Ken Aldred

Hopefully it'll be available to watch on basic price Prime, and preceded by a few even more captivating advertisements.

4K Blu-ray for me. Part 1 looks absolutely stunning that way. By the time I’ll get around to watching it, much the same price.

Good to know.

The Flash by Mark Waid Vols 1 and 2 Flash (1987 series) 62 to 79 Flash Annual 4, 5 and 6 Flash Special 1 Green Lantern 30, 31, 40 Even in the early stories by Waid there are lots of good and inventive ideas and involving dialogue, and some Flash highlights such as Born to Run (Year One for Wally West), the reimagining of Abra Kadabra as an anarchist rebelling against a sterile, AI-controlled future, and the classic ‘Return’ of Barry Allen Saga. Great to read material from one of my all-time favourite mainstream comic book writers, from right back at the start of his career. Flash Annual 4, the Armageddon 2001 tie-in was good, the others mediocre and unmemorable. 25 comics 2023 total = 134

I always felt that Weird Science was the stronger of the two titles, and the last half dozen issues are incredible, and have some of Bradbury's best Martian Chronicles stories, but I have just as much respect for the storytelling styles of Al Feldstein and Harvey Kurtzman as well. I agree that you might see familiar tropes used by them, but the delivery was great. After all, some of Rod Serling's Twilight Zone stories, a few years later, were themselves very EC-like. The debut issue of Weird Science, (issue 12) was the first EC I ever read, and I was immediately impressed by the first story, "Lost in the Microcosm", by Feldstein and Gaines, which uses the familiar Shrinking Man trope. Well told, but elevated by my first exposure to Harvey Kurtzman's artwork, which I thought was fantastic, quite different and much less minimalist than his later war and humour comics. In the early issues, my favourite artist and a great writer as well, also being responsible for an occasional Roald Dahl adaptation. Feldstein wrote great alien invasion paranoia / Red Menace and other allegory stories, classic Atom Age 50's SF, and his stiff, tense, rigored art suited those really well. Some of the early stories and art were quite weak, the comics comparatively patchy, especially the Wood / Harrison collaborations, but, I've always liked recognising potential and watching creators soar progressively skywards, as happened here in every way over such a short period of time. As well as the fan favourite, iconic artists who've been mentioned elsewhere here, I also ended up being very fond of Jack Kamen's EC work, a superficially light style occasionally superimposed over some very dark stories. Fantagraphics has a new book compiling all of Ray Bradbury's EC stories, which is tempting me 'a little'. Quite a collection.

I tend to watch the introductory titles once and then skip on later episodes.

Despite being in a niche, they are absolute classics within that particular genre. Great comics.

I concur. Palpable hatred. Better not to repress and internalise.

Yup. Pretty much the same in terms of quality. After the first couple of issues or so each title featured a cover and lead story by one particular artist; Davis in Tales From The Crypt, Craig in Vault of Horror, and Ingels in Haunt of Fear.

I also thought that Krigstein and Frazetta were 'quite good' as well. I’d rate all three as Gem Mint, 10.0

I just watched Jessica Jones Season 1. Great series, and noticed that the film's director also did its first episode. Not bad at all, but quite different to doing a big budget, CGI-heavy super-hero film, and an unsuccessful transition, in this case.

He didn't like it, then? It's unclear.

From what's been said so far, that shows an admirable degree of resilience to make it through to that point.

Yup. There is, potentially anyway, some quality on the horizon this year, for a change. Two nicely-contrasting choices there, tonally speaking.

I suppose we all have certain comics or writers and artists that we get carried away with a bit, and could do with a little more constraint and objectivity. Mine are the New Trend ECs, especially Weird Science and Weird Fantasy, which absolutely stunned me when I first read them in the early 80s as the Library hardcovers. Still some of my all-time favourite comics to this day. As you can tell.

Yup. That's the problem with convincing EC fanboys like myself. We consider those books to be absolutely untouchable in terms of sheer quality. A short period of absolute brilliance in comics.

The series did have some great talents working on them; Dave Stevens, Al Williamson, Bruce Jones, Richard Corben. True enough.

I’ve always thought that The Batman sounds more respectful and ominous. Like The Spectre.

And, they didn’t really work, let alone recapture the magic, even back then.

I doubt it will replicate the magic of the original books. Product of their time. Some very good creators, but basically just indie SF / horror, not dissimilar to modern Image Comics, despite the label. Or, reminiscent of Twisted Tales and Alien Worlds from Pacific Comics.

Brian's much too subtle.

I'm always wary when a phrase like that is used. Especially when they're trying to outdo a creative genius like Kirby. A tall order. As a precedent again, Josh Trank brought a fresh perspective to the team, and that went really well.

Or, to put it another way, following my bit of research about Bronze Age DC '48 pagers' ... 38 pages of new comics? 38 pages ? Back in my day, when I was a young 'un, we only got 25 ! You should be glad ! And, a Hostess Twinkie Ad. Occasionally by Neal Adams. And we were grateful.

I've just had a look back at one of the DC "48 pages, All New !" comics from mid 1978, where the actual page count of new story material turns out to be 25 pages. The OP shouldn't get so worked up. Plus ça change.

Yup. I just couldn't be bothered this afternoon to go on GCD to fine tune my post.