Posted in: Comics | Tagged: Book of Death, Comics, entertainment, senyc, valiant entertainment

SE: NYC '15: Live! From The 25th Anniversary Valiant Panel With Dinesh Shamdasani, Warren Simons, Fred Van Lente, Amy Chu & Hunter Gorinson

Valiant is currently on its 25th Anniversary Tour, and this weekend's stop was Special Edition: NYC on Sunday. Since Valiant is a New York-based company, it was nice to see them celebrating at home, too, and the panel included Dinesh Shamdasani, Hunter Gorinson, Warren Simons, Fred Van Lente, and Amy Chu.

Starting off right away with Book of Death, an "audacious" project, as Shamdasani described it, the panel discussed the plot of BoD featuring Geomancer Tama and Gilad, and their life on the run. They are in flight because they are believed to be the cause of some extreme natural disasters that have been occuring, but they are trying to investigate the real cause and stop the destruction. They are in possession of a Geomancer's book from the future, and sequences from the book will be appearing in parallel with the main storyline (in terms of art, the main story by Robert Gill and Geomancer's book sequences by Doug Braithwaite). Art shown depicted a "final confrontation" of something off-panel.

Each issue is 40 pages in BoD, Gorinson said, and look out for Easter Eggs in each issue, too. It's the "culmination of the Valiant Universe", Shamdasani said, and in the spread they displayed we saw Faith, Harbinger, Doctor Silk, Bloodshot, and some characters that have been "cooking up" for years but may appear in future stories. Each issue has "one giant moment" in it, and in Issue #3, we'll get a big "super surprise" on "who is pulling the strings behind Book of Death", Shamdasani said.

In the four one-shots that accompany the four issues of Book of Death, the first of which is The Fall of Bloodshot, we'll see an "expansion" on the secrets revealed in the main storyline. The Fall of Bloodshot will be a "poignant" story containing "vignettes" across Bloodshot's incredibly long lifespan, Simons explained. Bloodshot's one-shot by Jeff Lemire and Doug Braithwaite. The Fall of Ninjak one shot is going to "tie in" to just about "all of Matt Kindt's work in the Valiant Universe so far", Gorinson said.

Book of Death: Legends of the Geomancer is a parallel series that will be a retail incentive "set entirely in the stone age", Van Lente explained, following the first Geomancer named Anni and her friend is named "Pada", which is an Easter Egg. Juan Jose Ryp is on the art with colorist Jordie Bellaire, giving it all an iconic look. Much of what happens in this series "foreshadows" what's happening in Book of Death, and is promotionally tied in to Book of Death for retailers, Van Lente said. It's not "directly" connected to BoD, Shamdasani said, but a reader who wants it needs to go into their local shop and get their local shop to order BoD, and enough orders will result in getting the incentive series too. Reading it isn't necessary to understanding BoD but they do go well together. The same is true of the one-shots, which can be read together or independently.

The Marriage of X-O Manowar is also coming this summer, so it's not all about death right now, and since the title character is originally a 5th century Visigoth, he's looking toward getting married and having an heir. Amy Chu's story with Clayton Henry (X-O Manowar #38), was previewed, her first experience working with friend Clayton Henry and with Valiant. She investigates his soon to be wife Sana's point of view as a Visigothic woman, and Chu sees her as a "survivor" and wants to investigate that aspect.

"Immediately following" the wedding issue, X-O Manowar will be entering a new storyline in #39. The big "shake ups" following Dead Hand will be called Exodus. It will have "immediate consequences" for living on Earth and X-O Manowar family.

Moving on to Ivar Timewalker, featuring Ivar Anni Padda, Fred Van Lente described Ivar as a "bastard person" who doesn't care if he changes history. Ivar "grabs" his brothers from various points of history and "mixes it up". Van Lente is enjoying presenting the brothers together on an adventure again. They are at the "end of time" trying to rescue Neela in Issue #6. Gorinson asked how Van Lente keeps all the intertwining history straight, and Van Lente joked "meth" is his solution. Van Lente has planned it all out, and done a lot of work. It's "complex" in terms of "time travel shenanigans", Van Lente said, but you have to keep it "rooted" in dialogue and character to keep from losing the audience. Gorinson commented on the invention of "Lurkers" who are watching through history in a form of social media. Van Lente said we're seeing various "permutations" of the future, and in one of those versions, human beings have "uploaded themselves" onto social media. It's as if "4Chan got up and walked around" so "Lurkers are terrible people". In issue #3 these "time pranksters" go back in time to "draw a dick" on Hilter's forehead. It's highbrow stuff at Valiant, Gorinson assured the audience.

