Ken Aldred

It was worse over here due to patchy distribution of American comics. So, during the Bronze Age, suddenly we missed parts of classic multi-issue storylines; In X-Men, The Shi’ar / Imperial Guard / M’ Kraan Crystal (107), Alpha Flight (121), Phoenix Saga (137). The Avengers / Defenders War Captain Marvel 33 - end of Avengers / Thanos story. as examples. Also, I found Avengers Annual 7, read it, discovered it was a two-parter with Marvel Two-In-One Annual 2, couldn’t find that for a couple of years and was gouged when I did. Wanting to just read the stories now, and recalling my doubtless OCD-amped frustration and desperation over missing parts of key stories back then, I’m much more content with having comfortable, easy access to collected physical or digital editions rather than being enslaved to the back issue market. Options evolve, and you evolve, not always in constant alignment.

I wondered if you’d post.

That’s a very good analogy.

Looking back, just the pretence of a new direction. A few good titles, a lot of mediocrity; the same as always with a new veneer. I don’t really see it as a significant tipping point, just shallow marketing.

Regardless of whether or not I remain the custodian, they’ll always be The Sacred Pamphlets to me. But, sometimes, as now, you have to consider legacy.

Part of the motivation for going on the hunt for comics back then was that they were only available as original copies, which dealers and shops could monopolise. Now, if you’re primarily interested in the story contents, that monopoly and dependency has been shattered by the proliferation of remastered collected editions and the even greater ease of digital reading. I prefer the relaxed convenience of the present rather than the frustration of missing issues of an extended storyline in, say, Avengers or X-Men, as young, British collectors had to tolerate back in the 70s due to patchy distribution.

I once had lunch with a boardie over here who had had to make a decision between buying a BMW or a Captain America Comics 1. (Way out of my league.) Despite being a comics geek, I passed the test: I chose the car, as had he.

Both you and Randall have valid points. I wouldn’t sell in a panicked or depressed state during the current pandemic, but there’s nothing wrong with a bit of pragmatic evaluation. A good example is a chat I had recently with someone who isn’t really a comics fan. On discussing how much my keys had increased relative to original purchase price, I was pleasantly surprised that her concern wasn’t so much about selling them immediately, rather making some provision for the future because of the dangers presented by the current situation, especially being in a higher risk age group coupled with living in one of the highest risk areas of England. So, not about any sudden, rash decision, but making a will to do something constructively with the books in the future. Having no immediate family or dependents, the direction I’d go in is a charitable one. Here many of these organisations now offer to set up a will for you, but I’m unsure about how to go about maximising the potential of my collection for them. It’s not like Covid is necessarily a long-term, progressive illness which gives you the opportunity to sell very systematically via a comic auction site, as one of my best pals here managed to do, because you could be taken out in no time by this terribly unpredictable virus.

But Marvel had transistors everywhere, and that compensated enough.

But you know that the real reason it didn't is that he was using special Marvel glue.

Yup. He tried to make his glue gun appear more intimidating by renaming himself The Trapster.

Technically in that territory from the beginning with characters such as Paste Pot Pete.

Yup. I made a few reading suggestions similar to the titles being discussed there and it was like hitting a brick wall. A few years ago it was about suffering through one-note, incessant, frantic boiler room speculation rather than excitement about the actual material itself, and I stopped flogging that horse.

I remembered this one.

And one of them took out a flying Messerschmitt with a hand grenade. A classic scene.

The addition of romance comic soap opera and a lot of familial bickering on the Marvel side.

For my key books I use Mylite bags. For example, my Giant-SIze X-Men 1.

To a degree only. Formula was more noticeable in certain genres for certain artists, such as Jack Davis horror stories, where Feldstein was playing to the artists’ strengths; for Davis often story set-ups for bizarre, ironic, gruesome deaths at the conclusion, but much less noticable in the war and science-fiction titles.

Yup. This year's Foom 2 / cyborg Wolverine.

He also believes that Steve Ditko might've created Venom.

Yeah. I just gave a like to Kav's joke using element symbols.

Why not make CGC 11 into CGC 10? Because it’s 1 mintier.

Lots of great modern Image Comics. Hard to believe they published Troll. I’d recommend looking back at the 80s independents to find some classic, incredibly bad material, and well worthy of inclusion in the boxes. And, as the satisfied purchaser in the video showed, shiny foil covers always impress.

It's a comic that should be in any drek box: it's überdrek. And, 48 pages, so you'd be providing volume as well, if not value.