@’s by Warren Simons
Valiant Executive Editor!!!
Hey folks, Ambush Bug with another interview from the floor of the Chicago Comics & Entertainment Expo (aka C2E2). This time I got to check in with Valiant Entertainment Executive Editor Warren Simons regarding Valiant Comics big comeback this year. X-O MANOWAR #1 was released last week and having read the first issue, it looks as if Valiant is coming back in a very big way. X-O MANOWAR writer Robert Venditti was on hand as well. Here’s what the both of them had to say about Valiant and X-O…AMBUSH BUG (BUG): So I am here with Warren Simons of Valiant and this is Day 2 of the con. So how was yesterday at C2E2?
WARREN SIMONS (WS): Oh, it was fantastic. We had a massive outpouring of love from fans. We went through I think three thousand of our sixty page previews so far. Robert Venditti, the writer of X-O MANOWAR was here signing all day. Clayton Henry, our artist on ARCHER AND ARMSTRONG was here. He was doing some sketches. We had tons of people coming up telling us how excited they were, so it was great.BUG: Yeah, and I’m equally excited for it all to come back. I was a huge fan in the 90’s. Did you read the books back when they were the big thing?
WS: I did, some of them. I was, I think 18 in 1992, which meant that I had no money and I was concentrating on other things in my life. (Laughs) That said, I do have some ARCHER AND ARMSTRONG in my long boxes at home. I did read a little bit of X-O, so I had some background in the Valiant stuff when I came in, but you know as the guys have said, when I came in to take the position it also helped that I was not a super fan, because I was able to look at stuff with a little bit of a more critical eye as opposed to already being sort of imbued within the universe.
BUG: If there’s an overall theme to your books or just a philosophy that you guys have as far a company, what is it?WS: I think we’d like the top selling book in the industry not to be a hundred thousand, but to be a million, and for that to work I think we need to create content that is accessible to new readers. I think that’s incredibly important. I think it’s incredibly important for the medium at large so that you’re able to provide someone with the book who’s not a comic fan--you know, my mom, my dad, my cousins who’ve never read a comic before and they are able to sit down and read all kinds of pages and love it like we love it. But by the same token I think we also want to build characters that are true and tap into the core concepts of what made Valiant so great in the first place. So a little bit of column A, a little bit of column B and hopefully as a philosophy we are just trying to make the best books month in and month out.
BUG: Great. So your first book out is X-O. I had a chance to look at it yesterday. I saw a preview that you guys had on the iPad. It looks fantastic. I love the mix of sci-fi and kind of like the barbarian kind of hardcore adventure. It seemed like GAME OF THRONES meets…I don’t know…I don’t know what else, (laughs) something futuristic.WS: ALIEN?
BUG: ALIEN, yeah.
WS: What would you say, Robert [Venditti]?
ROBERT VENDITTI (RV): I don’t know. That’s a good question. It’s just a nice blend of historical fiction and science fiction, which you don’t get a lot, you know? Especially in a way that doesn’t feel contrived. In this story it all makes sense. You’re not just mashing these two things together for the sake of how it will look cool on the page, there’s an actual story behind it that leads into that and then it all makes sense within the logic of the story. It’s a lot of fun to read. It’s actually one of the things that brought me to the project when Warren first contacted me and told me about Valiant and the relaunch. He talked to me about a bunch of characters and I read up on a bunch of them and there were a lot the resonated with me, but X-O was one that really resonated with me, because of that reason. I like science fiction, I like historical fiction, and the ability to put them both in the same place like that doesn’t come along too often, so it’s just been a lot of fun to write and I’m having a great time with it.BUG: Whose decision was it to put that little bit in the very beginning talking about the Visigoths and the Romans and the distinction between them?
WS: The historical background?
BUG: Yeah, I really liked that.RV: That was editorial’s decision. I don’t even know, is that in the actual issue?
WS: In the actual issue we wanted to do a recap page, which was kind of cool and kind of unlike anything that anyone has seen before. You know, we felt like it would give the readers a sense of what the world was like in 402 AD. Robert did a great deal of research on the actual battle and we wanted to be true and we also just wanted people to see that this is what it was like if you were Visigoth and this is what it was like if you were a Roman and how they lived side by side, but were completely different.
