Ken Aldred

You should have one of those old Marvel titles such as 'True Believer' for that. That you were reading DCs doesn't matter.

I'd go retro, Silver Age, on that one... 'Non-stop, senses-shattering decompression !!!' Although, as the dragging out tends to be extremely tedious, that might be interpreted as false advertising, and... 'Non-stop, coma-inducing decompression' might be preferred by some as a non-ironic alternative.

I'd respect the publisher's honesty if they used that one. I still wouldn't buy it, though.

It's my favourite Bronze Age key. Fantastic book. All of the new additions; Colossus, Storm, Nightcrawler and Thunderbird, are great characters.

The weakest of the BA Marvel horror titles. Some okay Gerber stories in Spotlight, Son of Satan's a bit of a chore to read, apart from the superb last issue. Nothing to do with speculation, I realise, but I thought I'd just say.

Yup. I frequently read mine now while wearing noise-cancelling headphones; to drown out the fights, swearing, shouting, antisocial behaviour and general background din which often goes on in the street outside. A quite recent strategy, but effective and comfortable.

Interesting, but there have already been many series featuring exorcism or mystic detectives, black magic, etc, with DC having got there first with Constantine and Lucifer. I’d still like to see how the conflicted dual nature of the character is conveyed.

I have a lot of recent material I’ve bought digitally, especially large stacks from Humble Bundle and Comixology which I’ve not yet had the opportunity to get through. Regardless of your preferred format, it’s easy to get caught up again in that trap.

Very impressive.

Very, very nice.

Getting every EC Library hardcover slipcased set took over 2 decades, with my first, Weird Science, in 1981, and my last, the Picto-Fiction set, in the mid 2000s.

Lots of great reading and art there; Giffen, Moder, Immonen, Sprouse.

That makes me happy about the easy digital access to reading near enough whatever I want, whenever I want, which was impossible for me as a kid, with no comic shops or marts here in the north of England, patchy distribution of American comics, and no idea about how to source back issues to read a complete story or to collect. I’m very relieved to be liberated from those restrictions, frustrations and uncertainties now.

I was given 50p to buy some comics from the bus station newsstand whenever I'd go with my mother and grandmother to the town food market, which would get me enough at 6p an issue, or 15p for a 100 pager, to look like good enough value for money. Once I started buying via mail order a few years later and paying higher secondary market prices, I didn't disclose the eye-watering £2 or £3 I was often being charged, and I would've been told to cease and desist very quickly.

The raws and slabs I have are issues which mean the most to me, and more often that doesn't involve buying or chasing a key. Certainly not at present. There are some keys whose actual content is mediocre or worse, and cheap issues which have great stories and art. As long as I obtain what I consider to be quality, the way the market judges and designates my books doesn't matter to me. And, if I want to enjoy reading a run of a title, I can explore that quickly and cheaply via digital, and maybe uncover something else of quality in the process.

Just looking back and thinking about an example of an addict / dealer dynamic being cynically expressed by an LCS owner, as also discussed by others here. He was rather smug about it.

Quality but limited number - raw or CGC books. Just the ones most significant to me Quality and quantity - digital reading.

Yup. A very different world, comparing 2019 to that LCS back in 1983. Now, all I really need to do is make sure my odyssey doesn't go beyond the very short range of my broadband router.

A shop here originally called itself Odyssey because, despite being quite inconveniently located in the Southside university district with poor public transport connections at the time, comics fans would still desperately make the weekly trek there for their fix because the store was the only source for imported US comics in the city. That was divulged to me by its rather arrogant proprietor. With monopolistic attitudes like that one, no wonder I'm so thankful for the arrival of the digital medium.

To many people outside our nostalgia-driven or speculative microverse, that's still a significant amount.

There can be so many reboots and short run series that it’s now common just to add the start year to the title.

A week on Monday at the earliest for me. Spoiler avoidance time.

I remember that being used to create DC compilation hardcovers in the 80s, such as ‘The Greatest Superman / Batman / Golden Age Stories’, but it involved destroying a comic book.

I've had numerous experiences suggesting that my enthusiastic nostalgia was being interpreted as an addictive dependency, and an easy opportunity to exploit, whether to be verbally or socially abusive to me in a retail environment, or to assume that any price could be demanded and I'd just desperately go along with it. A classic example occurred just before I left London in 1990, during the big speculation boom period. One shop owner there made the somewhat self-flattering, empowered and delusional comment that he was putting his prices up, and if I didn't want to pay them, I could go and collect something else. That was to give up comics, not go to other stores, and exactly the dealer-addict dynamic being discussed here: total, supremely-confident control, not brinksmanship. Instead, I just quietly thought about how glad I was to be moving far away. I'm much happier reading digitally now; much more cheaply and at even greater distance.

The two shops here only stock new comics, no old back issues. Forbidden Planet is a miserable place, with one or two good members of staff, with the remainder always tending to be extremely sulky, rude and occasionally overtly abusive. I haven't been there in a decade and a half, sensible having heard that there's been little staff turnover during the interim, and many local collectors wouldn't care less if the store just vanished. Travelling Man is better staff-wise, more courteous and helpful, but again limited in range and also a gaming store.