Ken Aldred

His first series, after the Creatures From The Id one-shot, the first Madman.

I can’t confirm it, but he has used the ‘MD’ or ‘Doc’ elsewhere, referring to his name, Michael Dalton (Allred).

It’s British English. We do maths rather than math.

I just read a review... “The turnover boffins at Greggs have clearly done their maths; the ratio of pastry to apple to cream is sublime, with no particular element overshadowing the others, yet the subtleties of the cubed citrus delights and intricacies of the sweet dairy foam are equally present for the eager eater to appreciate.” So, the boards won’t be disappointed.

It’s the UK’s biggest bakery chain. To link with another thread in General, they do a great apple turnover.

That’s fair enough. As with the musical genre analogy I used, not everyone likes metal or heavy opera.

A classic Kirby double splash page. Brilliant.

Operatic is a good description. Wagnerian. I tend to read Kirby's prose almost as metal lyrics; intense, completely in your face. A great match to his art style. I've never thought there was much intention of subtlety; just power and excitement.

Very true. I read Devil Dinosaur in digital format, realised it was insanely brilliant, and then regretted passing on the Omnibus edition.

That’s a great observation, and explains why he’s placed higher than both Galactus and Chuck Norris, with both of them being one-trick ponies in comparison.

Greggy is actually a part time member of the Royal Canadian Mounted Police, helping to keep the streets of Vancouver clear of its criminal element. That said, London would be privileged to have his crime fighting skills.

Why would you choose to make space eggs chewy like gum?

Yup. That’s why it’s difficult to understand the nature of a cosmic level entity like Greggy.

That was the ‘Warum ist?’ question raised earlier.

Getting existential. He needs to be, as a paradigm for us to aspire to; the ultimate, perfect example of a comic book collector.

All you really need to know is that if he replies to you with a post containing ‘suck it’, you have arrived as a boardie. I’m still waiting. It can be a long process.

Yup. I was going to ask kav if it's as popular over there in the states. An apple / cream turnover is especially nice.

I’ve been complimented on how articulate I sound, but I agree that it might be a case of ‘ if only you knew how important comic books were in developing that’. Although I was actually very good at English Literature at school, the straightforward analysis of it, I always struggled to convert text directly into images in my head, primarily because of Aspergers. As you said, you really can improve your vocabulary by reading comics, particularly the very florid prose I was exposed to back in the 70s, as delivered by Claremont, McGregor and Englehart, to name just three, and, simultaneously, have some brilliant and much more spatially, visually capable comic artists help me out with the images themselves. I kept quiet about the comics at that time though, as there was too much condescension about.

I remember meeting someone I knew at school about 15 years after, and getting a lecture about the extremely barbaric nature of the Mongol expansion into Europe, and, smirking away at me, how learning real history like this was so much better than those Conan comics I liked so very much at school. It all sounded a bit mocking and intellectually superior. Thankfully, I didn’t mention the pile of comics I had in my backpack. No Conans, though, being a few years before Dark Horse started their titles.

It’s very patchy. Even the later Gerber issues in Marvel Spotlight aren’t anywhere near the level he reached on Howard the Duck, Defenders or Man-Thing.

The issue shown is excellent; the best Bronze Age story for the character. The other issues in the run, nowhere near as good.

The Win Mortimer artwork is actually quite nice, not that that would’ve worked as an argument back then.

It's a good point. For example, someone will have considered GI Joe 21 as read, despite it being a silent issue.

Isn't the reading experience of a comic book intended to be a synergy between words and pictures? That's how I've always thought about it.

I tried. Headache inducing.