This month, my missives are a collection of questions regarding Valiant.

1. During your Valiant days, why didn't the Valiant comics include their indicia on the bottom of the splash page, as did all of the other comic companies? Was it to allow more room for the artwork itself? Also, early on, credits for the creators who worked on a title were listed on the final page of the comic. Later, the main creative team names were listed on the splash page, while the names of the additional people who worked on an issue appeared on the last page. Why was that?
 

The first sample image is from page 2 of X-O MANOWAR, Vol. 1, No. 1, the second is from the last page of the same issue.

1. In answer to your indicia questions, according to the rules of publishing (I believe it's the ISBN, in particular) the indicia must be placed on one of the first, three interior pages of any periodical publication. That means, you can put it on the inside front cover or pages 1 or 2 of the interior story.

In all honesty, I can't actually recall why we played around with it other than the fact that we knew could. I kind of enjoyed rocking the boat by getting the wordie bastard off the splash pages. C'mon, Mike--you're the only guy I know who actually has ever read an indicia!

As far as the credits go, it was Jim Shooter's edict that nobody gets credited until the end of the story. His thinking was that he wanted the characters to be the focus as far as the audience goes. I personally agreed with Jim's assessment (and still do) but, once I was Editor-In-Chief, I acquiesced to a change after the majority of talent involved with the books vigorously complained about the policy.

2. To me, much of the wonderful, pastel-like coloring in Valiant comics was art unto itself. As a result, three particular Valiant issues are among some of my all-time favorite comics: X-O MANOWAR, Vol. 1, Nos. 7-9, featuring a story by you, drawn by Mike Leeke, inked by Tom Ryder, and colored by Jorge Gonzalez.
    

The sample is the splash page from X-O MANOWAR, Vol. 1, No. 9.

How was the Valiant-style of coloring created?

2. The entire "Valiant Style" of coloring came about as a painful process of experimentation, mostly done during the company's Nintendo era.

Simply speaking, it was just basic watercolor work, with the use of Dr. Martin dyes. How we eventually came around to creating the look involved a multi-layered process. First, the black and white artwork was reduced to actual print size and printed out onto watercolor paper. That paper was mounted onto a heavy bristol board backing and given to the colorists. The Knob Row colorists would do their magic and then return it to production. In production, the talented group of technical wizards (led by the lovely and talented Scott Frielander) would match the lettering up to the balloons on a separate overlay. Then the entire book would be sent off to the printer to be scanned and a separate black plate was created for the lettering in order for it not to be screened into color dots, like most of the page art.

While we're on the subject, I'd like to say that I thoroughly enjoyed the time I spent working with the colorists at Valiant. As you know, Mike, I am a huge stickler for GOOD color and believe that it's one of the weak points today in the comic industry. I always believed that colorists were as much as part of the storytelling process as any other creator involved. That's why as Editor-In-Chief of Valiant, I instituted a policy that paid creator royalties to colorists. We were the only comics publisher to ever do so.

3. Were the nanite-based Valiant heroes Rai and Bloodshot inspirations for METALLIX?

By the way, RAI AND THE FUTURE FORCE was inked and colored by Kathryn Bolinger, whose work on that title was superb.

Question: Where did Kathryn go after Valiant? What a great a talent!
 

Unrelated note. Fans of Sean Chen¹s effort on IRON MAN can see some of his terrific early work in RAI AND THE FUTURE FORCE.

Another unrelated note. David Michelinie wrote the first four issues of the original RAI series (before it became RAI AND THE FUTURE FORCE). The four issues are available in trade paperback. If you dig Iron Man and futuristic stuff, Michelinie¹s RAI is it! By the way, the issues include and feature an armored character -- the feisty female X-O Commando.

3.  No. But, they were probably the first characters whose powers were based on nano-technology. Today, nanites are so common that I probably have them in my refrigerator.

As for Kathryn Bolinger:  I actually asked about her when I saw some of the other Valiant alumni at the New York Comic Con in February. Although nobody could say for sure, one person said that she had totally dropped out of the comic art world and is currently pursuing a quiet, private life--far away from the limelight.

Kat was one of my star pupils and I remain very proud of her many contributions to the Valiant legacy.

4. RAI AND THE FUTURE FORCE included the character of Magnus Robot Fighter.

Why was Magnus -- now clad in body armor -- added to the title and who made this decision?

4. I don't actually recall the exact thinking behind the decision. However, given the fact that it was the "Future Force", it seems pretty logical that our premiere character from the year 4001 would be part of it. To be honest with you Mike, I don't actually remember much about that series past the premiere issue. Sorry. :(

5. How much time and effort was spent at Valiant in an effort to help make the company and its product so doggone fan friendly and community minded?

5. If you were referring to the Valiant GOLD Book Program, it was the brainchild of marketing guru Jon Hartz.   I have to say, that I firmly believe that Jon was a certified genius. Not only did he come up with the character names for many of the Valiant books (including X-O Manowar), he also conceived the idea for the Unity Saga amongst his other numerous accomplishments.

The GOLD program was without a doubt the best promotional vehicle I've ever seen in comics. The whole idea behind it was that we would print a limited number of first issue comics with a gold logo and trade dress. Then, these rare books would be offered to fans in exchange for their promoting of our line of products (They had to provide photo evidence of their handiwork, of course). For instance,  if somebody created a sign outside their business that said: "Read Valiant Comics", we would send them an autographed Gold issue that was valued as highly-collectable in the direct market. As a result, we got hundreds of responses every month, some of them so outrageous as to draw a crowd in the offices when the photo of them would come in.

At Valiant, we were incredibly customer-oriented and tried to respond to each and every inquiry we got from our fans. So, I have to say that we spent a great deal of time promoting and cooperating with our readership as our salesmen. It was a mutually-beneficial arrangement.

See you next month, Mike!

Thanks, Bob.