As predicted, Valiant’s teaser from earlier in the week was for a relaunch of their massively popular duo Quantum and Woody, who will be returning in July flanked by James Asmus, Tom Fowler, and Jordie Bellaire. And a goat.
The first issue of the series, which was originally launched all the way back in 1997 when I was still in primary school, will be out on July 10th, with a variety of variant covers from the likes of Fowler, Marcos Martin, Ryan Sook and Andrew Robinson. The Tom Fowler cover will have an interactive ‘talking cover’, with a goat that growls at you. Here’s Martin’s cover:
Talking about the series, Asmus says:
In all of comics, there’s no other book that mixed style and substance quite like Quantum and Woody. I was willing to literally kill someone for the chance to write the relaunch for the new Valiant Universe. I might have. Those first days after I got the call are a blur. But Quantum and Woody isn’t (just) a superhero book – it’s action-comedy, it’s family drama, it’s a boys-meet-goat tale that tugs at the heartstrings.
Valiant also released some preview pages from the first issue, c’est la vie:
I wasn’t too optimistic about this when I was still hoping Priest and Bright were coming back to it. Now? No way. Everything that made Q&W great was Priest and Bright just going for broke and doing whatever they could think of. This version is like if some young filmmaker, I dunno…James Gunn, remade Gummo. What’s the point?
Everything you love about Quantum & Woody is back!
Uh, except for the people who had everything to do with why you loved it.
Have to agree, without Priest and Bright this looks like a disaster. I hope I’m wrong, the new Archer and Armstrong is stellar and Harbinger is quite decent. The real pity is that had Priest returned his writing would have dovetailed with the progressive content of the other two.
So off of 17 panels with little reference and no dialogue you are already able to announce this as a disaster? I wish I had your prognostication skills.
With 17 panels, no dialogue, and without the original creators, yes, I am ready to announce this book holds no interest for me. If you want to spend your money on someone else doing their interpretation of a property, knock yourself out. There is absolutely nothing wrong with that and sometimes you’re rewarded with some truly interesting work. League of Extraordinary Gentlemen comes to mind as well as Miller and Mazichelli’s Daredevil comics. Generally speaking, though, I’m not too interested in that approach unless I already have faith based on previous experience the creator in question is going to have an interesting interpretation.
Hurm… Well, I’ll give it a look, but I’m a little nervous. I’ve just reread the trades, and all of those scenes look like they’re straight from the original, almost panel by panel in some cases. I love Tom Fowler, no problems there, but I can’t say I’ve been blown away by Asmus on what I’ve read by him so far. Awesome Marcos Martin cover, though.
And then, of course, there’s this:
http://www.bleedingcool.com/2013/03/26/kevin-maguire-talks-valiant-and-acclaim-contracts/
I loved the old Q&W series, and the art here looks sharp, but if it’s really being made over the objections of the original creators thank to some rather creative dodging of the intent of their contract, well, I’m suddenly not all that interested in reading it.
Without Priest and Bright, I’m not interested. They are why the original series was worth reading. It was disappointing that this just read like a press release with no mention of them.
Oh, HERE’S the new thread. Hope nobody minds me reposting this from the teaser thread (mostly seconding what Jason Green just said):
Welp, sadly it looks like I’m going to have to eat my words. Here I thought I was a cynic, but the comics industry continues to prove that I’m actually an optimist.
Priest and Bright aren’t on the new series, and according to Kevin Maguire ( http://tinyurl.com/bnxscyc ) Acclaim breached the reversion clause in their contracts on a technicality.
Priest and Bright themselves haven’t weighed in yet. I can’t speak for them and I don’t know what their deal with the current Valiant is, if any. I’m sincerely hoping that Valiant approached them, offered them the book first, got their permission to do it without them, and is paying them creator royalties on the new series.
But I haven’t seen any evidence that any of that has happened. In a CBR interview ( http://tinyurl.com/d2h7jbz ) the CEO/CCO of Valiant claims he’s been in touch with Priest and Bright about future projects and IMPLIES they’re okay with the current series, but he doesn’t come out and say it and he also repeatedly calls Priest “Chris”, which suggests to me that he has never actually spoken with Christopher Priest personally. (I don’t claim to know Priest but I DO know he doesn’t like being called Chris and he will tell you so.)
I’d like to buy this book. I’d like to LIKE this book. Fowler’s art seems like a good fit and I’ve heard good things about Asmus’s writing. But if Priest and Bright haven’t been consulted and aren’t being compensated, then that’s a deal-breaker for me.
Without knowing any other details, I’d say that Kevin Maguire’s statements seems like a pretty clear cut case of fraud on the part of the company. Maguire, Priest, Doc Bright and all the others should get some of that CBLDF money to sue for their characters back.
That said, if the new VEI truly owns 100% of the rights to the Valiant/Acclaim universe and is not doing some kind of mass licensing then it should be well within their power to right this wrong themselves and transfer ownership back to these creators.
Johnny Memeonic: The CBLDF only weighs in on issues of censorship and First Amendment violations, and specifically state that they don’t get involved in contract disputes:
http://cbldf.org/f-a-q/
That said, if the problem in the case of Kevin Maguire and Priest and Bright and anyone else who was ripped off by Acclaim is simply a lack of funds, why don’t they band together and file a class action lawsuit as a group?
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