Retailers react to planned Valiant Comics relaunch

Valiant Entertainment, publishers of characters including “Archer and Armstrong” and “X-O Manowar,” have announced plans to return with print and digital comics in 2012.  Oklahoma comic-book retailers say it could be a tough road ahead for the publisher, which in its previous incarnation sold millions of comic books.

Former Marvel CEO Peter Cuneo has become chairman of Valiant.

Gavin Cuneo, principal of Cuneo & Co., has been appointed to Valiant’s board of directors.

“I am excited to be partnering with Peter and Gavin,” said CEO Jason Kothari in a news release. “Peter’s decade of leadership at Marvel, Gavin’s decade of experience on Wall Street and their highly active roles with Valiant

Valiant Comics were extremely popular in the 1990s, featuring characters including Bloodshot and Shadowman. The “Harbinger” series about superpowered teens became a hot collectible in the early 1990s.

“When they first started, people were gung-ho,” said Bart Bush, manager of Atomik Pop comic book store in Norman. “We were selling amounts that were just unheard of. … At one time, that stuff was very popular.”

What happened

After peaking during the comic book boom of the early 1990s, Valiant was later sold to video game maker Acclaim; the Valiant properties were later auctioned off after that company’s bankruptcy.

Valiant Entertainment has been publishing hardcover collections of the original Valiant properties over the past few years and now is set to return with new comics.