At one point, the Valiant Universe was the biggest world of superheroes in print behind only Marvel and DC. The sprawling interconnected universe became an indie comics mainstay twice: first upon its launch in the early 1990s and another time during a relaunch period beginning in 2012. Having been acquired by DMG Entertainment in 2018, the publisher’s comics output slowed to a crawl before ceasing entirely. Despite a licensing agreement ensuring the return of Valiant characters later this month, Valiant finds itself in the news for an entirely different reason.
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Saturday, fans online noticed the company—after months of silence, nonetheless—shared a job listing on ArtStation. While the potential hiring isn’t so newsworthy in its own right, the content within certainly is. According to the posting, Valiant was looking for “Generative AI Video Artists.” As of Saturday night, the posting was still live on the website; come Sunday, however, the listing was removed completely from the website.
When it was live, the job listing was vague in that a job description or explanation of what was required of the position was minimal.
ComicBook.com reached out for comment to the Valiant press inbox, and a statement wasn’t made available as of press time. An e-mail sent from a public relations firm that previously worked with DMG Entertainment informed us the group is no longer affiliated with Valiant or DMG Entertainment.
It’s also not the first time Valiant has found itself embroiled in controversy in recent years. In 2022, the publisher tried to enter the fledgling NFT/Web3 space with digital comics, a movie the eventually led to the firing of most its dedicated staff. When we spoke to Dan Mintz, the CEO of DMG in 2020, he was optimistic Sony’s Bloodshot movie would lead into an entire Valiant Cinematic Universe.
“Set the voice, set the pace, make sure that it holds up, and then within that, you have an amazing amount of creativity,” Mintz told us at the time. “People always want to just have as much playroom as you can, but if you notice, some of the most successful pictures are really not very good canvases.”
Mintz concluded, “You can be as creative as you want within that, but you can’t go off and start painting on the wall, or on the floor, or whatever, which often happens. Now, you can bring your voice and bring your vision, and bring your talent. It really is a collaborative platform, but it definitely needs that canvas.”
Alien Books now has the license for Valiant comic releases, and the first issue under the agreement—Bloodshot Unleashed: Reloaded #1—is set for release this Wednesday, March 20th.
