Valiant: Book of Death & Legend of the Geomancer

[GeeksAreMyPeeps]

io9 has an interesting take:

 

http://io9.com/valiant-wants-as-few-people-as-possible-to-read-its-new-1698968339

[UltraMaximus]

I'll be getting it. Thanks to my LCS charging me for 25 issues for #1, and 10 issues for 2-4 because they have no pre-orders for this book.

[Gatsby77]

1) I don't believe for a second that VEI won't reprint this within a year.

 

2) It's been done. cf Warriors of Plasm 0 (well...that had a Previews version), Defiant: Genesis, Miracle on Broadway, and a several Deathwatch 2000 books (Megalith 0 & Valeria # 1, at least).

 

3) So...it's basically a version of what the original Valiant did with Unity 0 (1:4 titles that month) and Unity 1 (1:8 titles that month) on steroids.

 

4) Looking over the list above, Jim Shooter masterminded 5 of the 7 I listed. Seems he knew something about hype.

[valiantman]

Book of Death #1 is a $3.99 cover price, but only costs $0.80 for retailers, and is returnable.

 

The Legends of the Geomancer incentive (exclusive) is 1:25 for orders of Book of Death #1.

It should cost a retailer $20 to get a copy of Legends of the Geomancer, and they get 25 copies of a $3.99 book to sell.

 

Retailer "break even" appears to be either immediate (due to returnability),

or it's when they get $20 for the Legends of the Geomancer,

or it's when they sell 5 of the 25 copies at $3.99 and keep the other 20 plus the Legends of the Geomancer for themselves.

 

Can any retailers here confirm?

[ygogolak]

I'll be getting it. Thanks to my LCS charging me for 25 issues for #1, and 10 issues for 2-4 because they have no pre-orders for this book.

 

But you're getting the regular books to, correct?

[GeeksAreMyPeeps]

Book of Death #1 is a $3.99 cover price, but only costs $0.80 for retailers, and is returnable.

 

The Legends of the Geomancer incentive (exclusive) is 1:25 for orders of Book of Death #1.

It should cost a retailer $20 to get a copy of Legends of the Geomancer, and they get 25 copies of a $3.99 book to sell.

 

Retailer "break even" appears to be either immediate (due to returnability),

or it's when they get $20 for the Legends of the Geomancer,

or it's when they sell 5 of the 25 copies at $3.99 and keep the other 20 plus the Legends of the Geomancer for themselves.

 

Can any retailers here confirm?

I'm pretty sure there are 1:10 variants of the Book of Death too, so they get those as well.

[valiantman]

Book of Death #1 is a $3.99 cover price, but only costs $0.80 for retailers, and is returnable.

 

The Legends of the Geomancer incentive (exclusive) is 1:25 for orders of Book of Death #1.

It should cost a retailer $20 to get a copy of Legends of the Geomancer, and they get 25 copies of a $3.99 book to sell.

 

Retailer "break even" appears to be either immediate (due to returnability),

or it's when they get $20 for the Legends of the Geomancer,

or it's when they sell 5 of the 25 copies at $3.99 and keep the other 20 plus the Legends of the Geomancer for themselves.

 

Can any retailers here confirm?

I'm pretty sure there are 1:10 variants of the Book of Death too, so they get those as well.

That's an even quicker way to break even.

 

I just realized I didn't include the cost of the variants in my $20 estimate.

(25 x $0.80 is $20, but how much is the 1:10 variant? $0.80? More?)

[UltraMaximus]

I'll be getting it. Thanks to my LCS charging me for 25 issues for #1, and 10 issues for 2-4 because they have no pre-orders for this book.

 

But you're getting the regular books to, correct?

 

Yeah, But IDK WTF I am going to do with the other 24 copies of BOD #1. If there are no special covers, that would be AWESOME. If there are Variants for BOD too, then FML.

[TXReplicant]

I'm seeing 5 covers for Book of Death #1, all at same price:

 

1A: Robert Gill

 

1B: Cary Nord

 

1C: Clayton Crain

 

1D: Jelena Kevic-Djurdjevic

 

1E: Blank

 

Oops just found:

 

Character Design Variant by PAOLO RIVERA

Valiant Icons Variant by PERE PEREZ

Artist Variant by PAOLO RIVERA

[UltraMaximus]

Sooooo Guess I will only have 16 of the 25 for sale LMAO.

 

 

[ygogolak]

I'll be getting it. Thanks to my LCS charging me for 25 issues for #1, and 10 issues for 2-4 because they have no pre-orders for this book.

 

But you're getting the regular books to, correct?

 

Yeah, But IDK WTF I am going to do with the other 24 copies of BOD #1. If there are no special covers, that would be AWESOME. If there are Variants for BOD too, then FML.

 

Sell them in lots of 5 or something online.

[TXReplicant]

I'm not a big Valiant guy, but this Marketing scheme gets me hook line and sinker.

