Ken Aldred

Both superb artists. For the subject matter, Wrightson was absolutely perfect; dark, gothic, Ingels / EC horror influenced, much edgier, less smooth and polished linework. For me, Adams' art would've been too clean-looking. Possibly also why John Totleben and Steve Bissette worked so well on Alan Moore's later run. Here's some classic Graham Ingels art to compare with Wrightson...

So, what they could've done is have the Man of Steel temporarily become Steel Fist, the Living Weapon. Maybe Marvel wouldn't have liked that, though.

That's good to know. I got a digital 300 issue run last year via 2 Humble Bundles, minus the Cerebus crossover issue. Still to wade through it all.

I was joking. So, they actually did it?

Yup. He'd still have his Kryptonian martial arts training to fall back on. (One of the knowledge crystals he keeps at the Fortress of Solitude, IIRC.) And, maybe then have his comic become 'Clark Kent, mild-mannered Master of Kung Fu'.

It was just copying the New X-Men formula, blatantly.

That was the point I raised. At first, wielding a magic hammer and its magic lightning generation, later retconned to be super-science, a hammer created in a neutron star and science-based lightning generation. That leads to the question, where's the transition point, or phase, between Superman's vulnerability to magic and his invulnerability to science-based attacks, either an easy or hard target for Thor? And, the complication is Arthur C Clarke's observation that sufficiently advanced technology can be indistinguishable from magic, and basically the same phenomenon. Okay, back to playing Elder Scrolls.

Originally, Mjolnir was supposed to be magical in origin and so Superman would be vulnerable to it, but the hammer's been retconned scientifically as a super weapon forged in the core of a neutron star, so we're in the realm of science, if sufficiently advanced, being indistinguishable from magic; and I'm confused as a result, which is nothing new.

That's good news.

That’s a very long wedding story.

I bet you wouldn’t. He’s one of your favourites, and no replacement for what you really would’ve enjoyed, which would’ve been yelling that at Frank Robbins, while holding a blow-up of his infamous Nomad panel as proof to all.

Robert Kirkman was great to talk to. At the end I was in the process of looking at his trade paperbacks, he noticed I was interested in a Walking Dead Vol 1, asked me to pick out a nice copy (he’d noticed me going through them), signed it for me, and then told me I could take it away for free. What can you say.

I wasn’t going to say but, scientifically speaking, moon or Death Star, it was a trap.

It's an incomplete Death Star, Kav.

His artwork started to look a bit scratchier and had more lines in it from, I'd say, maybe the early 90s onwards, perhaps to adapt to the Image Comics style back then? His recent Batman / Ra's Al Ghul book has some really disappointing, sloppy art in it.

I was lucky with this commission ...

One complication that’s being forgotten here is that because of the Covid pandemic it can be practically impossible for many people to get a decent haircut, maybe including Asgardians as well. I have wavy hair, and if lockdown continues much longer here in the U.K., it’s likely that mine will begin to fill out in a similar way to the above. There’s your meme; Covid lockdown Thor.

Romita for me as well. Superb figure work, and a fantastic dark, gritty inking style.

It’s a good one.

Wrong thread.

Quite Frazetta influenced.

Here’s the full comic. https://bronzeageofblogs.blogspot.com/2015/01/marvel-classic-comics-time-machine.html?m=1 As well as the page of simpler, more open art I posted previously, something on par with P Craig Russell’s style... And, as it was the 70s, something more cosmic in style... Tremendous range.

Yup. I was thinking more of a comparison between his earlier work at Warren and his later stories there that had more-and-more detailed artwork, or the very open, clean style that he used on his adaptation of ‘The Time Machine’ for Marvel Classics Comics, which is the polar opposite of the extreme example posted by Kav.

+1 A horror story had Satan appear when a guy was selling his soul. Despite looking human, he was illustrated in a way that also made him somehow quite disturbing and otherworldly, capturing a sense of him being total evil and ‘not of this Earth‘.

Beat me to Alex Nino. A great creator who at times completely obscured his art with lots of unnecessary, hyper-detailed linework to the point of almost psychedelic overkill. When he was less self-indulgent, his simpler, clearer artwork made his talent obvious.