Voyager Communications Steven J. Massarsky became acquainted with former editor-in-chief of
Marvel Comics Jim Shooter when he hired him to write the script for an unproduced live-action
Spider-Man television series. As the two worked together on the show, Massarsky floated the idea of Shooter starting his own comic company with the two cementing a partnership between themselves and Winston Fowlkes who had a finance background. They submitted the second-highest bid, with financier
Ronald Perelman submitting the highest bid and acquiring Marvel. Shooter and Massarsky instead formed Voyager Communications in 1989 with significant
venture capital financing from Triumph Capital. Through a
handshake agreement with Richard A. Bernstein of
Western Publishing, Shooter managed to secure the rights to characters from
Dell and
Gold Key Comics such as
Magnus, Robot Fighter,
Dr. Solar. and
Turok: Son of Stone. However, Shooter left Valiant by the end of 1992. According to Massarsky, "Jim had a different idea as to the direction of the company, and he was asked to leave." Valiant also engaged in several comic book-marketing innovations common in the 1990s, such as issue zero "origin" issues, the gold logo program, coupons redeemable for original comic books, and chromium covers. Following the conclusion of the "
Unity" crossover in September 1992, Valiant released
Bloodshot,
Ninjak,
H.A.R.D. Corps,
The Second Life of Dr. Mirage, and
Timewalker, among other titles.
Acclaim Comics In 1994, Voyager Communications was purchased by video game developer and publisher
Acclaim Entertainment for $65 million.
Acclaim Comics created a number of video games based on Valiant properties, such as
Shadow Man,
Turok: Dinosaur Hunter,
Armorines: Project S.W.A.R.M., and
Iron Man and X-O Manowar in Heavy Metal, which featured Valiant's X-O Manowar alongside Marvel's
Iron Man. In 2004, after losing a major sports video game license, Acclaim became financially insolvent and filed for Chapter 7 bankruptcy. DreamWorks itself was bought by
Universal Studios on August 22, 2016.
Valiant Entertainment in Manhattan In 2005, a group of entrepreneurs led by Dinesh Shamdasani and Jason Kothari raised financing and acquired the rights to the Valiant Comics library from Acclaim Entertainment's estate, forming Valiant Entertainment. Two of the three collections were named among "The Ten Best Collected Editions" of their respective years of publications.. In 2011, Valiant announced that it had received a capital investment from Cuneo & Company. Former Marvel Comics CEO and Vice Chairman
Peter Cuneo was named Valiant's Chairman and Gavin Cuneo became CFO and COO. Valiant then hired former Marvel editor Warren Simons as Executive Editor and former President of Wizard, Magazine, Fred Pierce, as Publisher. In 2012, Valiant Entertainment began publishing new monthly comic books based on the Valiant Comics universe of characters. In an event dubbed The Summer of Valiant in 2012, Valiant Entertainment launched the Valiant Comics universe with four ongoing titles,
X-O Manowar,
Harbinger,
Bloodshot and
Archer & Armstrong, one launching each month for four months.
X-O Manowar premiered May 2, 2012, with the creative team of writer
Robert Venditti and artist
Cary Nord. The first issue of
X-O Manowar received over 42,000 preorders, making Valiant the largest new publisher launch in over a decade, and 3 additional reduced-priced printings. The release of
X-O Manowar was followed by
Harbinger, launched in June 2012 by writer
Joshua Dysart and artist Khari Evans;
Bloodshot, launched in July 2012 by writer
Duane Swierczynski and artist Manuel Garcia; and
Archer & Armstrong, launched in August 2012 by writer
Fred Van Lente and artist
Clayton Henry. To coincide with the launch of publishing in 2012, Valiant introduced the
Pullbox Program, which encourages readers to start a pull box subscription for the title being launched with their comics store to obtain an exclusive alternate cover version of the comic, and the
QR Voice Variant, where the reader's smartphone, after scanning a QR code on the cover of the comic, plays a video of the figure's mouth, giving the impression that the figure has come to life and is talking to the reader. Valiant Entertainment extended The Summer of Valiant 2012 event and added a fifth ongoing title with
Shadowman in November 2012 by writer
Justin Jordan and artist
Patrick Zircher. The comic debuted as the number 1, non-Marvel and/or DC comic of the month. That month, Valiant announced it would exclusively distribute its digital comics through ComiXology (later acquired by Amazon). That March, Valiant and Kamite Announced a partnership for Spanish language publishing in Mexico.
