Ken Aldred

I’ve always found that a very strange outcome, as I’m quite poor at dealing with change and didn’t find the transition too frustrating at all. I suppose I just focused on it being the same boards and put in a bit of effort to continue on as per normal via a slightly altered interface. Nothing to rage quit over.

That's generally true for artists with a heavily-shaded style, atmosphere that works well for horror and urban / crime settings, as with Colan on Tomb of Dracula and Daredevil, and Graham Ingels at EC, or Alex Toth's chiaroscuro approach.

One of the great Batman artists.

I still only have a PS3, and can wait until the PS5 arrives, when hopefully I can then catch up with PS4 generation titles via backwards compatibility. For now, just playing through the best of my PS3 collection one last time. Just finished the Dishonored Game of the Year Edition, which includes the Knife of Dunwall and Brigmore Witches DLC. Excellent stealth game. I tend to select three games at a time, so these are next in line... - Infamous 1 - third person super-hero action game - Batman : Arkham Asylum - Uncharted 1 - which I'll attempt to beat again on Crushing difficulty level. Not too bad actually, there are just a few deliberately frustrating set pieces, here and there.

There's a BBC documentary on Wigan Casino and Northern Soul during which he makes a brief appearance.

Am I missing a grid, or is this pre-emptive?

I tried out the store's smart shopping app for the first time. Just use your phone camera to scan the item barcodes, create a shopping list with a total, and then scan the final checkout QR code at self-service. I just waited until the area was clear, paid and made my exit as quickly as possible away from the panicking animals. It had taken me about 3 hours from 7.15 am to 10.15 am for the store to be even remotely 'comfortable' for me to enter because of my autistic complications. The meat / fresh vegetable sections were quite reasonably stocked given the circumstances, with some stuff in short supply.

Captain Action 1

Any comic puzzles today?

In my area of England, it appears that we'll need a one person per household, nominated individual for essential outdoor journeys and police checks to compensate for the stupidity I've seen while out for food and medication.

First thing in the morning, the supermarket tried enforcing 2m separation and limiting numbers of customers entering the store to allow for safe space inside, and asked the customers not to all crowd together into one area at once. There was a very long, slow-moving queue around the block; much too busy and stressful for me, and I went back 3 hours later. The queue had dissipated, but no entry controls to the store, no social distancing inside, still busy, negating the limited efforts observed earlier on. The store had tried for a short time that day but had soon lost grip; management completely out of their depth in a very difficult, unprecedented situation.

It's a good point. I'll be choosing my comics and magazines carefully to best promote an isolationist response. Maybe something physically aggressive and intimidating would be a good defence, such Shang-Chi and Iron Fist material, or knife-related such as Blade or Warpath. I'm sure there's a character out there tooled up with an AK-47, but I'll leave that to someone else.

I think all the blade and gun analogies are quite understandable within these stressful circumstances. Easier to visualise that type of localised threat and response than how to react to an invisible, 24/7 viral one: Jason Voorhees’, rather the all-around scare of something like John Carpenter’s hideaway Thing organism. Fairly theoretical thread discussion for the U.K. due to much tougher weapon restrictions, and we are more vulnerable and physically defenceless against the stupidity of the minus IQ crowd out there.

You saved me needing to think about our equivalent. In my region, too many are still not observing social distancing and are wandering around coughing away. The restrictions should be toughened up and enforced more stringently.

How about shifting to covers that don't involve Spider-Man?

X-Men 35

Stop trolling, Stu.

I like consistency.

Yup. The harder it is, the higher value. 3 for 1 square, 2 for 2 squares, 1 from then onward. Otherwise, you might end up with players waiting for more squares and sniping tactics rather than intelligent guesswork done from the start. To me, it was a waste of effort participating in the earlier round. Ridiculous, inconsistent scoring systems. I’m out.

It’s a great time to get immersed in comics, to keep your mind occupied during self-isolation. If you don’t want to re-read the mid 80s to early 90s material again, then maybe go back a generation and read some of the Bronze Age classics by Adams, Rogers, Aparo and Golden in particular. Generally very good stories, and the darker, moodier stuff you’re after.

That’s a very good period for Batman comics. Generally very readable and consistent from the mid-80s to early 90s.

Yup. You need to be selective. Read some articles about the better series and which eras had more consistent quality. Also, there’s a wide range of artwork and storytelling, and some might not appeal to you. That’s why I never set myself a Herculean task like yours: I prefer to focus my attack narrowly.

That’s a bit loud, Kav. 150 decibel font size.

Of course, the sign coincidentally has all of the letters present needed to write out the message perfectly. That’s the first problem.

I ended up next to last in the board's grading contest. I'm absolutely appalling at it.