In this part, I will focus on the content of:
Solar, Man of the Atom #1 Oct 94 Hong Kong edition
For background history of this book, please read:
Rare Valiant Comics: 1994 VH-1 Hong Kong Edition - Pt. 0
Covers
As the last book from the Hong Kong edition collection box, this book presents really well with a smooth finish foil printing on the same thick card stock used for the other 5 books:
Cover highlights worth noting are:
- Title in traditional Chinese reads: 太陽之子, can be literally translated as “Child of the Sun”.
- There’s no emboss for this cover, not even a bit. But it is still very nice and quite refreshing since the previous 5 books all used emboss on their covers.
- Again, no wraparound this time, same as the US edition. The back cover features the same advertisements we saw on the Dr. Mirage book, but this time in a super smooth finish.
Now if you are a seasoned Valiant fan, or familiar with the VH-1 Solar books, you probably will mistake this book as issue 3 due to the classic BWS (Barry Windsor-Smith) cover shown on the front. Surprisingly, this book is actually issue 1 when I checked its content pages. We will continue this discussion in the Trivia section.
Story
Identical story pages to the US edition (from issue 1), all translated to Chinese. More pictures:
Extras
Same formula again, the book starts with an introduction to the series:
Then the book finishes with couple of articles from the local Hong Kong editor. The first one explores the editor’s thoughts on translating X-O Manowar into Chinese, and the second one is an introduction to Turok:
Trivia
This book is a reprint from Solar, Man of the Atom (1991 series) #1, the Hong Kong edition issue number matches the US edition so no confusion here.
However, as we have mentioned earlier, the front cover is from Solar, Man of the Atom (1991 series) #3.
How did this happen? I am afraid, as far as from my research, no one can answer that yet. I think the chance of finding the real answer is really slim considering you probably need to track down someone who was involved in editing/publishing this already rare set of books, 26 years ago from Hong Kong.
So here is the best I can do for now, a few assumptions in the order of likelihood based on my own opinions:
- Informed marketing decision (highly likely):
Most Valiant fans would agree the BWS (Barry Windsor-Smith) cover on #3 US edition is a classic. The Hong Kong editor probably liked it so much so they decided to use it as the cover for the #1 Hong Kong edition. Why? The #3 cover features the main character Solar in two different forms and this is great for marketing so that people will recognize the character in both forms. - Informed but compromised decision (50/50 chance):
The Hong Kong publisher might have wanted to use the same original cover from #1 US edition but had to swap to the #3 cover for many unfortunate reasons: like artwork licensing issues, or production artwork unavailable, etc. - Genuine, utter mistake (highly unlikely):
This could be just a genuine mistake from the Hong Kong publishing house. Someone made the mistake using the incorrect cover for the book, end of story.
Regardless of the missing facts behind the cover mismatch, it has a bright side to it as well:
- It makes this already rare enough book more interesting now as it is the only published Solar issue 1 book with the issue 3 cover! I believe some fans might even secretly wish their #1 books feature the #3 cover.
- It’s also great for all Valiant, Solar and BWS fans to see the classic issue 3 cover in a nice foil printing finish. Again, available on this book only!
This part concludes the series on Valiant Comics 1994 VH-1 Hong Kong Edition. Hopefully we will see more information starts to surface on this rare set of books for all Valiant and general comic book lovers!
Update 2021.04 — CGC Grading
This book has now been authenticated and graded by CGC, more details in:
Pt. 7: The CGC Journey