Quantum & Woody, written by
James Asmus and drawn by
Tom Fowler, launched in July 2013, and became the most-nominated title at the 2014 Harvey Awards. That November, Amazon announced a new license from Valiant Entertainment for its Kindle Worlds platform, Ongoing series such as
X-O Manowar,
Unity, and
Rai continued, and were coupled with limited series such as
Harbinger: Omegas,
Eternal Warrior: Days of Steel,
The Death-Defying Dr. Mirage and
The Delinquents. In December 2013, Valiant announced the 2014 "Armor Hunters" crossover storyline, consisting of a four-issue
Armor Hunter mini-series and issues of
XO-Manowar and
Unity. In April 2014, Valiant announced several new partnerships with digital distributors, including
Visionbooks, to distribute a form of animated Valiant comic books for digital devices. That August, Valiant joined Madefire digital comics on iOS and Android for day-and-date digital releases and digital collections, For the summer of 2015, Valiant announced the event miniseries
Book of Death, accompanied by one-shots
Book of Death: The Fall of Bloodshot,
Book of Death: The Fall of Ninjak,
Book of Death: The Fall of Harbinger and
Book of Death: The Fall of X-O Manowar and the miniseries
Book of Death: Legends of the Geomancer.
Book of Death was one of the best-reviewed comics of the year and the biggest selling independent crossover event of the decade. In 2015, Valiant renewed its print distribution agreement with Diamond Distributors, making Diamond the worldwide distributor of Valiant's comics and graphic novels within comic book specialty and book markets worldwide. In 2017, Valiant added ten new international publishing partnerships for China, India, South Korea, Pakistan and other comic book specialty and book markets worldwide. In January 2016, Valiant announced at Valiant Summit 2016 that Valiant would spend 2016 focusing on expanding its universe of characters beyond its core titles, launching brand new characters in the
Britannia and
Savage miniseries; expanding Divinity in two sequels —
Divinity II and
Divinity III: Stalinverse; and elevating supporting characters from the
Harbinger title in two new miniseries —
Generation Zero and
Faith. That same month, a four-issue
Faith miniseries launched, garnering significant media interest, and was one of only a handful of series in the past decade to reach a fifth printing. In July 2016, Valiant was nominated for 50 Harvey Awards, the most nominations for any publisher that year, including eight for
Bloodshot Reborn. On February 23, 2018, Valiant announced
The Life and Death of Toyo Harada, a six-issue miniseries written by Joshua Dysart and drawn by CAFU that would be released sometime in 2019. On March 6, 2018, it was announced that Valiant's Vice President of Marketing & Communications Hunter Gorinson had left the company. On March 8, 2018, Valiant announced it had hired Karl Bollers as an editor. On March 22, 2018, Valiant announced it had hired Mel Caylo as Director of Marketing. On April 9, 2018, Valiant announced it had hired Joe Illidge as Executive Editor as of April 5, 2018. On April 16, 2018, Valiant's editor-in-chief Warren Simons announced that he had left the company. On April 17, Valiant announced it had promoted Robert Meyers from Managing Editor to editorial director. On June 7, 2018, Valiant announced they would launch four new titles under the "Valiant Beyond" banner, with
Faith: Dreamside, a limited series written by Jody Houser and drawn by MJ Kim, launching in September;
Bloodshot Rising Spirit, an ongoing series written by Lonnie Nadler & Zac Thompson and drawn by Ken Lashley, launching in November;
Livewire, a limited series written by Vita Ayala and drawn by Raúl Allén & Patricia Martín, launching in December; and
Incursion, a limited series written by Andy Diggle and drawn by Doug Braithwaite, launching in February 2019. On July 5, 2018, Valiant announced that comics retailer Matthew Klein had joined the company as its Sales Director after previously working at the company as a Sales Manager. On July 26, 2018, Valiant announced that comic industry veteran Lysa Hawkins had joined the company as an editor. On September 13, 2018, Valiant announced it had hired Emily Hecht as Sales & Social Media Manager. On October 3, 2018, Valiant announced it had promoted Karl Bollers to Senior Editor. On October 24, 2018, Valiant announced it had hired former intern Oliver Taylor as International Licensing Coordinator. On October 31, 2018, Valiant announced it had promoted Julia Walchuk to Sales and Live Events Manager. On December 9, 2018, Valiant announced it had promoted Matthew Klein to Vice President of Sales and Marketing. On December 11, 2018, it was announced that Joe Illidge had left the company and that Robert Meyers had been promoted to Senior Editorial Director. On December 12, 2018, Valiant announced its "Breakthrough" lineup of first issues launching in 2019. The four titles include the previously announced
