Editor Rachel Edidin is excited for the Valve hardcover

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Editor Rachel Edidin is excited for the Valve hardcover

07/19/2011 12:02pm

If you’re reading this, you probably know by now that Dark Horse has joined up with Valve to release a collection of comics connected to three of Valve’s most popular games.

To video game fans, Valve really requires no introduction. For the last fifteen years, they’ve set the bar for first-person shooters and assembled a catalog that stands as one of the strongest arguments for video games’ legitimacy as a storytelling medium. Their Steam network revolutionized electronic distribution of games.

To me, Valve stands for everything video games can and should be: interesting, innovative, incredibly fun. They have a knack for seamlessly integrating medium and story—just look at Portal—and they consistently push the boundaries of technology and tradition.

More, Valve builds worlds whose breadth and complexity extends far beyond the borders of gameplay, ripe for exploration. In fact, if you include the intricate ARGs and supplemental narratives Valve has constructed around several of their series, they’ve already begun to bleed across multiple platforms and multiple media.

Valve Presents: The Sacrifice and Other Steam-Powered Stories collects comics tying into three of Valve’s most popular games. There’s the eponymous story “The Sacrifice,” set in the undead apocalypse of Left4Dead; and a whole slew of Team Fortress 2 comics, from the sinister machinations of the mysterious Administrator to the primate-punching hijinks of two-fisted entrepreneur Saxton Hale. And, of course, there’s Portal 2: Lab Rat, a brief, brilliantly bizarre window into the story of Aperture Science, Inc. All three feature writing and art from the teams behind the games—including Powers artist and Dark Horse veteran Michael Avon Oeming. It’s a great supplement to the games, but it’s also a great gateway for newcomers to the ever-so-wonderful worlds of Valve.

Every editor has a few holy-grail projects: licenses and concepts, creators and collaborations that they keep returning to in every game of “Wouldn’t-it-be-cool-if—?” For years, a partnership between Dark Horse and Valve has been one of mine, and I can’t begin to describe how excited I am to see it finally come to fruition, and to have the chance to be involved in the genesis of this book—and, with luck, many more to come.

Those of you who saw the previous announcements might notice that the price and page count have both dropped. All the same content that would have been in the 304-page book is still included—only the layout (and price) have changed. Here’s why: We had originally planned to print the Left4Dead comics at the full 9”x12” page size. Ultimately, though, our first priority was giving you the highest-quality presentation possible. The best way to do that, while accounting for the differences between web and print formatting, was to print the comics in that story two-to-a-page—which also allowed us to give us more value for less money by lowering the price to $24.99.

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Editor Rachel Edidin is excited for the Valve hardcover

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Editor Rachel Edidin is excited for the Valve hardcover

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