Ken Aldred

He's either from a heavy gravity world like Charlie 27 of the GOTG, Or it's bad artwork.

166 to 170 Man and Superman and other Stories An EC collection that I’ve been wanting to get around to re-reading; stories by Harvey Kurtzman, one of comics’ greatest cartoonists. Simply masterclass level; varying the tone effortlessly from humorous to dark, fluid figure work, emotive facial expressions, just brilliant story pacing. I prefer his style here, with its darker, fuller, thicker shading, to the more simplified and abstract style used in his Mad humour stories. The earlier material is the weakest, using common tropes, but even a story such as “Lost in the Microcosm”, a ‘shrinking man’ story, is really quite involving. The later stories are excellent, such as “The Man Who Raced Time”, “Henry and his Goon Child”, “The Mysterious Ray From Another Dimension”, “The Last War on Earth”, and “Man and Superman’’ itself. Classic Atom Age comics. (22 stories, as agreed earlier = 5 issues)

For anyone who wants a lot of quality Image Comics reading material in one go, there's a brilliant digital comics offer on Humble Bundle.

It’s a great suggestion, but sadly, it might not get past the bean counters. ’We considered the option of using Bat-Mite in the next film, but worked out that the CGI costs would be far, far too prohibitive, and so we decided to go with another fan favourite character, Steve, instead.’

The conflicts caused by PTSD are very tough to experience, to work through and eventually to come to terms with.

He’s a brilliant character. More subtle than the attention-seeking clown. A great combination of intellect, strategy and fighting prowess. Personal taste, as always.

Good choice. A classic, disturbing, psychological suspense / horror trope. Same applies to Scarecrow.

I didn’t want to draw attention to that just in case anything was rumoured online about the possibility of him being in a Batman film, and speculation ensued.

It’s a pity that Tom King won’t be writing more Batman, as he could’ve done so much with Steve. Maybe eventually teaming him up with Kite Man.

For me, 1 - Ra’s Al Ghul 2 - Joker Although nowhere near the top, Kite Man has been gaining ground in recent years. All it took was a good writer to unlock his potential.

Great thread. Jack Cole was incredibly talented. I only have the Archive reprints and no old stuff to contribute here.

That's why I thought something was up. You'd expect his signature placement to be at the edge of the print in the white margin. I didn't know that so many of his sigs in his later years were forged, so that was educational.

Was the padded mailing bag sufficient protection by itself? When I’ve been sent a comic like that via the Royal Mail, it’s usually arrived dinged or creased. Bad karma. It’d be a shame to hear that key issues bought from him were damaged in transit by this.

I do use it occasionally, but one needs to be cautious...

Do you mean HTD 1? Or, was the first appearance of The Space Turnip hot as well in the States? Here in the U.K. it was just the first issue. I could be wrong. Regardless, as you said, it’s a cautionary tale.

I can't get to most of them. I'm not as organised as you lot. Now I read the Fantagraphics black-and-white collections on my tablet.

I don’t have all of them, but I do have a complete collection of the New Trend, classic period titles.

In the GOTG films they made him interpret statements literally rather than being anywhere near as thick as in this Silver Surfer series.

He’s also talking in third person. Never a good sign of mental well-being. IIRC, this was the period during which Drax was dumbed down to a ‘Hulk will smash!’ IQ and rage level.

146 to 165 X-Statix The Complete Collection Vol 1 : X-Force 116 to 129, The Brotherhood 9, X-Statix 1 to 5 One of my favourite X-Men series, especially for Peter Milligan’s stories. A team quite openly expressing jaded cynicism and contempt towards their audience, knowing that they’re only being tolerated as mutants while they’re a source of public entertainment; the widespread paranoia and hatred against their kind temporarily replaced by a surging excitement while watching them risk their lives, just gladiators in fights being documented in video for reality TV. Fickle, empty idolatry; media stars, rich, but ’success’ tainted by the overhanging threat of having little chance to really enjoy any of it for very long because of the high mortality rate and disposability of the team. The stories just keep getting better and better, with the first X-Statix arc being quite brilliant, especially for its very unexpected ending. I like Allred’s art, but to me it seems patchy, and I don’t get enthusiastic about it. That said, the series does feel more like an indie super-hero saga than a Marvel, and his style is well-suited.

They may seem fat and stubby, but in fact they’re pure muscle.

A title that had several terrible characters and plot ideas. I remember Extrano; a Latino, gay, HIV positive, Dr Strange knock-off. Subtle relevance wasn’t this title’s strong point, favouring extreme bludgeoning into submission.