Valiant Comics Shows Signs Of Financial Trouble After Diamond Comics Distribution Bankruptcy Leads To Layoff Of Editor-In-Chief Lysa Hawkins

Valiant Comics has so many restarts and stops in recent years that long-time fans are losing faith they can ever come back. They’ve signaled that Diamond Comic Distribution’s recent bankruptcy severely hurt their operation, and they’ve let go their recently named Editor-In-Chief of their relaunch in signs of trouble for the company.

The story of Valiant Comics has always been one of an underdog. Originally started by Jim Shooter, the original iteration hired some heavy-hitting pros to create great comics like X-O Manowar, The Eternal Warrior, and Rai. Shooter soon exited, and the directions changed very quickly, even in its initial launch, before being bought by Acclaim to make video games, and the company relaunched the line yet again before finally going bankrupt.

Dinesh Shamdashani bought Valiant Comics and restarted the line again in 2012 with five consistent years of excellent comics. Bringing in heavy-hitting pros like Robert Venditti, Matt Kindt, Doug Braithwaite, and Tomas Giorello, the line was at its best—even better than the initial creations, which is something that rarely happens with reboots.

Unfortunately, Shamdashani sold the company in 2017 to DMG Entertainment, a company from China that wanted to exploit its film properties. From there, it never seemed to recover.

DMG cut costs immediately, getting rid of the veterans and hiring activist Heather Antos as an editor, who subsequently brought in her friends and completely torpedoed the line with sub-par quality content. The book releases slowed as a result, and then COVID hit, bringing the line to a crawl and eventually to a stop.

Antos eventually left for IDW Publishing, but Valiant Comics then got embroiled in a controversy with a Kickstarter graphic novel that took years to deliver, only finally coming out when the company was outsourced to Alien Books, who then restarted the line once again.

It was done under Lysa Hawkins, a newly promoted Editor-In-Chief who brought back the books and tried to reinvigorate the universe with Resurgeance Of The Valiant Universe. The titles were hit-and-miss for fans, with some books having familiar talent like Fred Van Lente, but others clearly skimping on costs with low-quality art and no-name writers for an inconsistent tone across the books.

Valiant then announced they’d be rebooting their universe yet again with Valiant Beyond, which they hyped at the end of 2024. Fans were not excited about the idea of a reboot, seeing as this main continuity had barely been fleshed out as it was. However, the company wanted a reset, probably trying to get audiences in with a new slate of #1s for new readers.

Diamond Comic Distribution announced bankruptcy at the beginning of 2025, disrupting the comic book industry, especially those small publishers that relied on them. Valiant Comics was one of those taking a hit. At the end of January, they announced they would be delaying Valiant Beyond as a result of the bankruptcy.

Alien Books' director, Matias Timarchi, was very transparent: “While the Distributor owes us money, as we haven't received payments since December, I believe we'll be able to reorganize and move forward. Even though the money owed to us is essential for our operations, we're working to ensure it won't become critical. This will require restructuring the company and reducing operational expenses to sustain this project.”

A week later, Alien Books posted to Facebook that they were trying to reorganize to get a single issue release schedule going for the company. They announced moving to an online stores direct-to-readers model to cut out distributors and comic shops to reshape how they do business.

That reorganization hit hard another day later when Lysa Hawkins announced she was no longer with the company. She posted to the Valiant Comic Book Fans Facebook group, saying, “It has been my honor and privilege to work with and be the advocate for the Valiant Universe for these 6 + years. I wish Alien and Valiant nothing but the best. Thank you for being the most wonderful fans.”

Fans left their condolences, but with Valiant saying they’re not getting money from Diamond, that they’re exploring direct distribution, and then firing (laying off?) their Editor-In-Chief, who was the architect of their new relaunch, signs point to trouble for the company.

Moreover, it’s going to be Alien Books CEO Matias Timarchi taking over the role, showing that he’s expanding his duties rather than hiring anyone out—a sign that they might be having financial woes leading to this decision.

With so many restarts and hiccups already, fans have voiced that they’re losing faith in Valiant Comics to ever return as a viable force again, leading many to wonder what the future might hold for even the promised relaunch of Valiant Beyond.

Fandom Pulse has reached out to both Lysa Hawkins and Matias Timarchi who have not responded as of this writing.

What do you think of Valiant Comics restructuring and firing their Editor-In-Chief? Leave a comment and let us know.

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