Valiant Comics Has Me Worried

Do you remember Tekno Comics? No, nobody does. And if the management of the new incarnation of Valiant Comics isn't careful, that company also will find itself in the deep Sargasso of Trivia Question Fodder.

 Tekno Comics burst onto the scene in 1995 with great talents like Neil Gaiman and Bill Sienkiewicz in their stable, but the airplane never got a chance to take flight. They were distracted. They gave a free t-shirt to all passersby at the Chicago Comicon that year and, as I clenched one of those shirts in my fist I said to myself, What are they thinking? So engrossed were they in promotion, Tekno Comics never sufficiently focused on the comics they were producing.


Yesterday's New York Times had an article about Valiant Comics on page 1 of its Business Day section, and the subtitle read "Revived Comics Publisher Stakes Its Future on Movies." Huh? We're talking about a comic book company here, right? They should be staking their future on producing the best furshlugginer comic books that ever rolled off a printing press, because then the cinematic chips will fall favorably for them.


Are the new Valiant Comics any good? We'll see. I have written already that I found Harbinger to be excellent, but I found X-O Manowar to be fluffier than a cloud of cotton candy and I afterward resented having paid $2.99 for it. Bloodshot #1 comes out this week and Archer and Armstrong comes around next month.


Near the end of the article a Valiant executive says "Readers are very discerning, and they are not looking for a movie pitch in comic book form." Yet the article ends with another Valiant executive saying "What matters is the quality of the movie you make." Huh? Maybe these two guys should have a meeting to decide whether they are a comic book company or a movie producer because I'm hearing two different songs there.