The Pull List: VALIANT COMICS Releases (Wednesday 13th April 2016)

VALIANT COMICS Releases: Wednesday 13th April 2016

Each week, we take a look at the forthcoming VALIANT COMICS titles available in stores and in digital, giving you a comprehensive guide to your comics pull list.

Yay! We have a new member of the Pull List Family, here on AEISD, and it’s a pleasure to welcome Valiant Comics to our collective – it’s great to get the chance to bring you the weekly releases by this company that has been through the ups and downs, the trials and tribulations of the indie comics landscape and emerged as one of the most exciting publishers out there.

Valiant – started in 1989 by former Marvel EIC Jim Shooter and that gregarious of artists Bob Layton – was almost sunk by financial decisions and investment setbacks in 2004. However, since a successful relaunch in 2012 with the award-winning ‘Summer Of Valiant’, the company has gone on to rave reviews and incredible acclaim, becoming the most nominated publisher in comics in the 2015 Harvey Awards and releasing the biggest selling independent crossover event of the decade. Last year, Valiant partnered with DMG Entertainment to finance feature films based on comics from the line – how about that for a turnaround?

The boys and girls at Valiant have provided promo materials for last week and this weeks comics – we do a bit of a recap of the start of the new arc in the pages of Matt Kindt, Diego Bernard and Khoi Pham’s NINJAK, down below. However, for this week, here are two books available on the shelves this Wednesday:

• A&A: THE ADVENTURES OF ARCHER & ARMSTRONG might not be a book you’ll be seeing on a big screen any time soon but not not because of a lack of ambition. The scale and scope of Rafer Roberts’ creation is – no pun intended, of the current story arc – bottomless and the imagination on display is staggering. This second issue is brilliantly paced, got some fantastically presented moments (including a cracking, drunken subtitled heart-to-heart between our heroes) and Roberts has a knack for balancing all the threads and characters at play without losing a sense of acerbic wit and fun. David LaFuente is an artist I’m more familiar with on his work on ULTIMATE SPIDER-MAN for Marvel and he produces similarly incredible work here, filling the page and panels with stunning detail and grit. It looks great, it reads at a cheeky pace – a worthy addition to your weekly comics buy…

• …Robert Vendetti‘s WRATH OF THE ETERNAL WARRIOR, on the other hand is whole other ball of bees wax. Deadly serious and mythic in its grandeur, this book doesn’t pull its punches and cuts to the bone of its protagonist. I will ask, however, how on Earth this book ever reaches the shelves on schedule with Juan Jose Ryp just pulling off jaw-dropping artwork on each and every page – fabulously detailed, in a Geof Darrow-manner, and with more sinew and guts on display than any other book I’ve read for a while. (I was also struck by the visceral colour work on display but then you find that it’s the work of Jordie Bellaire… and the penny drops. But of course.) I’m not entirely sold, it may be too rich a meal to devour in such a small portion – I’m a Yorkshire lad, I’m one for bigger plates – and I imagine this would be digested better in a trade format. Damning with faint praise, perhaps, but I’ll check out #7 and see where I go from there.

What a great pair of books to kick of this new addition to our posts – I look forward to seeing what else Valiant have on the docket in coming months. For you, Dear Reader, I’d recommend checking these two on your next visit to your local purveyor of sequential narrative…

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MONTHLY TITLES

Click on the thumbnails and galleries for hi-res previews of these releases:

A&A: THE ADVENTURES OF ARCHER & ARMSTRONG #2

Writer: Rafer Roberts
Artist: David Lafuente
Inks: Ryan Winn
Colours: Brian Reber

Cover Artist: David Lafuente and Brian Raber (FEB161884)
Alternate Covers: Kano (FEB161885), Monica Gallagher (FEB161886)
Variant Covers: Rafer Roberts (FEB161887), Phil Jimenez (FEB161888) and David LaFuente (FEB161888, B&W Sketch Variant)

“Reunited…and it doesn’t feel so good!

After following Armstrong into the depths of his infinite satchel in a search for booze, Archer and his partner, history’s most inebriated immortal, have found themselves prisoners of…uh…what’s this villain’s name again? Armstrong may not be able to remember what their captor, Bacchus, is all about, but he sure is upset by the memories tied to a rare bottle of wine. What secret is about to come roaring out of the past to haunt him? And is Archer doomed to the repeat Armstrong’s tragic mistakes? Plus: It’s a day in the life of Valiant’s new breakout character of 2016 – hey kids, get ready for DAVEY THE MACKEREL!

Valiant’s latest blockbuster ongoing series goes even farther down the rabbit hole when IN THE BAG continues right here from rising star Rafer Roberts (PLASTIC FARM) and comic book superstar David Lafuente (ULTIMATE SPIDER-MAN)!”

32 pages / Rated: T (12+) / Full Colour

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Alternative and Variant Covers:

WRATH OF THE ETERNAL WARRIOR #6

Writer: Robert Venditti
Artist: Juan Jose Ryp
Colours: Jordie Bellaire

Cover Artist: Phil Jimenez (FEB161901)
Alternate Cover: Juan Jose Ryp (FEB161902)
Variant Cover: Pere Perez (FEB161903)

“PRELUDE TO LABYRINTH” – PART 2!

As Gilad’s oldest enemy returns, the Eternal Warrior looks to the battles of the past to prepare for war in the present.

The year’s smash-hit new series prepares for a shocking new story arc here with the second chapter of a special, two-part prelude reintroducing one of the greatest villains of all time! Jump on board here as New York Times best-selling writer Robert Venditti (BOOK OF DEATH) and blockbuster artist Juan José Ryp (NINJAK) pave the road to LABYRINTH with bone, blood, and wrath!”

32 pages / Rated: T (12+) / Full Colour

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Alternative and Variant Covers:

In case you missed the start of a all-new story arc of NINJAK in issue #14, released last Wednesday 6th, here’s a recap of this incredible book:

NINJAK #14

Writer: Matt Kindt
Artist: Diego Bernard
Colours: Ulises Arreola

Cover Artist: Jelina Kevic-Djurdjevic (FEB161890)
Alternate Covers: Mike Choi (FEB161891), Jeffrey Veregge (FEB161892)
Variant Covers: Clayton Henry (‘CGC Replica Variant’, FEB161893), Andreas Guinaldo (FEB161894) and Matt Kindt (FEB161895)

“ALL-NEW ARC! ALL-NEW JUMPING-ON POINT! “THE SIEGE OF KING’S CASTLE” – PART 1!

Colin King, the elite MI-6 intelligence operative codenamed Ninjak, has confronted his past. He’s survived the gauntlet of the Shadow Seven. He’s walked into the Deadside and returned a changed man. Now his greatest trial yet will come to pass as the ruthless assassin called Roku returns to lay siege to Ninjak’s present and future by destroying his life from the inside out – and only the death of Colin King will stop her.

New York Times best-selling writer Matt Kindt (DIVINITY) and rising star Diego Bernard (X-O MANOWAR) charge into a new, four-issue blockbuster that will leave no one unscathed!“

40 pages / Rated: T (12+) / Full Colour

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Alternative and Variant Covers: