Ken Aldred

We are about to have insane price increases to our gas and electricity supplies here in Britain, and perhaps it may be worth it for us to consider cheaper alternatives such as purchasing and burning original comic art, at least until the financial burden is alleviated by the introduction of cheap, virtually free and unlimited fusion power. So, there’s always a positive to be found for the struggling masses.

I know what you mean. I’m at a very reflective stage in my life, thinking about the things I would’ve done differently with my comic collecting.

Batmania of 1989 was quite extreme and prompted a speculator boom. But, never personally experienced the 60s equivalent, to be fair.

-Howard the Duck 1 -Early Barry Smith Conans -Green Lantern / Green Arrow 76 and the drug issues, 85, 86 followed by GSXM 1, Claremont / Byrne X-Men, and Miller Daredevils in my late teens.

Also, the Doom Patrol’s Brotherhood of Evil, not to be confused with the Brotherhood of Evil Mutants.

FF 5's fun, mainly because of the Blackbeard / Thing bit. I always found the idea of mutants and Magneto's angry, menacing attitude to be more darkly intense, and that's always been etched in my mind. I should say I was only four years old when I first read it, though.

X-Men 1 Always been far more interested in the mutant team than in Doctor Doom. Magneto's just as interesting a megalomaniac character to me. Don't like the ridiculous pirate story in FF5, and the Kirby art in the next issue of the series is far, far superior. Of course, this is all purist and nothing to do with investment speculation, and possibly irrelevant opinions given the context.

Metahuman Ultras

Key pages of original art have been too expensive and unaffordable to those of us on a limited budget for quite a while. Like key back issue comics, it doesn’t surprise me that this parallel market has also gone completely mental as well. I’m beginning to get quite numb to it all.

Nice little story. Like the bit where he lifts a car. Very Action Comics 1.

Very tough to quantify as a percentage.

A sophisticated musical interlude…

Film science-fiction at its most profound.

A problem in the UK as well.

1 to 4 Re-read Batman Year One. Mazzucchelli’s art is fantastic, a relatively short and simple story explaining the origin of the mutually supportive relationship between Batman and Commissioner Gordon. ‘He can’t do it alone’ referring to both. Still a classic.

Mass Effect Legendary is a little confusing. PS 4 game, but the disc version can be upgraded for PS 5. No indication after downloading as to whether it’s the enhanced version that’s running. Still says PS 4.

My PS 5 did arrive a few days before Christmas. Very pleased with it. The bundle was quite sensible in my case, just an extra controller, which is pretty much a necessity anyway. Started out with the Mass Effect Legendary Edition and completed the first game over the festive period on Insanity setting, which isn’t particularly extreme in difficulty. Happy with the experience, never having played it before, all apart from one aspect of the planet exploring side missions, not the Mako, that wasn’t bad at all, rather the repetitive, cookie cutter use of the same couple of designs for the bases that you go into. I then went onto Uncharted 4, which I believe is a polarising game, as it’s extremely slow, padded with long, cinematic cut scenes, little gameplay innovation, and, for me, felt surprisingly tedious. So much that I went back to the remastered Mass Effect 2. I still need to discover a way to check that my PS4 games with free PS5 upgrades are actually being converted over.

I agree. Cop-out deus ex machina ending. Turned it into more of a brief skirmish than a war.

That’s because they don’t have access to Ma Kent’s family recipe cauliflower and cabbage soup, the side effect of which was likened to an extreme, Kansas tornado, and a meal quickly removed from the young Kal-El’s diet. The Justice League keeps a stock of it, just in case they get marooned in outer space with no power, and require Superman to provide an alternative means of opening an Einstein-Rosen Bridge and returning safely to Earth. No different to a discussion of lightning from a nasal orifice or ocular, extra-dimensional energy beams, and thread relevant. Superman should not be faulted for being multi-talented.

I always wondered if, especially when flying through space, he used this as a propulsion system. It would be quite useful. Being British, this did occur to me.

That’s basically all I do. Then, eventually, get around to posting about it. No race or pressure, which more than likely explains why I don’t ever get close to the 1000 comic target.

Sounds like a subtle, probability altering power, putting him in the right place at the right time.

Read whatever appeals to you. What seems interesting, regardless of who published it. Give yourself some latitude to widen or narrow the focus. You do naturally change with time, and there’s enough variety to accommodate that.