Several months ago, I was visiting my local library and I decided to check out some graphic novels. While I was perusing that section, I noticed the Rai graphic novel and I just had to pick it up. During that moment, I was transported back into time.
Back in the 90’s we had a local comic shop called Comic Haven. I had seen advertisements for the upcoming crossover known as Unity in Wizard magazine. In preparation, I picked up a copy of Rai #4. Rai #4 had a terrible cover with some egg shaped robot, looked kinda lame in retrospect. But my comic buying world was changed suddenly.
I found that Valiant comics wasn’t afraid to use a little blood in their comics. Everything was very vivid, but not quite as polished as DC and Marvel comics. They made up for it with the storytelling that was going on and I was loving it. At a time where mutants were the thing, this was a change.
Sadly, I realized I had been seeing Valiant comics longer than that as the video rental area at my local Cub Foods had been selling Magnus and Solar the whole time and I had been missing out. I recall wondering why these heroes came back, because I knew they were old heroes brought back. I figured if nobody read them before, who would read this stuff. I didn’t even give it a shot. To be fair I was like 12 or something, so my judgment wasn’t that great.
I ended up recently visiting eBay and buying nice big lots of old Valiant comics for next to nothing. Wow, I was so hooked again! Such great, fantastic stories! Not only that, but I have kids now and I wanted to hook them on comic book heroes so they would grow up true nerds, so I looked at it as an investment as they grow older. I also finally recovered my comic collection from my dad.
The comic book hobby that I once abandoned was now back with a vengeance. I’ve read tons of comics to catch up with the important stuff that I missed. I continue to read classics and have some select titles that I collect now. But one site stood out to me the whole time. ValiantFans.com was dedicated to people like me, looking to find out more about their favorite, but extinct, publisher.
Let me tell you something about ValiantFans.com, you can go there and it’s a community! People who remember something great and are still out there enjoying their comics. There are some great resources, you can find out about the down and dirty history of Valiant and find all the print runs, etc. It is really a great for all things Valiant comics related.
I’ve long been a reader of the message boards there as well and boy, is there some great information and topics. It’s a true comic book community. Some users sell things there, some discuss other comics, some talk about different Valiant ventures, Dead Universe in Comicdom, tons of great stuff. So many topics and forums, you just have to check it out!
My re-obsession with comics I blame squarely on ValiantFans.com. So if you loved those old issues like I did, this is a great place. Heck, if you’re a fan of comics in general, this is still a brilliant place! Check it out!
