It is time for another installment of Something Valiant. In case you didn’t know, it’s also a Facebook page. Feel free to join and check out the brand new Something Valiant Value Box (shameless plug). Two weeks ago here, it snowed. Last week is was over 60 degrees. Today, sleet. Like they say here in Kentucky: “If you don’t like the weather, stick around, it will change!”

It seemed like everyone liked last week’s James Asmus article. Thanks for the positive feedback. Hopefully, Mr. Asmus checked it out, too (I always let each person know when it goes to print). Now it’s time to see if anyone got last week’s hint for this week’s article. It was super duper tough (guessed the next day, instead of the same day…lol). The hint was: “I don’t have time to watch CNN, I’m too busy checking out CN.” Last chance. Time’s up. It’s the talented artist, Cary Nord. He has made some Valiant masterpieces of X-O Manowar and Eternal Warrior, just to name a few. I always give the choice of doing a Top 5 or Top 10, because I know these talented people are busy cranking out hits for us fans. Here’s Mr. Nord’s list:

“Im not sure I can think of 10 things. This is not a glamourous lifestyle. I pretty much just work all the time.

1) Atombang Freeman came out to my home city of Calgary, Canada for a weekend and issued me a challenge by declaring that he’d never been drunk from beer. That is the wrong thing to say to a Canadian. I promptly took him to a bar where a good friend of mine worked and we proceeded to get him absolutely smashed on the finest Canadian beers. Fun night.

2) Just seeing the company grow and grab it’s share in the market place has been fun –knowing I’ve been a part of that.

3) Valiant has been an artist’s dream. Since I’ve been with Valiant I’ve learned how to ink with a brush, I’ve experimented by coloring a full book and a number of covers in markers, I’ve experimented with ink washes and gone back to just pencil rendering, and I’ve finally started learning photoshop and am now doing covers for them. I don’t know that any other company would have necessarily stopped me from trying new things, but Valiant has been very supportive of my creative exploration and I appreciate that.

4) I’ve got to work with some great talent there – Rob Venditti, Matt Kindt, and Peter Miligan as well as coloring talents like Moose Baumann and Brian Reber –and I even did an issue with the great Jose Villirrubia! There’s no shortage of talent over there.

5) and while we’re on the topic of talent, I’ve got a chance to get to know some of the other pencillers/artists at Valiant who have pushed me forward as an artist due to their incredible skill and dedication to their craft. Lewis LaRosa is an amazing talent that I think is going to take over the comic world and all will have to bow before him so you may as well get used to it. Mico Suayan is another incredible talent there. I honestly have no idea how he finds the time to be so incredibly detailed in everything he draws. Both of these guys have forced me to step up my game just to try to keep up…and that’s about all I have. Haha.”

And there you have it, straight from Cary Nord himself. Feel free to leave comments, I’m sure Cary Nord will check them out.

Let’s get right into the hint for next week. Here it is: “It’s time to visit Le La land.” Another tough hint, I’m sure (yeah, right). I want to thank, Mr. Nord for sharing his time and thoughts with all us Valiant fans. And remember, if you’re going to read something, read Something Valiant.

About The Author Former Contributor

Former All-Comic.com Contributor

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