Ken Aldred

I've never seen super-hero videogames stimulating much interest in the comics, not even with the Arkham Series or the recent PS4 Spider-Man.

IIRC, Jimmers has one of those.

A rich collector amasses the world's biggest and most elitist collection of 9.9 and 10.0 CGC slabs, but there's an earthquake measuring 9 + on the Richter scale, which causes colossal devastation, including the worst case of shaken-and-cracked slab syndrome in history, rendering his entire collection immediately worthless.

At least if the victim was badly gluten intolerant, that wouldn't matter afterwards because they'd end up an undead, carnivorous hyperpredator.

Yup. I’ve wondered about that too. What if someone who’s really squeamish about blood gets turned? Could be a problem. I’d be useless.

Good choice. Sophomoric, but also classy and intellectual-sounding. A nice balance.

Very nice. I got Volume 1 as part of a Humble Bundle digital pack, high resolution images of the original artwork, and so those books must look great. Fantastic find.

This is one of my favourite Kirby titles, and what made it different was that all three sub-species; Human, Eternal, Deviant, were earthborn. Even to me, 'reimagining' them as alien in origin makes them too similar to the Asgardians, particularly the influential crossovers with world mythology and demonology. For the many cinema goers unfamiliar with the backstory, for the non-comic readers, that's much less acceptable a flaw. I prefer the much colder, clinical idea that we were nothing more than a triaged alien experiment carried out here on an indigenous anthropoid species, which might soon be judged to have failed. Also, there's the tragic hypocrisy of the Deviants, claiming to be comfortable with their genetic instability while attempting to control it by exterminating the unluckiest, most deformed members of their society: something again better examined Kirby's way. IMO. For me, one of The King's darkest and most powerful creations, and, at this stage, I suspect the film isn't going to measure up to that standard.

Issue 58? I remember it being Buscema art, before Ultron’s return in the BWS issues.

One shop I used to frequent in London when I was at university there in the 80s left me with very polar opinions about the owner and his wife. Over time, it did feel as if the owner and his staff didn’t really have any respect, intermittently were quite abusively sarcastic and acted as if I was a dependent comic book addict who’d just take it off them and keep returning. His wife, in contrast, was absolutely wonderful with me; warm, genuine, always asking if I wanted to pick out a really nice copy from the old back issues, once even going around and ‘having a few words’ with the manager of Forbidden Planet after he’d attempted to seriously rip me off on a certain hot title of that time, which her store was selling new in at cover price. I remember going back to Forbidden Planet later, and the guy looked totally emasculated: I was pleased. Absolutely outstanding individual who I saw little of, a pity, as eventually the general attitude of the other regular faces caused me to cut back and buy elsewhere.

We don't have VAT / sales tax or import duty on comic books shipped from the US to the UK, just extortionate USPS rates. If this changed, it would start to be quite prohibitive. I'm surprised that in this time of ongoing 'austerity' here, this hasn't happened yet.

Perhaps the belief that 'tape, if carefully applied, is not considered a defect', was quite commonplace, and not just restricted to more well-known comic dealers such as Rogofsky, who's been the historical focus for ridicule over that.

Yup. The Howard Rogofsky Method for comic book restoration.

No. It’s just that when I go into comics nerd mode, I go full nerd, as inadvisable as that is.

Some of his grading assessments look a bit off in places, such as Fine, but completely detached cover on the Aces High 5.

It did go all nanotech, around the time Warren Ellis was writing Extremis, IIRC. Just wondering if thicker, plate-like armour would interfere with his sensory abilities? The Civil War Spider Armour looked thinner, almost foil-like in comparison, and less occlusive.

I wondered if the armour might make him less agile, be a bit restrictive, if it can’t keep up with the speed of his motor responses. Also, the thicker, fuller armour might create an environmental barrier that interferes with his spider-sense and makes him less responsive that way as well. Better physical protection, but taking the edge off his arachnid abilities.

I'm truly envious.

Yup. Great story. A shame that Colletta inked his pencils, though; badly IMO. For me, Toth's art is best admired without anyone else's embellishment. I have a raw copy in a box somewhere.

I would’ve liked this one in particular. Short but superb guest list.

This is brilliant. One of the best Batman stories I've ever read. Inventive, hilarious, surreal.

Much better than some I've seen on YouTube, which were just drek moderns, a few with non-sequential issues of the same title.

Interesting to see if the Atlas Foundation team is included in the Shang-Chi film.

Extremely common book. Not one of Wally Wood’s best.

I’ve read posts here about Greggy’s mystery boxes, which are said to be quite generous and loaded with high quality material, not just full of drek. I did see one that looked quite impressive.