Ken Aldred

Richard Corben Jaime Hernandez Milton Caniff Chris Ware J H Williams III Charles Burns Jack Kamen - very underrated EC artist.

If I collected sig series books I’d also want Gil Kane on there, the creator of GSXM 1’s classic, iconic cover, but, like its inker, Dave Cockrum, he’s also deceased.

That's a major reason I have against scrawling it over the cover of a GSXM 1. A big and quite messy-looking sig. Also, you couldn't then add the main creators associated with the book, Wein and Cockrum, who are dead, and settling just for Claremont's signature seems incomplete and a bit of a flawed exercise; historically, at least. If I were into sigs, Dave Cockrum's would be an absolute necessity for this book.

I once saw someone buy a similar book for £25, about $40 at the time, at a UK comic mart. Possibly a Boston copy.

No. Len Wein wrote it.

One of my all-time favourite characters introduced in this one. The first Silver Age comic I bought by mail order, back in 1977. About G-VG, not 9.6, though.

Yup. There's the problem about wearing a Tool T-shirt. The ambiguity.

I know. Nothing wrong with those silvery discs. I believe a lot of the younger listeners out there prefer something called 'vinyl' these days. I'm a bit out of touch and I should look into this, as apparently the medium has superior sound quality.

Nicely presenting copy from the front cover, apart from the staple rust, and the miswrap which always polarises opinion.

Would've been in his mid-50s at the time. Slightly out of touch.

Nothing wrong with listening to Tool. Great band, and nice colouring.

The dolphin tooled up with a machine gun on the cover sells it.

One of those books recognised as having really nice artwork, but was always available at a bargain bin price back in the 70s. Took over from Berni Wrightson on artwork for Swamp Thing. I still have to the end of the initial run written by Len Wein.

I have to agree. My experiences in the early 90s with his Specials section comics were all positive. The NM / M copies were in the 9.0 to 9.8 range, many towards the top end, very nice indeed for $1 to $2 a copy at a time of an excellent sterling exchange rate. Lots of interesting stuff such as Kirby Kamandi, DC 100 pagers, Dale Keown Dragonforce, All-Star Comics by Wood and Giffen. Slow surface mail, but excellent packaging.

I watched this recently. Very interesting...

I read today that my local area Lancashire police have issued the largest number of fines for lockdown violations in the country, ' for parties, barbecues, and visits to Blackpool beach'.

Showcase 4 Inks

The great Fantagraphics EC collections are more difficult to quantify, as they reprint the work of a single artist rather than complete, individual issues as with the Russ Cochran / Gemstone versions. Do you count 4 of the stories together as the equivalent of one original comic issue, or treat the entire volume as one item? The latter contradicts what I suggested about Masterworks, Archives, Epic Collections and the like, to some extent.

I’ve interpreted the situation as whatever format and page count was originally published. For example, Marvels 0 and Epilogue are very short, Wizard 0 type books, whereas Marvels 1 to 4 are larger prestige format length books; 6 in total. A 52 or 100 page Bronze Age DC counts as one item, and I’d place the long Invasion books that were mentioned in this category as well. Another complication occurs with Masterwork and Archive collections. In most cases, the original issues with covers are fully reproduced and counting them individually is easy, as with the Werewolf by Night Collection that I read recently. I also treat oversized annuals as one item. Having OCD, an interesting point to analyse.

I’m not sure whether the master of forced perspective, Jack Kirby, would’ve laughed, or despaired and cried on seeing it.

It's unforgettably awful. Memories from a Bronze Age childhood.

I didn't. As a writer, possibly Detective Comics 400. As an artist, maybe Marvel Premiere 28?

Or Astonishing Tales 25. 1st Perez art. 1st Deathlok issue.

SDCC has been described by many boardies as a great thing to experience in person. NYCC as well. I can't see how an online alternative could be made to work on the same emotional level. A bit lightweight, detached or sterile. The physical vs digital comics argument again.

As much as Kav ridicules Silver Age DC all the time, we know he's actually extremely fond of the Weisinger / Swan / Schaffenberger material.