The Life and Death of Toyo Harada, written by Joshua Dysart and drawn by various artists launching in March;
Punk Mambo, a five-issue limited series written by
Cullen Bunn and drawn by Adam Gorham launching in April;
Fallen World, a five-issue event series written by
Dan Abnett and drawn by
Adam Pollina featuring the character Rai launching in May; and
Killers, written by
B. Clay Moore and drawn by
Fernando Dagnino launching in July. Two days later, the company announced it had hired Editorial intern Drew Baumgartner as Assistant Editor and Zane Warman as Domestic Licensing Coordinator. On January 7, 2019, Valiant announced it had hired former JHU Comic Books manager Dani Ward as its Sales Manager. On January 9, 2019, Valiant announced it had hired former Marvel assistant editor Heather Antos as an editor. The following month Valiant announced an ongoing
Psi Lords series written by Fred Van Lente and drawn by Renato Guedes that will launch in July 2019. This would be followed in subsequent months by announcements of new series. On March 14 Valiant announced a new
Bloodshot ongoing series would launch in September 2019, written by
Tim Seeley and drawn by
Brett Booth. The series would launch with a one-shot written by Seeley which will be released on May 4, 2019, as part of
Free Comic Book Day. The first three issues will be collected and released as a
trade paperback in December to coincide with the release of the Bloodshot movie on February 21, 2020. On April 17 editor Heather Antos announced on Twitter that a new
X-O Manowar ongoing series would launch in November 2019, written by
Dennis Hopeless and drawn by Emilio Laiso. On July 11 it was announced that a four-issue
Ninjak miniseries written by Cullen Bunn and drawn by Ramon F. Bachs would debut that October. On July 30, 2019, Valiant announced it had hired Kat O'Neill as Live Events & Sales Manager. On August 13 Valiant announced a new
Rai ongoing series would launch in November, written by
Dan Abnett and drawn by Juan José Ryp. On September 17 Valiant announced a five-issue
The Visitor mini-series would launch in December, written by
Paul Levitz and drawn by M.J. Kim. Three days later, the company hired
Legendary Comics Co-founder/Senior Editor Greg Tumbarello as Editor to develop new properties and advance existing IP. On October 1, 2019, Valiant announced a new
Quantum & Woody series would launch in January 2020, written by Chris Hastings and drawn by Ryan Browne. Two days later, the company revealed that the character
Faith Herbert would be featured in a series of Young adult prose novels co-published with
HarperCollins imprint Balzer + Bray. The first novel,
FAITH: Taking Flight, written by author
Julie Murphy, would be released in early 2020. On October 30 Valiant released a teaser image featuring the bird logo of
Harbinger on a blue background, with the hashtag #Valiant2020 on the bottom. On November 12, 2019, Valiant announced that a new version of
Doctor Tomorrow would be debuting in a self-titled ongoing series that will launch in February 2020, written by Alejandro Arbona and drawn by Jim Towe. On November 18 Valiant announced that President of Consumer Products Russell Brown, who had been with the company since January 2013, had left in order to take up the position of Senior VP of Entertainment at
Authentic Brands Group. On March 11, 2020, Valiant announced that Heather Antos and Lysa Hawkins had been promoted to Senior Editors. That July, Valiant announced it had hired former Marvel and
Top Cow editor
David Wohl as a senior editor. On August 17, the company indicated that it would restructure the company, bringing its publishing, TV and film divisions closer together and moving its New York offices to another location within the city, with editor David Wohl working out of the Los Angeles offices of DMG Entertainment. In August 2020, it was reported that Valiant, which had been one of the earliest comic book publishers to go into
lockdown in response to the
COVID-19 pandemic, had chosen to permanently close its Manhattan office, and have its employees work remotely. By June 2023, Valiant Comics' output had slowed over the course of the preceding year to one monthly title,
X-O Manowar Unconquered, with another title,
Ninjak Superkillers, scheduled to debut later in the year. That month, the company announced a licensing partnership with Alien Books, which would see that publisher take over publication of Valiant comics, graphic novels and
trade paperback collections. ==Characters==