Imperium is coming up for Issue #6, having launched in April, with artwork by Scott Eaton. It features an "inverted" paradigm of a team book featuring villains. They are proud of their "scary, freaky" character Broken Angel, particularly. She was a "dimension traveller", Simons said. She came to our dimension, where another consciousness "took over her head and eyes". Her body is a "space suit" for aliens and she has to eyes. She's a "new type of consciousness that Harada has never encountered before", so he has his sights set on her.

The second arc is going to feature Divinity, in Issues #7 and #8, and we can see him featured on Kano's covers. For those who aren't familiar, astronaut from communist 60's Russia Abrams has been gone for 30 years and returns to earth with the powers of a god, Shamdasani explained. He's going to appear in Book of Death, and in Imperium, and the same creative team who worked on Divinity are coming back next Spring in April 2016 for Divinity II.

Ninjak, also written by Matt Kindt like Divinity, is coming up on its 4th issue in June. Shamdasani described it as "Batman if Batman was a ninja". Clay Mann, Juan Jose Ryp, and Marguerite Sauvage will all be artists on the book. The character Roku gets more attention in Issue #4, revealing her ties to a "Japanese mythological entity", Gorinson said. Ninjak is a 30 page per issue series that contains a "back up" story as well by Butch Guice and Matt Kindt. Simons said that Kindt loves to "play with form and structure" so the 8 page back up issues take the storyline from Ninjak's youth, and the two sets of stories will come together at Issue #12, Simons said. In Issue #6 this August, there's a new storyline coming called The Shadow Wars, and each issue will be by a different artist. Raul Allen and Juan Jose Ryp, as well as Clay Mann, will be involved.

Bloodshot Reborn, written by Jeff Lemire with art by Mico Suayan, also features some artwork by Lemire. Bloodshot is "chasing down" some characters who seem to be posing with Bloodshot's powers and in that struggle, we meet the character Bloodsquirt. His traumas and job have "taken their toll" on him psychologically and his mental component, the imagined Bloodsquirt, pretty much wants to "kill everything". Bloodshot Reborn #5 will have full interior artwork by Raul Allen, and they'll enter the "Squirtverse", a whole universe of "squirts" invented by Lemire. Bloodshot gets to "visit" the universe Bloodsquirt comes from. They enter the "Squirtverse" to face off with Unity. They are going to have a "QR cover", a talking cover for Bloodsquirt. Lemire has a 25 issue and beyond plan for Bloodshot, they teased, and the second arc is going to be called "The Hunt" with Butch Guice on artwork with Lemire. The third arc is called "The Analog Man" with artwork by Lewis Larosa.

During the Q & A, the team were asked for the third time at a con when we'll see an ongoing story featuring The Goat, and they promised that if the same guy comes dressed as the Goat at the next con, they will get a one-shot into production. He said, "I'll be back", to applause.

The panelists were asked if there's a cap on doing 9 or 10 books or if they'll ever go beyond that, and Simons said there's no cap at all and Shamdasani agreed that the number is based on demand and business plans. Asked again about expansion, Shamdasani said it depends on the "quality" of the number of books they are doing. In the coming year, they'll do 7 books in some month, 12 in others.

Asked about Shadowman, Warren Simons said that Faith, Quantum & Woody, and Shadowman will be involved in something "soon", so fans don't have long to wait.

Asked about female heroes given how popular female-titled Marvel titles are, and why they haven't produced a title with a female character on the cover, Shamdasani said their line is incredibly diverse, and when they are ready to have a dedicated Faith book, and they can produce as high a quality Faith book as they want, that'll happen.

Asked if they'd announce something about their films, Simons said he's been scouting goats for the film each weekend with his kids, but haven't found the right one yet.

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