BUG: It seems like…is X-O kind of like your main character? Kind of like a Spider-Man or a Superman for some of the other companies? Would you consider him the big guy in your universe?
WS: You know, it’s interesting. I think we probably have eight or nine guys who have the potential to be that kind of Superman or Spider-Man character. I think X-O we are leading out with, because we are extremely confident in the concept of the book, in the character himself, in the creative team. All of those things kind of work together. I personally want to see a barbarian kicking some ass, or a Visigoth I should say, not a barbarian. HARBINGER we love. We think it’s a great book. In the office it’s a couple of the guys’ favorite characters from back in the day, so we are super excited about that.
I love Bloodshot, I think he’s great, and ARCHER AND ARMSTRONG is our newest announcement, so you know we have four number ones coming out, one in May, one in June, one in July, one in August, and it’s X-O on May 2nd and HARBINGER I believe on June 6th. Then we have BLOODSHOT in July and then ARCHER AND ARMSTRONG in August. We are really confident in all of those characters and we really feel like all of them could really help give Valiant a voice and we feel like they are really exceptional characters and then we also have others that we haven’t launched yet, like SHADOWMAN, NINJAK, RAI, and a couple of others up there we are really confident in, so we love X-O. (laughs) That’s a long way of saying “We love X-O,” but we love all of our characters. They are like our children. (laughs)BUG: One of the things that I really loved about the old Valiant universe was the fact that it paid attention to the past, the present, and the future and it seemed like it all was connected really well, there was this sense that you were reading a book for an entire universe and an entire line. Are you bringing that to this line of Valiant?
WS: Yes. The opening pages of BLOODSHOT will actually have massive repercussions across the rest of the universe, but by the same token the first arcs of all of the books will be totally interconnected and self-contained at the same time. So everything that happens in all of the first arcs will have a relationship with everything else. We’ve sort of architected and mapped out really the first one to two years, so we really know where we are going. So everything is really interrelated and as the books receive more and more…as more issues come out, that formation will begin to take shape. Right now it looks like one tree, but it’s actually a forest. As we go back and publish more, you will see that.BUG: Cool. Rob, what’s it like kind of jumping in on this universe at the ground floor? It seems like it’s the beginning of something pretty big.
RV: Yeah, this is really my first job writing an ongoing series with this kind of thing and so again that was something that really appealed to me. How often do you get the chance to get in on the ground floor of a relaunch like that? Not only just with a single character, but with a whole universe, you know? So one of the really big assets to me and one of the, I guess, big attractions was not only working with Warren, who I could tell I was going to have a really good relationship with, but very early in our correspondence I could see he would be a guy that I could work with professionally, but also be friends with, you know, and that’s the kind of relationship you want to have when you’re working.
Also, the other teams that they put together, I look forward to just having those things where you sit in a room and you’re all just bouncing ideas off of each other and you get the creative energy going. So you know, it’s an opportunity, like I say, that doesn’t come along very often, so it definitely wasn’t something that I wanted to pass up. There’s just so much energy going at the company right now. You can feel it in the way that they talk about the books and the innovative ways that they are promoting them, whether it’s the pull box variants that they are offering to subscribers or the QR cover and any of these kinds of things. You know, the way they are getting the word out you can tell they are really excited about the content and then also backing that up with the best stories that they could put on the shelves.
It would be easy for a company to come in in this sort of situation and just rest on the IP and know that there were fans like yourself from back in the day who are going to buy it regardless, because they want to know what X-O MANOWAR is like now or BLOODSHOT or whatever, but they are not doing that. They really spent a lot of time even before they reached out to creative teams establishing the architecture of the world and really thinking about how this could be a unified concept and how they could really put out quality stories that would not only appeal to those original long time fans, but also bring in new readers too that have no knowledge of these characters, but they will be able to pick it up and kind of be an issue in every sense of the word and enjoy these stories as new readers and bring in new people to the medium. It’s just a great place to be and I feel really fortunate that they took a chance on me in that regard and let me have a shot at it, you know?
