Ken Aldred

Yup. Great cover artist. For me, this is the most memorable of his horror comic covers...

I knew you’d want to post this one.

It’s the spherical ship on the cover, similar to the Death Star, being attacked by a group of small fighters, clearly Resistance. An easy mistake. The Enterprise is leaving in confusion, Kirk and the crew believing they’re in the wrong comic.

Reminds me more of Carousel from Logan’s Run, but in hell.

It really is a fantastic cover. The airbrush blues and greens are so vibrant. I have a 9.6 slab.

Very pre-Code influenced.

Richard Corben brilliance...

One of my favourite Adams covers.

Brillantly depicts the childhood magic of reading comics.

+1 For me, it just seems like too much of a burden, which you and future custodians are tied into in perpetuity, which I can live without and not want to impose on others. That thought's such a headache, I reach the same conclusion on price after following a different route.

Even if it's a four or six issue storyline, say, many writers interlink their shorter runs into longer continuous narratives, so to see the full story emerge you may need to stick with the title and crossovers for a very long time, years, even, such as with the last Avengers / Secret Wars, or Invincible.

Yup. Similar to the transitions in ownership seen for Valiant Comics.

The possibility of more freedom, more originality, when no longer constrained by a corporate, in-house style. Hardly a negative with regards to quality. Not really about DC's characters, intellectual property here.

Not necessarily. Big name writers and artists associated with Marvel and DC already do some more interesting work at Image Comics, so they could create elsewhere if DC stopped publishing. Also, trimming down the number of titles published means that the talent isn't spread as thinly, and quality could improve, the exact opposite to the effect of, for example, the 90s speculation era glut.

There are some good storylines in there. My only criticism would be that many moderns have long, multi-part storylines or are mini-series, whereas you're ending up with maybe just one or two story sections from these packs.

14 to 22 Quasar Classic Vol 1 (Quasar 1 to 9) One of my favourite, underrated series from the late 80s to mid 90s, with some excellent stories by Mark Gruenwald. This would’ve been better published as an Epic Collection, given the fluctuation in quality in the early stages of the title, with only the first third of this collection being particularly worthwhile. Issues 1 to 3 are excellent; a two-part origin of Quasar and a story with a transdimensional villain, setting up the cosmic protector direction of the title, but, the stories then falter and descend into monster, or ‘alien of the month’ repetition, with poor artwork. Left as is, the book is trade paperback bin fodder, which I got for £2.50 in a Comixology sale, whereas an Epic Collection, containing the first 20 issues or so, would’ve seen a quick improvement with the great Journey Into Mystery multi-parter, the classic super-speedster contest issue, and the arrival of the excellent Greg Capullo on artwork soon after.

Now and then, I still go to the Newsstand at Mike's Amazing World of Comics to revisit the Bronze Age years and recall the comics I bought new as a kid.

One of my common statements is how much I often prefer remastered digital artwork. Trimpe's is a classic example for me. A very solid, reliable, workmanlike artist, with a style from nearly 50 years ago, so, of course it'll look far from contemporary, and allowances have to be made for this. However, in The Best of Wolverine hardcover, his remastered art for Hulk 181 actually presents really nicely. It's good, simple, easy to follow, and for me, brighter and more dynamic than in the original, muddy newsprint. A nice bit of synergism between old and new.

It does possibly explain the situation. Only someone still tripping on LSD would think that book is a NM.

I'm going with the former as a forensic explanation. Most likely a litterbox effect; a combination of feline 'after use' trampling and 'water' damage.

2004, maybe before (?) to 2012 - Digital Information Age During the 2000 decade, printed information started to become increasingly redundant due to instant access via comics websites. A classic example was our big, monthly news magazine here in the UK, Comics International, which started to falter in the early-mid 2000s. When it suicidally shifted to a quarterly publication under new ownership it was immediately dead in the water, providing 'news' months after it had appeared online. 2012 and ongoing, The Great Film and TV Speculation Age. Yes, this went on in the 2000 decade and before, but the frantic, boiler room mentality really went into overdrive here after the first Avengers film, exacerbated by immediate digital 'word of mouth', with much, much more film and TV super-hero product and pre-emptive behaviour, and we're still in it, currently transitioning into... ? - The Digital Publishing and Distribution Age