Ken Aldred

A shame that he couldn’t use the same Force on them used by Kit Fisto.

The educated, connoisseur’s choice.

Long article, but eventually gets to the point, of Lee vs Kirby as primary creator, which is always an ongoing, partisan debate.

The only other infection panic that I recall, depicted from the 80s Copper Age onwards in comics, was AIDS / HIV. From memory, so correct me if it’s flawed, one member of The New Guardians, Shadowhawk, and a baby featured in Northstar’s ‘coming out’ issue of Alpha Flight were all diagnosed HIV positive. More vaguely, Karen Page in Daredevil, and, even more vaguely, a protege of Green Arrow in the Kevin Smith / Brad Meltzer era book.

Looks like the Plan 9 From Outer Space comic adaptation.

You would’ve thought so by now, though it might seem somewhat exploitative. While looking through Amazon Prime I saw a drama about an extremely lethal superstrain set a few years from now; Songbird. Questionable taste in the middle of a pandemic.

Spiders are incredible animals. Absolutely fascinating.

Covid lockdown psychosis.

That looks absolutely ridiculous. Being called Lil Uzi he’s possibly overcompensating for something here.

There's a lot of material if you commit to reading the full story. Perhaps it can seem a bit daunting. Worth the effort, though.

One of my more recent favourites is Jonathan Hickman's Secret Wars epic from Avengers / New Avengers, and Infinity, featuring Thanos, The Black Order, Molecule Man, the extra-dimensional Beyonders, the annihilation of colliding universes. Then, there's also the original Crisis on Infinite Earths over at DC, and the several iterations in the years after.

Doctor Strange is very cosmic, so you could check out a lot of that material. One of my favourites is Steve Englehart and Frank Brunner's Sise-Neg storyline from Marvel Premiere 13 and 14.

Also, the Korvac Saga is another classic Bronze Age run; Thor Annual 6, Avengers 167, 168, 170 to 177, and What If? 32 for an alternative, darker take. Also, What If 20 (Kree-Skrull War Without Rick Jones) What If 27 (Phoenix Hadn't Died)

The Annihilation Saga is an essential read if you're interested in a long, cosmic-orientated narrative. Collected as trade paperbacks.

Quasar 1 to 60 is a run worth looking at. The series really hits its stride in the issues from around 10 onwards, with several very readable cosmic storylines by Mark Gruenwald, and nice art by Greg Capullo. Quasar takes over as Protector of the Universe, previously the role of Captain Mar-vell.

A nice gesture once when I met Robert Kirkman at a convention. I looked through a small pile of his Walking Dead Vol 1 trade paperbacks, he asked me to pick out a nice copy, signed it, and gave it to me free of charge. Great chat with him as well.

It's always irritated me that Ross condescendingly asks the audience to respect Ditko's privacy, after having pestered Ditko at his apartment to let him in for a private one-to-one chat.

Hard not to feel a sense of loss when the work of creators such as Ditko acts as a source of enjoyment, amazement, and, in my case, detachment from a lot of negative experiences throughout life. The uplifting power of their creativity also, to a degree, blinds you to their otherwise obvious mortality, even decades on, and it can still feel quite devastating when one of your icons isn't here any more. A more recent example for me was the passing of Richard Corben.

It's possible Marvel might eventually do a full colour Epic Collection one day. A 1-to-24 run is ideal for that format.

Playing for me, no problems through VPN. Thanks for sharing. A rare opportunity.

Lancashire Kitchens

Although the first appearance of The Thunderbolts was in a Hulk comic, the team seemed to be just another very run-of-the-mill creation, up until this brilliant, shock inversion at the end of Thunderbolts 1...

A great initial story arc by Simonson, but that name spoiled it in an intrusive way for me. As much as I tried to rationalise it by trying to think of it as a phonetic English version of an actual alien name, it still continued to sound quite terrible. And still does. On the other hand, Stormbreaker is a great and extremely metal name for a hammer weapon.