Valiant Comics

Valiant Entertainment, Inc., commonly referred to as Valiant Comics, is an American company that produces comic books and related media based on the Valiant Universe of characters - a shared superhero universe of over 2,000 characters who interact with each other. Valiant has won numerous awards and sold more than 80 million comic books worldwide.

The company was founded in 1989 by former Marvel Comics Editor-in-Chief Jim Shooter and former Marvel Comics writer/editor Bob Layton among others. In 1994, after a period of tremendous growth, Valiant's venture-capital investor, Triumph, sold the company to video game developer Acclaim Entertainment. Acclaim began adapting the characters into video games and spawned several successful gaming franchises. In 2004, after several major set backs in their core sports gaming division, Acclaim Entertainment shut down and ceased all activities including those involving Valiant.

The company was restarted in 2005 as Valiant Entertainment by entrepreneurs Dinesh Shamdasani and Jason Kothari. In 2011, after hiring several executives from Marvel Comics and Wizard Entertainment, former Marvel CEO and Vice Chairman, Peter Cuneo, was brought on board as Valiant's Chairman and an investor in the company. Valiant Entertainment officially launched its publishing division as part of an initiative dubbed the "Summer of Valiant" in 2012 to great critical and commercial success, including winning Publisher of the Year and being nominated for Book of the Year at the Diamond Gem Awards. Valiant has continued to set records and win critical acclaim, including receiving the most nominations for a single title at the 2014 Harvey Awards, being the most nominated publisher in comics at the 2015 Harvey Awards, being named 'The Best-Reviewed Publisher in American Comic Book Stores' by Bleeding Cool magazine and releasing the biggest selling independent crossover event of the decade.

Armada (Bas-Lag)

Armada is the name of the fictional floating city in China Miéville's novel The Scar. The city is part of the fictional universe Bas-Lag. It is over a thousand years old, and little is known of its origins. In The Scar, Armada is seen and described through the eyes of several recently press-ganged citizens, notably New Crobuzoner Bellis Coldwine and Remade prisoner Tanner Sack.

Description

Armada is made up of hundreds of ships, airships and other sea vessels all interconnected, existing as a movable pirate state on the oceans of Bas-Lag. The ships, the oldest having been part of Armada for more than a thousand years, are mostly built-upon, factories and residences built up on their decks (and in some cases, within their gutted hulls). The city's population is at least a hundred thousand, and is made up of humans, cactacae, khepri, ab-dead, Remade, scabmettlers and many other races. People considered criminals (or otherwise being of lower classes) in their former home states of Bas-Lag are recast as equals upon joining Armada, and often go on to hold positions of power.

Trance

Trance denotes any state of awareness or consciousness other than normal waking consciousness. Trance states may occur involuntarily and unbidden.

The term trance may be associated with hypnosis, meditation, magic, flow, and prayer. It may also be related to the earlier generic term, altered states of consciousness, which is no longer used in "consciousness studies" discourse.

Etymology

Trance in its modern meaning comes from an earlier meaning of "a dazed, half-conscious or insensible condition or state of fear", via the Old French transe "fear of evil", from the Latin transīre "to cross", "pass over". This definition is now obsolete.

Working models

Wier, in his 1995 book, Trance: from magic to technology, defines a simple trance (p. 58) as a state of mind being caused by cognitive loops where a cognitive object (thoughts, images, sounds, intentional actions) repeats long enough to result in various sets of disabled cognitive functions. Wier represents all trances (which include sleep and watching television) as taking place on a dissociated trance plane where at least some cognitive functions such as volition are disabled; as is seen in what is typically termed a 'hypnotic trance'. With this definition, meditation, hypnosis, addictions and charisma are seen as being trance states. In Wier's 2007 book, The Way of Trance, he elaborates on these forms, adds ecstasy as an additional form and discusses the ethical implications of his model, including magic and government use which he terms "trance abuse".

Trance (Steve Kuhn album)

Trance is an album by American jazz pianist and composer Steve Kuhn recorded in 1974 and released on the ECM label.

Reception

The Allmusic review by Thom Jurek awarded the album 4 stars stating "This is jazz that touches on fusion, modal, and the new spirit of the music as ECM came into the 1970s as a player. There is restlessness and calm, tempestuousness and serenity, conflict and resolution, and -- above all -- creativity and vision".

Track listing

Personnel

References

Trance (comics)

Trance (Hope Abbott) is a fictional character appearing in comic books published by the Marvel Comics. A mutant, Hope attended the Xavier Institute before its closing. She retained her powers after M-Day and is a member of the X-Men's training squad.

Fictional character biography

Hope was raised in Bloomfield Hills, Michigan. When Hope's powers manifested, it appeared as if a ghost had come out of her body, giving her father a heart attack. She was then sent to the Xavier Institute by her parents believing that she would be "cured."

While at the Institute, Hope was put in the Paragons Squad under the watch of Wolfsbane. Hope then took on the codename Trance. When it was outted that Wolfsbane and a student (Elixir) had been in a relationship, Wolfsbane decided to leave. Magma then took over as the squad's advisor.

When the events of Decimation transpired, she was one of only 27 students to keep her powers. Greatly weakened by the losses, Emma Frost placed all of the remaining students into an all-out brawl to determine who would become the team of X-Men in-training. Hope did not make the team yet, like all of the other students who retained their powers, still resides at the Institute.

Storm

A storm is any disturbed state of an environment or astronomical body's atmosphere especially affecting its surface, and strongly implying severe weather. It may be marked by significant disruptions to normal conditions such as strong wind, hail, thunder and lightning (a thunderstorm), heavy precipitation (snowstorm, rainstorm), heavy freezing rain (ice storm), strong winds (tropical cyclone, windstorm), or wind transporting some substance through the atmosphere as in a dust storm, blizzard, sandstorm, etc.

Storms generally lead to negative impacts on lives and property such as storm surge, heavy rain or snow (causing flooding or road impassibility), lightning, wildfires, and vertical wind shear; however, systems with significant rainfall can alleviate drought in places they move through. Heavy snowfall can allow special recreational activities to take place which would not be possible otherwise, such as skiing and snowmobiling.

The English word comes from Proto-Germanic *sturmaz meaning "noise, tumult".

Storm (Malagasy band)

Storm is a Malagasy power metal band formed in 1998. They are one of the few Madagascar-based bands to play heavy metal and the first to play power metal. All of their lyrics are written in the Malagasy language. They released their self-titled debut album in 2005.

Members

Current

Former

Discography

Storm (2005)

External links