VALIANT ENTERTAINMENT AND RITTENHOUSE ARCHIVES JOIN FORCES
Newly Re-Launched Comic Book Company Strikes Trading Card Licensing Deal
New York, NY (November 28, 2012) – Valiant Entertainment has teamed up with long-established collectibles company Rittenhouse Archives to create trading card series and collectors’ albums for the Valiant Universe, which includes beloved comic book characters X-O Manowar, Bloodshot, Eternal Warrior, Shadowman, Harbinger, Rai, H.A.R.D. Corps, Archer & Armstrong, Ninjak, and Armorines. The cards and albums are planned to launch in the US and Canada, at Comic Con San Diego, in 2013.
"All of us at Rittenhouse are extremely excited to add Valiant Comics to our distinguished list of evergreen properties," said Rittenhouse President Steve Charendoff. "Valiant has rapidly returned to its rightful place among the top publishers of comics today, and, in a world that increasingly craves quality super-hero stories and characters in all forms of media, its future prospects couldn't be brighter."
Rittenhouse Archives, Ltd. is a leading producer of science fiction, fantasy and comic book trading cards. Rittenhouse currently produces trading cards for James Bond, Star Trek, Marvel Comics, Game of Thrones, True Blood, Spartacus, Falling Skies, Warehouse 13 and other top properties.
"We are proud to partner with Rittenhouse Archive as one of the leaders in this category,” said Valiant Entertainment CEO Jason Kothari. “The creative force applied to Valiant’s fan favorite comic books is being combined with Rittenhouse's complementary talents to develop and implement state of the art cards and collectibles – together, we have already identified concepts not yet seen that will be truly exciting for Valiant fans and help bring in a host of new fans.”
Valiant previously released four hugely successful trading card series in the 1990’s including three with Upper Deck and one with Comic Images. The deal launches a three-year commitment between the companies.
Valiant Entertainment is one of the leading comic character-based entertainment companies in the world that owns and controls a library of 1,500 characters. Since their creation in 1989, Valiant characters have sold 80 million comic books, been the basis of a number of video game franchises and a slate of major motion pictures are in development. In 2012, Valiant relaunched print and digital comic books based on a number of its most popular properties, such as X-O Manowar, Harbinger, Bloodshot, Archer & Armstrong and Shadowman. These new issues garnered rave reviews and are consistently the best-selling independent comic book titles in the industry.