 

Theres this book... that will never be in TPB... and each retailer will only get a handful... and you need to know the secret password and handshake to make an offer on one...

 

 

[rjrjr]

I'm not a big Valiant guy, but this Marketing scheme gets me hook line and sinker.

 

Theres this book... that will never be in TPB... and each retailer will only get a handful... and you need to know the secret password and handshake to make an offer on one...

 

 

Sounds like Valiant doesn't care to reach out to new customers. Not surprising since they've had a Franklin Mint mentality since day 1.

[GeeksAreMyPeeps]

I'm not a big Valiant guy, but this Marketing scheme gets me hook line and sinker.

 

Theres this book... that will never be in TPB... and each retailer will only get a handful... and you need to know the secret password and handshake to make an offer on one...

 

 

Sounds like Valiant doesn't care to reach out to new customers. Not surprising since they've had a Franklin Mint mentality since day 1.

I have to disagree with the bit in bold. While I like to have a complete collection, I avoid the pricier variants because it's just too much. But I realize that it's part of the reality if you're a small publisher that wants to survive in the modern market. I don't have a huge issue with it because I can still be a reader of the complete line. At least, I *could* be until now.

[Gatsby77]

And then there's folks like me. VEI lost me with the 500 print-run Shadowman variant -- from that day forward it was virtually impossible for a fan to be a completist.

 

While I shudder to think what VEI's market share would be without the literally hundreds of variants they've produced so far, the original Valiant was explicitly anti-variants in an era full of them -- it was a key differentiator and proof that story really did come first.

 

That Ninjak 1 can barely hit the top 100 comics of the month & can't even break 25k with 17 (!) different covers is abominable.

[Solar]

the original Valiant was explicitly anti-variants in an era full of them

 

You sure about that?

 

Just off the top of my head:

Magnus 0 w/card

Harbinger 0 Pink/Blue

TPB color variants

Gold logo variants

Unity 0 red

CEAR

 

[CKB]

I'm not a big Valiant guy, but this Marketing scheme gets me hook line and sinker.

 

Theres this book... that will never be in TPB... and each retailer will only get a handful... and you need to know the secret password and handshake to make an offer on one...

 

 

Sounds like Valiant doesn't care to reach out to new customers.

 

This is ludicrous, and simply untrue. It is the exact opposite of the way they handle themselves. If you want to go find the first year's VEI books, early numbers of XO and Harbinger, they are cheap and readily available.

 

They are that way BECAUSE of the incentive programs for those books, because they were over-ordered. I've spoken directly to the VEI CEO about this, and it is/was part of their approach. So the "Franklin Mint" mentality is really a scheme to make sure copies are available for *readers*, as are the multiple printings, TPBs, One dollar Debuts, etc.

 

They are not catering to completists and flippers. They want their books to be read. This latest promotion is finally throwing a bone to the crowd that likes the museum piece, and you are holding it against them like that's all they have been doing for three years. It's backwards - I have been upset for the last three years that the collectability has been low on their books. It has either been low because of too much supply or low because they made completionism nigh-impossible with too many variants.

 

And, even for readers, this new retailer incentive series will undoubtedly be available to be read in another form. So ease up a bit.

 

 

[valiantman]

the original Valiant was explicitly anti-variants in an era full of them

 

You sure about that?

 

Just off the top of my head:

Magnus 0 w/card

Harbinger 0 Pink/Blue

TPB color variants

Gold logo variants

Unity 0 red

CEAR

You could stop your list at Magnus 0 w/card.

 

That incentive was put in place in the first comic, Magnus #1... which had a coupon that needed to be clipped.

 

1990s Valiant was doing "exclusives" and "incentives" from their very first comic.

[Gatsby77]

Yes -- they pioneered some great incentive ideas and marketing -- the cards in Magnus 0, Harbinger 0 and was it that month of Chaos Effect?

 

The serial number promotion

 

The gold versions

 

Unity 0 (regular -- a free book, but limited by line orders)

 

The cool Bloodshot 1 cover

 

But what they did not do was flood the market with holofoil everything the way that Marvel, DC & Image did at the time.

 

Heck -- it was even special (and rare) when Valiant did a gatefold cover. Compare 1993 with the Marvel / DC special cover bonanza seemingly every month -- to be rivaled only by the guest appearances of Wolverine / Punisher / Ghost Rider seemingly every month.

 

Valiant -- at least Valiant through 1994, put the stories first and didn't have nearly the number of incentive books as even Image did at the time.

 

I grew up with these books -- I made phone calls from summer camp to plot how to score a copy of Unity # 1 (regular. Incidentally -- I failed. It cost me $8 by the time I got back to civilization).

 

I am the company's core audience. And the way they've gone about marketing the VEI line from day one has alienated me. It's not a surprise the print runs are hovering around 12k or less.

 

 

 

 

[UltraMaximus]

And then there's folks like me. VEI lost me with the 500 print-run Shadowman variant -- from that day forward it was virtually impossible for a fan to be a completist.

.

 

Which one would this be?