Comic book fans tend to be skittish in general, often for good reasons, and when something major happens like an acquisition or turnover at the top happens, that can further that skittishness. Are there any misconceptions about the current Valiant that you’ve seen out there that you’d like to address?

Pierce: The biggest fan, the best fan ever in the Valiant Universe, is Dinesh. I think we’re all aware of how important Dinesh was to the fans, and how important Dinesh was to the company. Dinesh’s legacy is still a huge part of what we’re doing. There is no better fan, there is no better work than what Dinesh has done. We really want to just make sure that people are assured that we’re keeping Dinesh’s mantle, and we’re running with it.

Illidge: From what I’ve seen, the fans are really pleased with the crystallization of the new Valiant team. I’ve seen nothing but positive sentiment, I’ve heard nothing but positive sentiment in every sector. I think that speaks to the basic understanding in the community that Valiant is a company of quality, so even in the transition, we are following through with that, and the people, myself included, are a part of this new team, we all believe in that. We love comics, we love stories, we love characters, we’re committed to keeping Valiant the most formidable company in the market today. We’re all committed to that spiritually. It’s great to be a part of a team of experienced people who all believe in the same, singular thing.

Meyers: I was at C2E2 in Chicago last month. Our booth was as busy as it’s ever been — probably busier than last year, even. It’s in those moments you can sit and talk one on one with fans, retailers and creators. The message we got back was, people were worried, but they were excited for what comes next.

Pierce: And you can’t blame them for being concerned, but the proof is the great job everybody’s done.

Quantum and Woody #8 cover by Tom Fowler

We’ve talked about keeping the vision of what Valiant was before and moving forward. With that, you’ve also spoken of new things coming up in the pipeline — and with a new era, that’s also an opportunity. Are there some important eras you’d like to see Valiant succeed in, that maybe it hasn’t before? Things you’d like to do differently in this new era?

Illidge: I wouldn’t want to use the term “success” or “failure,” because Valiant has succeeded in every endeavor that it has attempted. Where we’re going to continue along that success is, we’re going to enhance our relationship with our core audience, while growing the audience. That’s what we’re going to do. We’re going to grow the audience in multiple sectors, and we’re going to do that while maintaining and enhancing the integrity of the characters and the quality of the stories, and the great foundation of this company’s excellent relationship with some of the best creators in the field.

Meyers: We’ve got things that people are going to be very surprised about, and I think very excited about, that are very organic ways of us building and growing that audience, as well as strengthening that foundation.

Pierce: I think what you’re going to find is when you see some of the things that we’re going to be announcing soon, it’s going to be, “Oh, that’s a surprise — and that makes perfect sense.” At the end of Harbinger Wars 2, a good part of the universe will reset.

Caylo: On the marketing and PR side, I’m always looking to try and reach new audiences, or bring in new eyeballs to the company, its brand, its creators, its staff. That will come out of the types of new projects that we will be putting out. It’ll be an uphill battle at first. We’re not as big as Marvel or DC, or any of the other Premier publishers — but what I’ve found is that Valiant fans have some of the biggest voices. They are going to be our evangelists who will be helping us spread the word about the types of new things that we have coming out. At the same time, we’re going to be reinforcing some of the core characters that Valiant is very well known for.

Pierce: We’re going to experiment like Valiant always has. We have some great new characters, and we have some great characters we’ve wanted to put to the forefront for years, and finally we’re going to be able to do it. It has nothing to do, really, with the transition. It just has to do with the new voices in the transition.

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What I’m hearing is that the new focus seems to be, while keeping that original audience, a renewed push of reaching out to new readers. It does feel like sometimes Valiant has the perception of being a little tough to get into if you’re not already familiar with the characters.

Pierce: I hate to think that we have a perception that we’re hard to get into, but if we do, you’ve just given us a new focal point — we’re going to make sure everybody knows we’re easy to get into. We believe that any one of our comics will be the first comic that a new Valiant fan reads. But we need to make sure that people feel that Valiant welcomes them, new and old.

Caylo: Valiant has always, and will continue to, make big deals about new arcs. Whenever we are starting a new arc on a continuing series, we always try to make big deal that is’a perfect jumping on point for new readers.Valiant also promotes its volume 1s at $9.99, a very new reader-friendly price point. They can easily slide into that particular character or that particular team. If people find us at conventions, we always have convention deals for our volume 1 trades.

As long as people are curious, or interested in the looks of some of our characters, if they see themselves in any of our characters, I think it would compel them to pick up the volume 1 trade, or the first issue of a new arc.

Illidge: We’re going to speak to the Valiant audience, and we are going to grow the Valiant audience. It’s not a sense of old and new, it’s really a sense of growth across the board in every area of the company, and the audience is a part of that. I’ve never come across a group of fans like Valiant fans. One of the things that’s great about being part of the team is being able to communicate with them directly.

We have a variety of books, all of them are easy entry books. At C2E2, one of the things that I constantly heard is how everyone is excited for the new Britannia, the Shadowman relaunch was so amazing that issue #1 immediately went to a second printing. One of the things I’m hearing everyone say is, “You know. what, I was able to read Shadowman #1 and just immediately immerse myself into this world. It was an easy access book.” I think that is a representation of the Valiant everyone knows, and Valiant going forward.