 1:27 PM on April 9, 2004

Rob Liefeld = tiny feet, a million pouches, impossible (under the laws of science -- even comic book science) guns.
posted by owillis at 1:29 PM on April 9, 2004

On Liefeld: "looking at where 'John's' feet would most likely end, his pal is probably buried about three feet in the sidewalk. Not to mention that his gargantuan arms would easily scrape pavement were they ever in a relaxed position. AND on top of all of this, the stoop on which Bucky sits appears to go up about one story, officially making it the largest stoop I've ever seen ... and if that IS the entrance to their building, then having the stairs go up to the second floor kind of defeats the purpose of having first-floor apartments. " (from Gone and Forgotten)

Valiant Comics had some good stuff (e.g., Archer & Armstrong). And they had some bad stuff (e.g., Jim Shooter).
posted by yerfatma at 1:44 PM on April 9, 2004

god how i hate rob liefeld.
posted by sunexplodes at 4:37 PM on April 9, 2004

Personally I was a big fan of Rai. I keep meaning to buy some back issues, maybe I should have got around to it sooner.
posted by BackwardsHatClub at 4:42 PM on April 9, 2004

Valiant Days, Valiant Nights -- An insightful look back at Valiant Comics from boom to bust. Loaded with quotes from people who were there.
posted by samh23 at 10:16 PM on April 9, 2004

I first came across Rob Liefeld when I collected the X-Tinction Agenda crossover. My 8th grade brain couldn't help but think "doesn't he know that he's supposed to erase some of those lines?"
posted by drezdn at 10:17 PM on April 9, 2004

hey i got a bunch of these comics that i bought a like 3-5 years ago for like 1 dollar for 10 of them at a local comic book store. any chance any one of these might be worth something or very unlikely? most of them are valient but some are superman, spiderman and misc.
posted by spidre at 11:22 PM on April 9, 2004

What is the CGC for those of us that don't know? How do you get your comic stamped by them?
posted by banished at 5:51 AM on April 10, 2004

Rob Liefeld showed me that anyone can draw comics. It doesn't have to be anatomically accurate, (hell, what comics are?), but it doesn't even have to look cool. Inspirational, in a negative way.
posted by Miles Long at 12:28 PM on April 10, 2004

When Valient became Acclaim Comics or whatever, they published my favorite comic ever, Quantum and Woody.

I wish that book was still around...
posted by hughbot at 4:21 PM on April 10, 2004

I was a big Valiant Comics fan. The best were the Archer and Armstrong comics -- been a fan of artist Barry Windsor-Smith's work since.

Quality stuff.
posted by nakedgremlin at 8:42 PM on April 10, 2004

Back when I was publishing my own comic, and funding a couple others, we used to run into Rob at trade shows all the time. He was an arrogant little no-talent hack, as far as I was concerned. Never made any sense to me that he made it big, and some of the guys doing much better drawn and scripted independents didn't.

It's always sad to see commercialism trump true artistry.
posted by dejah420 at 1:58 PM on April 12, 2004