It seems simultaneously both not that long ago and forever ago, the heady period of the early 1990s with Marvel’s Spider-Man #1 and X-Men #1, Image’s Youngblood #1, and the launch of Valiant by Jim Shooter, Barry Windsor-Smith, David Lapham, Don Perlin, JayJay Jackson, Bob Layton, and others. In those days, comics were selling by the boatload before Marvel set off the distributor wars with their 1994 acquisition of Heroes World.

“The early years of Valiant Comics were magic. The combination of industry veterans working alongside and guiding the creative talents of newcomers fostered a unique environment where storytelling was the primary focus,” said collector and dealer Dan Moler, an expert in all things Valiant.

“Using the Gold Key characters – Magnus, Solar, and Turok – as a foundation, they expanded with characters and concepts that felt unique, new, and modern while maintaining a sense of classical archetypes. These elements, along with everything from the trade dress, logos, coloring, and production, make these comics feel special even today,” Moler said.

“The unique market conditions at the time also contributed to capturing the ‘lightning in a bottle’ when it came to Valiant. We all remember how these books dominated the Wizard Top 10 lists!” he said.

In that time, distributors were looking for ways to differentiate themselves (and sell more comics while they did it), and that lead to various exclusive editions. Among the early efforts, according to Bill Schanes, who served as Vice-President of Purchasing for Diamond Comic Distributors for years after previously co-founding Pacific Comics, was a two-volume collection of Valiant’s Unity.

“I had gotten several publishers to put together trade paperbacks for retailer summit incentives,” Schanes said of the giveaways. “This included Valiant (Unity), Marvel (bound two different volumes of previously released periodicals), Dark Horse, and maybe a couple of others.”

When Valiant published the Unity event series in 1992 (Unity #0, followed by the August and September 1992 cover-dated issues of all of the company’s then-current series, followed by Unity #1 with an October cover date), the covers for the two Unity issues were by Barry Windsor-Smith. Frank Miller illustrated all of the other August releases, and Walter Simonson provided the covers for all of the September issues. Each month’s eight covers combined to form a single larger image.

Diamond produced two trade paperbacks, each collecting nine issues. There were roughly 1,000-1,500 copies of each produced, according to Schanes, and they were offered by Diamond as an incentive to retailers who ordered more Valiant comics.

Book 1: Chapters 1-9

Chapter 1: Unity #0
Chapter 2: Eternal Warrior #1
Chapter 3: Archer & Armstrong #1
Chapter 4: Magnus Robot Fighter #15
Chapter 5: X-O Manowar #7
Chapter 6: Shadowman #4
Chapter 7: Rai #6
Chapter 8: Harbinger #8
Chapter 9: Solar, Man of the Atom #12

Book 2: Chapters 10-18

Chapter 10: Eternal Warrior #2
Chapter 11: Archer & Armstrong #2
Chapter 12: Magnus Robot Fighter #16
Chapter 13: X-O Manowar #8
Chapter 14: Shadowman #5
Chapter 15: Rai #7
Chapter 16: Harbinger #9
Chapter 17: Solar, Man of the Atom #13
Chapter 18: Unity #1

With the exception of the text noting either Book 1 or Book 2, the front covers by Frank Miller are identical. Book 1 also has a bound-in page with signatures from a number of Valiant creators. The back covers of each volume have black and white images of the respective issues contained within. Indicia and credits are featured on the inside back covers.

Aside from Valiant being in an ascendant position at the time, the Unity trade paperbacks had an advantage over the Marvel offerings.

“The two different Marvel volumes weren’t signed, [and] both featured horrible white covers, which didn’t have art featured, if I remember correctly,” Schanes said.

Unlike the standard Unity trade paperbacks Valiant offered in 1994 (as Unity Saga, four soft cover volumes and a slipcase), these were instead bound versions of the original issues with a new cover wrap, so this results in a variety of different paper stocks within the same volume, something that previously only seemed to happen during World War II in individual issues due to wartime paper shortages. This results in faster aging or yellowing on some parts of the books than on others.

“Condition is always a factor when it comes to collectibles, but when it comes to these Unity trades, I don’t believe paper variations would be a huge factor in desirability. The phenomenal cover art by Frank Miller, creator signatures, exclusivity, and limited availability play a much bigger role in the demand,” Moler said.

Also unlike many later Previews exclusives, these trade paperbacks carried Diamond’s branding on the covers in addition to Valiant’s.

Shortly after this period, Valiant issues were selling staggering numbers of copies, but at the time of Unity things hadn’t gone crazy just yet. That would come soon afterward.  While many of the later issues (until the low print run final issues) have languished in the dollar boxes in the decade since, the pre-Unity and Unity issues have continued to be in demand in high grade.

“There are two types of die-hard Valiant collectors: those who already have the Previews Exclusive Unity trades and those who want them! I secured my copies long ago and recall being thrilled to add them to my collection. To anyone working on a full set of Valiant books, these are always a top priority and in high demand,” Moler said.

Perhaps due to that combination of tightly written stories, a low initial print run, and the fact we don’t see these Previews Exclusive trade paperback editions of Unity on the market very often, it’s not uncommon to see them well into the $200 range in grade.

– J.C. Vaughn