Ken Aldred

You were more organised here than me. I'm total chaos. Not even at 50%.

A "+1" for me there, as well.

Like you said, a long time since I've seen it, as well. Remakes tend to do that with the original actors, though.

Without doubt an all-time classic fight scene. Also nice to see some crystal-clear, northern dialect English.

That was in the 70s film, McCarthy was in the black-and-white 50s original.

Death metal growling. Vocal style used in several forms of more extreme metal.

Yes. It's Jack Kirby brilliance. As is The Eternals.

Obviously, it reminds me too much of this...

For a huge Venom fan on a limited income and with a narrow focus, ASM 300 could be seen as aspirational, and there might be closure after finally obtaining one. As a grail, it might seem like casually walking in the low foothills rather than conquering Everest, but for one collector it might well be far enough.

I hate seeing comic books destroyed, but I think those are all Wizard magazines, so that's not too bad.

I'm maybe too liberal, then. I've always thought that if someone has aspired to obtain, focused, fixated, on a certain item for a very long period of time, a certain comic, piece of original art, then it's a grail for them, regardless of its market value or relevance or scarcity to someone else. As long as it would provide a significant amount of closure after obtaining it, that's satisfying and definitive enough for me.

That’s true. I always felt that the cheap newsprint was a bit choking and irritant when I read my comics back in the 70s.

It has been reported in scientific journals that psychosis can be a pharmacological side effect of inhaling too much newsprint.

It’s not impossible these days.

Can’t see myself buying anything next year. Most likely I’ll just continue reading a lot of digital comics.

Interesting. In the 70s I was only aware of the Polaris submarine advert.

The upgrade that means the most to me is my copy of Giant-Size X-Men 1; my favourite Bronze Age comic. My original copy was purchased in the 80s as a NM-M grade, but when I received it, it was an absolute POS. Appalling. I don’t still own the offending item. In the late 2000s, I bought this 9.0 from Joeypost for a great price, and it presents much, much better than the grade. So, a very happy, contented resolution in the end.

I always liked the Gil Kane Superman stories, back in the 80s. I've just revisited them in this excellent collection...

It was published by Marvel for a while.

Valiant under Jim Shooter initially did great things with the Gold Key characters during the pre-Unity period, and more than likely could've continued to do so for much, much longer without the demands of asset-stripping investors bringing his vision crashing down.

I’ve always thought he’s one of the greatest comic characters ever created. Intimidating evil.

Even though I don’t have anything to contribute I always look forward to this thread, which celebrates and reinforces just how incredibly diverse our shared interest is, and just as much pride and connection gets expressed regardless of whether a boardie posts a Golden Age rarity, a modern J Scott Campbell comic, a page of original art or a Warren magazine, or any of the other myriad options available to us. It’s exactly this variety that has kept me fascinated with the medium for over 40 years now.

It will be interesting to see how the evil Gods of Apokolips are reimagined for the film. The Deviants seem to be driven by being angry, frustrated and self-hating because of their genetic instability, whereas the evil Gods of Apokolips, not just Desaad, are a bunch of extremely sadistic control freaks, which might just need to be toned down a bit, but not neutered so much that they're utterly boring, as in Smallville. They are a bit ridiculous in the comics, especially name-wise; Granny Goodness, Glorious Godfrey, Virman Vundabar, and image-wise with an Italian Renaissance fop and a strutting, wannabe 19th Century Prussian. The only one of Darkseid's elite that I'm really looking forward to seeing is Doctor Bedlam, who I've always found the most fascinating of the group.