Valiant Taps Butch Guice And Lewis LaRosa For Bloodshot Reborn At ComicsPRO – And Show Art A Year Away From Publication

Marketing Director Hunter Gorinson and Sales Manager Atom Freeman began their presentation with a recap of recent milestones for the Valiant Next wave of titles that began with The Valiant in December and runs through Timewalker, Divinity, Imperium, Ninjak and Bloodshot Reborn.

Issue #1 of The Valiant has sold out of two printings. A third printing is now available. Issue #2 is also sold out and has a second printing available. Supplies of this week's issue #3 are expected to be exhausted shortly.

Divinity #1, the first Valiant release to feature the debut of an all-new character, has also sold out as of Thursday morning. A second printing is now available.

Valiant described Imperium #1 as one of their most acclaimed releases to date, and also teased that March's Ninjak #1 will be their highest selling release since Rai #1 in 2014.

Then Gorinson and Freeman dove into the final Valiant Next release, Bloodshot Reborn, with a slew of new information and ComicsPRO announcements.

To illustrate their confidence in the book they described how far ahead they are on the title, and mentioned that every retailer at ComicsPRO has been given a retailer-exclusive early edition of April's Bloodshot Reborn #1, which goes to initial orders next week.

But when they said they were ahead, many weren't expecting what they showed off next.

Jeff Lemire has already scripted almost a dozen issues plotted through 2017 with multiple artists already working on future arcs. Valiant then showed completed pages by Mico Suayan from the first arc of Bloodshot Reborn, running through July's issue #4. They promised that retailers at the show will be able to read completed copies of issues #1-3 in the Valiant hospitality suite throughout the weekend.

Stating that Lemire has a multi-year plan for the title, Gorinson then announced plans and showed artwork from Bloodshot Reborn #5, a special standalone issue bookending the first arc and featuring guest art by Raul Allen. Allen, a Spanish artist currently assisting David Aja on the final issues of Hawkeye, has done many Valiant covers as of late, but Bloodshot Reborn #5 will be his first full-length interior work for the publisher.

Valiant then announced that Eisner-nominated artist Butch Guice (Captain America, Winter Soldier, Ruse) has signed on for the second arc of Bloodshot Reborn, beginning with September's issue #6. Gorinson showed Guice artwork from their upcoming FCBD special, which features a an exclusive prelude to April's Bloodshot Reborn #1 by Lemire and Guice.

Then they went even farther, jumping ahead a whole year to show off multiple pages of artwork from Bloodshot Reborn #10 – a book not due until well into 2016 – by Lewis LaRosa, who will be handling the entirety of the Bloodshot Reborn's third story arc. The artwork for the arc, entitled Analog Man, seemed to indicated a post-apocalyptic setting with walled cities, armored vehicles, and desert landscapes.

Gorinson stated that although this was just a sliver of the artwork they were authorized to show publicly at the moment, work was already underway on several arcs beyond this — stretching into 2017 and beyond — and that Lemire's work on Bloodshot Reborn would be central to the core of the Valiant Universe from its debut onward.

The presentation concluded with the debut of an as-yet unreleased animated trailer for Bloodshot Reborn #1, and the presenters introduced Valiant's recently expanded sales team to the assembled crowd of retailers. In addition to Freeman, the team recently added former retailers Matthew Klein (formerly of Forbidden Planet NYC) and Andy Liegl (formerly of Collector's Paradise and Boom!).

If you're eager to check out more on Bloodshot Reborn #1, copies of the ComicsPRO exclusive early edition are hitting eBay, with one copy already fetching $150 US…

Follow more of our ComicsPRO Portland 2015 coverage here.