Valerian movie promo image

A Valerian Primer and Recommended Reading List

Almost a year to the date after my final Pipeline column saw print at CBR.com (formerly known as ComicBookResources.com and cbr.cc), I’ve returned to talk about — what else? — Valerian.

It was a bit of a thrill to see my byline back over there again, especially attached to the big banner headline at the top of the page.

 

Before the Movie

My Valerian Primer at CBR

The article, itself, is a 10,000 foot blimp level view on the world of Valerian to non-readers who are looking forward to the movie this weekend. It’s appropriately titled “Everything You Need to Know About Valerian Before You See the Film.”

OK, it’s probably not everything, but you need strong language to sell a reader into clicking on your article.

 

After the Movie

I followed that up with a recommended reading list.  Yes, I did a listicle at CBR. “When in Rome…”

These are the five volumes I’d recommend to people who just saw the movie and wanted to go read the comics now. Or, perhaps more likely, those who’ve just heard how much better the comics are than the movie and didn’t know where to start.

CBR Screenshot of my article for what to read AFTER seeing the Valerian movie

And, yes, another volume in the series is up for review right now on this site, and I hope to have that up by Monday morning…  In the meantime, you can catch up on any of them through the Valerian tag.


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3 Comments

  1. It’s a good overview article, I link to it when people ask me about this particular topic. Even in French, I whish there was an Omnibus-type single volume of the whole series. Other series have done it so why not this one, it’s not like it’s in active production of new material right now.

    1. I’m surprised they don’t have “Integrale” editions in France for Valerian. But, then, the individual issues are already presented so well, why bother? 😉

      And didn’t I hear that they have a new art team ready to go for a new book in the series? I might have been mistranslating something, though… I thought the new team did work in that Pilote anniversary edition recently.

  2. We do, but most of the time, french publishers behave like greedy pussies, they want to milk it so they put volumes together including only 3 albums at a time. So they do for most series.
    On the contrary, I got recently a 53-album intégrale of Spirou in 2 ginormous volumes, encased, for only 65 euros. that’s how I ‘d like them all.