BUG: Great. Warren, I actually had a chance to talk with Joe Quesada yesterday and he was looking back on his time drawing X-O. Is there any chance of guest covers or fill ins of people who were previously affiliated with the Valiant universe?WS: Yeah, you know, I love Joe. We talked yesterday for like 20 minutes, I was just over there with Rob walking around and I bumped into him. I worked for Joe. I worked at Marvel for seven years. I worked for Joe that whole time and as far as the creators who helped launch the company back in the day we have a lot of stuff in the works right now. We have reached out to a bunch of those guys. Some have said yes, some have said no, but yeah, I worked with Sean Chen at Marvel on a couple of issues of Spidey. I’ve worked with him on a couple of other things. I think I was on a couple of different books that he was on, either as the editor or in some other capacity, so yeah, you know, we also have some other stuff in the pipeline that you guys will be hearing about soon with some of the creators who helped put Valiant on the map initially.
BUG: So looking forward over the next year, say you’re here at C2E2 next year, what do you see Valiant as? What’s your one year plan?WS: My one year plan is to establish us as a company that consistently puts out excellent books and month in and month out just continues to really try to put out the best books every single month that have unique creators with unique voices, that have creators like Robert Venditti who did SURROGATES, but may not have had a monthly book, a superhero, but also brings a voice to X-O that you won’t find anywhere else. It’s the same thing with Joshua Dysart on HARBINGER, the same thing with Duane Swierczynski who I worked with a lot at Marvel who’s an exceptional crime novelist and is writing BLOODSHOT like a house on fire and the same thing with Clayton on ARCHER AND ARMSTRONG as well as all of the artists that we have. Khari Evans is doing a beautiful job on HARBINGER, Manuel Garcia and Arturo Lozzi are absolutely killing BLOODSHOT and Cary Nord, of course, who is doing an extraordinary job on X-O. Rob and I know how lucky we are to have him.
We have guys who are absolutely killing and our inker on that book is a guy named Stefano Gaudiano, who is one of the finest inkers of his generation, just an extraordinary artist in his own right, and then we have Moose on top of him, so I’m blessed. I’m lucky. I’ve got a whole crew and roster of extraordinarily talented cool guys. We were at the table over here yesterday and we were just talking about how everyone in the medium tends to be a pretty cool cat man, you know? It’s like most of the creators are cool guys. Most of the journalists are cool guys. It’s a pleasure to be here, you know?BUG: Great, well like I said I read the book yesterday, it’s fantastic, I can’t wait for other people to see it so I can talk about it…
RV: You read the book yesterday?
BUG: Yes I did.RV: Oh, cool.
BUG: Yeah, I got to check it out on the iPad and it was fantastic.
RV: It’s nice to talk to somebody who’s actually read it, because there’s nobody outside the office that I’ve really been able to speak to that’s read it yet. Of course we all think it’s good, but you never know.
BUG: And the art, Carey Nord is just really killing it. It’s just amazing.
WS: Thank you buddy, we really appreciate it. We are really excited for people to read the first issue. We really feel like…I feel like we’ve been building this whole world behind the scenes and once the issues come out everyone will be able to see how much thought, consideration, and love we are putting into each and every issue, you know? Every issue matters. Every single issue matters and that’s kind of what our mantra is at the office. We want every page to be good, every panel to be good, every word to be good, and that’s our challenge. Luckily we have guys like Rob and Carey who are helping us make that happen.
BUG: Great. Well, thanks a lot for taking the time out to talk with me today and best of luck to you guys.WS: Thank you very much, Mark.
RS: Thanks, man.
BUG: X-O MANOWAR #1 is out now! And be sure to check out more info on Valiant Entertainment’s upcoming releases on their website here !
Ambush Bug is Mark L. Miller, original @$$Hole/wordslinger/reviewer/co-editor of AICN Comics for over ten years. He has written comics such as MUSCLES & FIGHTS, MUSCLES & FRIGHTS, VINCENT PRICE PRESENTS TINGLERS & WITCHFINDER GENERAL, THE DEATHSPORT GAMES, WONDERLAND ANNUAL 2010 & NANNY & HANK (soon to be made into a feature film from Uptown 6 Films). He is also a regular writer for FAMOUS MONSTERS OF FILMLAND & has co-written their first ever comic book LUNA: ORDER OF THE WEREWOLF (to be released in October 2012 as an 100-pg original graphic novel). Mark has just announced his new comic book miniseries GRIMM FAIRY TALES PRESENTS THE JUNGLE BOOK from Zenescope Entertainment to be released in March 2012.Proofs, co-edits & common sense provided by Sleazy G
