Hello, Something Valiant fans (all three of you, and yes, you, too, Mom), it’s great to be doing another article after taking a few months off (no, I am not a slacker, Martin Ferretti). So, I started thinking, who do I interview next? Some of the Valiant bigwigs? Nah, they’re either too busy or contractually obligated to other websites or publications. I don’t have big enough scissors to cut through the red tape, nor can I jump high enough to get through all of those hoops (if I could do all that, I’d be on AMERICAN NINJA(k) (Eternal) WARRIOR). So, I started thinking, what should I eat for dinner? Next thing you know, months have passed between articles (no, it didn’t take me that long to eat, but I did lose focus…SQUIRREL!). So, I started thinking again, who do I interview next? Hey, why not the Guinness World Record Holder for World’s Largest Comic Book Collection: Bob Bretall. As of May 1, 2014, Bob (he said I could call him that) had 94,268 comic books (check it out). WOW! That’s a lot of long boxes! Bob says that number is around 98,000 as of July 29th, 2015. And you thought you had trouble keeping up with bagging and boarding. Geez! And get this, Guinness doesn’t count doubles of an issue! (So, what that means, Valiant fans, is that you can only count those 25 issues of Legends of the Geomancer #1 that you’re hoarding as 1 issue). Simply, a phenomenal record. So, I figured, why not ask the man who has this many comic books if he has any favorite Valiant characters. Soooo, here we go:
Bob says that some of his “all-time” favorites are Rai, Ninjak, Unity, and Harbinger. He says: “On Rai, I love the Clayton Crain art. I also love the vision of future japan. Ninjak I like, because of the “regular guy super-spy” angle .I also really like the Eternal Warrior as a character. Him and Ninjak being in Unity is what is keeping me on that title. I also thought the revelation that Unity was Unit Y was very clever. Love seeing some of the past versions of the team. My favorite Valiant of all time is Harbinger (unfortunately not being produced at this time). Both the OG version and the reboot. I like the contrast between Stanchek and Harada. Harada being the focus in Imperium…just not doing it for me.”
Some of his thoughts on other characters and books are: “Bloodshot Reborn: I love the Bloodshot character. As much as I love Bloodshot, I HATE Bloodsquirt. But a lot of fans like squirt, so that’s just me. I also really like X-O Manowar as a character. He’s kind of the core character of the Universe. He gets pulled into too many “event-level” stories, though.”
Facts and Figures: Bob buys 140+ books a month! INCREDIBLE!! That’s more than some comic book stores I’ve visited. That’s also a lot of money to save and spend each month. Bob says: “If I’m going to spend $30 on a comic, it will be a Silver Age back issue, NOT a chase comic that came out last month (I’m just using that $30 to buy 10 comics). You can quote me on THAT! But again, that is a matter of personal preference.”
Well, there you have it Something Valiant fans (and Mom), straight from Bob Bretall himself. Thanks again, Bob, for the time and the generosity.
To find out who the next article will be about, check out this hint (oh wait, I don’t have a hint yet. I haven’t found big enough scissors, nor been able to practice my jumping yet). So until next time: If you’re going to read something, read Something Valiant (and check out my Facebook page by the same name).
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