Best Valiant cover

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Best Valiant cover

Post by Summydad1 »

Being a huge fan of cover art, I want to know everyone's opinion on the "best" cover Valiant has ever released from the beginning till now and why you chose it. Please base your choice on any variable or combination of variables. For example: artist, style, rarity, value, importance, etc. I think this would make for an interesting conversation.


Mine is Rai 0. I chose it for sentimental value. When I think of VALIANT comics, Rai 0 is the first image that pops in my head. I have memories of being 12 years old and the hysteria of finding a copy when it came out. Also, the image is subtle but stands out and it's Bloodshots first full appearance.
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Re: Best Valiant cover

Post by DirtbagSailor »

Rai #0 is certainly one of the most iconic, if not memorable covers that Valiant has published to date. Along with the covers for Harbinger #1 and Magnus, Robot Fighter #12 it stands out for that era.

Valiant haters like to often point out The Punisher swipe as point of contention, but artists always use reference material to create work.

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Re: Best Valiant cover

Post by DirtbagSailor »

Might need to separate this into V1 and VEI threads.

There is a LOT of incredible VEI cover art.

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Re: Best Valiant cover

Post by possumgrease »

There are so many VEI covers to choose from, but from the old days, my favorites are:
Image

and

Image

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Re: Best Valiant cover

Post by TheeBaldMoose »

not being a huge fan of 90's artistic style, and not reading much from the VH1 series, I gotta say I love the Solar #10 cover. I mean, who has the man-parts to put a black cover on the front of a comic just a few months after they launch? Maybe it's been done before, but the guts to say, "no art, just black" is pretty stellar.

VEI, maybe Bloodshot Reborn #10 (slightly biased). Suayan's Bleeding Monk? Templesmith on Shadowman, Ninjak? This is much tougher for me to choose here, but only one cover sends me into song...

Bloodshot Gold #1 (I don't want to set the world on fire, I just want to start a flame in your heart!). I see or think about this cover, and that song always comes to mind. Odd connection, but there it is.
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Re: Best Valiant cover

Post by possumgrease »

A few VEI covers I like:
Image

Image

ImageImage

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Re: Best Valiant cover

Post by DirtbagSailor »

TheeBaldMoose wrote:I gotta say I love the Solar #10 cover. I mean, who has the man-parts to put a black cover on the front of a comic just a few months after they launch? Maybe it's been done before, but the guts to say, "no art, just black" is pretty stellar.
The story (as I understand it) was that Shooter was asking BWS for the cover as the publishing deadline was approaching. BWS faxed him a black piece of paper, and (not to be out done I suppose) Shooter actually published it!

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Re: Best Valiant cover

Post by TheeBaldMoose »

that, right there, makes the cover so much better to me!
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Re: Best Valiant cover

Post by Summydad1 »

All of these are awesome. The story about Solar 10 is a great part of early VALIANT. If I had to choose a VEI cover, I like Bloodshot #1 (Ribic variant). The colors look great. Also, I just picked up an Imperium 1 (Brathwaite variant). That is hot stuff.
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Re: Best Valiant cover

Post by 777Peralta »

Ninjak #23 by Felipe Massafera ;)

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Re: Best Valiant cover

Post by kinggirlfriend »

I love the cover to Legends of the Geomancer #1. So much so I used part of it for my avatar.

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Also really love the variant to BoD #3
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And all those awesome Divinity covers by Jelena Kevic-Djurdjevic! But I really like this variant by Tula Lotay.

Image

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Re: Best Valiant cover

Post by magnusr »

So many great covers. Rai 0 and Solar 10 of course, but also Rai 5 and lots others.

/Magnus

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Re: Best Valiant cover

Post by Sunlight on Snow »

I like all the blackout covers (Solar then, Shadowman now) and all the red-dotted ones (Rai then, BoD icon variants and some Bloodshot now). Keeping it simple!

VH1's XO #32 is pretty cool too.

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Re: Best Valiant cover

Post by kinggirlfriend »

possumgrease wrote:A few VEI covers I like:
Image
I always wondered if Cary Nord was inspired by the movie poster for RITUALS for this cover?

Image

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Re: Best Valiant cover

Post by agent_graves »

Great Thread! So many amazing covers from VEI, (Solar #10 & EW #4, are my 90's favorite) I'm not sure where to start.... I guess I'll set it off with this beauty, definitely top 5 for me...

Image
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Re: Best Valiant cover

Post by ShadowTuga »

I have been in love with this one ever since I first saw it; I still do not have a copy, though... :|
Image
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Re: Best Valiant cover

Post by MGS »

agent_graves wrote:Great Thread! So many amazing covers from VEI, (Solar #10 & EW #4, are my 90's favorite) I'm not sure where to start.... I guess I'll set it off with this beauty, definitely top 5 for me...

Image
Once I noticed that Mack used himself as the reference for that cover that's all I can think of when I see it :). Still one of my favorites though!

Definitely a lot of great covers to choose from. I love that Nord Book of Death cover, and another one that I think gets overlooked is this Jimenez Divinity II cover:

Image

And, no, I'm totally not biased.

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Re: Best Valiant cover

Post by MGS »

777Peralta wrote:Ninjak #23 by Felipe Massafera ;)
Nah, #24 is where it's at. :)

Mike

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Re: Best Valiant cover

Post by TheFerg714 »

I really love this cover. It almost single-handedly got my interested the Valiant U.
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Re: Best Valiant cover

Post by Sunlight on Snow »

agent_graves wrote:Great Thread! So many amazing covers from VEI, (Solar #10 & EW #4, are my 90's favorite) I'm not sure where to start.... I guess I'll set it off with this beauty, definitely top 5 for me...

Image
Aw, man, this is pretty cool. I don't remember seeing this before. I SO WANT THIS!

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Re: Best Valiant cover

Post by BugsySig »

There are so many iconic covers from VH1 I would choose. These are my top 10:
Rai #0
Harbinger #1
Unity #0
A&A #0
Solar #10
Magnus #12
Bloodshot #1
Turok #1
and the two EW/Darque twin covers

For VEI, I often think of these as my Top 5:
Unity #5 Suayan black & white variant cover
Image

XO #1 Aja 1:20
Image

Divinity #1 regular cover
Image

The Valiant #1 regular cover
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Harbinger Wars FCBD/Deluxe Edition
Image

Honorable mention: XO #1 Second Print wrap-around cover
Image
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Re: Best Valiant cover

Post by ilzuccone »

this cover had an emotional impact on me. That kind of impact is rare in comics.
Image


this cover is one of the best but only because it makes me laugh overtime i see it. i call it "the erotic shave" cover. I don't think that's what they had in mind but that's all i see now. i mean come on, EW looks like he is really into that ninja.
Image

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Re: Best Valiant cover

Post by Summydad1 »

I have always liked bright yellows and blues. Another of my favorites is Solar #3. It looks like an oil on canvas. The blue sky really sticks out. BWS is pretty much my favorite of the old comics.
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Re: Best Valiant cover

Post by Tony_H »

Image

Image

Image

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One night, I was on the couch reading Delinquents #3 when my wife walked in, took one glance at the cover, and said,
"You see yourself as the fat guy in the hat, don't you?"
I love all these covers for different reasons (my response to VEI's Dr. Mirage #1 was similar to ilzuccone's), but The Delinquents takes the cake.

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Re: Best Valiant cover

Post by agent_graves »

Two more favorites... :thumb:

Image

Image
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